Heat’s Playoff FAILURES Spark Major Changes | Can Miami LEARN from Cavaliers Loss?

Heat’s Playoff FAILURES Spark Major Changes | Can Miami LEARN from Cavaliers Loss?

As the Heat looks ahead to the offseason, what lessons can they learn from their loss to the Cavaliers? And what can they do to compete against the top teams in the Eastern Conference? We’ll break it down on today’s episode of Locked on [Music] Heat. You are Locked on Heat, your daily Miami Heat podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. All right, welcome to Locked on Heat, your daily podcast on the Miami Heat. Whether you’re tuning in on YouTube or on your favorite podcast app, thanks for making Locked on Heat your first listen every day. I’m Wes Goldberg here with David Rmill. Both of us are credentialed Heat Media members who cover this team every day. For daily content on the Heat, click that subscribe button on YouTube. Make sure you are following us on your podcast app. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. Have a great show for you today. We’re talking about the lessons that he can learn from their playoff loss to the Cavs and how that should influence their offseason decisions. But the biggest talking point, David, coming out of that series against Cleveland was Tyler Herro’s defense. Um, based on what you saw in that series, do you have concerns about building a contender around Tyler Hiro as one of the main starters when you know that opposing teams with highlevel shot makers and mismatch hunters can go ahead and target Tyler Herro defensively? No, not particularly. I I think it’s overstating it a little bit. Every team, every title contender has had a weak link defensively. It’s just the nature of it. You have five NBA athletes out there. One of them isn’t going to be as good as the other four. Steph Curry is by and large considered a defensive liability. That really hasn’t stopped them from winning. And now, yes, you have to have an all-time great defender like Draymond Green and really solid defenders like Clay, Kevin Durant, etc. surrounding that championship core, Andrew Wiggins, etc. But I think that’s the bigger problem is that Tyler can be victimized to a certain extent, but you don’t have the same strength across the board in terms of two through four backing him up and providing that same highle defense. I think if this isn’t a deflect play, I understand that Tyler is a problem defensively. like you’re going to be able to pick on him and until he can get strong enough or agile enough and bigger. That I mean that seems a little unlikely, but yet that’s the reality. Until he can get to that point, he’s not going to be able to defend at at the same kind of level as an average defender. he might never get there, but I think if you look at some of the other players that share that floor with him and and specifically Khil Wear, I I think he is kind of going to be tasked as he continues to develop and grow as the cleanup man. He’s going to be the guy who’s going to make up for the mistakes of everybody else because I think you can have that like you can have a Darius Garland, let’s say, as long as you have an Evan Mobley and a Jared Allen, both of whom are very good defensive players. Donovan Mitchell isn’t particularly great defensively either. I think he gamles a lot and he can takes a lot of risks and sometimes they pay off and sometimes they don’t. I’d say most of the time they don’t. But again, when you have solid defenders around him and you have a system that works that can kind of hide some of those defects, it tends to work. So I think that’s the bigger issue here is that as Tyler’s going to be a problem and you just have to learn to accept that. It’s just everybody else has to also be at the same level or a better level in order to make up for that disadvantage that’s already kind of baked into the starting lineup. You already nailed it. It’s not a Tyler Hero problem. It’s a roster construction problem that the Heat have. Tyler Herro is such a good shot maker that it’s worth the defensive inefficiencies. He’s never going to be a great defender. Now, he gets steals, he gets defensive rebounds. like he does what he can, but as a one-on-one defender, he’ll never be good. He’ll always be targeted and that’s just what it is. But he’s a good enough shotmaker and has turned himself into a three-level scorer to where it’s like, okay, that’s fine. And I’m not even talking about this guy needs to be a six-man. He’s well beyond that. This guy is a startingle shotmaker and the pros outweigh the cons with Tyler Herro. But Miamiy’s roster is far like way too far away than from where it needs to be in in terms of having to cover up for those weaknesses. You like what you said about uh Darius Garland said it too. It’s like Daryus Garland can’t really talk if he’s also a bad defender. The difference that Cleveland has is guys like Jared Allen and specifically I’ll focus on Jared Allen because Evan Moy and Bamabio both at that power forward spot are worldclass defenders. Kel Wear. Italiro got so much attention for being a bad defender in