Miami Heat Kevin Durant Dream SHATTERED | What Went Wrong and What’s Next?

Miami Heat Kevin Durant Dream SHATTERED | What Went Wrong and What’s Next?

breaking news kevin Durant has been traded but not to the Miami Heat why did the Heat fail to land Kevin Durant again we’re going to talk about that plus why it’s time for the Heat to face reality and pick a new direction [Music] 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 a credentialed Heat media member who covers this team every day for daily content on the Heat click that subscribe button on YouTube make sure you are following us on your favorite podcast app today’s episode is brought to you by Monarch Money take control of your finances with MonarchMoney use the code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year uh I have a great show for you today it is day seven or it’s game seven of the NBA Finals recording this on a Sunday but the Kevin Durant news did not wait uh Durant has been traded it was reported this morning by ESPN’s John Serrania we’re going to get into what we know about how trade talks went down how they broke down for Miami we’re going to talk about the big mistake that the Heat made that cost them a chance at Kevin Durant and the big mistake that nobody is talking about then we’re going to get into what comes next for the Heat this off seasonason but let’s start with the nuts and bolts part of the deal the Suns have agreed to a trade to send Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets for Jaylen Green Dylan Brooks and the number 10 pick in this year’s draft plus five second round picks uh and so that’s the deal that’s the deal that Houston uh gets Kevin Durant for the Rockets don’t have to part with any of their good young players right you didn’t hear even Jabari Smith Jr obviously no Amen Thompson you don’t hear the names of any of the big guys who and no Alan Shenun no Reed Shepard they didn’t have to part with any of their good stuff and they had clearly gotten to the point with Jaylen Green where and no disrespect to Jaylen Green or Dylan Brooks but they’ve gotten to the point Houston has with Jaylen Green where they said you know what we like him but he’s not good enough and I pointed this out a lot on locked on NBA and stuff like that especially during the Rockets playoff run it’s when Jaylen Green scored 30 plus points this team was borderline unstoppable i think they were like 13-2 or something in the regular in it was it was crazy they just they needed a guy who could score jaylen Green was just so up and down and they had clearly gotten to the point with him where they liked him but would be willing obviously to include him in a deal for somebody like Kevin Durant who even at 30 he’ll be 37 when next year starts when you get them for this you just do it and that’s obviously what Houston came down to they said “Look we’re we’re we’re good we’re good moving on from Jaylen Green at this point.” Um I do think that this is a little bit of well we kind of got Jaylen Green out of here too so Aman Thompson can now be kind of our featured young guy and it always felt like it was a little my turn your turn with Jaylen Green and Aman Thompson and Aman Thompson was clearly the guy that you’re going to want to build around as a two-way player in the moments of um awesome offensive flashes for him so like you move on from Green you include Dylan Brooks which is tough good two-way player one of their better three-point shooters one obviously their best perimeter defender um or outside of Aman Thompson but you get Kevin Durant and you do it and really again no disrespect to Jaylen Green or Dylan Brooks all it really cost you is the number 10 pick in a draft where the Rockets were already going into feeling like they had too much like Reed Shepard who was a top five pick last year couldn’t even get on the court so what are they really going to be doing with the number 10 pick so they don’t have to part with any of their good stuff they’re their premium young pieces none of their pre no future draft picks right like this number 10 pick sounds valuable because it’s number 10 pick but it doesn’t become an asset as soon as you use it this week in the draft so you know there’s a ticking clock on the value of this number 10 pick as of Wednesday and Phoenix obviously was very motivated to get something done before the draft they get a nice pick in this draft they get a couple of young pieces they’re probably going to flip Jaylen Green to another team it would be my guess because I just like you have Jaylen Green Dylan Brooks and Bradley Beiel i don’t know that that makes a ton of sense for Phoenix so can you flip Jaylen Green somewhere maybe get another piece or two back that makes more sense for what you’re trying to do dylan Brooks fills in on the wing and then you get to take a swing at somebody in the lottery in the top 10 of this draft if you’re Phoenix so that’s where it is but why I know what you really want to know why did the Heat not get this done that’s what the Rockets traded Kevin Durant for and the Heat couldn’t beat that totally fair here’s what we do know and it’s something that we’ve reported over and over again on this podcast the Heat were never going to include Kel Wear they never did include Kellwear that was a sticking point for Phoenix it