Miami Heat’s 2026 Cap Space Plan EXPLAINED | Trae Young Rumors & Precious Achiuwa Update

Miami Heat’s 2026 Cap Space Plan EXPLAINED | Trae Young Rumors & Precious Achiuwa Update

Are the Heat looking to save salary cap space for 2026? And if so, what’s the point? We answer that and why current all-star guard isn’t on Miami’s radar in 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, host of Locked on NBA Daily and Real Jam Radio. Here with David Rmill. Both of us are credentialed Heat Media members who cover this team every day. Have a jam-packed show for you today. We got a bunch of stuff to get to, but David, I want to start with this report from Barry Jackson creating some waves among Heat fans. He wrote yesterday for the Herald. quote, “There is no specific heat goal of creating 2026 cap space, but there is a desire to maintain flexibility. That means having room under the luxury tax line and the first apron, which makes trades easier.” End quote. So, like I said, a bunch to get to today. We’re going to talk about what kind of trades we’re talking about potentially next summer. You teased an all-star guard. We’ll talk about that all-star guard. We’re also going to talk about a way that Miami can actually make room for Precious Aua later on the show that doesn’t involve just waving Pier Rosier. So, a bunch of stuff to get to, but when you see Barry write no specific heat goal of creating 2026 cap space, what are you thinking there? Because that’s sort of the bill that we’ve been sold for for a couple years now. Yeah, it just seems something I pointed out before like that there is no exact plan in place and they’re kind of just flying by the seat of their pants and hoping something shakes free. And I know that they’ve operated like that in the past, but it almost felt like at least there was a goal to improve the roster somehow. And the pursuit of a superstar was always their main objective in terms of finding ways to improve the roster. Now, I don’t know that there’s an easy way of doing that. And that’s when you hear the the phrasing no specific goal. Well, that kind of just seems like it applies to all of their motivation over the last couple seasons. And I just wonder exactly how they find what they look at when they see this roster, how they see this roster competing in an Eastern Conference, as we’ve talked about before, is more wide open this year. They’ll be competitive. I I think you and I are both pretty optimistic that they’ll be better than a lot of people expect them to be. And yet, we also recognize that they’re far from one of the elite teams in the East. And that being the case, you have to find a way to improve. And then it just doesn’t seem like that’s aligning with what their goal or lack thereof might be. So I think cap space is overrated these days. Sure. We just don’t see players hit free agency. The number one free agent this summer was Nikil Alexander Walker. And I like Nikil Alexander Walker just fine, but he just came in at what 97 or something like that in our top in our locked on top 100. talking about like the 97th 90th something best player in the league. That was the prize of free agency this year. Stars just don’t hit free agency anymore. Very rarely, I should say. And when you look at some of the guys who signed extensions, Luca, Jiren Jackson Jr., Kevin Durant hasn’t signed the extension yet, but we expect it to happen. The guys who we thought could be available in 2026 ain’t going to be available in 2026 anymore. And so this idea of Miami maintaining cap space, I get it from a a fan perspective of, yeah, I really would like cap space to go out and sign some guys and flip this roster over and stuff like that. But whether it’s, you know, a wholesale change to the roster or going out and using that cap space on a star level free agent the way that they did in 2010 because we remember the success that this front office has had in planning in advance for cap space. But then every, you know, everything, it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Everything has to do with context. and you look at the league and you’re like, uh, who are the free agents next year? Like, who do we care about maintaining this cap flexibility for in 2026? Now, the frustrating part about that is, well, to your point, David, well, then when when are we when is this cap space going to matter? When is this flexibility going to yield the superstar that we all agree we need? So, um, you know, Barry Jackson also adds in this report that the Heat are open to extending Norm Powell and eating into that cap space depending on how this season goes. Um, Pal is extension eligible between now and June 30th. So, essentially between now and the end of the season. So, this is not one of those extensions that have to get done before the