Miami Heat Trade STUNS Fanbase | Will Highsmith’s Departure HAUNT Miami? Why Dru Smith?

Miami Heat Trade STUNS Fanbase | Will Highsmith’s Departure HAUNT Miami? Why Dru Smith?

The Heat made some roster changes this weekend, trading away a fan- favorite player and adding a familiar face to the team. We break down why they traded Haywood Highmith and resigned Drew Smith 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. Join more than 17,000 everydayers and click that subscribe button on YouTube. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner. Visit the FanDuel app today and start planning your future bets now. have a ton of things to get to today after a busy weekend for the Heat that saw Heywood Highmith get traded. The Heat got under the luxury tax. They resigned Drew Smith. Uh so a lot to get to, but let’s just start with the terms of the deal. Uh David, I think that’s probably the best way to start this thing. Um so on Friday afternoon, the Heat trade Haywood Highmith and a 2032 second round pick for a heavily protected 2026 second round pick. That pick is protected 31 to 55. So essentially, it only conveys next summer if Brooklyn finishes with one of the five best records in the league this season, which obviously is not going to happen. So it’s kind of one of these fake picks that you just throw in uh to make the press release sound a little bit better. Um it is technically an asset because he can technically trade it between now and February if somebody else wants something to look good on their email press release. But um yeah, Miami essentially having to attach a future second round pick that’s unprotected in 2032 to Haywood Highmith in order to get off of that salary and move him into Brooklyn’s cap space. That got them under the luxury tax. And then on Saturday, they go ahead and sign Drew Smith to a three-year deal. Um we learned that only the first year is fully guaranteed. Uh the second and third year have partial guarantees to them. And we’ll get more details on, you know, when those partial guarantees and all those kinds of things kick in. And I’m sure there’s outs in that contract for Miami. So, it’s a three-year deal, but it’s not necessarily a commitment to Drew Smith for three years. Although, they obviously like him, as we’ll talk about here. But to me, David, I look at this when you kind of look at the net of all of the moves that they made. They swapped Haywood Highmith and a second round pick for Drew Smith and getting under the luxury tax. They are now $1.9 million under the tax. So, that’s essentially everything that happened here. I saw a lot of criticism over the move out there. I understand the criticism. It’s tough to be like, we had to pay to get off of Heywood Highmith, who was an asset, a very valuable player to this team. And then they have to use an asset to get off of his contract. They get under the tax and what do they do with that space? Because at that point, they only had 13 players under contract. They had to sign somebody. Well, rather than address some other needs on the roster that we could talk about, they brought back they resigned Drew Smith, who last year his season was uh ended early by an Achilles injury in December. The year before that he had his season ended early with an ACL tear in Cleveland. And it just this guy hasn’t been able to stay healthy. And yet, it does seem like Miami is very committed to him. Like I said, there’s a ton to get to with this. We do want to zoom out with some of the issues on asset management and things like that. We can get to that here in a second. But um I think the criticism maybe was a little overboard. The more I thought about it, the more I was just sort of okay with it, right? Again, I have some other issues about the asset management stuff that we can get to, but look, Miami needed to get under the luxury tax. That was the number one priority. And that was the priority in moving Haywood Highmith, right? Let’s not get this twisted. They traded Haywood Heismith to get under the tax. That was the primary reason they traded Heismith, not to add Drew Smith. And I think it’s being kind of looked at as they traded Heismith in favor of Drew Smith. No, they traded Heismith because they had to get under the tax. That’s what that was the primary reason. They did want to bring Drew Smith back, which is something that we’ve talked about and knew for weeks now. Um, but this was the way that they decided that they could best get under the tax. And it was going to cost you something to get out of the luxury tax. Unfortunately, it cost you Haywood Heismith and a second round pick, but they were never going to be able to get under the tax without having to give up anything. Not in today’s NBA. It’s just too difficult to do that. I get all that. And uh, strangely enough, I’m on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. I think it was more indicative of a team that acts extremely shortsightedly when it comes to roster moves. And it seems, and we’ve talked about this before, in the pursuit of a superstar player or what happens after they fail to land said superstar, and it almost seems like there is no plan in place. And that’s my feeling right now. This is nothing to do with Drew Smith, although I have my criticisms of that move