The Cleveland Cavaliers have been on a surge as of late, going 8-3 over their last 11 games and climbing the Eastern Conference standings amid a bit of a cakewalk schedule. This, in turn, has cemented the Cavs' plans to go for it this season. Amid all the trade speculation surrounding Donovan Mitchell, the team's intention to keep Spida in town remains. But that may not be enough to dissuade the Miami Heat from trying their luck on the Mitchell trade front.

According to Marc Stein, the Heat continue to have “bona fide” interest in trading for Mitchell and they “could well choose to test” the Cavs' resolve with proposals for the superstar shooting guard despite Cleveland's repeated insistence that Spida is not up for trade.

Per Stein, multiple executives around the league have mentioned that the Heat are “a prime team to watch” in the Donovan Mitchell trade sweepstakes. After all, the Heat have the “defensive infrastructure” to allow Mitchell to flourish in an even greater way than he has with both the Cavs and the Utah Jazz.

The Heat's organizational interest in a superstar guard is no secret. They were one of the teams that were in on Damian Lillard this past offseason, and they also reportedly expressed strong interest in Bradley Beal as well. Miami lost out on both fronts, with the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns outbidding them for Lillard and Beal, respectively.

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Heat, Celtics, Jayson Tatum, Celtics Heat, NBA Playoffs, Jayson Tatum and Heat logo with Celtics arena in the background

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Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Kristaps Porzingis all looking hyped on a Miami beach background

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Miami Heat stars Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro next to head coach Erik Spoelstra in front of the Kaseya Center.

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Miami is always hunting for stars to increase the roster's championship odds. As presently constructed, the Heat are a strong playoff team that always has a chance to mount a deep playoff run thanks to head coach Erik Spoelstra's leadership, but adding another All-NBA-caliber player to their ranks would make them an even more unstoppable team.

However, the Cavs, in addition to their lack of interest in entertaining the idea of trading away Donovan Mitchell, don't exactly have an urgent reason to do so. Mitchell remains under contract until at least the end of the 2024-25 season, and there remains plenty of optimism among the top brass in the organization that they have the necessary weapons to contend. But it won't hurt the Heat at all to try and start their pursuit of the explosive scoring guard.