Miami Heat GAMBLE on Aging Stars | Is DeMar DeRozan the ANSWER?

Miami Heat GAMBLE on Aging Stars | Is DeMar DeRozan the ANSWER?

Heat are looking to improve this summer, but might not be able to acquire the superstar they need. But there are big names available, even if they come with some concerns. But if they can’t get the brand new vehicle of their dreams, will they at least get a used car to get around town? We’ll break down the options on today’s episode of Locked on Heat. You are Locked on Heat, your daily Miami Heat podcast, part of the Locked On 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. And for daily content on the Heat, click that subscribe button on YouTube. Make sure you’re following us on your favorite podcast app. Have a really fun show for you today. We’re talking about a bunch of different under the radar trade targets that the Heat can explore this summer. We’re going to hit a bunch of names here. We spent more time uh we spent a lot of time rather talking about the big names that could be traded this summer, right? We know the big names. Giannis, Kevin Durant, we even talked about on Monday. But uh we’re pretty sure that there are going to be teams looking to trade big money players to save some cap space this summer. even if those bigname players aren’t available or if Miami misses out on those guys. So, I thought we could talk about some of those more under the radar guys today and whether or not they make sense as backup plans for the Heat. So, again, like you were talking about, David, at the start, not the Wales, not Blockbuster trade editions here. What? Not the guys that we’ve been talking about for most of the summer. Those are more like your brand new Porsches, right? But sometimes you’re just you just don’t got the juice to go into the dealer that dealership. And uh those are those superstars. These are more like the stars that you could drive off the used car lot. Little past their prime. Definitely some miles on them. Still useful though and they could be had a value. So that’s what we’re talking about. We’re looking at the used car lot of stars this off season. Not plan A. This is probably plan B or maybe even after that, but it’s worth exploring here. And I want to jump in right away with the first name, which might surprise some people. Demar De Rozan. Jake Fischer reported a couple days ago that the Kings are going to listen to offers for D Rozan. That part isn’t that surprising. We know that the Heat tried to get D Rozan. That might even be overelling it. They explored the idea of getting D Rozan last summer and they couldn’t do it because of where they were against the salary cap. Um, but they were interested at least in the idea of pairing Demortto Rosen with Jimmy Butler. They couldn’t get it done. D Rozan signs with the Kings on a three-year deal. And after a year of Sacramento, their season went sideways. They have to trade Dearron Fox. They fire their coach. Everything is going. Now, I guess they’re open to exploring trading D. Rozan. He’s 35 years old. He’s under contract this coming season for $24.7 million.$25.7 million after that. So, it’s not this. We’re not talking about some crazy money. This isn’t max $50 million a year. You know, it’s pretty it’s a decent amount of money, but that’s I mean, that’s less than what Terry Rosier makes. You know what I mean? So, 35 years old, averaged 22 points per game last season. Definitely not prime Demar De Rozan, but an interesting name nonetheless. What do you think? Obviously still has some value there. Um, and it just seems like a name that Miami would definitely explore. They typically do kind of always circle back to their guys. like we’re talking about Kevin Durant for what feels like the third off seasonason out of the last five or so where KD is an option but we know that there’s interest from the Miami side of things and there’s always been interest from Miami side of things when it comes to D Rozan as well as you mentioned they were pursuing him or at least exploring the possibility last year you circle back now a year later and say does it make sense for this version of the team you’re looking for scoring you’re looking for a complimentary player I think I think it makes sense. I can’t believe I’m talking myself into this, but I think the idea took four minutes of the podcast to talk talk ourselves into D Rozan. Let’s go. I like Look, I you’re just not if you can’t get that superstar player, right? And you know, I think we saw what we what we’re going to get from Wiggins and that’s just not enough to compliment Bam and Tyler. This is a tweaked version of running it back. I think you’re going