and it has nothing to do with Drew Smith, the player. But the fact that you feel that the top priority is to get under the luxury tax when you have a 3 and D player on a relatively inexpensive deal seems ludicrous to me. One of the things that we’ve talked about all off season is that now with the acquisition of Norm Powell, maybe you don’t have superstar level talent on this roster. You’ve got star level talent in Hero Powell and Bam, but not superstar level. But you do also have a great strength in the terms of you have incredible depth and you have depth at multiple positions and you have depth in a position of need which is wing. We’ve talked about this before. You asked Pat Riley several seasons ago in the offseason what he was looking for in the draft. Length, right? I mean length and size. And and Haywood provided that for all of his shortcomings. you could count on him being the guy that you roll out there if you need a stop at with a couple possessions left in the game and you want to try to ice it. Haywood was the guy. Sure, you have Bam Puck. Sure, you have DaVon Mitchell and maybe now you even have Drew Smith. But I think that kind of sells short what Haywood Heismith was providing on top of the fact that he also developed into a pretty consistent three-point shooter. Did he have the most polished offensive repertoire? Absolutely not. but he was a valuable player and I still think that you could have found a way to move Haywood Heismith in between now and February without having to attach one of the few picks that you have in the near future. It seems again very shortsighted. It’s like no no the only thing that matters right now is getting under the luxury tax. It’s like well why I don’t give a damn about Mickey Harrison’s money and I think it’s absolutely ridiculous to see that that’s the priority to make that the priority. It shouldn’t be. This team could have moved to Heismith a few months from now without having to attach a second round pick. We don’t know that. We don’t know that. And why? Because of his injury issue. Well, yes, he is coming off the injury. They’re also, let’s remember, the Heat brought no salary back in trading Haywood Highmith. They were able to offload his entire salary. Yeah, I know. Brooklyn did Miami a favor. I totally get that. Well, not really. They had to attach a second round. They got a nice second round pick out of it. I don’t know if anybody did anybody a favor, but Brooklyn had cap space enough in order to take on the $5.5 million that Heywood Highmith was owed by February. We don’t know if anybody has that kind of cap space available to them. We don’t know what kind of moves are out there. And look, and and I understand the Mickey Harrison’s part and I got this question a lot when I was tweeting about this on Saturday was why should we care about getting under the luxury tax? I agree. I don’t I think Mickey should pay for a good team. This is not a good enough team to pay the luxury tax for. And with the new cap restrictions, when you start getting into the repeater tax, which is why they needed to get under the luxury tax, it’s not the fear of paying a million or $2 million over the tax this year. It’s entering that repeater tax and then incurring the restrictions on team building later. So, I it is there there are definitely some ways that are short-sighted and and having to lose Heywood Highmith who I you and I are very much on the Hwood Highmith train. They are going to miss that guy on this team. They got worse. This is the first time in a long time that they got worse to get under the tax. We have not seen this heat team make this dramatic of a hey this is about cost savings. We’re going to take a step back in order to get under the tax. We haven’t seen them do something quite like this in a very long time. And so it definitely hurts and they’re going to miss Haywood Highmith. But I go back to what I said if they had to get under the luxury tax which they Pat Riley said at his end of season press conference they had to do. There was other ways to do it right. They could have wave and stretched him on Fenteo, right? That was out there. That was something that they were reportedly considering. They they could have done that. And I got questions about why didn’t they do that? They they could have done it. They decided we would rather give up the second round pick as opposed to take on that dead cap hit for the next two seasons if we wave and stretch Fonteo. I don’t know which one was the right way to go. Would you rather have the second round pick or would you rather have dead cap on your books for this year and the next two years after that? You could argue it either way. it kind it’s kind of lousy to have to deal with any of them. They decided we’d rather keep our cap space and as much flexibility moving forward as possible, even if that means getting rid of a second round pick. Now, I do understand the concerns when you zoom out. It feels like they have saved cap space a lot by trading away second round picks. They have a very bad habit of doing this exact thing, right? Especially if you’re going to look at second round picks and as a way of bolstering your roster. I mean, we’re talking about Pella Larson being a potentially significant rotation player and I don’t you have