season. He has until the end of the year. So, the Heat and you know, we’ve talked about this since they traded for Norm Powell. It’s one of the reasons I like the PAL trade so much is a he’s an expiring contract and B his extension is set up to the point where if the Heat want to keep him around, they can, but they have plenty of time to wait before making that sort of commitment to him. If he ends up just being awesome, then just extend him because I mentioned the potential free agents next summer. Christophs Porzingis could be available. John Collins, Austin Reeves, maybe Zack Lavine has a player option. Ruy Hatchima, Tobias Harris, CJ McCollum, Colin Ston, Harrison Barnes, Anthony Simons, like these are the guys that we’re talking about. You can make an argument Norm Powell is better than all of them, right? Depending on how this season goes. Um, so yeah, I think when when they’re open to extending Norm Pal and eating into that cap space potentially for next summer, you know, I think it it’s fair to question it could be frustrating for Heat Fans to not have that cap space, but then you look at the guys who are available and be like, I don’t know if that any of those guys are better than Pal. So in that sense then does the second part of Barry’s statement that Miami is still looking to remain under the salary cap under the the first apron so that they can maintain roster flexibility. Is that something that you see as an optimistic point of view? Because if that’s the case, then okay. So that gives them the chances to still make additions to the roster, perhaps even the kind of superstar level upgrade that we’ve been talking about. Yeah. So just to kind of get to the numbers on this, um, if so, Andrew, uh, Andrew Wiggins has a player option for next summer for $30 million. Norm Pal expiring contract as of now, extension eligible between now and the end of the regular season. If the Heat were to let PA walk and let’s say Wiggins declines a player option and enters unrestricted free for agency and doesn’t resign. So then Wiggins also walk. So Pal Wiggins they walk. Miami would have $28 million in cap space. Sounds like a lot of money. Not a lot of money to actually go get a maxle player. Not even if a max player level player was available, which we don’t know that one will be. But that’s not max space. It’s enough space to go get Porzingis. It’s enough space to go get perhaps maybe somebody like Austin Reeves or Zack Lavine. I don’t know. Um but it’s $28 million of space. There’s a lot that you could do with it plus some of the exceptions that go along with it. Um if Wiggins and Powell come back, they could still be under those aprons and they’ll still be they’ll be over the cap under the aprons. And if they operate as an over-thecap team under the luxury tax team, they’ll have access to the non- taxpayer mid-level exception at $15.1 million. So even if they bring back Wiggins and Pal, they’ll still have $15 million to play around with this summer, which is not an exception that they’ve had available to them for a couple years. And that so when when we talk about them wanting to stay under the luxury tax, this is why it’s not just because Mickey Harrison wants to save a bunch of money, which is all it’s part of it. Sure. Uh, Hall of Famer Mickey Harrison, but also because it does create real flexibility under the new CBA to say, “Hey, we can bring back Wiggins. We can bring back Pal and then we can spend $15 million on a player who, by the way, that’s how the Hawks got to kill Alexander Walker was with that exception.” So, you can go get a level a player of that level. Not a superstar player, but a bonafide rotation piece, which might be something that Miami needs um next summer in addition to whatever star player. So yeah, I think the flexibility part is the most important part here and I don’t want that to go underated where I think maybe a lot of Heat fans are looking at like the the no cap space part of it. Now you made a point about uh Pal specifically that the Heat kind of want to wait and see what his performance this season would be like before making a decision on him. And I, you know, now we’re talking about the roster flexibility or the cap flexibility next year if you allow Powell and or Wiggins and to walk. And to me, it just seems like we’ve gone down this road before. Uh I I think I feel a little PTSD at the idea of Miami becoming overly enamored with players that have very limited ceilings. And I would almost rather that they just lean into that possibility of not I mean look we haven’t even seen Matt Powell play here. I like Norm. I really do think he’s gonna be good this year for Miami and I think Wigs can embrace a certain role here but I don’t know. I I’m I’m becoming more dubious about a little 2017ish. Yeah. Yeah. I’m getting