Miami Heat REVEAL Offseason Plan | Embracing YOUTH MOVEMENT

Miami Heat REVEAL Offseason Plan | Embracing YOUTH MOVEMENT

Miami’s offseason has been quiet and looks likely to stay that way with a report from the Miami Herald confirming our worst fears about the roster. What’s the plan to contention? Well, we look forward to the future on today’s episode of Locked on Heat. [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 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’re following us on your podcast app. Today’s episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use the code lock on NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. Have a jam-packed show for you today. And by jam-packed, I mean jam-packed. We have a ton of insight on Miami’s plan for Andrew Wiggins, Terry Rosier, LeBron James, Damon Lillard. We’re going to get to all of that here in a second. But first, David, we have a plan. Finally, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald got in touch with his Heat sources and laid out the plan for frustrated Heat fans. There’s a ton to get into, but let’s start with the biggest theme here. I’m just going to read this excerpt straight from uh Barry Jackson’s piece in the Miami Herald. Quote, “According to People with direct knowledge, Miami’s intention is to quote, “Let our young guys show what they can do.” End quote. And see what this team looks like with Eric Spolster having a full training camp with the Jimmy Butler distraction in the rearview mirror and with first round pick Kasparus Yakonis added to a core of young players that the organization believes has high upside. End quote. So, David, you’ve been saying all offseason they need to swing for a star player. Nothing matters if they don’t have the star player at the very top. This is the plan though. Are you okay with it?
Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I It’s the like I said before, I think it’s the worst fears of the fan base coming to light here because they’ve absolutely just put themselves in a corner where they can’t make changes to the roster. You talked about it before, the deal for Jimmy Butler, not only the timing of it, but what they got back in return has shown that Miami lost the trade completely. And so now you’re kind of in this stuck position where you have no star. You have no way of getting out of the current position that you’re in. And you kind of just have to accept the reality of well we have these players that are mostly middling. We’ve got some starish level players on this roster and we’re just have no way of getting into clear contention or even rising to the top of the Eastern Conference. conference and a league right now that feels as wide open as it ever has and Miami can’t seem to capitalize because of past mistakes and that’s a really difficult pill to swallow for Heat Pants and I that’s that’s where we’re at right now. There’s no the optimistic view is you know what maybe there is some promise on this roster. Maybe there is some bounce back from a couple players. Maybe Yakuchionis does wind up becoming the the playmaker that could unlock a really dreadful offense over the last few years, but it just doesn’t feel that way right now. This team needed a home run. There’s indifference and apathy about this group, and that doesn’t seem likely to change. And for Miami to kind of just say, well, we’re this is what we’re bound to. This is what we’re resolved to doing and accepting it just doesn’t sit right with me. And you don’t ever want to be too critical of this runoff because they proven in the past wide sweeping changes to be all in to be fully engaged in rebuilding. But from where they stand right now, maybe it’s just the reality that they can’t get anything out of this roster that they couldn’t make the kind of trades necessary to make those kinds of improvements. But it just feels like way too little at this point in time to satisfy a fan base that really wanted something beyond just another playin team. Run it back 3.0 Oh, here we go. Yeah, you could say it’s the plan. And, you know, sources were telling Barry Jackson, you know, who worked for the Heat, hey, here’s our plan. We’re going to do this, we’re going to do that, we think this, we think that, all these things. At the end of the day, they didn’t do they didn’t do anything. And I suppose no plan is a plan. We plan on having no plan at all. And that’s sort of what it feels like here. I’m not against the youth movement. I’m not I don’t But there’s there’s different kinds of youth movements, right? Not every youth movement is created equal. There’s youth movements like Oklahoma City and Houston, right?