to know. Yeah. And and I don’t know. I mean, this is a team now that’s kind of built just like on a hope and a prayer that somebody will find a way to pop whether it’s an undrafted snee or a second round pick. And and that’s it just feels like a very risky way of building a roster. And look, I and I I understand when you look at all the quote unquote assets on this team, there isn’t really anybody of much value that you’re going to be able to trade away. Like I think there’s a few there’s three players of very pointed value, and that’s Bam, Hero, and Powell. After that, it’s basically Nicole Yoic, Wiggins. You know, maybe I don’t think there’s that much of a market for Andrew Wiggins. Yeah, I don’t think there’s that much of a market for Andrew Wiggins. I think the the the book is out and and yeah, I just I don’t see again if if if you think you can move Wiggins, I don’t see why you haven’t moved him by now. So either there’s no an upgrade. Yeah. I mean if they and that obviously isn’t out there. They value Andrew Wiggins. Like the Lakers might want to trade you Dalton Connect for Andrew Wiggins. Obviously Miami doesn’t isn’t interested in that. The Bucks have been reportedly out there interested in Andrew Wiggins. They got nothing to trade for him. So, um, look, there’s other things that they may, you know, why didn’t they trade Terzier? Are they going to There’s so much other things to get to here. Um, let’s let’s talk about that. And I also want to talk about what this means for the rest of the roster and how they replace David Heismith. Let’s do all that next here on Locked on Heat. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. August 26 is officially FanDuel’s future day, a brand new holiday for football fans who live for bold predictions and preseason hunches for just 24 hours. FanDuel is giving you deals on NFL season predictions. So whether you’re calling your MVP eyeing a longot division winner or ready to crown your Super Bowl champ before week one even kicks off. Well, this is your moment. If you want to take a flyer in the MVP race or maybe even start predicting who could be in the running for Super Bowl seems like a wide open field, so not much of a risk at this point. Why not take the choice right now? Place a little wager and see if you might hit big. Visit the FanDuel app today. Start planning your futures bets now because futures day is just one day and one day only. FanDuel, play your game. We’ll be right back. [Music] So I to go back to why they traded Haywood Highmith right now and why and and some of the criticisms of the deal. Again, I’m not saying that they’re without criticism. When you zoom out, Miami has a very bad habit of trading second round picks to get off of salaries. Whether it’s trading away Kesak Paula and attaching assets to him, Victor Ladipo and attaching assets to him. You look at the undrafted free agents, the guys that they have developed and you look at Max Strus, Gabe Vincent, Duncan Robinson, Haywood Heismith, Caleb Martin, and they basically got a second round pick back from Max Struce. Nothing really back for Hwood Highmith here cuz I’m not counting this sort of fake second rounder really. No. Um even though it does again it’s still technically on the books as an asset. They could still technically include it in a trade between now and February but it’s not of very much value. Um that to me is a problem that they but they also made that decision, right? They made the decision of we’re not going to trade these guys early. We’re going to let we’re going to play these years out and if they if we lose them for nothing in free agency then so be it. This is the decision that they made, but they have lost a lot of talent now without getting very much back. But they’ve replaced that talent with first round talent. Kel Wear, Nikolai Yovic, Haimeake Jr. um uh now uh uh Yakonis is here now. You know, they’ve got Pel Lararsson who they took in the second round and they like they did acquire DaVon Mitchell. So they have it’s not like that talent left and they didn’t have backfill for it. They have backfilled it with arguably more talented players. Um, but yeah, it’s still a tough look when this team is consistently without the draft capital it needs to kind of make that big swing it feels like and they keep having to include the next second rounder available because every year, right, another one unlocks and it just feels like every year they trade that new unlocked second rounder in order to get off of some salary. You hope that the cycle ends here after having traded Haywood Heismith in a second round pick and getting under the luxury tax for the season that they’ve basically been told that they need to get under the luxury tax for. But I I just while I understand all these criticisms the and and I’m with you. I like the asset management thing is a concern. I still have yet to hear the idea that would have gotten Miami under the tax without giving up an asset. No, I I get or incurring dead cap in on future years. I get that you’re you’re in a tough spot. Um and I I I know I was being a little rash perhaps in saying about Harrison’s money, etc. Like I I do think that the average fan has no reason to be like, “Yay, cap space.” Like, for what purpose? Well, the flexibility and that’s