that calolinic vibes. James Johnson vibes. Yeah. a lot better players though, right? No doubt. But still not good enough. And this is what the team kind of needs. So if you’re going to do that, honestly, are you going to win that many more games with Andrew Wiggins than you are say Haimehake or you know, who knows if either of those players are stifling the potential development of a Nikico Yoic where he can emerge as a starter. A lot has to, you know, play out this year before you can make those kinds of decisions. But it just feels like that’s a path that Miami has gone down before and has led them into trouble because they resigned players that they liked at higher than value contracts. That includes Duncan Robinson, that includes Dion Waiters, etc. So, they’re I just don’t want Miami’s front office to go down that path anymore because they’ve done it before. And I’d almost rather they just say, you know what, we are going to be a 30- win team rather than be like, “No, no, we feel like we could be a 45 win team.” And they actually are closer to 38 wins. So, the beauty of what the Heat can do is that they can wait, right? They can see how the season plays out before making any of those long-term commitments. They can go in next summer and be like, you know what, we don’t want Wiggins, we don’t want Pal. They can convince Wiggins, maybe perhaps to decline the player option, however they did it, however they got Duncan Robinson to decline, whatever. I don’t know. Maybe Wiggins declines a player option. Pal becomes an unrestricted free agent. They don’t extend. They say, “All right, ready. We’re ready to take that step back. We just took a calculated step back and trading Haywood Highmith.” this would be obviously a much more dramatic version of that. Um, but then at the same time like in a vacuum, first of all, we know that the Heat don’t like to take those huge step backs. They don’t want to be a 3-1 win team. They’d rather be a 40- win team than a 30- win team. And that is not an obvious decision to make in the way that the NBA is built and works, right? Like sometimes you’d rather be the 30 or 21 team than the 40- win team. But um you know, you look at okay, if the decision is Wiggins and Powell or $28 million in cap space to spend on John Collins, you know what I mean? Like that’s a really tough decision to make in in the sense of like we’re just going to walk away from two good players to sign one of these sort of not very exciting free agents. No, that makes sense and I get it. It’s just but I think also I I don’t know maybe between that salary cap space and maybe trading away some of the other players under contract. I’m not sure who. I’m not saying any name specifically but it’s just at least it would feel like there’s a path towards uh getting that star level player. I think it would be a lot more easily. I I I when you look at Go ahead. No, let’s talk about it. We got to take a break here. But in terms of getting that star player, maybe they need cap space. Maybe they don’t need cap space to land that next star. We’re gonna keep talking about this next here on Locked on Eat. Today’s episode is brought to you by FiveHour Fuel. Time to fuel up and turn it up with 5H hour energy transfusion. 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Yeah, I I just to me you would think that if you’re able to clear some of that salary cap space and maybe along with some other tradable contracts, you might be able to acquire that superstar. At least I would feel a little bit better about it. I I think that’s a better option than just having said, you know, flexibility, whatever that entails, because flexibility doesn’t really seem all that flexible. At least that’s not what we’ve seen from this Heat roster and for an office over the last couple seasons. And I I know, look, they’re trying to avoid the payment of the luxury tax. That’s fine. They’re trying to stay under the apron. I get it. Um but I I think to your point earlier, like flexibility, salary cap space, all those things feel less important now than they did even 10 years ago. And so, uh, at least you want to give yourself the better of the two options. If neither of them are ideal, at least you have the better option of of being able to clear the salary cap space necessary so that you can maybe pursue that superstar. That star has to be a free agent, right? Like that star has to be there and and in 2026, that star is not probably going to be there. Now, that said, you can do the cap space thing again and try for the summer of 2027 where you just sign guys to short-term deals and and deals that you can get out of 2027. Steph Curry, Giannis, Anthony Davis, Nico, Carl, Anthony Towns, Donovan Mitchell, like all these guys are currently slated to be potent either unrestricted free agents