was a sticking point in these conversations it was a sticking point also in February um when there were brief conversations between the Suns and the Heat that would have included something like Jimmy Butler going to Phoenix for Kevin Durant coming to Miami and there was a moment where that looked like it was a real possibility um that didn’t happen because back then Phoenix asked for KL Wear and a lot of other things but they asked for Kaware and Miami said no dice we’re not we’re not trading Khal Weir we really like him he’s 20 years old we’re not trading him for a guy who will be 37 by the time next year he’s 36 now he’s going to be 37 years old when next season starts and I think that’s the right move right it hurts not getting Kevin Durant but it’s really hard to part with a young player who you really like we don’t know what Khal Wear’s ceiling will be we don’t know how ultimately his career will play out but it’s really hard to move a guy like that for somebody who’s 37 years old as good as Kevin Durant is when you’re talking about a team that is still even after acquiring Kevin Durant would still be another move or two or three moves away from seriously contending in the Eastern Conference so I’m glad that Miami was real enough in terms of where they stand in the East to not include KL Wear by the way the Heat are not alone in that in that thinking of “Hey we can’t trade our good young piece for Kevin Durant.” You want to know how I know that because the Rockets didn’t move any of their good young pieces for Kevin Durant they just moved Jaylen Green but they still have all the pieces that they really care about so it was the right move the Rockets weren’t going to do it the Spurs clearly did not do it they never involved the number two pick they never involved Stfan Castle i don’t even know that they ever even involved uh Devin Vel in their offer either these teams just weren’t going to give up their best stuff for Kevin Durant who you’re going to have to pay right now you have to talk about contract extensions now if you’re Houston if you’re San Antonio if you’re Miami you felt pretty good about Durant coming back because you were on his list of preferred destinations durant does get to one of his preferred spots in Houston now but it still never made any sense to put all your best stuff in an offer so here’s what we know about what the Heat did offer for Kevin Durant they made multiple offers that included well let me tell you what they did not include first they made multiple offers for Kevin Durant they had a conversation with the Phoenix Suns about Kevin Durant on Sunday morning these talks were ongoing over the last couple of weeks and they were pretty much in touch daily and Phoenix kept trying to drum up more trade interest um you heard the reporting late last week ah we might hold on to him after the draft we actually might hold on to him going into the SE this was all BS nobody really believed it and it was all to drum up to try to create leverage that they did not have something we talked about all the time right they had a big going out of business everything must go sign outside of the door and then they were you walked in and they were still trying to charge you full price for stuff and it just never was going to happen and clearly Houston got Kevin Durant even at 37 years old this is a discount for somebody that good it’s the reason why David and I have kept talking about hey Kevin Durant is a great option for Miami this summer regardless of what you think you it it makes you in the Eastern Conference but you also can’t go allin for Kevin Durant so conversations were ongoing over the last couple of weeks they spoke as recently as Sunday morning before they made the trade call uh and decided on the Rockets offer um Miami made multiple offers they had an opportunity to get Kevin Durant it would have cost them Himeas Jr Nikolai Yovic Haywood Highmith and the number 20 pick plus other things uh presumably a Wiggins contract maybe there was you know there was some scuttle about maybe a three team deal perhaps involving Brooklyn that would have sent Terry Rosier to Brooklyn maybe other pieces go back to Phoenix but essentially it would have been salary filler Haime Yoic Haywood Highmith and the 20th pick in this draft um there was conversations about future first round picks multiple first round picks all these conversations were happening for Miami to have had an actual chance to compete with Houston’s offer it would have been all of it it would have been Haime Nico Haywood the 20th pick in this draft plus salary filler and the Heat were ultimately not willing to go allin so I’ve seen this online they weren’t willing to include Heywood Highmith they weren’t willing to include him Jr how could they no no no they were willing to include parts of all of that they weren’t willing to include all of it so it came down to either give us the salary filler and KL Wear and I think Duncan Robinson definitely would have been a part of this because of the nature of his contract phoenix could have waved it and and saved a lot of money against the tax but ultimately was hey we can get the salary filler plus KL wear and then we get the blue chip young player who we feel really good about and we could we could do a deal then because then Houston San