our job to explain it, right? And that’s like we got a ton. We get we get this question all the time, David. like you know that like at the end of the day getting under the tax now will help Miami build a better team going forward. That’s it. Whether or not that’s because potentially it it opens up that f we have no idea of it no of knowing it but it now they have that flexibility to do it because they’re able to re of to delay the clock on the repeater tax for another year. I just think it’s also uh Heismith’s departure as you said before and I think it’s a well said fact it they’re going to need a player like Heismith and that you know we were talking about Andrew Wiggins and what his value is. Well, I don’t think he’s got any team that holds him in higher value than Miami because he’s now what really your only wing defender isn’t he? I mean you again you’ve got Powell’s okay in that sense. Not great. Um you’ve got Tyler it’s Wiggins. That’s it. You got You’ve got Donovan Mitchell as a point of attack defender. You got I’m sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Not Donovan. Dave Mitchell as a a point of attack defender. You’ve got Bam kind of as a anchor of your defense and Khalil Wear as you know shot blocker who still has to develop some in some other ways defensively as well. So, it it’s not what is the identity of this team and and if you’re going to keep counting on trying to be a top 10 defense and we heard some recent statement from Udonis Ham as to why he’s uh extremely high on this version of the Heat and he thinks that it’s going to be a top five to top 10 defense. Are you sure about that? I mean, I know we overstating the loss of Haywood. I love Haywood, man, but like we’re acting like all of a sudden now this team is a drift because they traded Haywood Highmith. Like, you look at this roster. Look, there’s the other part of this, too. And look, I understand the concern. You’re right. Haywood Heismith was very valuable. He was a guy who routinely do me. It’s a domino. It’s It’s now all of a sudden you trade away one key piece of the rotation. And the idea that we floated around where now you’ve got 10 to 11 playable players on a nightly basis. Well, you want to have those options. Well, guess what? Andrew Wiggins is going to get hurt at some point. Haime Hakis is going to get hurt at some point. Nikico Yoic is going to get hurt at some point. So, who are you going to play in their place? And and I know that’s that’s a maybe that’s a very negative way of looking at it, but I I still tend to think of it as that kind of domino that really it could fall in a way that could really be this is where the youth movement comes in, right? Because and I I’m not disagreeing with you, but there’s also, you know, they’re they’re they’re out there being like, hey, we’re going to lean into the youth a little bit here. Okay, good way to do it. I Himemehake Jr., he’s going to have to defend. Nikolovic is going to have to defend. Casper Yakonus is going to have to defend. Pel Larson is These are the guys. Now, when you look at this depth chart, to me, there’s a clear top nine. Heywood, there was a clear top 10. Heywood was the 10th guy. Um, now maybe it’s Drew Smith, right? At the end of games, in a best case scenario, Hwood isn’t going to be out there. The end of to the end of game lineup to me was going to be DaVon Mitchell, Tyler Hero, Norm Pal, Wiggins, and Bam. at the end of most games. Um Wiggins is going to have to do a heavy lift. So is everybody else and that’s that’s just the way it’s it’s going to be now. And you don’t have that insurance in Hwood Heismith. But um you know they it’s a tough loss. I just I don’t I again it’s they had to get under the tax. This is the way they did it. Um you guys people why didn’t they trade Terry Rosier? They tried. They have tried to trade Terry. You think it was if you’re upset about attaching a 2032 second round pick to get get off of Heywood Highmith, I hate to break it to you, it was going to be more than that. Yeah. Two first to move Terry Rosier and and yeah, there were conversations with Washington involving Marcus Smart. Washington wanted draft compensation back. Also, part of that was that Marcus Smart was a little bit more inclined to just accept a buyout, right, and help Washington out that way and direct himself to the Lakers where Luca Donic was recruiting him. So, you know, those conversations ended up stalling out and that that option was no longer on the table after the buyout and Smart signed with the Lakers. So, this is where they ended up. Um, you know, Fonteo told us, you know, on Zoom a few weeks ago, he thinks he could be a better defender. We’ll see. You know, Kashad Johnson, he’s got an opportunity here. They brought they moved him up to the roster. Again, not really sure why, but it’s not like Kashad took Hwood’s spot either. I saw this in a lot of places, too. That’s not they you have to have at least 14 guys under contract. Kashad is literally the the cheapest player available to them because he’s got basically zero years of service moving just into a standard roster spot. So, it’s not like Kash they pick Kashad over Haywood or if they never signed him. They they were going to they were going to have an empty uh if they if they didn’t sign