Whose youth movement was based on several top picks, right? And you could talk about how they struck gold in in Oklahoma City with Shay Gildas Alexander. Okay, fine. They still had a top pick in Chad Homegrren, a lottery pick and Jaylen Williams, several other lottery picks, too. Ushman Jen who they traded up to like they used they went out and some of them didn’t work out a lot of them did and that was Kesan Wallace all these guys Houston Amen Thompson Jabari Smith Jr. Albrun Shangun, just go down the list. All these guys, they still have Reed Shepard waiting in the wings there. That’s how you do a youth movement with the best picks in a draft. But to get to that point, you usually have to tank. But also in this piece, there’s no indication. Barry Jackson was told, “We’re not trading B. We have we’re not trading Tyler. We have no motivation to trade either of those guys.” So as long as those guys are on the roster, you’re not going to be that bad. And as long as Eric Scholster is the coach of this roster, you’re not going to be that bad. Maybe you get lucky the way that teams like Atlanta or Dallas got lucky in the past and go from 10th or 11th in the in the lottery and shoot up all the way to the number one overall pick, I guess. But getting lucky in the lottery as a middling planish team, that’s not exactly a plan either. So, I’m okay with the idea of trying to figure out what these guys are and who they are and giving them more minutes. Like, that does make sense to me with the roster is currently constructed. Yeah.
But it’s when you dig into the the actual plan, what it just it feels like this is a team or if this is the plan, it feels like it’s a plan for a team that’s going to be stuck in the playing tournament for a long time. Yeah. Um I I just what where’s the the hope that these players will pop given the balance on this roster? I I just don’t see it. Like I I Who’s the player that they’re saying, you know what, there’s star potential there. And if that’s what you’re hoping for, other than that, like they’re all going to be fine players. Of that, I have no doubt. Yoic is a fine player and we like his potential. Yeah, I don’t know that he’s got the the potential to be a star. Similarly, Haime Hakez, really good role player. He had a b year last year. I expect him to have a bounce back this year. But at no point in time did we ever say, you know what, that guy’s going to be a star. And and that’s okay. Hey, some people were saying it locally and I I caution people, don’t put those expectations on this guy that early because we continue to get in trouble when we throw these huge expect outsized expectations on these young players after a couple of weeks of good basketball as a rookie. So, I I don’t if you’re committed to the youth movement generally, it’s like you said, it’s Well, how do they do it right? Right. Like I I think that’s a fair question is if you’re going to do the youth movement, how do you do the youth youth movement the right way? And one of the steps which I guess it sounds like they’re going to do is play these guys more minutes. Khlo Wear starting five. Hayakas Jr. back in the rotation. Nikoloic every night in the rotation. What that means though is that guys like Kyle Anderson are going to get fewer minutes. Guys like maybe even Haywood Heismith get fewer minutes. Um, Simone Fenteo, who they just acquired in the Nugget Robinson deal, like I don’t know if he’s a part of your nightly rotation. Uh, Terry Rosier gets fewer minutes. Like, all these guys don’t get as much minutes, but they’re still on your roster. And so, if you want to look at how you do the youth movement the right way, they’re sort of doing it now, but there’s another step here that we’re that isn’t being talked about in this piece, and it’s trade the old guys. I know you’re not going to trade Bam or trade Tyler. Fine. You don’t have to. 27, 25 years old. These guys aren’t old. Tay Rosier is 31 years old. Kyle Anderson is 30. Andrew Wiggins is 30. Heywood Highmith is 28. Simone Pentec 29. He’s 29 years old. These guys are old for a youth movement. Trade him. Trade Haywood Highmith for picks. Second round picks. I don’t care. Do it. He’s 28 years old. What What’s he doing on this roster? He’s not gonna get playing time if you’re committed to Nico and Haime and all these guys getting minutes.