to sacrifice some defense that you have with Wiggins for much more consistent and reliable offense in Demar De Rozan. He still shoots the ball well. Exploring that three-point range a little bit more. Not quite really good at it. Shoot shot what was it? 33% last year on a higher volume of threes than he has throughout his career. Still gets to the line though, so he still draws contact. We’ve seen it a number of times against Miami. He seems to get the big shot down the stretch or gets a big foul call down the stretch. He’s you know what you’re gonna get from Demar D Rozan and what you use this term in describing James Harden that’s an innings eater right and wouldn’t you say the same thing about D Rozan he’s a guy you could just throw on the floor with anybody and you know he’s going to get 22 you know 20ish 20 20 to 25 any given night that’s certainly the possibility maybe a good night where he goes 40 maybe an off night where he goes for 15 or so but very very consistent reliable offense Miami hasn’t had consistent reliable offense in a long time at no point in time during the Jimmy Butler era, would you say that they had consistent, reliable offense? It was always these games in the mud and everything else. And so when you look at Miami’s defense, which you expect to still be at a high level, depending on what you have to sacrifice to acquire a player like D Rozan, and I don’t think it’s that much, that being the case, you just taking on this offensively gifted player and he kind of fits what Miami does in terms of have the spacing, you have the three-point shooting, let him go to work in the mid-range. That’s where he’s comfortable. that’s where he does his his work and that’s where he I think that’s where you want to maximize what D Rozan can do and then you’re not sacrificing that much defensively. There could be some concerns between Hero and D. Rozan being starters defensively, but I think for the most part Miamiy’s front court of of Adabio and Wear, assuming you can keep Kh in a deal like this should be enough to compensate for any issues that you have there with that starting lineup. And uh especially if you were able to sign DaVon Mitchell. Well, I first of all, I just I want to say the Kell Wear piece. You’re not trading wear in a Demar Rosen deal. You can’t do it. Um to me, you can’t give up any of the young guys, the draft picks. Not for Demard Rosen at this stage of his career. I have a trade idea for Demard Rosen that I think works for both teams. But before I get to that, there’s two things here that stand out about D Rozan to me. Number one, he is still an awesome offensive player. He’s incredibly efficient. His shooting percentages were a little bit down last year, but that’s because Sacramento asked him to space the floor because uh fun fact, Demard Rosen, Dearan Fox, Deontto Sabonis. Turned out that didn’t work just like basically everybody said uh when they when they signed a Rozan. So his percentages went down because they were asking him to spa space the floor a little bit more than he’s used to. But in Miami, I don’t know, maybe he would be asked to do a little bit of that. He was still a pretty efficient player. Still shoots over 50% from two-point range. We know what he can do in the mid-range. He’s one of the few players that should be and is allowed to take as many shots from that area as he wants because he’s just so good at it. And you look at the we talked about the dunks and threes offensive EPM last week when we were talking about something I forget. But uh basically it’s a catchall offensive stat. How good are you offensively and and what how do you impact your team? Kevin Durant was a plus 2.5 in Dunken 3’s um offensive EPM metric. Durant a 2.5, Demar D Rozan 2.4. So just a hair below Durant offensively. Now I think it’s a little misleading. I don’t think Durant is just a hair better than D Rozan. I think Durant is way better than D Rozan, but it still speaks to the impact that D Rozan was able to make last year for a Kings team that wasn’t very good when he was a little bit miscast. Here’s the other thing that stands out to me about D Rozan. You mentioned innings eater 100%. This is how many games he’s played the last several seasons. 