Antonio these other teams are not willing to include their blue chip young players if you are we can get a deal done had Miami included Kaware Kevin Durant would have been traded to the I feel very strongly in that but they were not willing to go that way okay you could believe whatever you think about that is whatever you think about that but I’m just trying to tell you what happened they didn’t go that way so they didn’t get that deal done but they did have a chance to say “Okay you want to compete with this Houston offer you don’t want to give us Colair fine give us everything else not some of it all all of it.” And Miami said “No we can’t give you everything we can’t give you everything.” And I think that was the right call because then you give like I just said before Kevin Durant is worth trading for even at this stage he is an awesome basketball player still one of the best 10 scorers in the NBA would fill a lot of needs for Miami but not all of the needs for Miami and if you trade for Kevin Durant you’re trying to move up in the Eastern Conference and I thought that was step one of a multi-step process this offseason it’s something we’ve been on this entire time since February since we’ve been talking about Kevin Durant and potentially trading for him he’s not the answer but he’s step one and a multi-step answer but if you trade all of the stuff for Kevin Durant then you don’t have the stuff for steps two three and four in filling out the rest of the roster around him so they just couldn’t do it um it’s disappointing it is emotionally disappointing i’m disappointed i was disappointed when that the the the alert went off on my phone and I saw the news of course we wanted Kevin Durant here we thought it would have been just at least very fun to cover him and it would have been uh it would have solved a lot of needs for Miami but not all of Miami’s needs and they were ultimately right in not offering all of their stuff and you look at what Houston ultimately got him for it they did not offer all of their stuff the Suns were never going to get all of somebody’s stuff for Kevin Durant they just got a little bit of stuff and Houston ended up with the best little bit of stuff offer here and I think it’s why the Heat need to look in the mirror now and say why does this keep happening to us why is it that every time we feel like we’re close to getting a star somebody else beats us why can’t we land these guys why have we not been able to pull off a trade like this since 2019 we’re going to talk about that i’m going to tell you why and I’m going to tell you the big mistake that Miami keeps making and the one that nobody’s talking about we’re going to talk about that next here on Locked on Heat today’s episode of Locked on Heat is brought to you by Lollipop lollipop is a new kind of soda made for people who love the classic taste of soda but want something that supports their health with just two and two to 5 g of sugar and 9 g of prebiotic fiber in every can lollipop is reimagining soda in a way that’s better for your gut traditional sodas are loaded with sugar like 39 grams in a regular Coke or 44 gram in an orange 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of more on the Kevin Durant front and where things go nba draft is this week first round Wednesday night so you’re going to want to make sure uh that you’re tuning in for everything that we got going on this week and uh going forward but here’s where the Heat made their biggest mistake and ultimately why they probably don’t have Kevin Durant right now not tanking and man David is I I could already hear him he wants he wants to yell at me he was obviously always anti-tank for a very long time but not even to do the moral judgment of should you tank should you not tank is taking good is tanking bad whatever but it is a fact not tanking not tanking probably cost that will certainly cost them a better pick in this draft now we all know hey had they tanked would they have been the team in the slot that the Dallas Mavericks were in could they have soared up in the NBA draft lottery to the number one pick and had an opportunity to take Cooper Flag here possibly now as I’ve told people before the odds would not have been exactly the same for it’s very very complicated um but certainly they would have had a chance to move up in the draft and they didn’t because instead of tanking at the end of the year when they opportunity perhaps even get ninth 10th 11th best odds in the lottery um definitely if they had just lost in the playing tournament not won two straight games on the road they would have had the 14th best odds in the lottery um they would have been in the lottery and either way they would have had a better pick than where they are now at 20 could they have gotten this deal over the top if they could include a lottery pick whether it’s 10 11 12 13 14 instead of the 20th pick houston moved the 10th pick i I that has to be a possibility had they been able to include a lottery pick instead of a pick in the bottom 10 of the NBA of the first round could they have gotten this deal over the top would that have helped them not tanking is a tough look especially considering how you were so uh grossly outplayed in the first round swept dominated in the first round by the Cavaliers and I’ll say this at