that series that Kel Wear was basically let off the hook. He was horrible defensively in that series. And I’m not trying to be mean, but he’s a rookie and it should be and he had it he was bad. He was out of place on every pick and roll. He was limited to his be he was limited to being a Luke Babbitt in that series for a reason. He played his first five, six minute stints and then that was it. never closed those games. He got completely outplayed by Jared Allen and and Moly. And by the way, he should be. Those guys are awesome. Both of those guys are all star. But that’s where when Eric Spolster is talking about at the end of the season, yeah, we’ve got a guy who turned 21 years old during this series in Kel Wear and we kind of need these 21 22 23 year olds to be at the point where they’ll be when they’re 26, 27, 28. That’s kind of what he’s talking about. Sure. It’s Evan Mobley and Jared Allen have had year four years now of working together and and building up that chemistry where Bam and Wear just started at the midway point of the season and where is not close to where he needs to be as an individual defender let alone with the chemistry that uh he needs to develop with Bam and that just takes time but he’s just not there yet. No. Yeah. I I I think that’s that’s fair and and I know that a lot of people I can almost picture it right now. Maybe I shouldn’t even address it, but I I I I think it’s important to also point out that this isn’t apologizing for Tyler’s mistakes. They’re gonna be, again, they’re going to be a problem. They’re inherent in who he is physically. At the same time, this isn’t deflecting blame and making it seem like it’s Khalil who’s 100% responsible for making up those mistakes. There’s only so much she can do. The problem though, and I do see this, if I’m gonna put any kind of bounce back on this at all, I’m gonna say that now the the series against Cleveland also showed that you can force Tyler to be limited offensively. And if that’s the case, then is it is does he become a liability then beyond what he does defensively, if he’s not producing at the same level offensively, is it time to kind of view him as a much bigger liability than I think either of us would be or would like to admit? Yeah, I I don’t know. It to me it goes back to the roster construction problem. To me, Tyler Herro is still a value ad. When you when you factor everything in, his shotmaking, his shooting, his gravity off the ball, it’s still a value ad. And that stuff is really important. Is it the same argument offensively? Not to interrupt, I’m sorry, but is it the same argument offensively? It’s like you can pick on Tyler defensively knowing that, you know, not everybody else is going to be able to defend at such a high level. And at the same time, you can shut down Tyler offensively because nobody else is going to step up around him to the same degree. That’s right. Because and it’s like not everything has to be so extreme. He’s not the number one option on a team that can compete with Cleveland and Boston. He’s still a very important player on your offense if you had a real number one option next to him. And I I want to put a pin. I don’t want to get into that now because that’s kind of the whole point of the second segment. that it we can just have a conversation about Tyler Hiro. Is he a li can you build I guess maybe the real question is can you build a team that can compete with Cleveland and Boston with Tyler Herro in the starting lineup? And I the answer is yes. It’s just it’s not going to look like the team looks like now. And I don’t know that they can do it. That’s not even what I’m saying. I just hypothetically could you build a team that competes with Boston and Cleveland with just out of like out of thin air and just Tyler Hero has to be one of the players in your starting five. To me the answer is no question. Yes, you could build that team. I agree. I I I think I I know it sounds very simplistic, but I also think it’s something that I think bears repeating when you’re kind of looking at roster building. And it’s a point I kind of t, you know, touched on sporadically here and there throughout the years. Like if you’re looking at players and kind of rating what they do and you’re looking at a simple scale of 1 to 10, right now Miami is looking for a nine or a 10. A player that is at the very top of his game and is going to make an incredible singular impact. They don’t have that on the roster. Bam is probably as close as you get just because of his playmaking and his incredible defense. He’s probably a 758. That’s not a bad place to be. That’s still a top 40 player in the NBA. I think Tyler is getting close to that. I think he might be around a seven, maybe a 65 somewhere around there. Yeah, they have like a seven and an eight. Yeah, that’s that’s still not a bad place, right? And then you have, you know, and a bunch of twos and no tens. And that’s just what it is. But the other thing, too, so simple, but that’s just the way you have to kind of look at it. And so when you look at Cleveland’s roster, Donovan Mitchell’s a 10. You got