77 79 74 76 61 during that shortened co year 68 during that other shortened co year 77 80 this guy plays basketball games this guy plays basketball games I he can run a little bit of pick and roll for you my question with the Rozan is can he be the number one option on offense in Miami because that’s what they’re looking for because if he’s going to just come in and be a second option to Tyler Herro. That doesn’t work. But to your point, David, could you throw the ball to him in the mid post and run your offense through that where he’s hitting Tyler Herro coming off a split cut or, you know, creating enough space for Bam to to get into that dunker spot or Keller to get into that dunker spot and throw that lob. Um, I think D Rozan’s a slightly underrated passer. He’s not an awesome one. I just I think it’s part of his game that doesn’t get talked about. Um, could you just b could you run your offense through Demar Rosen for the regular season for 82 regular season games? Throw it into them, go to work, take the shots you want as just your initial trigger. I I don’t know that you can run an an incredibly efficient offense that way, but it could probably be better than 21st in offensive rating. It seems like it’s a step back, though. I mean, given the fact that they were turned over so much of the offense because of the Jimmy situation and everything else to Tyler, I don’t know that they’re willing to take that step back for a different player that hasn’t earned that kind of equity with the team like Jimmy had. I mean, that that seemed like it was a source of conflict and this is about Jimmy Butler. Demar joins this team in August, September, right before camp, and you’re all you’re all of a sudden gonna say, you know what, let’s give him the ball and let him go to work and and then everybody else kind of has to play off. Bam. I think again, given Bam and how he approaches offense, I don’t think that would be a concern. He’ll figure his out. He’ll get his when he does, but with Tyler, you’re kind of asking him and saying, “Listen, we know you just had the best season of your career and now we want you to change it yet again.” Would it be? I don’t know. He’s doing the offball stuff still. Yeah, I guess I I don’t know. I I would I would say that you’d have to kind of run it by him beforehand to make sure that this is the kind of move that he feels comfortable with. Could you do it like 50/50? Is there is there a world where it’s like, okay, half our plays are Yeah. throw it to D Rozan in the post and then, you know, then some of it is just going to be Tyler high pick and roll, whatever. I don’t I don’t see why not. I I don’t think you all automatically have to just acquire D Rozan and feel like he’s gonna be your number one option. I think he could be kind of a one a one B kind of thing with Tyler and D Rozan. I think you could you could trade shots and the looks that you get and I think they each approach their scoring in different ways and you stagger them, right? Yeah. You start them obviously and then you stagger them and you’re like, “All right, we got the Tyler Herro offense and then we got the D Rozan offense and we close our halves.” It would be a little It could be a little bit about like what the Clippers did last the last couple years, which worked. Yes. Yes. You know, where it’s like, okay, we got the Harden Zubot pick and roll and then we’ll do that a couple plays and then we’re going to throw it into Kawaii in the low post for a couple plays and we’re just going to kind of toggle between these two things and they managed to make it work. Um, that’s a trade idea here. Well, one last it is it it’s a little LeBron leaves in 2014 and the Heat immediately acquire Lu Deng. This is a little This is a little Lu Deng coded for me. It’s a little Jimmy Butler leaves and you go get D Rozan. It’s It’s just a little that which you know what that Lu Deng thing obviously would have preferred to keep LeBron, but considering LeBron was left, it ended up working out. So, it wasn’t it wasn’t a bad move. Lu Deng was uh good here for a couple years. But the trade idea is this. Andrew Wiggins for Demo D Rozan straight up. Wiggins for D Rozan straight up. I think it makes both teams better like right away. I think so, too. Sacramento gets some defense with Wiggins. You get the ball back into Zack Lavine’s hands. you just run Lavine Sabonis stuff. Wiggins is doing his thing as a third or maybe even a fourth option behind Keegan Murray, behind Malik Monk, right? I think it I think Wiggins is a much better fit in Sacramento and D Rozan becomes that scoring option that Miami is looking for. Uh I’m fine with it. You don’t give up much depth. I think you no depth. You don’t give up anything. Yeah. You just you acquire a player into Rozan and his contract doesn’t seem so bad now. I mean, we’re talking about two years when he’s going to be in probably in some decline just given his age, but yeah, I don’t think it’s going to be a drastic one. Again, given the fact that he played 77 games last year, you don’t see him really just falling off the