least you know now if you’re the Heat right because even they coming off of those two wins uh two road wins in the playing tournament they were talking about hey can we make a run can we actually we’re not scared of this Cavs team like we beat them and who knows what what you know we’ve we’ve made it through the playing tournament to the NBA finals before we could do it we could show everybody we don’t need Jimmy Butler here all that all of that conversation was happening and then afterwards at the end of the season Eric Spolster said “Hey we were irrationally confident.” And I’m glad that they’ve gone from irrational to I hope now perhaps rational irrational doesn’t get you anywhere you got to be rational and you’d have to face reality in this stuff and the decision to make that push after the 10-game losing streak that decision to make the push and try to make the playoffs and all that as uh valiant as it was as honorable as it was it cost you a chance at a lottery pick it cost you a chance at perhaps moving up in the lottery and ending up with a top pick in a draft that is uh very highly regarded whether it was Cooper Flag or who knows right maybe you get Dylan Harper at the second pick maybe you have a chance to take Ace Bailey or Trey Johnson or what any of these guys at the top nope bj Edgecom nope instead they’re sitting there with 20 and no real asset to move of value in conversations with the Phoenix Suns outside of we’ve got this Duncan Robinson contract that’s 50% guaranteed we have a couple young players who you might like we can’t include all of them and we can’t give you Clear so at the end of the day there was just nothing in the offer that Houston could point to and be like at least we’ve got that where in the Houston package they could say at least we got the 10th pick in this draft miami couldn’t even give them something close to that the 20th pick nobody’s banging pots and pans for the 20th pick in the draft 10th pick in the draft hey we got a top 10 pick that’s something miami couldn’t offer anything anything outside of luxury cap relief and that’s still why I thought maybe they could get it done and if Kevin Durant had said Miami maybe they still get it done but at the end of the day they just didn’t have that thing and you’ve got to wonder had they just tanked what does that pick look like it’s certainly better than 20 it’s definitely in the top 14 how close to 10 could it have been could it have been better than 10 had it been better than 10 would they have even included it or are we looking at a different kind of timet where they say you know what we ended up with one of the top three or four picks in this draft we don’t even need Kevin Durant because now we feel really good about where we’re at in terms of our talent acquisition we’re going to go get one of these top young players so it cost him a chance at a big move this offseason we’ll talk a little bit more a little bit later about what this means for Miami going forward but the other big mistake that Miami made and this is going back a couple years now they don’t have second round picks again Jaylen Green Dylan Brooks 10th pick in the draft the other part in this draft five second round picks going to Phoenix a Phoenix team that is so depleted of all of their picks that even that getting five second round picks over the next seven years rebuilds their their stash of second round draft capital and you might who cares second round picks whatever teams buy second round picks all the time it’s not about actually selecting players in the second round it’s about having those things to grease the wheels on trades and I’ve again been talking about this for years second round picks are the things that get these trades over the top time and time and time again i’ve done it before i won’t do it now but you go back and look at trade deadline deals and how many of these include second round picks they are the cash of the NBA they are the thing that gets the deal over the top they they grease the wheels they sweeten the deal on every trade it seems like 90% of trades include at least one second round pick and the Heat have very little second round picks they could trade two second round picks some of them are protected flipping swaps and and all the complicated stuff they don’t have five second round picks to include in a deal they don’t even close to it and I’ve been calling this out for years because they’re using their second round picks instead of greasing the wheels on trades to make the team better they have used them to dump Kesakala to dump Victor Aladipo to dump these players who they take a swing on and then they traded they’ve traded a bunch for Kazyak Paula and then had to use a bunch to dump Kakala they never they’ve they have wrongly valued second round picks miami has over the last several years while the NBA is valuing them as currency they’re look at as ways to improve their team miami is looking at them as a way to just reduce the financial strain on payroll or duck a tax or do whatever clear a roster spot and that’s been the wrong way to use them and they’ve had to use them to correct mistakes the Kazak Paula thing was a mistake victor Odipo that was a mistake right they spun their wheels on the OPO thing for three years it never bore fruit so the fact that they don’t