Mobly, he’s a nine. Allen is probably a seven, but again, you can make up for whatever his liabilities are when you everybody I mean, you get somebody who commands as much as probably a seven or an eight. Yeah. Again, they they command a lot of attention and then all you have to do is toss a lob in Jared Allen’s way and hey, guess what? Next thing you know, he’s averaging double digits. So, it’s just it’s about balance and roster construction and having high-end talent. That’s what Miami is missing. Tyler isn’t the problem. It’s the fact that they don’t have that number one. You could have made that argument that Jimmy was that number one, but he’s no longer on the roster. To me, Tyler is more part of the solution than anything. But, um, there are big questions. We talked about, you know, Tyler Herro’s extension, how that factors into it. Um, but right now, like I thought about the extension thing and you were talking about how you can’t really afford to pay him $50 million a year and I think I agree with you, but when it comes to this extension and the fact that that extension wouldn’t like he wouldn’t getting he wouldn’t be getting 50 million a year until 3 years from now, I just I don’t think you can make a decision this summer. Yeah. Based on what you’re going to pay a guy three years from now. I maybe you should. Maybe that’s the job of a front forward-looking front office. I just like that just seems so far away to me. Tyler Herro at 30 million a year has proven to be worth that contract. And if you have him, which is by the way in the new in the new CBA, like that that’s highlevel fringe allstar. That’s what you pay those guys. 30-ish million. That’s that’s right around the market value for those guys. So, um, they do need something else. Um, I will say this, in some ways, the Heat are built very similarly to the Cavaliers. Uh, they are missing that one crucial piece. We’re going to tell you what it is and how they can get it after this. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel makes it easy to stay in the game before tip off and live. Oh, sorry. The NBA playoffs are in full swing and every night delivers highlight worthy performances, major momentum shifts, and can’t miss moments. Whether it’s a game-winning shot on a breakout player or breakout player, there’s never been a better time to get on the action. With player props, performance trends, and same game parlays, fans have more ways than ever to play smart and win big. Listen, you got a couple big games tonight. Do you expect Donovan Mitchell to lead the way and maybe carry the Cavaliers to a game two win to make up for the game one loss? That’s where I’d like to put in my parlay. And then, you know what, Jimmy Butler, is he going to step up against the Minnesota Timberwolves? He’s had his problems when he was in Miami, never quite won against that Timber tables team. Is it Butler stepping up in the clutch moments or is it Ant? Is Anthony Edwards gonna have a big game? I’m kind of leaning Ant to be honest with you. No knock on Jimmy. I just don’t know if this is going to be the series for him. So, keep that in mind. But now is the time to go to FanDuel. It’s the perfect time to set up. So, head to FanDuel.com and place your first $5 bet. If it wins, you get $200 in bonus bets. That’s right, $200 in bonus bets. Make every moment more with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. We’ll be right back. [Music] So, what do the Cavaliers have that the Heat don’t? That’s the question I want to answer here. And you were already touching on it with the with your 1 to 10 scale, and I think it’s a really good way to kind of frame it here. Um, they’re missing a lot of what the Cavs have, but they are built similarly. Like, they have Tyler Hero, your homegrown allstar guard, Darius Garland, for the Cavs. They’ve got the two bigs with Bam and Khlo Wear. One of which is your prototypical seven-footer flywwater center Jared Allen and Kel Wear. And the other one is this hyper versatile, can do everything on the floor, world class defender, Bam out of bio, Evan Mobley. Um, and there’s a couple other similarities here. They’re both well coached, the whole thing. Uh, the one thing that they’re missing obviously, and there’s a couple of not so obvious things, but the most obvious thing is the true number one option. If Hero is Garland and Bam is Mobley and aware maybe is able to develop into Allen, then they’re missing a Donovan Mitchell. And that’s why Miami’s number one priority this offseason is going to be trying to find their Donovan Mitchell. Uh I don’t want to do names specific because we’re going to get into that here in a second. But um that would you agree with the with the analysis there? I thought you were gonna say Sam Merrill to be honest with you, but no. I guess Don Mitchell’s fell something to say about it. Yeah. I mean, that that’s that’s another thing, too, though. I think it’s always a chicken and the egg situation. Like, you have that star level talent that rises that raises the the the floor so much that guys like Meill and Dean Wade can kind of star in their limited roles and and that’s how they thrive. Like, it’s Max Streus and Gabe Vincent. What happens? How do they get the contracts they do? How do they play as well as they do? Well, they have the guys that kind of raise that floor. and Jimmy and to an extent even Kyle Larry like as much as he was bleeer during his time here. He made things easier for a lot of people defensively. And Bam, I mean we’re talking about that 2023 run. Bam was awesome during the that playoff run. Jimmy was awesome during that playoff run and it just makes it a lot easier for guys like Gabe Vincent, Max Drew, and Caleb Martin to just stand there and make shots. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, you’ve lost a lot of key, you know, core players of the that were part of the rotation over the last few years and and you kind of have to just you assume, oh, well, you know, we kind of picked them off the the the dump and and you know, the garbage heap and you can just find new guys that way. It’s not that easy. You know, I think, you know, Duncan over the course of his contract has probably certainly not lived up to the amounts and I hate to make that argument because it’s just money, but it it’s also just in terms of the production that you were expecting from him, you just didn’t get it. Well, I’ll also say I mean guys like Max, Gabe, Caleb spent years in Miami’s development program. Now, Caleb kind of came on a little bit quicker because on that two-way contract, he ended up on the 15-man roster by the end of that season. But all those guys spent real time in the development program in Miami. Those guys have been replaced. And I think this was the right decision cuz I don’t think you could build the championship roster around undrafted guys as as great a stories as those were. Like the Heat ultimately fell short. you had to get real talent, first round type talent and high-end athletes in the building, but by replacing those guys who had spent years learning the the heat system and all that stuff and developing in your program with first round picks who were sort of thrown into the fire right away, you there there was a short-term drop off even if I think long term it’s the right decision to make. So they don’t necessarily have a talent like they didn’t lose talent. I would actually add that they added talent throughout through the trade-off, but those those guys just weren’t ready the way that guys like Gabe Vincent and Max Drew and and Duncan Robinson earlier in his career and Kayla Martin, like the way that those guys were ready. And that to me was the biggest difference. Plus, obviously, uh, Jimmy Butler’s not here anymore. They need to get a call from Jay Cole again. You know, have him kind of All right, enough. I did not anticipate you going this way. JCole overrated. Don’t want to hear about it. Uh maybe if Kendrick Lamar gave Miami a call. Does he know Karan Butler the way JCole does? I mean, you know, he’s the one who made it happen. Kendrick Lamar apparently knows everything about everybody. Uh based on this Drake debate, um he just he knows exactly what’s going on. I’m glad you I’m glad you brought it back to the depth, though, because I think the true number one option that’s obviously the place to start. The depth here is so different. And we get confused all the time about I think we confuse depth and lack of pecking order quite a bit in the NBA. And I think we l just the same way that we confuse versatility with lack of specialization. M and the Heat have heaps of of a lack of specialization and not and they’re not as versatile as they would tell you over the last three years. And they lack depth in a way that runs contrary to the way that they talk about their team. This is not a deep team. And when I tell you it’s not a deep team, I would point to the Cavaliers roster and say that’s what a deep team looks like. You got Ty Jerome and DeAndre Hunter coming off the bench compared to Pella Larson and Haywood Heismith being the first two guys coming off the bench for Miami. Yeah, that’s the difference. Those guys are sixman of the year candidates, both of them in their own right. Bell Larson is a second round pick rookie who we like shouldn’t be the first guy off your bench in a playoff series. Heywood Heismith, who we like, I don’t know that he should be in your top seven in a rotation. It’s just that’s the difference. I don’t think that this Heat team is deep whatsoever. And I don’t think they’re particularly versatile. Although I would say they’re more versatile now with Kell Wear involved than they’ve been in quite a while. But that’s really it. And then you even compare it to a team like Boston or Indiana. Like you just see the team like the players these guys are bringing off the bench. Miami can’t even come close to competing with that. So they’re not deep. They just lack the they they they lack like a separation between their top player and their ninth player or that’s not fair, but they really they lack a separation between I guess their third or fourth best player and their eighth or ninth best player. But that’s not