cliff. So, I I think he’s going to be a consistent guy who’s going to be able to put up 20 points over the next two seasons of that deal. If you can’t get that superstar, absolutely. I think it’s a smart move. And if all it takes is Wiggins, you do it 100%. Now, if you could get something else, maybe I don’t know if you could get some draft collateral from Sacramento, probably not. Um, it’d be nice, but if they were willing to do it, I’d just be like, “Hey guys, your problem, our problem. Let’s let’s solve each other’s problems here.” Like, it just it it feels too clear. You’d offer Rosier first, right? But I mean, that’s You would offer Rosier first and then Sacramento would be like, “Yeah, dude. You’re going to give us Rosier? This is amazing with Sacramento Kings.” Scary Terry. Scary Terry. I can’t believe we’re getting this guy. This is amazing. Um, could the Heat help bail out the Boston Celtics this summer while also getting better in the process? We’ll talk about a potential win-win trade scenario after this here on Locked on Heat. Today’s episode is brought to you by Wayfair. The days are getting longer, the weather’s warming up, and people are spending more time outside, which means it’s the perfect time to refresh your outdoor space. Look, we’re celebrating. We just celebrated Memorial Day this past weekend. Everybody’s out and about. Great weather throughout the whole long weekend. You want to be able to spend some time with family. This is what you’re looking for. 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Now they might actually have to trade multiple of these guys and if they’re going to treat it like a gap year kind of just say, “Hey, let’s let’s kind of reset the books around Tatum and and perhaps Jaylen Brown. They might even have to trade Jaylen Brown.” I mean, there’s there’s a lot of options that Boston can go. The one thing that we know they’re probably going to explore trading Drew Holiday and probably Christoph Sporzingis first before they have to make any sort of dramatic decision on Jaylen Brown or Dererick White or something like that. So, let’s just stick to Drew Holiday and Christoph Sporting for now because these are the used car lot stars, right? Um Drew Drew Holiday, 34 years old, making 32.4 4 million next season and then he’s he just signed that contract extension which I thought at the time was crazy that they signed him to that extension coming but nobody said anything because you’re not allowed to say anything bad about Drew Holiday because he’s beloved and and everybody loves Drew Holiday and I’d love to have him here but that was a crazy extension when they signed whatever. Don’t need to be right about that. Not taking the victory lap. It’s it is what it is. 34 years old, 32.4 million next year. He’s under contract for three years $100 million remaining. It’s a lot of money. Um Porzingis 29 years old which I was a little surprised when I saw that. I was like, I thought this guy’s like 49 years old. Uh, Porzingis, 29 years old, 30.7 million this coming season, and then it’s off the books, expires, one year left. Which one of these guys do you think is or I’ll ask it a different way, are you interested in either of these guys for the Heat, Christophorzing or or Drew Holiday? Yeah, I think kind of strangely both to be honest with you. Um, and neither at the same time. Like this this is this is the nature of of what we’re dealing with here. Like these players all have some interest and allure I think in adding a complimentary player. Like in Holiday, you’d hope for the very best. You’d hope that you’d get that kind of defensive presence because there are still moments like that. You know, you’re going to sacrifice some offense because that just comes and goes at this point. It always has for Drew. But the defense has been mostly still pretty good. Although I think it’s gone obviously like any player, it’s going to decline as he ages. Uh, that’s a lot of money. Serious. Yeah, that’s a lot of money to be paying for a guy that’s you’re getting some offense from and it’s just it seemed like a great a better fit with Boston when they’re clicking and everything’s healthy. I don’t think Miami is the place that could absorb a guy like Holiday and be forced to accept those deficiencies in this game. No, that’s that’s that’s a really good point, right? Because when you’re Boston, it’s like, okay, we got Tatum, we got Jaylen Brown, we got Derrick White. We can run our offense through all three of these guys and feel pretty good about it. Drew is not that guy. That’s why Milwaukee traded him for Damen Lillard. And I I know it didn’t work out. I still think it was