have these second round picks the fact that they did not tank they just don’t have the draft capital to get it done and at the end of the day the Heat just don’t have what it takes to get any of these deals done and the opportunities to steal star players for next to nothing whether it’s Kevin Durant Damen Lillard whatever have not worked and when they could literally steal these star players for basically nothing whether it was James Harden or Kyrie Irving they decided not for us so they’ve been trying to do this Three Little Bears thing of well we love this star player he’s right for our culture but we don’t want to trade anything for him and but we don’t want these star players because they’re not right for our culture even though we could probably get them for nothing they’ve wanted the perfect star player for the first for the perfect outgoing trade package that didn’t cost them anything and you just can’t do that in today’s NBA you can’t do it you can’t do it even the Lakers who got Luca Donic for basic they still had to trade Anthony Davis they still had to trade a highly valued future first round pick unprotected wasn’t a good trade terrible trade for Dallas the Lakers still had to give up their second best player and a draft pick that they did not want to part with for years miami will not part with anything and they want everything back and this is the mistake they keep making they made it time after time in the Jimmy Butler era when they kept trying to add another star to him and they made it again now with Kevin Durant it’s not to say that they should not have chased Kevin Durant i am so happy that this trade at least got done before the draft so that Miami could chart their course for the rest of this off season but if they keep trying to do it this way they’re not going to get done what they want to get done they’re not going to get that third star player to add to bam out of bio on Tyler Hero if they keep trying to do it this way they won’t do it and it’s not to say that they got to move everything but they’ve got to figure out a way to either trade the stuff that it’s going to take if you’re that desperate to get the star player or add things to the roster add things to your draft asset collection they need to figure out ways to improve their asset collection because if they keep trying to steal these perfect star players for next nothing they’re going to keep being left with an empty bag while the star goes somewhere else so what do the Heat do now we’re going to talk about what comes next for the Heat this off season next here on Locked on Heat today’s episode of Locked on Heat is brought to you by Monarch Money ever check your bank account and wonder where’d all my money go between dining out online shopping and entertainment it’s easy to lose track that’s where Monarch Money comes in your personal CFO giving you full visibility and control over your finances monarch Money isn’t just a budgeting app it’s a complete financial command center you can track all of your accounts investments and spending in one place so you stop just managing your money and start building wealth when I started using Monarch I realized just how much I was spending on food delivery now I budget smarter and save more or instead of juggling multiple apps you can use Monarch to check your finances track spending and even plan plan long-term goals and managing money with your partner is smoother than ever you can track shared personal accounts set goals and stay on the same page without the stress so take control of your finances with MonarchMoney use the code lockdown NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year that’s monarchmoney.com code lockedNBA for half off your first year we’ll be right back [Music] so what do the Heat do now let’s talk about some names and then talk about some other options uh the names demard Rosen is the backup plan we know this uh two years left on his contract his contract virtually uh is it’s a little bit less than the Andrew Wiggins contract could you do a swap something that we’ve proposed here on Lockdown Heat a couple times do you just do a straight swap Wiggins for D Rozan feels like it solves needs for both teams sacramento is not in need of scoring they’ve got Sabonis they got Lavine they kind of just need a two-way wing who can just fill the gap whereas Miami needs somebody who could score they need a guy they need a guy who can get a bucket d Rozan certainly is that even at this stage of his career it’s obviously not Kevin Durant it’s obviously a little bit of a disappointment to go to that from that to this but I do think it’s worth kicking the tires on we know that Miami um checked in on D Rozan tried to figure out a way to add D Rozan to Jimmy Butler and Bam and Tyler Herro last summer couldn’t figure out a way to get that done d Rozan ultimately lands in Sacramento um could they circle back around to D Rozan i think there will be conversations between Miami and Sacramento about Demar Rozan we’ll see where that ends up um I’m been talking a little bit with Matt George who’s the host of Locked on Kings about what Sacramento might want in that kind of deal uh we actually might get together for a crossover pod later on in this week so keep an eye out for that if we can figure out a time and a schedule for it but