Heat Check: A look at where the Miami Heat’s roster stands
us. Welcome back to another episode of Heat Check. I am John Divine. With me is Anthony Chang. Um, we’ve got we’ve got some things to talk about, but it’s we’re kind of in a dead period, but um Anthony may be taking off a couple weeks, so we figured now’s the time to catch up. So, we don’t want to go too far without an episode. We don’t want to go too far without an episode, J. Yes, we know you’ll miss Anthony. So, we’re looking at a roster. We’re looking at a very full roster. Um, we’re at 17 players after signing Myron Gardner. Um, and agreeing to exhibit 10 contract with Gabe Matson. Uh, we can talk about Drew Smith who is no longer eligible for his 2-way contract. And of course, can they ever trade Terry Rosier in that contract? Uh, let’s start with let’s start with Terry Rosir. Let’s let’s go to topphy. Terry Rosier, why would people want to trade for him? And well, I think we can say why they wouldn’t, but humorous. Why wouldn’t people want to trade for Terry Rosier? Let’s start with that. Why wouldn’t um outside the fact that his numbers have been terrible? Yeah, he’s making $26 million a year. You know, it’s not the max, but it’s a good amount and it’s a high salary. Um, his production has regressed a lot. He was one of the worst players in the league last season statistically if you go by efficiency ratings. I was gonna say cratered, but okay. Yeah, that that’s another word. And he’s at the center of a federal investigation as well that’s ongoing. There’s that, too. Um, so there’s a lot going on with Terra Rosir that that’s he’s not someone that you know that he gave up a first round pick for him just a year and a half ago. um a first round pick that he gave up for him and now it’s you know you kind of have to attach a carrot to trade him um to entice a team to take him at this point and that’s why he hasn’t been traded yet, right? I think that he in a perfect world would like to get off the contract. Um why would a team want to trade for him? I’m going to move on to the next question. Yes. Uh he has he’s in an expiring deal. So there’s that. You know, you could just like just like that he traded Kyle Lowry at the final year of his contract. The Charlotte Hornets took that contract was like, you know, a little more than I think even Ter was like 30 million. It’s one year. You get off of that. Then you have all that money in space or just under the tax. You have kind of a cap relief uh um utilization there. So, there’s one reason teams would want to trade for him is because he’s an expiring deal. It’s not multi-year money. It’s not you’re not not going to be tied to his contract for multiple years. Um, but the problem the Heat are having in trying to trade the contract is, you know, there was a report earlier this week uh from Jake Fischer, who does an excellent job covering the league, but there was a report uh that there was discussions between the Heat and the Wizards umh for a swap of Terry Rosier from Marcus Smart in a vacuum. That sounds like a no-brainer for the Heat. Um is Marcus Smart who he used to be three years ago? No. Is he a defensive player of the year he was three, four years ago? No. Um, but he’s on a he’s also on an expiring contract and he’s making about five or six million dollars less than Terry this year and just a fresh start, right? The Terry era has not been great for him with the Heat. Kind of get a fresh start with Marcus Smart. A defensive oriented player might be able to help you cheaper contract get under the tax, which the Heat are trying to do. So, it makes sense. Why would the Heat not want to do that trade, which it was reported that the Heat front office could not come to an agreement that it was a clear upgrade? What I was told they probably would have done the trade if it was one for one, but the Wizards wanted draft capital. And when the Heat found out that they would need to attach a first round pick or a second round pick, whatever it was, they were like, “Ah, never mind.” Right? They already spent a first round pick to acquire Terry Rosier, they’re not going to spend more draft capital, which they don’t have much of anyway. um to get rid of Terry Rossier. So, I think because an expiring contract, if that’s what they have to do and just eat the money and wait one more year, that’s what they’ll probably do, right? It’s only it’s only one more year left on the deal. Um because I I the Heat are hesitant to sacrifice seller cap flexibility and draft capital just to unload Terry Rosier at this point. Okay. Because All right, so let’s try this. In theory, he’s a point guard. Yes, I know they play him at two guard, but Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He’s a combo guard. Yeah, he’s more of a point guard. So, looking at it, even if we thought he had a Renaissance, who was in front of him at point, you have um Yeah. Davon. Okay. You’ve got you’ve got um you’ve got Tyler Hero, if depending on how you want to put that. You’ve