him, somebody else would be in that roster spot. They would still be over the luxury tax this way. they were actually a little bit less over the luxury taxes they would have been if they had signed a veteran to that spot. I hope that made sense. But no, no, it does. But it does create an opportunity for shot though, right? Mhm. Like and I think it’s one that we talked about him as a poor man’s, you know, and Haywood Heismith was a poor man three and the first place team Haywood and it’s not a knock on him. I mean, it’s just there’s only so many players that can contribute at a very high level. So I I think there are very low expectations for Kash Johnson as well as he should be. And yet now those expectations become just a little bit bigger and he has to be able to live up to those because he’s the option. He’s the fallback and if those dominoes do fall as they invariably will over the course of the season because we’ve just seen player get hurt after player gets hurt and next thing you know you’re kind of going deep in there on on the rotation. Johnson has to find a way to step up. He’s got to be a consistent shooter. He’s going to be able to attack. He’s got to be able to bring high level defense, etc. So, um, look, and I know we’ll talk about Drew in a in a second. Before he got hurt, he was playing phenomenally. He was making all those kind of winning plays. Maybe they’ve convinced themselves that it’s not really that much of a downgrade from Haywood to Drew Smith and he can be that kind of guy. He can be that that rotational player. I suppose it’s anything is possible. They decided that I mean Eric Spolster loves Drew Smith and he was a driving force in this decision but they decided again right or wrong I’m just telling people what they decided. Yeah. They decided Drew Smith and getting out of the luxury tax or Haywood Highmith and the second round pick were picking Drew Smith and out of the luxury tax. They don’t think that the the decline from Haywood to Drew Smith is enough to warrant being in the luxury tax for and it was actually fine to move off that second round pick in order to avoid the luxury tax. Let’s also remember here, I know Drew Smith is coming off of a major leg injury that ended his season. Haywood Heismith is also coming off of a major knee injury now. And I do wonder that’s how much of that is a factor in them having to attach a second round pick to him. Brooklyn took on Heywood Heismith coming off just tore his MCL, just underwent major surgery. Yeah. And they took them onto their books all five point five million dollars just for a second round pick. I just try to remind people of that. And with Brooklyn, which the only team in the league with that kind of cap space, sure, they had all the leverage in this. And it’s not, it sucks to see Haywood traded and attaching a second round pick to him considering what we know his value to be when he’s healthy and he’s out there like that. If he gets back to where he was, this is a steal for Brooklyn. But at the it’s not about what you deserve necessarily or you’re not entitled to anything in the NBA. It’s leverage. Everything is about leverage. And in this instant instance, Brooklyn had all of the leverage. And this was Miami’s only way to get out of the tax. There’s there was never going to be a way for Miami to get out of the tax without some kind of pain. And this was going to be and this was it in this instance. They saw a window. They said, “We can’t. We have to do it now. We don’t think that cap that cap space might not be available months from now. We have an opportunity to do it. This is our top priority. Let’s get this thing done and let’s move forward.” Um, but the Heat, did they necessarily have to go the Drew Smith route? Could they have done another thing with this roster spot that would have had Heat fans a little bit happier with the decision? We’ll talk about that next here on Locked on Heat. So, when the Heat traded Haywood on Friday, it became clear pretty quickly that they were going to bring back Drew Smith. And that was made official on Saturday. Yeah. But this was a couple of days after they had worked out Kai Jones at CASA Center. We talked about that on an episode last week. Uh there was also some rumblings about them being interested in Trey Lyles. Um who I still think I have a little bit of uh stock in David from uh back in his Kentucky days. I think I still have a little bit of Trey Ly stock. But instead of going with a big man, and you and I have talked a lot about their desperate need for a body back there, just somebody if one of Kell or Bam go down because it’s always going to be Bam and Kell mostly out there at center, but if one of them gets hurt, tweaks a hamstring, in foul trouble, whatever, it’s it’s Vlad Golden. That’s it. And and Niklo Yoic, I suppose, maybe moonlighting a little bit at the five, which is a problem because that’s not his position. But yeah, I mean I I I think that’s it’s it’s a little confusing as to why they didn’t bring a center on board considering the need there at that position, but obviously if they it, you know, if they really wanted Kai Jones, they just saw him. They could have brought him on, right? They decided for whatever reason that they just weren’t interested in going in that direction. Yeah, I