Ira Winderman: NBA trade deadline leaves Heat caught in midst of a Seinfeld episode

Ira Winderman, South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Feb 8, 2026

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The question in the wake of Thursday’s NBA trade deadline was one of: wouldn’t or couldn’t?

Because where the Miami Heat stood entering the process and where they stand exiting the process is not a place to be running in place.

Not bad enough to be lottery bad.

Not good enough to be contention good.

The fork in the road was right there in front of them, one a direction of resetting, one of augmenting.

But, somehow, they managed to take the road less traveled.

They could have taken the big swing, at least for Ja Morant if not Giannis Antetokounmpo.

They could have restocked for the future, as several lesser likes did during the run-up to 3 p.m. Thursday.

Instead, nothing.

While perhaps dated, but also still iconic, the reference might as well be of Seinfeld’s George Costanza on that 1990s sitcom pitching a show about nothing to fictional network executive Russell Dalrymple.

Russell Dalrymple: “So what have you two come up with?”

George Costanza: “I think I can sum up the show for you in one word. Nothing.”

Russell Dalrymple: “Nothing?”

George Costanza: “Nothing.”

Russell Dalrymple: “What does that mean?”

George Costanza: “The show is about ... nothing!”

Jerry Seinfeld: “Well, it’s not about nothing.”

George Costanza: “No, it’s about nothing.”

So there stood the NBA at the deadline in a relentless churn, teams doing far more than nothing, 28 trades in the week preceding the deadline’s final buzzer, involving 27 teams and 73 players.

None of them involving the Heat.

Now, if you’re the San Antonio Spurs and have built a colossus through the lottery, no need to move. And ditto for the Houston Rockets, with savvy drafting and an all-in offseason move for Kevin Durant setting the table.

And then there were the Heat.

Crickets.

The initial party line (in the void of public comment from management/ownership) was that business was handled in advance with four trades in the 12 months prior to Thursday’s deadline.

But all those moves did — beyond moving the Heat out of the luxury tax, and making it easier to complete July’s trade for Norman Powell — was again deliver a team to the deadline smack in the middle of the play-in bracket.

Now, no shame in swinging for the fences for Giannis. To do otherwise would have been malpractice and malfeasance. And if the Bucks balked, just like the Portland Trail Blazers did in the 2023 offseason with Damian Lillard, so be it. Safe to say, the Heat gave that their best shot (well, at least their Bam Adebayo-less best shot).

But NBA front offices and scouting departments are of far greater breadth than when the Heat first entered the NBA in 1988. It’s not as if the scouts, analysts, capologists, executives, owners weren’t positioned to pivot.

The pivot could have been toward Morant or some other talent that some/all in that brain trust consortium identified as a piece to get the roster over the top, instead the ongoing Sisyphean task of pushing the boulder up the play-in mountain.

To the Heat, Morant wasn’t a fit, for multiple reasons, and therefore the limited effort, according to an NBA source.

Or the pivot could have been to set up for better days ahead, to sell off in-the-moment assets and build toward a better future, with some teams acting as if subjects on A&E’s “Hoarders” when it came to collecting draft picks at the deadline.

One NBA source the Heat never were positioned to get a first-round pick for Andrew Wiggins, nor any draft capital of heft. The source said the Heat were not willing to offload for nominal draft capital.

This is not the lecture being offered elsewhere about tanking, which certainly appears to be the preferred method of rebuilding in today’s NBA. The Heat don’t do that, won’t do that, and with a coach as driven as Erik Spoelstra, probably can’t do that.

But there are plenty of brains in that brain trust, from Spoelstra to Pat Riley to Andy Elisburg to Adam Simon to Eric Amsler to Keith Askins to Nick Arison to Micky Arison. These are people that know basketball, know championship basketball.

Could any of them — any of them — candidly, lie-detector candidly, have said as 3 p.m. Thursday approached, that this roster, as comprised before the deadline and then after the deadline, is one capable of winning a championship or even contending for a championship this season?

Because this hardly is a roster designed to grow into that, with Powell extension-eligible, Tyler Herro in the offseason to be that again, as well, as for that matter will be Jaime Jaquez Jr., and with Wiggins possibly headed to free agency if he bypasses his player option.

Which is why something needed to happen Thursday or before Thursday, but certainly beyond the previous transactions of the preceding 12 months.

A show about nothing, as those appreciative of Seinfeld can attest, works as high comedy.

But an NBA trade deadline about nothing — “It’s about nothing” — only adds to the drama of yet another season going and gone sideways, with Friday night’s loss in Boston the latest blow.