I don’t even buy that though. Like they’re going to get playing time. I just don’t if that’s fine that you want to say that’s that’s the ethos just because you want to at least show that that you have some sort of direction. And I don’t I don’t think that’s likely to be the case. Eric Spolster has never been the type of coach to to lean into a quote unquote youth movement. Maybe he’s never had to, but I I think that’s why the front office has to train him. Right. So, I just I he was gonna get playing time. He’s going to get starts. Kyle Anderson’s going to get playing time because he just believes in him and he likes what he can bring to the table. All these guys are going to get some playing time. And then quite frankly, you it’s going to happen because you know that at some point these guys, younger kids are going to have some injury issues or something’s going to take him out. Him has missed time. Nico,
you know what this sounds like, David? We we keep hearing like Golden State had the two timeline approach, right? Between like the Steph Curry era and then the other thing that didn’t really work out.
This is a two timeline approach except it’s the two timelines both end up in the playin tournament. You have a you have a time the current timeline of a playin team and the future timeline of a playin team. It’s a two timeline plan approach. That’s sort of what it sounds like. Unless, of course, the Heat can accomplish part two of the plan, according to Barry Jackson, the Miami Herald and his Miami Heat sources. We’ll tell you what part two of the plan is. I think David will be a little bit more enthusiastic about this one. Or not. I don’t know. We’ll talk about it next here on Locked on Heat. Today’s episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. You ever wish managing your money felt easier? I know I do. With Monarch Money, you can. Whether you’re growing your savings, and control over your finances. Monarch Money is more than a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track all of your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. So, in addition to managing your money, you’re also building wealth. Uh what’s a financial goal maybe that you’ve tried to set? Well, guess what? For a lot of us, it’s, you know, having a nice nest egg or being able to save up for a major purchase. Maybe you’re trying to build a family. Who knows what it could be? There’s so many different goals out there for so many different people. But guess what Monarch Money does? They help you reach that goal. They help you plan and they help you save the money that you need to make those goals attainable. So that’s why if you want to take control of your finances, you can do that with Monarch Money. Use the code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchoney.com. Code locked on NBA for half off your first year only at monarchmoney.com. We’ll be right back. [Music] So, according to the Miami Herald, there is a part two of the Heat’s grand plan here. Part two of the plan is to try to quickly pounce, and this is a quote from the Herald piece, part two of the plan is to try to quickly pounce if an in his prime star or a very good player becomes available in the trade market. End quote. Um, another little wrinkle to this plan, they’re not planning on 2026 cap space or trying to use max cap create max cap space to go get a star because it’s unlikely a star player hits free agency, right? We’ve already seen guys like Jiren Jackson Jr. sign that extension. Kevin Durant expected to sign an extension in Houston. Luca Donuch expected to sign a extension with the Lakers. We’ll see Darren Fox, same thing with the Spurs. Trey Young seems happy in Atlanta. Atlanta seems happy with Trey Young. So all those guys, Donuch and Fox, can sign an extension before the start of the season, I think beginning in October. So they’re probably going to do that. Um, so when I read this with the first part of the plan, go into the youth movement, develop these guys, etc., and I read this part, part two of the plan is to quickly pounce on an in his prime star a very good player. The first thing I think about is like that 2016 era Miami Heat when Pat Riley just kept telling us James Johnson, Dion Waiters, Luke Babbett, like we could trade these guys, all these guys.
Uh that’s what this feels like, but in a slightly different a slightly different variation of it. That’s I think what the ultimate plan is. Let’s develop these guys. Let’s make them into desirable assets. And then when we can get an in his prime star. So not Kevin Durant who’s not in his prime anymore. Not LeBron James, right? In his prime star is doing a lot of work here. But if we can go get that guy and we’ve developed some of these pieces into a uh desirable assets, maybe we better our chances of actually landing one of these stars. Yeah. No, I think the comparison in 2016 is an apt one. Um, but I love also the caveat in his star in his prime star or you know maybe just a very good player like what is that?
Glad you brought that up doing a lot of work in there, isn’t it?
It’s like oh we go after whales sometimes dolphins you know or whatever bigger fish you know it could be just a large tuna. Um I just again it feels like a plan that’s not really a plan. It’s just we kind of fell into this situation. We recognize it. We had a hope that we could acquire the star and Durant, but we didn’t want to go all in in acquiring said star and no other star has become available. Barry also writes that, you know, Giannis might be that star that they’re targeting.