uh Demar Rosen at least a name worth keeping uh keeping an eye on but not the only name in Sacramento malik Monk is also a name that’s been out there the Kings now it feels like they could be shopping to Rozan and they could try to find what the market is for Malik Monk i’ve always liked Malik Monk’s game you wish that the he was a more efficient that the shooting percentages followed up some of the the big flashes that he has malik Monk is not Kevin Durant he’s not a top 10 player i I don’t I don’t even know if he’s a starter at a on a high level team you know he might be a a awesome six-man but he’s a very good scoreer perhaps that’s something that’s out there does Miami call Phoenix now about Jaylen Green probably not but he’s a name that’s out there now now that he’s moved from Houston he’s a name that it it feels like Phoenix is going to flip him to another team uh and if they do decide to do that I don’t know it’s just a name it’s out there thought I should mention it the other name that’s been reported and stuff like that Jonathan Kaminga is Miami going to look at Kaminga in a signing trade i’m not sure I’m buying the Jonathan Kaminga noise miami did their due diligence on Kaminga before the trade deadline obviously before sending Jimmy Belair to Golden State kaminga could have probably been a part of that package had Miami really insisted perhaps it certainly could have been a part of that package if Miami had done a deal earlier in the season instead of being um outleveraged as the trade deadline got closer in February but um I don’t know after the due diligence if Kaminga is something that they want to do all the jumping through the hoops of the sign and trade and stuff like that but look Golden State has to make a decision on him we’ll see what happens there maybe there’s a deal that just makes sense maybe there’s a situation Miami is able to move uh I I don’t think Miami would move their best stuff for Jonathan Kaminga so we’ll see um I’ve seen the name reported out there i’m not sure I’m buying it but it’s worth keeping an eye on other than that looks like Giannis is staying in Milwaukee we have not heard anything about what’s coming out of Memphis jiren Jackson Jr John Morant what are they going to do now memphis continues to signal hey just because we traded Desmond Bane does not mean we’re trading these guys okay those guys are up for extensions until you sign him to an extension i’m going to make a phone call if I’m a team that actually wants one of these guys if you’re Miami maybe you call maybe you call about Jamar maybe you call about Jiren Jackson Jr and say “Hey are you serious or is there a price here?” And if it’s a Desmond Bane type of price maybe you don’t do it but I don’t know you You make the phone call if you’re Miami but ultimately again they just don’t really have the stuff to make these big swings to get the big name to get the big star and so maybe it does the right move maybe it does look something closer to what it looks like with like a Jonathan Kaminga a distressed asset unquestioned talent could you go get a distressed asset refurbish that player maximize that player we just saw what the Indian Panthers have done again recording this uh a couple hours before game seven here but just by getting to game seven the NBA finals this is such a win and and proof of concept for how the Pacers have built their team second draft guys tyrese Hallebertton Obie Toppin coming off the bench erin Nesmith buried on Boston’s depth chart before Indiana traded for him basically for nothing are there guys like that that are out there that you could go get distressed assets who you can maximize and maybe the next thing you know you have a needlemoving type of player whether it’s at the Tyrese Hallebertton level or even the Obby Toppin level miami just doesn’t have those kinds of players and if you can go find those players then you could start either building around those players or using those players to go get a star player imagine if Miami had an Aaron Eith and an Obi- Toppen on their roster right now that another team that could could talk themselves into and get excited about they just don’t have those guys we don’t The league doesn’t know what to make of Nikoloic the league doesn’t know what to make of Jame Hakers Jr after his sophomore slump the league likes Kel Wear but you can move Kaware for Kevin Durant they don’t really have any things that anybody really wants so I think you have to ask yourself if you’re Miami going forward how can we go get those things how can we build up our asset base do we have to seriously look at trading somebody for draft picks taking that step back to potentially make a to take a big step forward later on a calculated step back they can obviously wait for 2026 where they’re going to have a bunch of cap space but there’s gonna be a lot of teams with a lot of cap space but you know not every Miami i don’t know what the free agent class looks like kevin Durant’s not going to be a free agent he’s going to sign an extension in Houston we’ll see what happens on Luca Donuch and all these other things but that’s at least another option here is that you just sort of maybe move some deck chairs around and wait for 2026 i think you could do all these things i think you can take swings on other players on