There are few commodities as precious as flexibility. NBA teams need that same flexibility.
You want to have as many options as possible. Your Plan A may very well fail. If necessary, you’d like to be able to pivot into a Plan B.
A win-now team that isn’t seriously contending had better hope they’ve got resources.
Otherwise, it may be time to rebuild. The Miami Heat find themselves in that position.
This team was just eliminated from the play-in tournament, and they’ve got precious few assets to improve with.
Could they change that by sending Bam Adebayo to the Golden State Warriors?