And that’s the obvious. That’s fine.
That’s yeah, that’s that seems like there’s enough kind of smoke gathering around that particular situation where you could say, “Let’s go all in and try to acquire Giannis.” And for that kind of player, they would. But one, I don’t know that it they’re going to be able, and Barry writes this as well, that they might have enough assets to outbid other teams that would go all in for Giannis as well. And if Giannis has any say in terms of what situation he would be put into or what team he would get traded to, I don’t know what Miami depleted of whatever assets they have, would be a palatable choice for him either. So, it’s like we want a Star, but we’re not so sure that a Star wants us despite being Miami and despite being what we’ve been in the past. So, it it’s just again it a plan that doesn’t really feel like it has much substance to it and yet uh they’re kind of resigned to doing this because what other choice do you have?
Um I’m not sure how it’s different than the plan that that they used to have during the Jimmy Butler era, right? Where
let’s wait for somebody else’s star to want to come here.
And that’s sort of what it feels like. Now, I guess the difference the Heat would push back and say, well, the difference now is that we have young players that these teams would want. We’re strictly focused on in their prime stars, which is a little bit different than what we were looking at uh even during the Jimmy Butler era. We have draft picks now that we didn’t necessarily have. We’re not really interested in trading draft picks anymore the way that we were interested in trading back draft picks for guys like Terier or Kyle Larry or whatever it was during the Jimmy Butler era. That would be the push back and that’s a fair one to have. It just it doesn’t feel like it’s quite enough. it still feels like somebody else’s star is our plan to get a star and that’s a tough spot to be in. Um, but that’s where I think the very good player thing comes in. If you can get a player on the cusp potentially, oh,
that can turn into a star.
Sure.
And that’s not, you know, we’ve talked about like the Tyrese Hallebert and Shay Gildas Alexander examples. Those are extremes. But if you can get I’m trying to think of a better example, but if you can get uh somebody that’s a little bit more proven, but maybe isn’t a bonafide superstar, a Pascal Seakum type, but maybe like a little bit younger who you could bring into your organization, be like, “Okay, cool. We have two AllNBA type players now with Bam Adabio and this other guy.” Maybe that’s an option. I just to me I don’t know. like that builds a nice fun team. It doesn’t build a contender. It doesn’t build a championship team. And that’s the part I’m struggling with here. And we’ve heard Eric Spolster, by the way, talk about these young players and talk about them and say, “These guys are four, five, six years away, seven years away in some of these cases.” I don’t know that the Heat have that kind of appetite. I don’t I’m not just talking about 80-year-old Pat Riley. I’m talking about Eric Spolstra, who does not like losing basketball games. Um I don’t know what the appetite is for that or years old. Exactly.
