Miami Heat Fans Get GREAT & BAD News

Miami Heat Fans Get GREAT & BAD News

We got a lot of heat news to talk about on this edition of the Heat Report by Chat Sports. I am your host Nick Rolloloff. Well, if we just take it back to last Friday, Miami made a very unexpected trade sending Haywood Highmith to the Brooklyn Nets. They got them underneath the luxury tax and also opened up another roster spot. So, it was evident that Miami was going to sign another player to the roster. There was speculation on Drew Smith on a big man. Well, it ended up being Drew Smith. And today’s show titled Great and Bad News. Well, one because I am happy that Drew Smith is back. We’ll talk more about that. But there is also a negative aspect of signing Drew Smith that we’ll talk about as well. But the information on Drew Smith signing a standard small three-year contract. And I don’t want anyone to look into it too deeply on the details of his contract, but when you give out these smaller deals, they usually are three years. And he did have a really good 14game stretch last season for Miami, which is why I was intrigued with bringing him back prior to the season ending injury. Hopefully, he’ll be able to bounce back and be a pivotal piece for this Heat team off of the bench. But make sure you do subscribe to the channel because we have daily coverage of the Heat. Whether it is breaking news, signings, roster moves, rumors, workouts, we got you covered. Hit that sub button. Let’s get to 24,400 subscribers on today’s show. And if you were subscribed to the channel, you would have known that it was very likely Miami was going to attempt to bring Drew Smith back. It was reported all offseason long that the goal was to have him back on this roster at some point. But the issue that we faced is because of the CBA, we have already signed him to three different two-way contracts throughout three different CBA periods, which means, well, they couldn’t have brought him back on a two-way deal. It had to be a standard contract. So, they ultimately found their way by getting rid of Heywood Highmith, not having to go deeper into the luxury tax and freeing up a roster spot. And I am torn on bringing Drew Smith back to this Heat roster because, as I mentioned just a second ago, he was terrific in the 14 games he played for Miami last season. Is he going to be a guy that goes crazy offensively, averages 15 a night? No, he’s not. but he plays a role off of the bench. And last year, at least on the offensive end, his role was a solid offball guard that could knock down some threes and maybe even grab and track down some offensive rebounds. Well, he shot 53% from beyond the arc last season in those 14 games. a straight up phenomenal number to where yeah it wasn’t difficult shots and they were very stationed three-point shots off the catch but when he caught it and let it go like I remember doing watch party like oh that’s probably going in that is how consistent he was shooting the ball in those 14 games small sample size but nonetheless pretty impressive but we all know when referring to Drew Smith the number one thing that is the up and arrow is his defense and in these 14 games last season. He was terrific. He ranked in the 100th percentile in deflections, 100th percentile in adjusted defensive turnovers forest. He actually ranked in the 88th percentile in rim defense for a guard. Very impressive. And all of these advanced metrics coming from crafted NBA. The crafted NBA defensive plus minus had him ranked in the 84th percentile. I keep on want to hone in here and hammer home this fact. It is a very small sample size. Yes. But he was in an elite company last season defensively playing in those 14 games. He was very good. And going into last season, I was very upset. I was pissed at the Heat having him on a two-way deal because I thought it was taking away from other opportunities for younger guys on a two-way contract, aka Isaiah Stevens. But with how well he played, I all off season long realized that, okay, this is a potential valuable piece in this Heat organization, this Heat back court and to this bench to where I would bring him back. Now, would I have done it the way Miami did it? probably not, but in a vacuum, it is a good thing to have Drew Smith on this roster. And before we talk more about this, are you excited that Drew Smith is back for the Miami Heat? If you are, type Y for yes. If you are pissed, type N for no. Let me know what’s your thoughts. Pin comment. Like I said, I am kind of happy he’s back, but I am also torn because it has other implications for the Heat’s ability to build their roster and potentially make other moves. Well, let’s start with what happened. They got Drew Smith back by trading Haywood Highmith and a second round pick. And there was a couple people in my mentions on social media that clearly did not understand what went down and were calling me a clown, honestly, which made me laugh because I always laugh when people try to throw shade. It is what it is. Listen, you could have your fun. But the person was upset with me saying that Pat Riley made a terrible trade because I said that he traded a second round pick to get rid of Haywood Highmith and got nothing in return other than salary relief. But then they point out, well, you got a second round pick back. It is protected from pick 31 to 55. That means the Brooklyn Nets would have to be a top five team in the NBA this upcoming season for that pick to convey. Got news for you folks. The Brooklyn Nets ain’t going to be a top five team in 2026. So, you salary dumped Highmith, which by the way, I think, and I can’t guarantee it, but I feel pretty confident that if Miami held on to Highmith and traded him at the deadline, they would have gotten multiple second round picks in return due to the cheap contract that he has, the expiring contract that he has, and his ability in production at the wing 3 and D level. It’s just poor management of assets. Now, it does get you under the luxury tax and after the signing of Drew Smith, you are at 1.7 million underneath the tax. But to me, the highmith trade was a joke. I have talked about how stupid it would be to stretch and wave Simone Fonteio. I would have rather done that to get underneath the luxury tax and sign Drew Smith than trade Heywood Highmith the way you did. It just doesn’t make any sense. But with the roster being where it is right now, this is where things stand. Same starting lineup. You just replace Haywood Highmith on the bench with Drew Smith. Another reason why it’s a little conflicting when you look at this current Heat roster construction, they just have so many guards now. Is there a need for Hero Powell, DaVon