or have player options to become free agents that summer. But again, we this is what we did with 2026. And a lot of these guys just end up signing the extensions before they make it to free agency because the new CBA rewards teams and players for sticking with their team um with with a higher level extension. So, we’ll see. They could do the cap space thing. To me, they’re kind of doing both right now. There is the potential for 2027 cap space to maybe go get one of those guys if they get some sort of hint through the grapevine that maybe these guy one of these guys are going to be available. And at the same time, they do have flexibility as as being an under the apron team. They are starting to get more of these first round picks unlocked and things like that. They could trade three first round picks right now, which is pretty good. Um, but the other name here that we need to talk about who could potentially be a free agent next year, and maybe this is worth actually maintaining cap space for is Trey Young. So like Norm Pal, he can sign an extension between now and the end of the regular season, June 30th. he’s likely to wait because he could potentially make more money by making AllNBA this year. So, it really doesn’t make sense for Trey Young to sign the ex unless he just really wants to be in Atlanta, sign the long-term deal there, but he if he makes AllNBA, which is very possible for Trey Young, right? Like that is not unrealistic. If he makes all NBA, he can qualify for the supermax, right? So, on the other on the other hand, it doesn’t really make sense for him. And by the way, it might not make sense for Atlanta, right? We don’t know where the Hawks stand with Young. It’s possible that he could be available next summer. But David Barry also wrote in his Herald piece, quote, “At this point, it’s considered unlikely that he Trey Young would end up with the Heat. Everything is fluid, but that’s where things stand at the moment.” End quote. A little vague there, maybe purposely so. Yeah. Is it unlikely because Trey Young doesn’t want to be in Miami? Is it unlikely because maybe everybody believes that Trey Young is has nothing to do with Miami. Everybody just believes Trey Young is destined to end up staying in Atlanta. Or is it unlikely because Miami isn’t all that interested in Trey Young? That if that were the case, that shouldn’t come as a surprise just because of Trey Young’s reputation and the Heat’s reputation. It doesn’t really sound like those things mesh. But I would argue, David, the Heat would be insane right now to rule out Trey Young in terms of a potential fit. Doesn’t mean that they have to go get him. It doesn’t mean that they can’t go get him. It doesn’t mean that they that Trey Young is even going to be available. this idea that, oh, that guy’s not for us. If they’ve made that decision, that to me is foolish. Yeah, I’ve seen that perspective before from Heat fans. And again, I think a lot of that has to do with the reputation and the reality that Young as a defender is so subpar that he’s going to sabotage a lot of what this team does and their identity over the last few, you know, I don’t know, 30 seasons. Uh, so Young just doesn’t seem like the right fit here. But the more I think about it, he he would be such an ideal fit for the seat cuz Miami has lacked that true playmaker since I don’t know, LeBron James. Like, have they had a high quality playmaker? Like, the closest they got maybe was Kyle Lowry at his best because he was just looking to really get everybody going. He was no longer the active scorer. But to blend that playmaking ability with Trey’s scoring ability, right, would give them a very potent offense. And we we’ve talked about this before that we think that this season they might have to lean into this current iteration of the roster and maximize their offensive potential even if that means sacrificing the defensive identity that they built over the last couple seasons. So if you’re going to do that, why not try to acquire a player like Young who can boost this offense, who is going to automatically add something that they haven’t had in the long time. So I I think it would be a great fit. I think if you surround him with the right players like we we’ve been doing this exercise of the top 25 players over the last 25 seasons and we talked about why Miami traded Eddie Young, I’m sorry, Eddie Jones for uh Jason Williams and he was a much better fit on this roster. Jason Williams, smallish, not a good defender, but guess what? he thrived here because they had the right players that would be able to score that he would be able to help maximize their offensive potential and they led led them to a championship. So, I’m not saying that’s the same comparison necessarily, but it makes sense if you can surround