I get it. Um, I I don’t I’m having a hard time just rationalizing this one because it does seem like center is such a glaring position to need. You’ve got two and a half center options and Vlad golden is not an option. I just I don’t count him that way. I don’t think that’s realistic. I mean, he’d have to have a a tremendous camp and and even then I I would still be highly dubious of what he’s able to contribute moving forward. So that’s like like going to camp knowing that Orlando Robinson is your only backup center and then you’re totally fine with it. And even that might be an upgrade over what Miami currently has on the roster. So he’s played NBA minutes. Yes, that’s the thing. Yeah, that’s at least there’s that. So it’s just is the intention just to fully lean into small ball and just hope and pray for the best and that that nobody gets hurt and and you can at least roll out some kind of a center from time to time. Mhm. I guess so. I mean, I I guess they’re looking at it as, well, you know what, Bam rarely gets hurt. Um, if if something happens to Khil, we can always slide Bam into the starting spot, I guess, and kind of tinker with the rotation where you put Nico at the four, you know, playing alongside Bam. So, I guess there’s other options there. I I don’t know. It’s confusing. This part This is the part that confuses me. Why not? And then why not wait to sign Drew Smith? Why Why did you have to do it on Saturday is my question. I don’t know that there was a ton of teams lining up to make sure that they got Drew Smith coming off of two major leg injuries. They want to reward him. They want to reward him. And this is more I think about Miami loving Drew Smith and their concerns about losing Drew Smith to somebody else. They just really They obviously wanted him on the roster, which is something that we knew. Yeah. So, I just I still can’t believe that this is going to be the plan. Like this is the at big man. I cannot believe that this is going to be the plan. Like something has to give. They still have time to make other moves. They could still scan the market for Terry Rosier trades. They could still trade another rotation player for a backup center. Maybe maybe they do sign another center to a two-way contract and they say, “Okay, between Vlad Golden and this center on a two-way contract, maybe we could scrunch together enough.” Um, you know, I did I I you know, we are asked, you know, they got under the tax. They’re about $1.9 million under the tax right now. Is that enough room to go and sign another player? Not right now. they can sign a 15th player, but that would be mid-season when the salaries are truncated, right? So, um you know, they they could get to about the halfway point of the season and then sign somebody for the rest of the year, but by then it might be too late. Like you need you need a body in there. Um so yeah, maybe it’s just Yoic and Golden as break glass in case of emergencies and it’s hope that we get 48 minutes of bam and wear and neither of them gets into foul trouble ever. I I don’t I This is the part I’m struggling with is what’s the plan at that part at that position. No, no, you’re kind of stuck. Um I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an an NBA roster that has such a glaring hole at one position, you know. Um, and and and what’s what’s the purpose of draft drafting a Yakonis if you’re going to, you know, sign Drew Smith and you know how much you want him on this roster? Like I don’t know. Couldn’t there have been a center position? Yeah. At some point, Couldn’t there have been a center in the draft that might have filled an area, an obvious area of need? Well, you’ve got Yakonis. Does that mean that you no longer need Drew Smith? Right. So, I don’t know. I don’t know that Yakonis I don’t know that the Heat view him as a pure point guard very much. They might be viewing Yakonis more as a combo guard at this point. And I think they think they have two three pure point guards on the roster now between DaVon Mitchell, Drew Smith, and Tay Rosier and they might be looking at Yakonis as more of a combo guard, which is my sense. I don’t think that they want to put all their eggs in the Yakonis as a point guard basket. You realize you you name three point guards and none of them are going to be starting at point guard. It’s that’s Tyler Herro’s spot to lose. That’s the other thing, right? It’s it’s Tyler Hero and Norm Per in that back court. So, where are the Drew Smith minutes, right? Because Da’Von’s going to get minutes. I guess the backup two guard spot is available. So, maybe that’s Drew Smith. Maybe that maybe Terry Rosier, maybe it’s Terry, maybe it’s Pella, maybe it’s Zakonis. Um although, you know, I do think they’re going to slow roll Yakonis in a way that was similar to Kell in Kell’s rookie year. But they’ve got look I I don’t I also thought they they were a guard short considering that I don’t think we want to count on any Rosier minutes and you don’t know what you’re going to get from Yakonis. So I did think they needed a guard but it is it is a little strange how this is working out but they love Drew Smith man. They love him. They can’t quit him. They can’t quit him. Yeah, I I guess I mean the winning plays thing like we we saw spoke gush about Drew when when