the right trade for Milwaukee because they just needed something else offensively. Drew is not a number one option on offense. Like this isn’t Demar Rosen even. Like we’re not This guy doesn’t help Miamiy’s offense very much at all. He could hit open threes. He can handle the ball a little bit and set the table, but I don’t know that that looks that great offensively even next to somebody like Tyler Herro and Bam Adabio. They don’t really have that number one option that can move Drew Holiday into a three or four. Drew Holiday is beloved across the league. If he got traded to Miami, he’d be the like he fans would treat him like Andrew Wiggins. You’d be like, “What is this guy? I thought he was supposed to be awesome.” Um, but if you can make another move and then also get Drew Holiday, if you can make that other move and get that superstar player and then also get Drew Holiday, that could make more sense. But then you run into that financial wall that we’re talking about, three years, $100 million remaining. It’s just too much for me. I it would this is it’s almost an automatic no for me on Drew Holiday. I just think the contract is way too much and you’re paying him into his age 37 season. I just I don’t really see that as something that makes sense for Miami, especially now that Jimmy Butler is not here. If if you had new butler, maybe you could talk yourself into it. Um, but you can’t really do that now. The Porzingis thing. I mean, we’re talking about used cars. This is my friend once bought um I love where he bought like a used like this gold used truck like like not even gold like that old beige color that cars used to come in, you know, but they don’t even sell the Yeah. Yeah. Champagne. Exactly. Like that champagne color that every car in the 90s was painted. And then um he bought this old used champagne truck. I don’t even know what what it was. And he got it for like a thousand or no, I don’t even think he paid $1,000. I think he paid $100 for it, right? And um yeah, and he mostly just like took it off like this guy’s lawn for him. Um and he fixed it up and it ran a little bit. He could drive it. He’s like I He’s like I drive it for fun like five miles to the grocery store and that’s about it. And it was really just a hobby. It was just like a thing to do on the weekends, right? I’m going to fix this truck up and see if I can get it to run again. And that’s what he did, right? That’s kind of Christoph Forzing. Yeah. Yeah, I could see that. Um I mean, there’s a lot to like there, I guess, in in terms of a skill set that he brings, like a floor spacing, big shot blocker, etc. But, you know, he’s going to miss time. Like, you already have to assume that’s going to be the case. And I I just you’re you’re willing to take on that risk knowing it’s it’s coming and at the same time that he still can kind of raise your floor a little bit because I mean and raise your ceiling to a certain degree. More of a ceiling raiser like a little bonus when you need him. Yeah. Yeah. I would say that um I like the idea of adding a guy like Porzingis again. What would it take to acquire him that might be Would they want Scary Terry back in Boston? I don’t know. You’d ask, right? I mean, that that’s the first thing you would do is you would say, “Do you want this guy?” And maybe I don’t know, maybe they say yes. Maybe they just say, “Look, we got to switch things up. We need a point guard because we just traded Drew or from something else somewhere else.” I don’t know. Probably not, though. Um because they’re going to be looking for salary cap relief more than anything. And Rosier doesn’t Rosier give them like three or four million in cap relief. Maybe that’s enough. Um but probably not. That’s Duncan and who else then? Duncan and Kyle Anderson. That’s the trade. and then they would wave Duncan. So, they’re really just trading Porzingis for Kyle Anderson. But, I mean, that’s that’s also the the kind of move that they’re going to have to make, unfortunately, for Boston. Like, they’re going to just have to take an L on one of these guys um in order to, you know, save the money that they’re supposed to be saving here. I actually don’t mind it if that’s the trade. Um because if you can get Porzingis, you wouldn’t plan on starting him. I don’t think you could do that, right? just because you don’t really know about the health part of it. But hey, if it, you know, it’s November or December and you’re like, “Wow, Christopher Rings is like really in shape. He’s really healthy.” Go ahead and start him, you know, like, but I don’t think you could acquire him and plan on it. Um, but even if he was coming off the bench for 40 