got the rookie. So, if you’re lucky and you and you acquired Norm Powell, too. Yes. Another players will definitely be ahead of him. So on that guard rotation, you’re paying 26 million bucks for a guy who would really, really have to show something to crack that rotation. Yep. I don’t know how feasible that is. Um, but we do know that they’re trying to thread that needle and be fiscally responsible. You want to be fiscally responsible, you’re not giving it. Look, they tried it two years ago. It didn’t work. They tried it two years before that. Um, and that didn’t work either at point guard, I guess. I hate to say it, but isn’t older point guard the way to go? You’re trading, I don’t know. You’re trading the ability to get to the hole. You’re trading the ability to really move the ball for stability, and he never gave you the stability that you needed. Yeah. I think that he learned their lesson two years ago when they traded Kyle’s expiring contract and a first round pick for Terry Rosier. Right. Yes. But Kyle Lowry was the same thinking. Even when they picked up Kyle Lowry, it was we have an experienced person who can get us into the offense, maybe can’t break down people off the dribble, but we think he can jump start the offense. I think with Bam Adabio kind of being able to jump start the offense from the half court a little bit from his position, not a point guard, but he does have he does have matchup advantages versus the people who are guarding. You have that you have Tyler who can do it somewhat. You have multiple people who can start the offense in an era of positionless basketball. So maybe that need isn’t as great, but we know Terry Rosier hasn’t been able to fill it since he’s been here. I also think there were two different mentalities, right? When you were making that trade of Kyle for Terry Rosier, you still had Jimmy Butler. Yes. You were just you just, you know, failed in your pursuit of Damian Lillard. So you’re like how, you know, we’re in a win now mode. Jimmy’s contract is going to expire in a year or two. Obviously, we didn’t know how the fall how bad that fallout would be at that point. They’re trying to go for it now. Terry Rosier at that point was having a career season for the Charlotte Hornets, averaging 20 points a game. Maybe he’s a guy who can help our offense. Poor man’s Damen Lillard, right? Pull-up shooter, can play point guard a little bit, can play off the ball, is a, you know, can score. Um, juice the offense, isn’t a terrible defender. maybe in the Heat system. He has a long wingspan. Maybe he can fit in the Heat’s defensive system. There was a different mentality back then, right? I’m not saying the Heat aren’t in win now mode. They always are, but there was a little more urgency at that point. Now, you can see them going younger. They’re building around a pretty solid young core. Half the rosters at guys 25 and younger. So, I don’t think they’re in that desperation mode of like, we got to get off of Terry Rosier, dump a first round pick, let’s make an upgrade to the roster. They want to play their young guys, right? And um I think that’s what we’re going to see. I mean, could Terry have a stretch where he plays? Of course. I mean, we’ve seen it. There are injuries all the time with this team, right? There’s going to be guys in and out of the lineup, but um it’s going to be tough for him to crack the rotation for sure. And with Spo, look, everyone gets a chance at some point. Yeah. It’s just the way he plays rotations. Everyone’s going to get a chance. Sure. But since we’re saying everyone’s going to get a chance, everyone means 17 people on this roster right now. That’s a lot of folks. That is. So, tell us about the two guys they signed, one to an exhibit 10 and how they fit in or can Yeah, my Gardner is the first one they signed right after summer league. Uh, a guy who stood out for their summer league roster. He usually like to reward guys in their summer league team who play well. Um, and that’s what Myron Gardner did. An older developmental guy. He spent the last I think two years in the G-League for the Orlando Magic G-League team. Yeah, last two seasons. Was undrafted in 2023 out of Little Rock. Um had a solid G-League uh season last year. Averaged 10 points a game, but really uh kind of got better as the season went on. Played really well in the playoffs in the G- League playoffs. Kind of helped lead the the Oola Magic to the G- League finals. Um and then played well in summer league despite limited action. He was he had a a finger injury in the California Classic that kept him out for most of the Vegas summer league actually. Then came back for the final two games of Vegas. Kind of picked up where he left off. Played well and was rewarded with a two-way. Um led the summer league team in steals. Uh impressive in in his ability to get to the basket. Uh solid three-point shooter, can score. Um so we’ll see. We’ll see how he fits in. Again, he’s an he’s an older prospect. um not a guy