depth. That’s just a lack of talent overall throughout the roster. Yeah. And you’ve seen it. I mean, the way that Eric Spolster kind of juggles his lineup, it’s like the parts are eerily interchangeable. And that’s a problem. Like right you were talking about Cleveland and maybe that’s not the right example but it was one that’s kind of apt in terms of we just saw them. I mean Sam Merrill again not knocking on him. He shouldn’t be starting in place of other players there. I mean, he’s a break glass in case of emergency sort of player and and he has a a a specific need and a talent that he can bring off the table and he’s, you know, as we talked about with Danny Cunningham, host of Lock on Cavs, he’s improved as a defender. And yet, he’s probably not a guy that you want to go to the well too often for. And so, that’s the issue is that you’ve got, as you said, three through nine are kind of just like, well, do we go with Haime? Do we go with Haywood Highmith? Do we go with Duncan? Do we go with Pella Larson? And you’re not surprised at any of those options being chosen because none really stand out. They all have their glaring warts and and and that lack of specialization is such an important point, too, because you can’t who’s your three-point shooter that you go to? Ostensibly, it would be Duncan Robinson. And yet, again, I don’t know that he’s necessarily lived up to that. You’ve got Haywood with some defensive chops, but I mean, he’s relied on for far too many minutes, and he’s undersized. Again, we we really appreciate what Haywood has brought to the table. He might be the one guy who has just a clear specialization is wing defender put Haywood in. And that’s what that’s what made DaVon Mitchell stand out so much when he got to Miami. It was like, “Oh my god, this is what a real specialist looks like. He is a elite point of attack defender.” And I don’t know the last time we saw something like that in Miami. We’re like, “Oh, this is what real defense at the point of attack looks like.” But how often have Haywood and DaVon been tasked to score 10 to 15 points, right? Because Miami just can’t generate their offense because again, their lack of the number one talent. That’s that’s the problem is it all trickles down from there. You have to have the number one guy and then yeah, then you don’t need as much from Davian. Then you don’t you can put Heywood out. You don’t even need as much from Bam or Tyler Hero. And that’s been my argument all along with those guys is it it’s really easy to stop asking those guys to to do all the things that they do plus also for Bam for instance to score 24 points per game as opposed to 20 when you have somebody else on the roster already scoring 27 points per game and you could just let Bam do what Evan Moy does which is hey nobody was asking Evan Moy to become a 24 point per game scorer this year and he didn’t. The only thing they asked of him was can you please make a few more threes than he did before. You know who also did that this year? Bam. But it wasn’t good enough for Heat fans. Why? Because they didn’t have a Dave uh Donovan Mitchell on the roster to actually do the scoring part. They need everybody to do all of it all the time for Miami to win any games. They just don’t have those guys who have those specialized skill sets and tasks that they check the box on on a on a night-to-ight basis. And it makes Eric Spolster’s job borderline impossible. So, Kenny Kenny Atinson just named coach of the year, by the way. Congrats to him. Uh, I think he deserves it. Um, do you really over Bicker Staff? Yeah, I think you would either one of those guys. I I wouldn’t have had a problem with it. Yeah, I I you couldn’t couldn’t go wrong with it. It was like the MVP race this year between Jokic and SGA. However you went, it’s the right it’s like the the most improved. It’s a it’s it’s going from really good to great, you know, and that’s why and it’s unfair. I think that matters to me more than coaching does. Like coaching to me matters. It’s it’s a degree of difficulty thing. Is it is it harder? And again, I don’t think there’s a right answer to this. I would have just picked Atkinson because I think is it harder to go from good team to great team with essentially the same parts the way that Atkinson went from last year’s Cavs team to this year’s Cavs team versus bigger staff. They were I mean they they they weren’t a fourth seed, right? Fourth seed in the East. They were good. They were they were far from a contender though. And I I just think that the difference between going from good to great with basically the same roster is harder than going from zero, which was what the Pistons had last year under Monty Williams, which is zero foundation, to a foundation. Is it harder to build on top of something or to build something that never or to build a foundation that never existed? Like I said, I don’t think there’s a wrong answer. I just think that the the Atinson thing was harder than bigger staff. But if you go bigger staff, I’m not going to argue with you. All right, fair enough. I would have gone. No, no. I would