Young with the right players and that’s something that Atlanta hasn’t been able to do. If Miami could find a way to surround them with the right players, you’d see a significant boost to what they’re they’re capable of offensively and that might be enough to make them one of the top teams in the East. You need to be a very good offense these days. Defense does not win championships. You have to be good at both. Ideally, defense alone, well, you have to, right? Like, you have to be good to win the championship. You have to. Yeah. Which means you got to be good at both, which means you got to be good at offense, which Miami hasn’t been for three years. They’ve been bottom 10 in offense over and over and over again. Trey Young is the kind of guy who is not a walking top 10 offense the way that Bam is sort of a walking top 10 defense. Yeah. But man, he’s really helpful. And if any team and any coach specifically is going to find ways to cover up for Trey Young’s deficiencies defensively, it’s the guy who’s done that with Tyler Hero and Duncan Robinson and Goran Dragich and some of these other guys over the years. It’s Eric Spolstra. And if you needed to put somebody behind Trey Young to try to cover up from for some of those defensive inefficiencies, it would be exactly a guy as versatile and as good defensively and as elite defensively as Bam Adabio. So yeah, Trey Young’s not a perfect player. Nobody’s saying he is, but you don’t get like the NBA, you don’t get to choose your superstar. It doesn’t work that way. Yeah. You don’t get to do it. You just get the guy who’s available, right? And so this is what Miami did in 2019 when they went and got Jimmy Butler, right? You know, and so when you look at where Miami is, going back to the cap part of this, being under the luxury D, it was a sign and trade for Jimmy Butler, right? You could only do the sign and trade if you’re under that second apron. And you got to be far enough under that second apron that you could do the signing trade, still fill out the rest of the roster without because when you execute the signing trade, you get literally hardcapped at that second apron. So if Miami, if Trey Young is not a is is an unrestricted free agent next summer, then maybe Miami could figure out way to create cap space and go get him. If he resigns on an extension, they’re going to have to trade for him. Or it could be a sign and trade type of deal where Atlanta is getting something back and Miami is able to facilitate um the acquisition of Trey Young. That’s what this flexibility is for, too. Whether it’s for Trey Young or anybody else, this allows them to go and sign and trade for that next superstar the way they did for Jimmy Butler, because they are so far below that second apron that they don’t have even have to worry about it and and that potential hard cap that comes along with uh what happens once you once you execute that signing trade deal. So, a lot uh a lot to get to and kind of break down there, but hopefully we did a pretty decent job of it. We did talk yesterday, David, about the Heat’s interest in prices of Chua. to switch gears a little bit here. Um, we do have more details on how the he can sign him without having to release Terosier. We’ll talk about that next. Thanks again for making Lockdown Heat your first listen every day. David Shamless plug here if you’d allow me for just like a couple of seconds. Um, in case people missed it, I’ve taken over as host of Locked on NBA Daily Monday Friday show alongside Matt Moore and uh, Hayes Matt Moore from the Action Network, Locked On Nuggets, you know him as HP. Um, Proxism over on Twitter uh, and Hayes over from Locked on Bulls. The show’s really good. It’s the highest listened to podcast on the network and we’re trying to pick up things on YouTube. So, check out Locked on NBI on YouTube. Please hit that subscribe button while you’re over there. And while you’re there on YouTube, subscribe to Locked on Heat. Dave, we talked about yesterday ways to create room for Precious Achua and whether or not Miami should get Precious Aua in terms of just signing a backup big. Had multiple reports now that Miami is in contact with Precious Aua. Um Precious Achua still has a home in the area, which matters, and he’d be very interested in coming back to Miami, it sounds like. But the one thing we keep talking about is okay, is it worth releasing Terry Rosier and just waving him out, right? because only the TW of his $26.6 million salary this season only $24.9 million is guaranteed. So if you waved it and signed the one and a half saved the $1.5 million that would create enough cap space to sign a minimum contract guy such as precious Chua. The problem with that as we’ve discussed you’re waving Troier. You’re getting nothing back for him. You’re punting on the