Mitchell, Drew Smith, Casper Yakonis? That’s five guards. They’re not all going to play on a nightly basis. Hell, two of them might not play on a nightly basis. And when you look at what the Heat have on their bench, they have no big man. Absolutely none. I’m not kidding when I say this. If you are starting Bam and Wear, yeah, you will stagger those two throughout the game to have one of them play center, one of them on the bench. Sometimes they’ll play together, but your backup center is Kashad Johnson. He is more of a backup center for Miami than Nicole Yoic. So, how are you going to go into the season with no true third backup center? Like, that that’s an issue. We still need another big man. And that’s where I get to the bad news with today’s show. Miami can’t sign another player without crossing the luxury tax. They’re $1.7 million away from crossing it. They could technically sign a vet min like Alec Burks, which is a usual $2.3 million contract, but I believe, if I’m not mistaken, the CBA to incentivize signing veterans, lowers the capit to 1.9. But even that would put you into the luxury tax. So, you can’t make another signing to add to the roster with a standard deal, even though you have a standard contract spot open, 14 out of 15, without crossing the tax. Now, you could do it at some point before 2026. Anthony Chiang on the matter, saying that with the Heat just about 1.7 million below the tax, Miami would need to wait until around early December to sign a 15th player to a pro-rated standard minimum deal that would keep it out of tax territory unless a move is made to change the salary cap math. So once again, I will go back to the Haywood Highmith trade. It is terrible asset management and the Heat not getting any picks back. Not creating enough space to be able to sign Drew Smith and a big man is just shortsided way of doing business. It’s the Heat not valuing second round picks, which they are valued across the league. You see so many good, productive players be traded for two, three second round picks. Miami could never be involved in those trades because they don’t have any second round picks to their name to actually deal. This Heatfront office is so outdated with the way they think. It is very, very frustrating. But you can see though, Miami will likely not make another move in terms of signing a standard contract guy, unless they make a trade or they wait until December, which is very frustrating. Rounding out the show here in a second, but with the heat season getting closer and closer, get your Heat gear right now at chatsports.commia hoodie sale where you could find this sweet hoodie. $15 off. Sizes are running out. I’ve seen on the sheet of my analytics, a lot of clicks. 700 people clicked on this link in our description and comments to try to buy this hoodie. Don’t miss out. Don’t waste your opportunity to grab yours right now. All right, the final topic on this edition of the show is the what is coming next, what the Heat elected to do because I saw tweets that came out over the last 48 hours that from I think it’s the Herald reported that the Heat chose to go with Drew Smith over Kai Jones and Trey Lyles. Now, that’s obviously common knowledge because they signed Drew Smith over any other free agent, but I am curious to see that Trey Lyles was the veteran that potentially would have been the signing for Miami in the front court. Obviously, Kai Jones worked out for us, so there’s going to be the link between those two. it it won’t and I do want to clearly quickly say this. Me saying that the Heat won’t make another move isn’t me saying that they’re done this off season because the Heat do have four roster spots open. When you look at what the Heat have, they have 14 standard contracts. They have two two-way deals and then they have one exhibit 10 contract that was given out to Ethan Thompson last week. The NBA allows you to carry 21 players on your preseason roster. So with the two two-ways, the exhibit 10 and the 14 standard deals, you have four roster spots open. So I do expect between now and September 30th, which is when the heat training camp opens. So you got about what is that 42 44 days from now, quick math, probably off close enough to add a two-way contract as well as three exhibit 10 deals. So we’ll keep you updated on what Miami ultimately do there. But I do have to imagine that it is a big man in some capacity. I just have a hard time coming to the realization or fathoming. That’s a word. Um I think it is. Fathom’s a word, but fathoming. I don’t know if it is. Oh, Coupe says it is. You know, I’m not a wordssmith, so sometimes I just throw at the wall and hope it sticks like that one. So, good for me. But how do you not add another big man to this roster? We’re like an injury away from Vlad Golden being our backup center. That’s an issue. I mean, it seriously is. Like, I know you can’t bank on injury, but it just goes to the point that I’m trying to make of the depth on this Heat roster being so poor at the front court spot. Not ideal. If you want more coverage on the Heat, make sure you follow me over on Twitter. Make sure you’re subscribed as well. But we break down every move in depth on social media as well as here on YouTube. Nick_roll is the handle. Go follow me today.

This Miami Heat YouTube show features A TON of Heat news. Following the Haywood Highsmith trade, Heat president Pat Riley signed Dru Smith to the Miami Heat roster. The Dru Smith contract is good for 3-years, $7.9 MM. Smith is coming off a torn ACL and torn achilles in the past two seasons. This signing keeps the Miami Heat underneath the NBA luxury tax by about $1.7 MM. The Heat’s roster is at 14 standard contracts, and another standard signing would put them across the luxury tax threshold. Heat Report host Nic Rohloff covers all of the Miami Heat news and Heat rumors over the past 48 hours!

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Dru Smith went undrafted in 2021, and has bounced between the Miami Heat and Brooklyn Nets over the past four seasons. Smith has been on three different two-way contracts for the Miami Heat roster the past two years, and is not signed on a standard contract for the next three seasons.

Dru Smith 2024-25 stats (14 GP):
6.3 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 1.5 SPG, 50.8 FG%, 53.3 3P%

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Dru Smith advanced defensive stats:
Deflections: 6.2 (100th percentile)
raDTOV: 1.3 (100th percentile)
Rim Defense: -7.5 (88th percentile)
CraftedDPM: 1.3 (84th percentile)

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Miami Heat trade candidates:
– Terry Rozier, G
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