have I would have gone bigger bigger staff 100%. You think it’s harder to do the the build the foundation part. Oh my god. I mean, they were they were abysmal. They were like 14 wins. He brought he brought a team from like the depths and and it’s like, you know what, we’re going to play for something. We’re going to compete. That was a really tough competitive team that went to the wire with the New York Knicks. You know, it’s like that should have that could have gone either way in that series. And that was that’s a really good group. And I mean, you look at Kade, you know, Assar Thompson maybe. And other than that, like Tobias Harris, Jaden Ivy got hurt after whatever it was, 30, 40 games. Yeah. Yeah. That they they they stayed the course and wound up being a really solid team. So to me, I think it because I think you look at Atinson, you know what? I don’t know why we’re debating coach of the year on this show, but I just, you know, they they also have, as you said, the same core and yes, taking that same core, making it from very very good to great is one thing, but at the same time, like they also stayed together for a year and and the statistics have shown that if you can keep that core intact for a year, you’ll build something continuously year in year, even if you don’t make any significant changes or coaching changes. So I I think that that was already inherently baked in again to to what the Cavaliers were doing. They were going to be better this year even if they hadn’t repler. So uh we’ve already established that the Heat are not as good as the Cavaliers or the Boston Celtics or the Indiana Pacers or the New York Knicks or frankly the Orlando Magic who have won the division the last two years. Um, so the Heat have uh some things to do this summer. Um, the Star trade is obviously the top priority. Is there something else that stands uh stands in your mind, David, that the Heat have to accomplish this summer? If is there like one thing obviously make the roster better, but like is there one thing that you’d be looking at? Uh I I think the idea of getting uh additional quality shooting even if that means trading away one of your so-called versatile players in Nicola Yoic or Himez and I I don’t know what that looks like. And I mean, it’s just like a guy like we’re seeing Buddy Heield, you know, maybe he’s a bad example because he was a high draft pick and and a good college player and everything else like that, but you’re seeing the impact of having a a player like that who can score and and you know, he’s being asked to do something he’s capable of. He’s not asked to carry the team as he was when he was first drafted. He’s asked to provide three-point shooting that can be counted on in key moments. And and so I I think that’s what you’re looking for. you’re looking to acquire, in my opinion, somebody that’s much more a reliable threat off the bench or can kind of fill in as a starter so that you can say, you know what, I know this guy’s going to shoot it and that’s what he does and that’s all you need. And is it enough Burks back or you’re looking for an improvement on that guy? I would say he was tasked doing way too much and as solid a year as Burks had, I don’t think that’s something you can count on. They need more of like a Malik Beasley edition. Yeah. Merryill, Sam Hower. Yeah. I’m not even We don’t even need like specific names, but just like Detroit finding Malik Beasley as a free agent and just being like, “Wow, this guy ended up just lights out like a Wayne Ellington.” Like remember when Miami just picked up Wayne Ellington and he just was lights out for two years. Something like that. Yeah. Um I love it. That that makes a lot of sense to me. Um the depth has to be addressed 100%. Uh I would also be looking for like I don’t know. Could they go find like an Aaron Wiggins type? Just a like a a a legitimate two-way guy. A legitimate two-way guy. I The other thing, and I should point this out, they need to find somebody that can pass Bam the ball in a pick and roll. I would be looking for a lead playmaker. And I don’t know that that maybe lead playmaker might be tough because that’s obviously going to be your number one option hopefully. But just somebody comes off the bench, whatever. just a a point guard who knows how to run an offense and can throw an entry pass. They need that player. So whether it’s like a Taius Jones or a Trey Jones or some kind of player like that, something like that could, I think, really help this. What happens with Jones this year? I know we’ll probably have plenty of time to talk about it, but given that he he Tus Jones, okay, you know, he had that one year kind of deal that he took in in Phoenix expecting them to win a title or at least contend and he was going to he’s out there, man. He’s available. No, I know that. But he’s going to parlay that into, you know, he was hoping to parlay that into a bigger contract and now he’s kind of entered free agency on a team that kind of stunk and he wasn’t particularly good. Not the way I think his value is a lot higher last summer than it was this