distressed assets try to rebuild the roster and create a new asset base i’m waiting for 2026 i think there’s a way that you could do both but the other question here that has to be asked and this could be something we explore in another episode but it has to be asked here do other teams start calling Miami the word is out the narrative the national narrative is that Miami is stuck in who they are three straight years in the playing tournament no Jimmy Butler they could not get Kevin Durant we don’t know the next star player that’s going to shake loose now the national narrative is that Miami is stuck do other teams start calling Miami about Bam and Tyler Herro both of those players would help a lot of teams and if some team comes knocking with a Desmond Bane type of package for one of those guys where you could flip one of them for multiple first round picks couple of good young players helpful rotation piece whatever it might be but you take a major step back but a calculated one in order to try to take a step forward miami just doesn’t have the assets phoenix had to do it just now they had to trade Kevin Durant they took a loss on the trade but they got a first round pick they got multiple second round picks they got a young player in Jaylen Green they got a helpful rotation piece in Dylan Brooks it was the best that they could do they did not get fair value for Kevin Durant but they got the best value that they got the best package that they could get and it resets their clock and it helps them rebuild around Devin Booker and they actually have they have now at least chosen a direction and for Miami we don’t know what the direction is and if they have to do anything this offseason it’s picking that direction is it going to be the step back to take a step forward is it going to be just holding and waiting until 2026 or is there another star trade out there that they can make or are there distressed assets that that are out there that can make or do they say “You know what we think Bam and Tyler Herro both can make another leap let’s go surround them with a better supporting cast maybe we do depth maybe depth is the answer for us and we just be instead of chasing another star we just get really deep maybe that’s how they decide to move things around this summer but they have to make a decision and they have to pick a direction so look I’m glad that the Kevin Durant trade is done i’m disappointed that he’s not playing for Miami uh but I’m glad that they did not go allin if you’re ask that’s my opinion i’m glad they didn’t throw everything i’m disappointed they didn’t get it done but I’m also happy that they didn’t that they stuck to their guns they didn’t trade everything that it was going to take to get Kevin Durant my issue with Miami is not that they didn’t move everything for Kevin Durant it’s the mistakes that led them to this point they just don’t have the assets they don’t have the stuff and my ask now from the Heat is figure that part out figure it out jimmy Butler’s not here anymore the championship window is closed how do you reopen it and how do you get to a point where when the next star becomes available you can be in position to make that move and that was my biggest issue with how they handled the Jimmy Butler trade is they didn’t even get this stuff for Jimmy Butler you ended up with the 20th pick in the draft guys and Andrew Wiggins and DaVon Mitchell who came over in uh another part of that trade nice piece not under contract right now so you couldn’t move him in part of a package but my biggest thing when you trade Jimmy Butler you it needed to set you up to make the move for Kevin Durant or the next star and they failed in that they lost the Jimmy Butler trade they had to trade him obviously because Jimmy Butler was doing this Jimmy Butler thing but that’s the biggest disappointment is that hey we traded Jimmy Butler and we still didn’t get the stuff that we needed to get Kevin Durant and that’s probably the biggest L that the Heat are facing right now thanks for making Locked on Heat your first listen today for your second listen check out Locked on NBA Big Board nba draft expert Raphael Barlo reacts to every workout interview and rumor leading up to the NBA draft find Lock on NBA Big Board on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts

HEAT MISS ON DURANT: What’s Next for Miami?

Kevin Durant’s shocking trade to the Houston Rockets leaves Miami Heat fans wondering: What went wrong? Wes Goldberg breaks down the failed Durant pursuit, highlighting the Heat’s unwillingness to include Kel’el Ware in trade talks. The discussion covers Miami’s asset management missteps, including their decision not to tank and misuse of draft picks. Goldberg explores potential next moves, from pursuing DeMar DeRozan to targeting undervalued players. He also raises intriguing questions about Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro’s future with the team. Is a major

0:00 Intro: Kevin Durant traded, not to Miami
5:05 Heat’s failed attempts to land Kevin Durant
10:12 Miami’s biggest mistake: Not tanking
15:49 Lack of draft capital hurts Heat’s chances
21:26 Heat’s flawed star acquisition strategy
26:01 Potential trade targets for Miami
30:37 Miami’s options and future direction

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