he had those winning plays when he had uh you know some big moments there and I say big because they weren’t within context of the regular season so not really that big but still they were they were they led to some wins and then unfortunately he gets hurt but it’s this is they just they love his ability to come back that that he doesn’t give up that he keeps trying uh he was playing great man. Like it before he got hurt in December. Positive factor. He was on He was playing the full fourth quarters in multiple games. That’s I can’t I can’t I think I blocked he was he was earning it like he was it wasn’t like this was some sort of injury riddled team that he was just out there like he was playing over guys. He’s he’s he’s not I feel like he’s become an easy punching bag or like you know kind of a a representative of Miami’s front office failings or something like that. And that’s not fair because he had to use point been playing very well. But it just if you’re looking at this roster saying you know we’re not good enough to pay the luxury tax for but you know what really puts us over the top is Drew Smith. It’s like that’s just it just kind of adds salt to the wound that this team isn’t very good that we’re making moves to trade away a guy like Highmith that is I think more valuable than Drew Smith and has an obvious role and was looking to probably play some significant minutes and and then you’re you’re kind of just making these these short-term short-sighted uh roster moves and and then the solution is to say well hey we’ve got Drew Smith here. It’s just it’s not fair to Drew. He’s never gonna get, I think, the appreciation that he probably deserves. And we should probably be looking at it in a much more positive way. What a great success story. He’s come back from multiple injuries. Still finds a way there, but instead feels like the I get it. We don’t know that it’s a success story. Absolutely. Hey, he’s on the roster in the first place is a success though for him. Success story for Drew. Yeah, he got he finally got the standard contract 100%. That is a success story. It was devastatingly brutal. He got hurt. He was in line. I mean, he was about to sign that standard contract within days of that Achilles tear in December. And that and then that’s why Kashad ends up on the standard roster, right? So, um that’s at least for the rest of the season and they resigned him this summer again, whatever. But it’s a success story for him so far. We’ll see if it works out. I just I can’t get to the level that it felt like a lot of Heat fans were in terms of the outrage over this move. And you’re right, like Drew Smith has almost become a scapegoat, uh, like a the avatar of all these front offices stubbornness and Pat is asleep at the wheel and all this kind of stuff. Well, it could if Drew Smith comes back and plays like he was in December. This is a huge This is a win. This is a net win for Miami because they get under the tax and they get a very impactful player. I don’t know what his role necessarily on the team is going to be now with DaVon Mitchell. That’s why I kind of thought he was going to be gone and then you hear earlier this summer that they still want to bring him back and I was like, “Okay, that’s kind of interesting. We’ll see how they do it. And then to move Heywood Highmith in order to facilitate this is a little bit of a tough pill to swallow and a little confusing considering the the need at backup center here. They still have a lot of time between now and the start of the season. And it feels like there’s another move here cuz I just can’t believe that this is the plan at backup center. It does make you wonder why they did this this way and and why they brought Drew Smith back so quickly, but they obviously wanted to bring him back. So, we’ll see. Is Kai Jones not eligible for a two-way? He is not eligible for That’s right. Okay. I just want to confirm that. Yeah. Neither is Trey Lyles, which is obvious. No, obviously not. So, I should mention that. Yeah. Um, so I Yeah, I don’t I don’t know, man. Like, who knows? They could bring somebody in on a two-way, patch together the the the backup center job for a few months until you get into January, February, and then sign somebody for the rest of the season. That is an option. But it just feels like if you do bring somebody to two-way, somebody with some proven NBA minutes that and not Vlad Golden who looked fine in Vegas, but to your we I don’t know that he’s ready to to play any minutes. So, right. Right. We’ll we’ll see what happens there. Um we I think we we covered a lot of ground here with the uh with the Heisman Drew Smith stuff. We could probably talk about this for another 30 minutes, David, but um overall like they’re they’re again the sense of outrage again, this is maybe just anecdotal for me on heat Twitter on Saturday after like immediately after the news, but right I have I have concerns about their asset management. It’s definitely a concern. The concern about backup center is there. Why sign why resign Drew uh Drew Smith right away? Why not give it a little bit more time to see maybe other options flush out? Whatever. I can’t get to the level of outrage. I’m sorry. I can’t do it. I love Haywood. I love everything that he represented. I loved having him