regular season games, then he had him available for the playoffs. I don’t know. Would he accept a bench role at this stage of his career? Because I mean, he did in Boston. If he was hurt, I mean, yeah, I mean, that was the thing. He’s just in and out. Yeah. So, like I said, if he’s healthy, then you just start like you just, you know, you go, but yeah, you have to count on him missing probably close to 20, 30 games a year, right? Yep. That’s what I’m saying. So, it’s a big risk. But, I mean, what I like about it though is that he’s also expiring, right? Like, yes. When when Miami starts talking about, hey, 2026, we want flexibility. We’ve got some extensions potentially coming up that we got to deal with. Porzingis does not interfere with any of that. Um, so there’s an I think if anything maybe there’s an opportunity cost in trading the Duncan Robinson piece because that’s potentially a piece that you can use in a Milwaukee deal or a Phoenix deal or something like that. But again, the premise of all of this is if that falls through and you just need to change something up in Miami, this could, you know, maybe this is something. I don’t know. Yeah. Um would it would you be concerned about how it could impact Wear’s development at all because it’s I mean again you’re talking about him maybe starting maybe coming off the bench in some role in whatever games he’s available for. But that kind of puts Wear in a in a precarious situation because you kind of want to lean into what he’s capable of. I mean from Bam’s side of things he doesn’t mind. He wouldn’t mind because again there’s another player out there who would continue to start at center and it wouldn’t be him and that’s fine. But I think just from where and the perspective of like what you want to keep letting him go through these growing pains and understand what’s at stake here. I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s the right move there. Right. Because if you’re like, you know what, we got 10 minutes here of we need a center. Do we go second year aware or experience Porzingis? And if Porzingis is healthy, you almost feel obligated to play him. Absolutely. When he’s healthy, he’s a far better player than where is. I mean, I think obviously Yeah. No, that’s that’s fair. And it would probably be something Miami would have to think about. Um, all right. I got a couple of more names that I want to get to here, including Michael Porter Jr., who at first I was like, “No way.” Then I looked into it. Maybe not as a bad a fit as people think. We’ll talk about it next here on Locked on Heat. Thanks for making Locked on Heat your first listen every day. Like and subscribe on YouTube. Follow us on your favorite podcast app. Have a few more names here for you, David. Um, start with Michael Porter Jr. I don’t know what the Denver Nuggets are going to do this summer. It feels like they got to try to do something. You heard Nicola Joic um in the press conference after they got eliminated in the last round talking about, you know, look around the league, depth, depth wins, we need to get more, we need to get deeper, stuff like that. He did call out Michael Porter Jr. one time during the playoffs after a game kind of saying, “Hey, if you’re not going to be engaged, you don’t want to play. You don’t want to be here. Don’t don’t be here.” Or something like that. Paraphrasing. I don’t know. He’s the obvious piece. He’s the guy that Denver fans are just throwing into the trade machine right now. Um, we did talk about Jamal Murray last week. I don’t know. Again, I think the first option, the first choice for Denver would be, can we turn Michael Porter Jr. into two or three pieces that get us a little bit deeper and kind of relieve us of some of these financial concerns that we’re dealing with right now. So, Michael Porter Jr., 26 years old, he’s making 38 million this coming season, 40.8 million the year after that, and then he comes off the books. So, the contract is expensive, but it’s not a super long-term contract. Again, you’re only getting him for a couple years and then he’s off your books. So, it could it could be worse. In other words, um I know he’s hurt now and there’s this idea that he’s a super fragile player. He played 77 games and 81 games the last two seasons. This guy has been out there in the regular season. And then even in the playoffs, he was dealing with the shoulder thing. He was still out there. Like that was gutsy, gritty, kind of like a thing you think that Pat Riley would look at and be like, I I respect that. You know what I mean? Um he’s a dead eyee three-point shooter. Just one of the best in the league. 