{"id":83277,"date":"2025-12-14T18:55:34","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T18:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/83277\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T18:55:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T18:55:34","slug":"heat-guard-becomes-trade-eligible-on-dec-15-hot-hot-hoops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/83277\/","title":{"rendered":"Heat guard becomes trade-eligible on Dec. 15 &#8211; Hot Hot Hoops"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"684\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-13-12.14PM-1024x684.jpg\" alt=\"Dru Smith\" class=\"wp-image-13234\"  \/>Miami Heat guard Dru Smith becomes trade-eligible on Monday. (Mandatory Credit: Carmen Mandato\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>There are a number of names who could potentially be available ahead of the 2025-26 NBA Trade Deadline, set to be on Feb. 5 at 3:00 p.m. EST. Most notably, there\u2019s a chance that Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo requests a trade away from the Milwaukee Bucks.<\/p>\n<p>Antetokounmpo\u2019s situation is a ticking time bomb, given the team\u2019s subpar roster and limited flexibility to build around the two-time MVP with Damian Lillard\u2019s dead cap on their books for the next five years. <\/p>\n<p>The unofficial trade season begins Monday, with nearly 80 players becoming trade eligible. At this time last year, two Miami Heat players became trade-eligible. This year, just one \u2014 Dru Smith \u2014 does.<\/p>\n<p>Heat guard Dru Smith becomes trade-eligible on Dec. 15:<\/p>\n<p>Contract:\u00a0Three-years, $7.9 million<\/p>\n<p>2025-26 Cap Hit:\u00a0$2.4 million<\/p>\n<p>Of course, players can be dealt before this deadline. But most free agents who sign in the offseason become eligible to be dealt on Dec. 15. Smith, who signed a three-year, $8 million deal in mid-August, is one of those players.<\/p>\n<p>His journey with the Heat has been a roller coaster, to put it lightly. They have waived him a handful of times, but Erik Spoelstra\u2019s well-known affinity for the 28-year-old guard kept him in Miami. He\u2019s spent time in the rotation each of the last three seasons, but multiple season-ending knee injuries have curtailed his journey. <\/p>\n<p>Smith\u2019s resiliency hasn\u2019t faded. He\u2019s appeared in each of the Heat\u2019s first 25 games this year, averaging 6.1 points, 2.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.4 steals per game on 43.9 percent shooting and 35.8 percent from 3-point range. He is currently second in the NBA in steals per 75 possessions (2.9) and fourth in deflections per minute.<\/p>\n<p>Unless the Heat find another player with a similar skillset at an inexpensive cost, it doesn\u2019t feel likely that Miami deals the 6-foot-3 guard. And even if they do, the Heat will, somehow, find a way to get him back before anyone could bat an eye.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>To check out our other content, click\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hothothoops.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Follow Hot Hot Hoops on Twitter\/X\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hothothoops?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>Follow Hot Hot Hoops on Instagram\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/hothothoops?fbclid=PAAaZK-uxa3cMPUQcM2z6aGmK3faJ-G1R7YKtEOcPJNPO4VwfOvw1epBIoCyk_aem_Ad_aZ7zQwWkfVN5rHfd0UkIWrYEnU4j4Ulz0SRK__Qt1738L-NeQ3cZC5voFks7V6K8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>Check out Hot Hot Hoops on Facebook\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/1GUQbKhsRp\/?mibextid=wwXIfr\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our YouTube channel\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/hothothoops\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miami Heat guard Dru Smith becomes trade-eligible on Monday. (Mandatory Credit: Carmen Mandato\/Getty Images) There are a number&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[21562,43339,46011,46012,46013,46014,46015,1454,31265,123,125,2490,31273,124],"class_list":["post-83277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-2025-26-miami-heat-season","tag-dru-smith","tag-dru-smith-bucks","tag-dru-smith-milwaukee-bucks","tag-dru-smith-news","tag-dru-smith-trade","tag-dru-smith-trade-eligible","tag-heat","tag-heat-news","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-heat","tag-miami-heat-news","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}