who was undrafted this year. Was undrafted in, you know, two years ago. Um so has some experience, but has never played an NBA game yet. So this is the first two-way contract he signed. Uh this is the closest he’s gotten to playing in the NBA. Um so we’ll see. Good for him. Rewarded for his, you know, productive uh summer league. Um the second guy they added was on an exhibit 10 deal, which is basically an invite to training camp. can, you know, the Heat have one open two-way left, so maybe he competes for that final two-way spot. Um, a three-point shooter, 65 three-point shooter out of Utah. This, you know, Gabe Matson was draft undrafted this year. Um, so he’s he’s younger. Um, shot 50some percent for the Warriors summer league team this year. So, he was on the Warriors summer league team. Um, so he the thinking here is you lose Duncan Robinson, right? Um, not saying he’s going to beat Duncan Robinson, but you want to fill that three-point void in the developmental system. Gabe Madson out of Utah. You know, they’re going to try to make into that next uh three-point specialist, you know, that comes out of developmental program. We saw with Max Shu, saw with Duncan Robinson, they tried with Cole Schwider a few years ago, and now Gabe Madson is that next guy. So, right now, they haven’t signed Gabe Matson yet to the Exhibit 10. My understanding is that will happen at some point, but if you count Gabe Matson, they had 17 players. You’re allowed to have 21 players during preseason and training camp on the roster. So, they still have some openings. We’ll see what they do. They have one open spot in their standard roster if they decide to fill it. They have one open two-way and then the rest they can fill out with exhibit 10s or non-g guaranteed contracts. Now, let’s look at the roster implications. Which kind of contract can you go back and forth and is it up to 50 games? Is that the limit? Two-way contract. Yeah, you can be active for as many as 50 regular season games. Uh the rest of your playing time has to become in the G-League. Two-way players are not eligible to play in the playoffs. Um but they could be kind of two-ways are interesting because you know Maron Gardner’s got a two-way right now, but he can be swapped out at any time. such. So, same thing with Vlad Golden who they signed, you know, to a two-way right after the draft uh in June. They can be swapped out today with no salary cap implication. It doesn’t count toward the salary cap. Doesn’t count toward the tax. That’s a good thing about a two-way. It’s a develop pretty much developmental contract. Um that allows you to get some NBA playing time, but a lot of their time mostly is going to be in the G-League developing. Um Gabe Vincent was on a two-way at one point, Max Shu, Duncan Robinson, all those guys were on two-ways at one point before they were moved to standard contract. So, uh, yeah, it’s it’s it’s an interesting contract. Again, it’s not there’s not a lot of security there, right? Because again, you can be swapped out anytime if you don’t play good in the training camp or in the preseason. Gabe Matson can take Byron Gardy Myron Gardner’s two-way for all we know. So, um, for now, Vlad Golden and Iron Gardener are two-way players, and again, they still have one open slot, which sometimes the Heat like to keep one spot open as a carrot for those exhibit 10 players in camp in the preseason kind of as a competition, right, for who’s going to get that open two-way spot. Um, so I would not be surprised if they keep one spot open just to, you know, create that competition in camp. Well, the thing we can say is the Heat as much or more than any other NBA team will promote you if you play if your playing time or if your play warrants. No doubt. No doubt. So, it’s not like these other places where they give it to you and you have no shot at making the squad at all. You have to applaud anybody that lets you. It’s a meritocracy where you go, you earn it, you get it. They do it as well or better than anybody else. So, we were talking about um point guards before and we left one out and that was Drew Smith. Drew Smith, if I’m not mistaken, was it a popped Achilles last year or was it his ACL? Achilles. Okay. So, he’s coming back from an Achilles, which look 20, 30 years ago pretty much meant the death nail of your career. now with advances in training and medicine, but it’s still hard if you’re a point guard and you’re trying to work on explosion and pushing off and getting to the hole or moving laterally to play defense. How much do you think this is going to change his game? And how would it change his role for the Heat if he makes a full comeback? Yeah, we’ll see. Right. I mean, Drew Smith has been through a lot in his career. He had a significant knee injury a few years ago that he had to uh return from and he did right. He he put in the work. He was playing really well for the Heat last season. Was basically like becoming on his way to becoming a starter before he closer. Did