That that’s a legit concern. I know that Miami fans tend to have this hubris and maybe the organization tends to have a little bit in terms of well stars don’t generally want to leave us and I get that. Maybe that’s been the case in the past. But for a guy like Bam who wants to be competitive and does have the goal of becoming a Hall of Fame level player
and achieving those individual and team accolades like the the path to a championship doesn’t seem very likely in Miami for quite some time obviously and so at what point does he become disgruntled and become like all the other players like again if Miami’s plan is hope for a starle player to become disgruntled so that Miami can force a trade and maybe acquire said player that’s great but you got to start looking inward. wards because that might be the situation brewing within that locker room within a matter of years. I don’t know how much longer BAM is going to be like, you know what, yeah, I’m fine being a 40ish win team and that might be on the upper end of the spectrum. Like that might be the best case scenario is that they wind up winning 40ome games. I I I it just feels a little too bleak confirmation and and you and I have talked about this potential before. I guess maybe we were optimistic that they would make some kind of a swing or that something was brewing, but to hear this kind of confirmation from Barry about what we had suspected might be the case kind of feels a little dark right now. It’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, especially when you’re saying, “No, no, no, no. This tunnel feels pretty good. I could I could put a little plant here in the corner a nightstand.” You combine you combine the you everything that we’ve talked about with the plan. It it it’s different in the aesthetics. It’s different in that Jimmy Butler is no longer here and that this team doesn’t have that carrot
of just wait for playoff Jimmy and we’re going to make another run and all this stuff. Um they don’t have that carrot anymore. Now it’s
okay, we’re going to sell hope. Not in term, they’re still selling hope. The hope is no longer the carrot of playoff Jimmy magically emerging. The hope now is watch this team in the regular season for those moments where my hackers Jr. looks like an all-star or Nikolai Yoic is really popping off or those moments where Kell Wear looks like a potential dominant big man in the NBA. Those that’s the hope now that the Heat are trafficking in. Other than that, it’s still the hey, every time a star becomes disgruntled or possibly available, Heat fans are going to talk about can we get this star? Is this star the right fit? Is this the right fit next to Bam Adabio? All of this stuff, all the stuff that we’ve been doing over the last several seasons, we’re still going to be doing that. And you think about the in his prime star or very good player in his prime that could become available. Darius Garland, Trey Young, LaMelo Ball, John Morant, Darren Fox, Larry Markin, and Zion Williamson, Anthony Edwards, Jaylen Brown. All the names that we’ve been talking about for the last two years. It’s all the same names. It’s not to say that those names, one of those names won’t shake loose and and Miami can’t get their hands on them. I get it. To me, the plan is for one year, just do it. Take your lumps, eat your vegetables, post Jimmy Butler era, you screwed up the end of it. You got to you got to take your lumps now and and it’s going to be for a year. And for Heat fans that thought it was going to be a half a season, nope. It’s going to be for another full season. And then in 20 26 hopefully something else shakes loose and Miami is able to pounce on something that happens and and that’s the plan right now and it’s not to your point David super inspiring. Um we did get some other notes here in terms of uh some other particulars in terms of what Miami is thinking now including how aggressive they plan to be in potentially acquiring Jonathan Kuminga who would fit into a youth movement. We’ll talk about that next here on Lockdown Heat. Thanks for making Lockdown Heat your first listen every day. Best way to support the show, like and subscribe on YouTube. Follow us on your favorite podcast app. Um, if you’re watching on YouTube, hit that subscribe button now. We’re almost at 17,000 subscribers, so we appreciate the subscription and the follow. Some other notes from Barry’s piece here. He did try to get Kevin Durant. Decided not to give up a halfozen assets because the window to win with Durant would have been too narrow. the quote from his piece. Multiple sources said the Heat never thought it was close to landing Durant. End quote. That’s a little disheartening considering what was being sold to us, but it also speaks to why I think this piece came out now because after not getting Durant, there is a substantial part of the Heat fan base that’s very upset with this team. It’s damage control, right? Like this is this is the ultimate damage control piece. Something that the Heat don’t typically do. We’ll usually see this about once a year and this is it I think. Yeah. I I mean clearly there’s a response here, you know, just saying this is what we had intentioned and this is what we I mean even the way that’s phrased like I I mean Barry’s not necessarily a mouthpiece for the front office, but I think there’s
the reporting. Yeah.