year. Agreed. Is it going to be another vet? Could be could be a buy low option for I mean I know he entertained the idea of coming to Miami, right? And then he chose Phoenix because again title contention and a starting choice. Yeah. Yeah. Because he wasn’t going to start over Terry Rosir. He didn’t think so. He would have been. He would have ended up. Um, the other thing I’m looking at in training camp, I know we’re looking way ahead, but this is offseason priorities. Yeah. Bam and Kell should never be separated in training camp on the on the scrimmages. They should always be on the same team. Do not separate them. It should be rep after rep after rep. I want to see videos on Instagram of Bam hanging out with Kell Wear somewhere in Miami. Bam with the headband on as he does in the summer months training with Ko. I want those guys at the hip. Those guys need to develop chemistry in a fast way if that’s the front court of the future. So, I want to see that, too. All right. I want to throw one more thing at you because we know that they need to acquire a star. We’ve talked about the names. Uh, this is from Bleacher Report, Zack Buckley, who does a really good job of putting these mock trades together. Um, John Morant. It’s a John trade. The Heat get John Morant and Jay Huff. Nice little throw in there for Duncan Robinson, Kyle Anderson, Nicola Yoic, Haimeh Hakeez Jr. and first round picks in 2025. So this one coming from Golden State 2029 top four protected and then 2031 I think unprotected is what he has. So three first round picks basically all your first it’s all the tradeable first round picks from now to 2031. Duncan, Anderson, Yoic, Haime, and you get John Morant and Jay Huff back. What do you think? I think you’d have to keep one of those role players. I don’t know if it’s necessary to include them just for salary purposes, but it’s you just again I as much as we just made the argument that you need um you could probably you need more specific I’m sorry specialized. Yeah, you could probably leave out one of the role players and not take Jay Huff back. I think that would probably work from a salary standpoint. So, you would rather have you would rather keep Nico or Haime as opposed to add Jay Huff in the deal. I mean, yes. Yeah. No, I’m with you. I think that’s that’s a no-brainer. I’m just I’m just clarifying. Yeah. Um because that’s a lot. you know, you’re giving up your draft collateral and that’s basically how you’re going to be shoring up the rest of the team. But Morant, yeah, you’re losing your cheap first round talent and you’re losing the means to add cheap first round talent with those three picks. Now, you have the other picks obviously in between, although you’re you do owe one pick to Charlotte probably in 2027, maybe 2028. So, that’s a little bit of a problem, too. So, you don’t have control of four of your next six drafts. That that’s an issue to me. I would I would be more inclined to keep one of the first round picks out. Can I keep 2029 or 2031? You can have Nico, you can have Hime, you can have the other stuff. If I’m already sold on Jamar, which is the other qu I don’t know that I am. So, but if if we’re assuming that the Heat are sold on John, I would be trying to say, “Hey, I need one of these first round picks. I can’t give you all of them.” Are they would they make that decision? Like I’m I’m just trying to think about what if if Morant is the kind of talent that they’re looking for. Traditionally, he is the exact kind of player that they would stay away from. Yes. But is this James Harden all over again? Like I mean, we’ve been debating the James Harden conversation for Kyrie, you know? Yeah. I mean, Kyrie may be a little different in terms of the public perception and everything else. You don’t have to worry about him getting into legitimate legal trouble. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t suffer from foot and mouth disease, but you know, he might he he might uh but with Moran, he’s gonna stay out of jail. Even with Harden, you knew he was gonna give you 75 games in the regular season. Moran, is he going to show up in shape? Was he going to stay out of King of Diamonds? Maybe not. But Miami seems like it wouldn’t be an awesome place for him. I think that’s fair to say based on his for Harden or for Morant. For Morant or either. Yeah. Or for Harden. But yeah, I think that was the debate with Harden. But for Morant, it was it’s look, this guy just has not been on the court. And if your biggest issue with Jimmy Butler was his availability and your biggest issue with Tyler Herro was his availability and both of those things were solved in very different ways, I don’t know that you want to recruit another availability issue into your organization with Job Morant who just I mean beyond just the the the suspension and stuff, the guy gets hurt all the time, you know. It just it doesn’t seem like also his relationship with his dad and like the kind of added element that brings like they’re just trying to they’re just trying to clear the air now from Jimmy and you know the idea of him flying separately and