here. I thought he was impactful. I just can’t get to the point of, “Well, the Heatfront office is lost. Fire everybody.” Like, I just I I’m sorry I can’t get to that level. I can’t meet you there if that’s what you are as a fan. Like, I just I can’t meet you there. Um I understand the concerns, but I can’t meet that level of outrage. David, where are you? Final word on it. Like, outraged, okay, about it, whatever. Ho, where are you? I think I’ve just kind of uh resigned to it more than anything else. Like I I don’t think I’m outraged. I I think yeah, it’s just this is where they’re at. Uh I I just also personally liked Haywood and also always appreciated, you know, talking to him and and him being around the team and just the the kind of vibes he always brought there. And um and I thought he would have provided value. It’s not the great loss that some people have made it seem like. I maybe I even made it sound a little hyperbolic in terms of him being a potential domino, but I I do believe that’s the case. Uh and look, I am hopeful and optimistic that Drew can contribute at a high level. So, it’s all kind of it feels like a a perfect crap storm that’s kind of been boiling over all summer long. It’s like, yo, what’s what’s the plan here? you for a fan base that has historically come to expect major roster shakeups. And we heard this from Bama Debio about the man with the silver hair and everything else. Like we thought this was going to be a roster that was going to be overturned fairly completely because they needed to be more competitive and we saw other teams even in their own division making big moves. Miamiy’s off seasonason now consists of trading away Haywood Highmith, Kevin Love, Kyle Anderson, and acquiring, you know, Yakonis, Drew Smith, and and Norm Powell. I I don’t I don’t know how to make We were all like kind of liking the Heats off season until they traded Haywood. Yeah. Yeah, everybody was sort of liking it and then they trade Haywood and it’s like okay and that that’s why I go back to like we’re going to miss him but we’re acting like it’s all like all of a sudden the offseason has just been blown to smitherines and it’s like just can we can we hold on for a second and the people want to change you got it now I they had to attach a second rounder that’s not great he’s also coming off of an in like he just tore his MCL we don’t know what that’s going to be I think that impacted the market a little bit on on on some of these conversations but it’s true it’s the Drew Smith thing it’s just herew Smith thing combined with the fact that Terra Rosir is still on this roster. That’s a good point and and I had not thought everybody everybody was like that’s the next move and then I think that’s why heat fans were shocked to see Haywood Highmith getting reported on a guy who actually plays and plays well over Terry. But you know to the point I made earlier about Hlam’s comments like of all the players that he listed on this roster he mentions Rosir as being a contributor. Maybe there’s more to it. we have no choice but to try and be optimistic and and maybe there’s some work behind the scenes. Maybe he’s going to bounce back. You have to hope for the best because he’s not going anywhere. There’s just no market for Terry Rosier, nor should there be based on what we saw from him last season and his current salary. He’s just not that kind of player. Maybe if he improves play between now and February as an expiring contract, that might represent some sort of value for a team. But at this point in time, before the season even starts, no, you’re not going to move them. Um, youth movement people, this is your chance. This is it, man. Like, you look at those minutes, it’s Haime, it’s Pella, it’s Nico, it’s Yakonis, it’s Kashad. This is a win for the youth movement, people. I guess Drew is Drew’s youth movement, right? Even though this is his third NBA season, he is 20. True Smith is 28 years old, but uh Heywood was secretly 30, so I don’t know. And look, you wanted to shake it up. Fonteo in, Haywood out. That’s different. That’s moving deck chairs. This is sort of another thing. I I’m not I don’t I really I’m not trying to like um cover anybody’s butt here in terms of the trade. I just I can’t hit that. Like there’s I we’ve talked about the concerns. I just can’t hit outrage levels the way that it feels like some Heat fans want to hit. I just I can’t can’t go there with you guys. But thanks for making us your first listen every day. Uh for your second listen, find the Lockdown NBA podcast where there is no offseason. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

The Miami Heat had a busy weekend of roster moves, trading Haywood Highsmith to the Brooklyn Nets while re-signing Dru Smith and getting under the luxury tax. Did the Heat make themselves worse to get under the tax, and what do we think this says about the Heat’s asset management?

Wes Goldberg and David Ramil break down the details of the moves, what they lose in Highsmith and what it means for the team going forward. They also discuss whether they expect the Heat to make any other moves and the plan at backup center.

0:00 Intro
1:30 Heat make roster moves
12:30 Who steps up?
18:39 Need for center depth

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