Yeah. But he’s also clearly being fed with information they think will look positively or reflect positively on what has been a pretty bleak off season. So, you know what? I’m trying to think of this because I don’t even want to I don’t want to dishearten our listeners because I do recognize that there is a lethargic kind of indifference about this group and I totally understand that. But they also kind of frame it and it’s something we’ve talked about before that getting rid of the the Jimmy Butler situation did weigh heavily on that locker room. And so I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they’re also mentioning, you know what, we want to see a full season of what Wigs can do. And I’m not personally optimistic about it, but I could see how you could talk yourself into wigs buying into a season with Eric Spolstra, a full training camp, a full kind of period of adjustment and understanding. This is my team now. Yeah, they try to trade me for KD or whatever, but I I’m leaning into accepting my role on this team and finding a way to maybe not thrive because I just think that ship has sailed, but I at least finding a way to contribute at a higher level than I did. And that being the case, that’s kind of how they’re looking at it. It’s like, you know what, we had lots of factors that went against what we were hoping to achieve last year. Jimmy injury, uh, kind of just a loss season that felt worse and worse as time went on. But now that we’re kind of free and clear of that, it kind of reminds me and and I don’t know why I felt this way. Like I felt pretty negatively about the news that Barry was reporting. And yet, typically, this is the kind of team that I like to follow. Also kind of reminds me of the 2002 Florida Marlins, you know,
where they were just kind of leaning into that like 97 was really, really bad. Obviously, they won the championship and then they kind of blew everything up with Wayne Hanzinga as their owner and it was just a really terrible time for Marlins fans. If there’s any even out there listening, they remember that time period. 2002 you had Mike Lol, Derek Lee, Charles Johnson. You had all these young players kind of building towards something and that felt like really a great optimistic place to be. I don’t know that I necessarily feel the same way about this Heat team.
Yeah. But what what what set that Marlins team up for a World Series in 2003? They drafted and and acquired Miguel Cabrera and Dantrell Willis. So the the the star young players who who took him over the top. Hey, look. Miami has their 2026 pick. They will tell you you never tank. They’re also setting themselves up to not be very good. That that potential is out there, right? Where they could just fall into the lottery. If look, this team, the way it’s constructed, if BAM misses a month with an injury, they’re in the lottery. That’s it. That’s the end of the season. That’s true. Um, and it might not take like even in this version of the Eastern Conference, it might not take that to end up in the lottery. So, the Heat would never say it on record. Sources would never tell Barry Jackson or any of us in the media, hey, we’re planning on tanking. Don’t forget, we got our 2026 pick. That’s that’s why we made it through the playin tournament.
Yeah, he he specifically writes that they don’t agree that tanking works. That they think it fails more often than not. And I agree with that premise. Well, that was the part where he said also that they’re not considering trading Bam or Tyler. I do wonder if there’s a way to not trade Bam and Tyler and still end up with a top 10 pick in this upcoming draft. A couple of other notes here. They’re not looking really feel, you know, kind of thing. It’s like, are you sure you you don’t want to push that knee too far? Why don’t you just take the next two months off?
Right. Right. Uh other notes, they’re not looking to wave and stretch Terry Rosier. Something we’ve reported here as well. So, nice to get some confirmation on that. Doesn’t make sense, right? They’re not going to do to Rosier what the Bucks did with Damen Lillard. Rosier comes off the books in 2026. It’s there’s no reason to to wave and stretch him. Um, no immediate plan to offer Damen Lillard a roster spot. Number one, they don’t have one. Uh, it would be tough at this point to create one outside of a trade or just waving somebody and eating that money, which they don’t want to do. So, no immediate plan. And also, it doesn’t sound like Lillard has an immediate plan on signing anywhere. It might It sounds like he’s going to take his time with this thing. Um, they’re listening to trades for Andrew Wiggins, but are not determined to trade him. They believe he can fit with her own band. We talked a little bit about that already. That to me sounds like posturing. You can’t just say outright, “We super want to trade this guy. We’ll take whatever you got.” Uh, they’re listening to trades for Andrew Wiggins, which makes sense. He’s 30 years old. If you’re going to the youth movement, he doesn’t exactly fit that. But also at the same time, he’s only 30 years old and he fits with Hero and Bam, or at least they think he does. His trade value isn’t super high right now. He’s a little dusty. Doesn’t really work. Can you refurbish this trade value by the trade deadline? Maybe move him then. I think that’s possible. But the last thing I want to talk about here, they haven’t ruled out Jonathan Kaminga, but haven’t aggressively been pursuing him either. They don’t want to pay him the $30 million that Kaminga is seeking in a new deal. Also to me, David posturing,
I think this makes sense. If you’re going to talk about a youth movement, and I have my issues with Kaminga as a basketball player, but getting him at 23 years old, and if you could flip Wiggins for him specifically in a signing trade where Wiggins goes back to Golden State and Kaminga comes here to Miami, 30 million feels like a lot of money, but that’s the kind of risk you take if you want to try to get that kind of talent. We talk about the difference between the 15th pick in the draft and a top five pick in the draft. Kamingo is seventh, but whatever. He fell a little bit in that draft. Uh that would be that would be the swing for the fences type of young player type of move. And Kaminga wants to be a star. He thinks he can be a star. Miami trying to find out would at least be interesting. Yeah, the 30 million price tag seems a little high and maybe you can convince them. Look, this is Miami, not San Francisco. there’s ways where you can recoup some of that money. Uh
it’s what Jaylen signed before the end of before the start of last season.
