It looks like every team in the National Basketball Association (NBA) will gun for Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant in free agency, and the Miami Heat are no exception. 

However, the Heat have players who are signed to massive deals, which presents an issue to the cap space they might have once free agency arrives.

The existing contracts may eliminate them in the race to acquire a massive star player like Durant. 

In a report by The Inquisitr, an option for the Heat is to trade emerging center Hassan Whiteside who is also set to be a free agent after the 2015–16 NBA season. 

Showing tremendous improvement from last season, Whiteside's current pact with the Heat can be considered as a bargain, and it is expected that he will ask for more money because of his evolving performance.  

This is an issue since once his contract expires, it is uncertain if the Heat's cap space will allow the team to ink him to a max contract. 

If they offer Whiteside a max deal, the problem is they will no longer have the money to land top players who are available in the free agency market following the season. 

Trading Whiteside could be the only solution for the Heat as of the moment if they want to have the ability to offer soon-to-be free agents lucrative deals. 

Once the 26-year-old is traded, the Heat will no longer have the concern of signing him to a new deal and can focus on the upcoming free agency. 

Several teams are linked to Whiteside since his name popped up in the trade rumor mill, and one of those teams is the Los Angeles Lakers. 

The Lakers' struggles this season make them a likely candidate for teams who are looking to complete trade deals before the deadline to improve their roster and address issues.