he fourth quarter? Yeah. Yeah. He played like I think it was like six of the seven fourth quarters leading up to his season ending Achilles injury. He was playing big minutes. Um just reliable. really was shooting the three ball well, uh not committing turnovers, very very good defender, right? On ball defender, he was becoming a really reliable piece. I mean, he’s a guy that if he would have stayed healthy, Terry Rosier probably would have been out of the rotation a lot earlier um than than he was last season, right? If if Drew Smith is available. So, yeah, that was that was a tough blow, not only for Drew Smith, but for the Heat last season. Um now, how will we look after the Achilles injury? That’s a big question, right? Again, he’s been through a lot. This is not his first um serious injury over the last few years. This is he’s had multiple now. Um he’s again returned from them before, but Achilles is a big one. And you know, I I think he’s supposed to be ready for camp, but I don’t think that’s been, you know, that’s there’s no guarantee yet, right? It’s depends how the next month and a half goes. Um but one thing that did change, you know, things for him is the thinking was that he was going to be the third two-way guy. I mean, as even a week ago, I think all of us covering the Heat were reporting, yeah, the expectation is Drew Smith is going to sign is going to be the Heat’s third two-way player because he is technically eligible for a two-way. Guys with fewer than four years of NBA experience are eligible for a two-way. He has three years of NBA experience. He can sign a two-way, but I found the rule on I think it was Tuesday that I reported, we were the first to report. um he is actually not eligible to sign a two-way with the Heat because there is this rule which I don’t even know if it’s come into play before because you don’t see guys fit this criteria but you can’t sign a two-way in four separate seasons with the same team and he has already done it with three separate seasons uh with the Heat. So he is not eligible to sign a two-way with the Heat this year. they would have to sign him to a standard contract and you know unless they dumped Terra Rosir or or make a trade he would have to fill that final roster spot um and it would add to their tax bill because again a standard contract counts with the tax counts or the apron. So I don’t know if he will do that. I guess there’s a way around it if he has like non-g guaranteed, you know, if you make it non-g guaranteed for most of it and maybe just prolong the decision and take him into camp on a non-g guaranteed contract and decide based on how he looks after the killles injury if you want to keep him and sign him to a standard contract. But they’re thinking of, oh well, you just make him a two-way player, see how he looks after the Kchilles injury, and we’ll go from there. No, they’re going to have to get him on a standard contract because he is not eligible to sign a two-way with the Heat. He can send a two-way anywhere else, but just not with the Heat. So, I’m hearing you talk about Drew Smith and we’re talking about his pros and cons. And here’s a question for you. How much different would the season have been? Would they one would they have made the Davon Mitchell trade? And two, how much do their skill sets overlap? So, even if Drew Smith is healthy, is it a matter of fit now because they play the same way? Do you want multiple guards who do the same thing? If we’re saying that they have the same skill sets, right? I I think will he be in the opening night rotation based on the roster right now, the way it’s constructed, probably not, right? But depth is important. We’ve seen it, right? I mean, we’ve seen guys we’ve seen stretch of the season where four or five guys go down. Maybe someone’s not playing well. Like, you know, look, we thought Terry Rosier was going to be the starting point guard for the entire season. and by mid-season they were looking for any way to get him out of the rotation, right? Drew Smith was about to take a spot. I’m not saying that’s gonna happen to Dave Mitchell, but who knows? You just don’t know what’s going to happen. Um, so I I think any, you know, any depth you could have at the guard spot, especially for the Heat that really don’t have a lot of like true point guards, guys that can run an offense, um, I think it is important. So, yeah, I think yes. Will he is is his role going to be as big as it was when he went down with the injury from the jump? Probably not. But could he work his way into the rotation based on circumstances? I definitely think so. I think SP trusts him. As long as he’s healthy and is close to the version that we saw last season before the injury, I think there’s definitely a need for a guy like that. Especially if it’s, you know, if they can find a way get him on a minimum contract and maybe shed other salary to make sure you’re under the tax because one thing I do know is the Heat are going to be under the tax. They’re