It is a it’s a but then you know Houston got over it and decided they needed to trade him, right? It’s a big question. I think yeah I I seem a little heavy but at the same time I think that’s the kind of move you need to pursue because you you need to get a the I can understand the rationale that they’re feeding Barry’s like we like Wigs maybe he’ll be a little bit better adjusted maybe he can kind of you know play well alongside Tyler and Bam but the I think the ceiling for Wigs is lower than the potential for Kaminga and at this point in time you’ve got to take a chance
and right now you’d rather bet on the potential. If you’re already betting on the potential of a 19th, 20th pick in the draft, then take a potential, take the potential, even if you have to pay a little bit more for a guy like Kaminga and say, you know what, at least there’s a path towards something.
And I would like that Kaminga’s value has probably been never been lower than it is right now in this very moment. If you get him and you get him the touches and he starts putting up numbers,
$30 million is not untradeable. And if that next star player becomes available in his prime superstar or in his prime very good player, Kaminga could be the centerpiece of that kind of trade. Or like Wiggins could still maybe be a part of that trade, but more as a salary matching piece, not as a centerpiece piece
where Kaminga that feels a little bit more like a centerpiece piece potentially, but we already know that Wiggins isn’t that. But the idea isn’t look, if Kamya never ends up being as good as Wiggins, that’s okay.
Yeah,
because the Heat aren’t winning anything with Wiggins. So, I can’t believe I I have been out on Kaminga as a basketball player in Golden State for a few years now. I am in on the Heat just acquiring him. And I again, I don’t the mechanics of the sign and trade gets very complicated. And that’s why I’ve always said, don’t expect some don’t expect Miami to sign and trade for Kaminga on day one of free agency. These things are complicated and they take a lot of time. But if you want to approach that $30 million number for Kaminga and you’ve already decided that you’re not, you’re not going to be using 2026 cap space anyway because there’s no free agents out there to give it to, I could think of worse ways to use your cap space, like waving and stretching Damen Lillard, for example. Um, that will do it for us today. Thanks for making Locked on Heat your first listen today. For your second listen, find the Locked on NBA podcast where there is no offseason. Doug, Matt, and Hayes keep you up to date on contract negotiations, rumors, and everything you need to be the most informed NBA fan. Find Locked on NBA on YouTube and wherever you listen to podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day.

The Miami HEAT’s offseason strategy sparks concern among the fanbase. Is Miami’s youth movement a recipe for success or a step backward?

Wes Goldberg and David Ramil dissect the MIAMI HEAT’s controversial plan to develop young talent and pursue star players. The hosts analyze Barry Jackson’s Miami Herald report, comparing the HEAT’s approach to successful rebuilds in Oklahoma City and Houston. They examine the future of Andrew Wiggins and trade targets like Jonathan Kuminga and LeBron James.

0:00 Intro
1:30 Miami Heat’s quiet offseason plan
12:04 Pouncing on available star players
22:39 Jonathan Kuminga and other offseason notes

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