opportunity for him to maybe have a bounceback year. You’re also maybe more importantly hunting on the ability to use his expiring contract in a trade in February before the trade deadline which could potentially get you a guy way better than Precious Aua. So that’s sort of the the tough part there. Let’s say they don’t have to do that. Maybe they don’t have to make a decision on Rosia right now. There’s two other ways that they can sign Presto Sichua that I think is worth having this conversation. Number one, they can wave and stretch Simone Fentio. they could do that. That to me is a little bit more palatable than punting on having that expiring contract from Rosier. I like Fonteo. I think he could be useful. I don’t exactly know where he plays in the rotation though. And if we’re just doing, you know, who’s the better player, Precious Aurora, Simon Fonteo? I’d probably say Feio, but it’s not by a lot. No. And with Fonteo again, where does he play? Does he play in front of Hime? Does he play in front of Nico? Who’s he playing in front? Does he play in front of We don’t really know. With Precious, I know ex or any other backup center for that matter. But with Precious, if we’re going to put a name to it, I know exactly where he’s going to play. He’s going to play as the third big some nights, not all nights, but when the Heat need him, that’s where he’s going to play. And so that is a little bit more palatable. There’s one other way that he can go get Precious Jew. Before I get to that, what do you think about the Fentio option? Yeah, I mean, we just spent a long time talking about Miami keeping the salary cap flexibility and uh having Fentio’s contract stretched over that next few seasons probably does Yeah, it seems like it would go antithetical to that. So, uh I just it doesn’t seem realistic. I think they’re they’re a little bit more cautious about taking on dead money for a couple seasons when they don’t have to. So, I I just don’t think that’s very realistic. And I think right now to put a number, sorry, it would be $2.8 million in dead cap hits this season, next season, and the following season for so for three straight years, it would be $2.8 million in the cap for a player who doesn’t play for you, right? So for a team that counts pennies and watches things as closely as they do, they probably wouldn’t want $3 million of dead money on their books. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but $3 million of dead money on the book of dead money on the books right now would put them over the luxury tax. You know what I mean? Like it doesn’t sound like who cares? $2.8 million. No, it matters. It matters. Like had they had $2.8 million in space, they probably wouldn’t have had to trade Heywood Heismith, you know? Like it’s like these this stuff really matters in today’s CBA. So it is a calculated risk, especially for a guy who you’re like, “All right, let’s sign press a chewah. Maybe he’s good, right?” You know, for a year, maybe he’s an answer. or maybe we’re just doing this again with this ever revolving door of backup centers that kind of come in and out uh uh here in Miami. So, I don’t think it should be off the table. If they’re desperate and they really feel like they need to go get that center, it’s it’s not so much money that I would the $2.8 million is not so much money that I’d be like, “Nope, can’t do it.” You’d have to do you’d have to break out the spreadsheets. You’d have to figure out ways to make sure like, okay, is this really going to screw us in a couple of years? Um and if it does, then you can’t do it. If it doesn’t, maybe there’s some wiggle room there. Maybe it’s something that you um entertain if you’re the Heat’s front office. Here’s the other way. So, we’ve talked about maybe waiting until mid-season uh when these contracts get prrated, these minimum contracts get prrated, and you say, “Okay, well, how long can Miami wait?” Well, we did the math. It’s December. It’s not that long. Yeah. It’s like a month, month and a half. Now, the risk you run is that the good the the the the best centers left available, however good they might be, the best centers left available are gone by then. That’s a risk there. But if you’re Miami, can you just Vlad gold in this thing for a month and a half and then just get to December and say, “All right, precious, come on in. We got we we found room for you. We’re un we with your pro-rated minimum, we we can get you in. we can sneak you in and stay right under that luxury tax. That might be the best option. It could get a little rough for a month. Yeah. But at least you have Vlad Golden. You still have another two-way available. Maybe you sign another center with a two-way. You just body this thing for a for for a few weeks and then by December, like if you really think about