not under the tax right now, but they’re going to be under the tax by the end of the season. Um, so again, signing Drew Smith to a standard adds to the tax bone makes it even harder to get under the tax. That’s the problem. Um, they’ll have to figure if if they sign him to a standard, it means they either made a trade to shed salary or they have something in mind or they can shed enough salary to still go under the luxury tax. Now, you never answered my what if question. And my what if question was Drew Smith is healthy last year. Do they go out and get DaVon Mitchell? It’s interesting. Yeah. I I mean I I still think they probably do um because they needed they they really didn’t have a lot of point of attack defenders last year on the perimeter. I think that was a weakness. Drew Smith was like one of the only ones, Drew Smith and maybe Haywood Highmith. So I think the fact that you can get DaVon Mitchell in a deal like that. Um I think they probably still would have done it. But if you remember, I think the initial like version of the Jimmy Butler trade did not even include DaVon Mitchell. It included PJ Tucker, remember? And then PJ Tucker got like didn’t agree and then PJ Tucker got shipped somewhere else. And then Dave then the Raptors were like Raptors going to get Brandon Ingram so they need to shed money and then they included Davon Mitchell instead of PJ. It was like it was a weird uh the way weird how that played out. So I think the initial version of the trade didn’t even include DaVon and then David was just kind of thrown in to facilitate the trade. It ended up working out for the Heat, right? I mean Davon Mitchell ended up being maybe the best player in that trade last season for the Heat. I don’t think anybody expected that, but that’s the way it played out. So, I I think it was such like Davon Mitchell was almost like a guy that just helped make the math work in the deal to get it done before the deadline. Um that I don’t know if they would have put enough thought into it of like, oh no, we already have Drew Smith. We’re not going to take Don Mitchell. You know what? I forgot all about that. So, yeah, it was I I I kind of forget how the the exact order, but I remember was PJ Tucker at first and then the Raptors kind of said, “No, we got to trade.” You know, it was like then they included Don Mitchell. It was it was um they needed to adjust some things to make the math work and make it make allow them to sign Ingram or make the trade for Ingram uh with the Pelicans which happened like a I think a few hours later after that trade. Well, sometimes you look into the deals and so good for them, good for Devon Mitchell, and most importantly, good for the Heat. So, as we’re going through and we’re starting to wrap up, let’s talk about when camp breaks. So, as Anthony, maybe we can follow Anthony on X and see where he is and see where his mini travels take him while he takes a couple weeks off. But what are what are the major dates remaining? Is there anything special we should look for in between? Do you anticipate any movement before camp starts? I definitely think Yeah, not major movement, but I definitely think they’ll fill the roster. You know, with exhibit 10 guys, maybe, you know, you see a T Rosier trade. At this point, I don’t expect it because it’s hard to see a team taking on that deal without the Heat having to include something else to make it worth it for that team. Um, but I think they’ll fill the roster with exhibit 10 guys. Maybe they sign another two-way. We’ll see what happens with Drew Smith. Um, the schedule, NBA schedule will come out some point in mid August. Um, but yeah, this is the quiet time. This is the quietest time of the NBA offseason now until pretty much midepptember. Uh, heat media day will be September 29th. camp opens September 30th and then things will obviously pick up. So, um, for the next month, month and a half, um, it’s it’s really a quiet time of the NBA offseason and all eyes are pretty much on football at this point. There’s all eyes on football. If people get in trouble, people do dumb things. Yes, we had what was it? Marcus Mo, a senior was arrested down in Miami last week. You know, things happen. We’re not going to go into them, but things happen. But if they do or if you see movement with the Heat, come on back here. We’ll be here to cover it. We’re going to give Anthony a little bit of well-deserved time off. We’re going to football season, but basketball season is becoming just like the NFL where it’s a year round enterp enter enterprise. Stick with us. We will be here. Um until next time, don’t ask me what date next time is, but until next time, I am John Divine. This is Anthony Chang. And we look forward to it. Thank you for joining us here on Heat Check.
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On this week’s Heat Check: Where does the Miami Heat’s roster stand entering August of the 2025 NBA offseason?
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