Miami Heat NBA 2015 trade news: Shabazz Napier, cash sent to Magic for conditional pick

Point guard Shabazz Napier playing for UConn in 2011.Wikipedia

The Miami Heat continue to work on deals to lessen salary and luxury taxes for the coming seasons and they started by trading point guard Shabazz Napier to the Orlando Magic.

Along with Napier, Miami will send cash to the Magic in exchange for a 2016 second-round pick.

The departure of Napier could save the Heat around $4.5 million in salary and luxury taxes, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.

In a report by the Orlando Sentinel, the Heat will only acquire the second-round pick if the Magic would end the 2015-16 regular season being one of the top five teams with the best records in the league.

It means if the pick is from the 31st overall to the 55th overall it will stay with Orlando, the report added.

Napier played in 51 regular season games for the Heat last season averaging 5.1 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists per outing.

The 24-year-old basketball player was originally drafted 24th overall by the Charlotte Hornets in 2014 but was traded during draft night to Miami.

Acquiring Napier was one of the final efforts the Heat did in trying to keep LeBron James in South Beach since he said before that the former University of Connecticut (UConn) standout was his favorite college player.

Despite the addition of Napier, James still opted out of his deal with Miami and went back home rejoining the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Trading Napier did not just made sense for Miami because of their taxes but also because of the emergence of point guard Goran Dragic, whom they acquired via trade from the Phoenix Suns.

Since his arrival, Dragic's impressive performance made him the main playmaker for the Heat and that prompted the team to look for deals to trade their point guards to lessen taxes. 

Another point guard being marketed by the Heat is Mario Chalmers who has spent all seven of his NBA seasons with the team.