6’10. gets it over anybody. A contested like he doesn’t there is no contested shots for Michael Porter Jr. Uh because he’s so tall because he’s got that high release point. I have a trade idea here. But before I get to it, your thoughts on Michael Porter Jr. I don’t know. I I don’t know why I’m so hardwired to say no. No chance. I don’t think it’s just the injury concerns. I think it’s the overpay is my biggest concern is that’s a heck of a contract. And and there’s a part of me that thinks that any move that any move Miami would make to acquire a guy like Porter, you’d see him almost immediately struggle in the one skill that he brings, which is three-point shooting. And mostly because of the lack of playmaking on Miami side of things. Like the fact that Porter has benefited so greatly from playing with the best player on the planet does not escape me. And I wonder what happens when you don’t have a Nicola Joic making plays for a guy like that and whether or not he’s going to get those shots. I look I just such a good point. You know, I like who’s going to be the guy who can take the pressure off of Porter Jr. so that he could thrive in the role the way he did in Denver and they don’t have that in Miami. So I I don’t know you’re going to get him and then it’s like, you know, the adage once you drive it off the lot, well, this is already a used car to begin with and somehow he’s going to add an extra 10,000 miles by the time he’s set off the drive, you know, the the the lot. And I I don’t know that Miami can afford to make a move like that. Yeah, he’d be a he was a third option in Denver. sometimes a fourth option in Denver and he would be a guy that at that price tag could it would be a little bit like the Wiggins thing again. It’d be hey you know Wiggins you were the fourth option in Golden State it was nice it was work nobody really expected that much in Miami the thing with Michael Porter Jr. is we all thought he had more to his game. So the other the flip side of what you just said could also be true, right? Is he also never got a chance to explore those other parts of his game because he was playing with somebody that was ball dominant like Joic and Jamal Murray. Maybe we can harness that. Now I don’t know that I buy into it because he was given those opportunities in Denver and never really fully got it. like there was a couple years there and it wasn’t so much this season, but they would do the Michael Porter Jr. plus bench lineups and try to get him to do that kind of stuff and it never really never really got there with him. So, I would probably guess no on that. But then again, maybe Miami looks at it and says I think we could do something with again I’m pro the contract is pretty heavy. It takes you out of 2026. It’s a little bit too much. It’s a little too rich, but the trade idea would be Andrew Wiggins and Duncan Robinson for Michael Porter Jr. and Zeke Naji. And the contracts basically equal out Dun uh the Denver could do whatever they want with Duncan Robinson. I actually think Duncan Robinson would be a fantastic fit in Denver. Like I don’t think that like I if I’m Denver, I wouldn’t get Duncan to wave him. I would get him to have him curl off of Nico Yokic screens and and just be awesome. But uh and then replace some of that shooting that you’re losing with Michael Porter Jr. And then Wiggins, I don’t know, is a 3 and D guy who probably fits better in Denver than he does in Miami. But that’s the trade. Um, I got one more name for you. We don’t have to spend a ton of time on it. All right. Paul George. I can’t. Is Is Paul George just winging Rosier? His season was so bad and inexplicable. He averaged 16 points per game last year on terrible shooting percentages. Multiple like just goose egg games before they shut him down. Like Paul George was just winging Rosir last year. But you also think that there’s he can’t like it’s the same thing. It’s like he can’t be that bad all of a sudden, right? Like there’s got to be a better version of Paul George in there somewhere. So I don’t know. I wouldn’t do it, but it was worth car. Yeah. And a heck of a lot of money, right? I mean, Yep. That’s you’re tying your future to that. You can’t I don’t think you can even convince yourself of that. I think he’s just such damaged goods at this point that there’s no way. And again, in theory, he works alongside if he’s healthy, in theory, he works alongside Embiid perfectly. He’s that complimentary scorer. He was a 1A at one point. Miami does not have that. They need somebody to step up and they’re not going to get that from George at this stage in his career. And I don’t think he wants that either. I think that’s