when the NBA season, like it’s not that long and you’re still got the whole calendar next year to play with a real backup center. You’ve got the whole playoff run. You’ve got the all you got everything that you’d possibly need. So again, it’d be a little rough for a few weeks, but maybe it’s something that you’re willing to live with. First, uh I appreciate the use of Vlad Golden as a verb. Um you know, I think that’s I’m sure he would appreciate it, too. Uh secondly, yeah, I mean, how much better is Precious at Shure than Vlad Golden? Like, I don’t think we know enough, but I think you can certainly just hang on to Golden for uh the first month or two of the season. My concern is though that we’ve talked about the NBA schedule before, the Heat schedule specifically, and it’s it’s there’s some challenging stretches there to start the season, and they could wind up being almost out of the playoff picture very soon unless they find a way to be as good as we might expect them to be. Um, otherwise, if you’re already in the hole, like it doesn’t matter. So, I I I think this is the most realistic option because again, if they’re good enough and they want to make a commitment to shoring up the front court, then yes, a Chua makes sense. Otherwise, doesn’t make any sense. If they’re if they’re out of it, if they lose 10 games in a row, if they’re so far below 500 that doesn’t make any sense for them to even make an acquisition like this, then you could just kind of stick with golden and see what you get and and hope for the best. But, uh, it’s just it will become apparent very early on whether this group is better than expected and competitive enough where that move becomes necessary or at least makes any sense whatsoever because Aua, I don’t think there’s a lot of demand for him. I think that’s why he’s still available right now. So, I’m sure lots of teams are probably playing that same wait and see approach whether or not they decide to even add him. Maybe Miami just goes into training camp, sees what Golden has, and they they make a decision at that point. They say, “Okay, like what what does this guy look like running up and down with other NBA players as opposed to doing it in Las Vegas and maybe they go in the preseason and test it out? Maybe it’s the first week of the season to your point with that tough start of the schedule and they say, “You know what? Sorry Simone, we got to wave and stretchy. We got to go get this guy. We got to go get a backup center.” Like they can make that decision in the first week of the season if they want. they just don’t have to make it now, which clearly they don’t have to make it now because they’re not making it now. I think these are things that they’re just having conversations about in the front office. Um, and just I want to anticipate questions here. We might get a question about 10day. Can you just sign him to a 10-day contract? No. Um, teams can’t sign players to 10 days until January. So, that’s just not really an option right now. But, um, the two-way guys can play. They can get another guy on a two-way if that’s something that they want to do. Uh, they could swap out the two-ways at any point if Flag Golden just isn’t it. Maybe there’s somebody else out there that is it. I don’t know if I have no reason to think that that’s the case, but they they could swap out the two ways with no impact to the salary cap. Those guys don’t matter to the salary cap. So, um those are the options. We’ll see what Miami does. But for now, let us know what you think in the YouTube comments. Uh should Miami maintain cap flexibility? Should they be looking at cap space either this summer or in 2027? What do we think about Trey Young as a potential option to lift Miami’s offense? The locked on NBA top 100 is here. Voted on by the locked on NBA hosts on across this network. Our top 100 was formed by experts who cover these teams and players every single day. Find the full list on Lockdown Sports Today and on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. Thank you for making Lockdown Heat your first listen every day.

The Miami Heat’s front office is focused on 2026 cap flexibility — but is it really worth it? Wes Goldberg and David Ramil break down Barry Jackson’s latest report, discuss why Trae Young isn’t currently on Miami’s radar, and whether bringing back Precious Achiuwa makes sense.

They also cover the Heat’s cap space plan for 2026 and beyond, why free agency isn’t what it used to be under the new CBA, Trae Young’s fit (or lack thereof) in Miami, Precious Achiuwa’s possible return to the Heat and more.

0:00 – Intro
2:00 – Are the Heat saving cap space for 2026?
13:30 – Could Trae Young be the Heat’s next star?
24:00 – Heat’s options to sign Precious Achiuwa

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