hey and all the all the things that came off the court with Jimmy. Do you want to That’s a great point. Do you want to go that route again? You’d really you’d rather have a a Donovan Mitchell type who is just by what we’ve heard, not a concern off the court at all. Just a complete standup leadership guy, betterment of the team. Everything’s about the team. I don’t get that sense about John Mar. John, I think, lacks discipline like in a very real way. And I don’t even mean this in sort of like a like being disciplined. I don’t want it to be taken the wrong way, but just like the discipline of before the season, he says, “I’m not going to dunk anymore because I keep getting hurt on my dunks.” And then immediately he’s like, “I can’t help it. I just got to dunk.” Like, he doesn’t have that self that inner will, that self-discipline, that that thing that I think would turn him, no doubt I think a top 10 player talent-wise, like could be could be one of the top 10 players in the league if you put it all together. I don’t know that he has the stuff between the ears to put it all together. I don’t know that he’s got that makeup or frankly the health. Like I just physically the guy’s built like a string bean. I have no idea if this guy’s going to get to the point where he could just stay healthy for 70 games in a year. So I don’t know. It’s risky. But man, that that talent is so tantalizing. And I know there’s a lot of Heat fans that just be like, “Go get that guy. I don’t care. Go get it. Deal with all the problems later.” But the availability leaning that way. You are. Yeah. I kind of am. Okay. I’ll say this. If this is the package, you don’t have to give up Bam. You don’t have to give up Tyler Herro. You don’t have to give up Wiggins. You don’t have to give up Kell. It’s a contender. I think this is a hard thing to say no to when we talk about the Cleveland model. Morant and the Mitchell spot and then he’s averaging 26 27 28 points per game and then you’ve got Hero and Bam and you’ve got the backline defense to cover. Like there’s a lot of stuff that here like on paper it works and it sounds awesome. I would just be terrified of Morant only being available for 50 games a year. What what if he just comes in here and like somehow like he’s born again here just heat culture little shiner on on the heat culture and next thing you know his his body fat is low and yeah he puts on 10 15 pounds working out with Khil all summer like both of them are like jacked up and it’s like they’re ready to go by the start of camp and it’s just a whole new version of him. Yeah, you’re right. Pat talks to him. He’s like no more grenades, no more no more lobbing grenades into the crowd. We can’t have Mickey looking at that every night, you know. That’s okay. At that point, do whatever hand gestures and grenades you want. I don’t care. You’re in the Heat uniform, baby. We’ll we’ll for you cuz Yeah, cuz Adam Silver’s going to come back. I will say this. I love watching John Moran play. If the Heat traded for him, I would be doing back flips. No, I mean, if you were in Miami, I would have a ball watching him play when he’s available. I would just have to really know we The Memphis thing was bad. they don’t invest in the team the way that we invest in our team and our medical staff and our facilities and all this stuff. We think we can get John Morance’s best years. And if all we have to give up is four role players and three first round picks or if we can keep one of those first round picks out of it or whatever, it might just be worth the risk because even if we shine him up a little bit, we could probably turn around and trade him in a year for more than what we traded him for or got him for. So, I don’t know. Maybe it would be fascinating. This this deal would be really interesting. I bet Memphis fans would bulk at it. Yes. So maybe that’s how you know it’s a good deal. I don’t know. Thanks for making Locked on Heat your first listen today. For your second listen, check out Locked on NBA Game Night every game, every night until an NBA champion is crowned. Get local analysis on a national scale. Find NBA Game Night on Locked on NBA on YouTube and wherever you listen to your podcasts.

The Miami Heat’s recent playoff exit against the Cleveland Cavaliers has sparked intense discussions about their future. With Tyler Herro’s defensive challenges and the team’s roster construction under scrutiny, the Heat’s offseason strategy is crucial.

Wes Goldberg and David Ramil explore potential moves, including a hypothetical trade for Ja Morant, weighing his on-court brilliance against off-court concerns. They also highlight the importance of Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware’s chemistry as a cornerstone for the team’s success.

Timestamps

0:00 Heat’s lessons from Cavaliers loss
5:50 Roster construction issues beyond Tyler Herro
14:00 Heat missing a true number one scoring option
20:25 Lack of specialized roles hurting Heat’s depth
25:22 Offseason priorities
29:59 Analyzing potential Ja Morant trade package

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