you took the money. That’s fine. But I think he also wanted the role and that was to be a complimentary player. Uh I don’t think as good as Yeah. So, if the trade is Wiggins and Duncan Robinson for Paul George and the number three overall pick, that package that is rumored to be out there, but not really. We don’t know if it’s out there. Um, cuz you’re 100% correct about the salary. He just signed that contract last summer. That is a brand new contract for a used car. But that’s it’s such a bad contract that it would it might take the number three pick to get off of it. But if you’re Miami, you could say, hm, this is our shot. This is our shot at a at a at a big- time talent. Number three pick. We never had to tank. We don’t have to do it. We bring Paul George in. We bet on, hey, maybe we can get more out of him. I still don’t know that you could do it because it’s so it just that’s it. It’s that’s the team. It’s it’s Bam. It’s Tyler. It’s Paul George and you can even say all right trade Tyler Hero whatever and and okay you’re still you still have Bam and Paul George like that contract is so big it becomes so hard still even if you just remove Talurro for some reason I don’t know that you could do it and if you’re building around the number three pick it’s like okay then why not why not just trade all those guys you know because that’s that’s sort of the step I don’t know it’s it’s crazy but that’s that was the idea that I had wanted to throw It’s that’s the argument right there. I mean, that you’re you’re finding a way to add talent, high level talent at a reasonable deal because you drafted him and that you get to be able to keep him through, you know, throughout the start of his career. If you feel insanely high about somebody that could be available at number three, right, I think you can talk yourself into it. Um, and you have to have some kind of assurance. Yeah, that’s too it’s too crazy. It’s too crazy. It’s too crazy. You can’t give up three pick. Oh, for the Sixers. It’s that’ be nuts for them to do that. You would have to be getting something even just to unload Paul George. Yeah, it’s just it’s too much. Not after that year. He’s just like, “All right, like he’s got to be better, right? Like this coming. It’s got to be better. Like you just you got to at least try it for one more year, I think, for the Sixers.” But I thought forced to trade Embiid at some point, too. It’s like and that’s the the reality they’re preparing for and this kind of helps set them up that way in a way that you clears the books completely. For that though, you’d want the number three pick because that’s your future. Exactly. So, um, a lot of fun. Any, uh, any What’s your favorite used car if you had to take one off the lot of all the talked about? Yeah, the Rosen. I think that’s the one you could feel most comfortable in. It’s going to get you places. You probably don’t have to do a lot of maintenance on it. Yeah, it’s not going to be flashy. You’re probably going to get laughed at at a couple intersections there, but other than that, I think you’re you’re you’re going to be fine. It’s like it’s like better than a Honda Civic, right? It’s like a you know, what’s what’s the one that’s bigger than Civic? Better than the Civic. I was going to say it’s more like the Okay. If you know, if it’s better than a Civic, I mean, we’re talking Miami. Like, everybody has a Honda Civic in Miami or has had Honda Civic at some. Yeah. It’s like a Corolla, the Ultimas, you know, it’s just super reliable. You see a million of them all the time, you know, gets it gets where you need to go. Yeah. 2017 Nissan Ultima, right? Fresh off the lot. Yeah. Thanks for making Lockdown Heat your first listen today. For your second listen, check out the Locked on NBA Big Board show. NBA draft expert Raphael Barlo reacts to every workout, interview, and rumor leading up to the NBA draft. Find Locked on NBA Big Board on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.

The Miami Heat are in the market for a superstar, but what if they are forced to look at a backup plan? The “used car lot” of stars, if you will. Wes Goldberg and David Ramil explore potential additions of DeMar DeRozan, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, Michael Porter Jr., and Paul George, evaluating their fit and impact on the Heat’s future.

0:00 Intro: Heat’s offseason trade options
5:31 DeMar DeRozan as potential Heat target
14:55 Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis trade scenarios
26:41 Analyzing Michael Porter Jr. as trade option
29:44 Paul George trade possibility and concerns

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