DEBATE: Is Miami Heat Trading for Ja Morant Worth the RISK? | Miami Heat Podcast

DEBATE: Is Miami Heat Trading for Ja Morant Worth the RISK? | Miami Heat Podcast

John Mor can’t find his joy in Memphis, but could he find it in Miami? We’ll explore potential trades, the pros and cons, and much more on today’s episode of Locked on Heat. [Music] You are Locked on Heat, your daily Miami Heat podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. Hello and 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 so much for making Locked on Heat your first listen every day. Join the cookie gang. Become an everydayer by hitting that subscribe button now. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. If your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to fanduel.com to get started. I’m Wes Goldberg, host of Locked on NBA Daily and Real GM radio. I’m here with David Rmill. Both of us are credentialed Heat Media members who cover this team every day. Got a bunch to get to today, but we’re going to start with John Morant, who is singing a familiar song in Memphis. He recently served a one-ame suspension for conduct mental to the team. Kind of quiet quitting on his team last week. Comes back. Grizzlies suffered two straight losses. After the game on Monday night, he was asked by Locked on Grizzlies co-host to Michael Cole uh whether or not he has his usual amount of joy right now. John Morance said, quote, “No.” He was then followed up with a question, “What can you do to get it back?” He said, “We’ll see.” Now, David, you and I talked about this briefly on last night’s episode uh at like 1:30 in the morning after the Heat beat the Clippers. If you guys haven’t checked out that show in that conversation, go ahead and check that out now up on your YouTube feed and your podcast feed. But um David, it was 1:30 in the morning. We were delirious. Uh didn’t really It was all happening in real time. Obviously, we’re we’re watching the Heat game and reacting to that and kind of seeing all this stuff with John Morant kind of flood the Twitter timeline, right? And so we’re sort of reacting to it. But we had the conversation about how similar this obviously is to the Jimmy Butler thing, right? Like it is almost word for word the joy part of it. I don’t know if this is going to be a new line of reporters. Shout out to Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press for getting this all started. And uh we’re I guess we look at stars and try to judge them on a Joyo meter now and where they are on that Joyo meter could potentially impact their their trade availability. But um I’ve given this a little bit more thought obviously since we had that initial conversation and you and I were talking right after and like wow this this seems really bad. What’s John really doing here? Is he trying to send a message? And I got to be honest, the more I thought about it, the more I think this is less of a big deal. If we were going to do big deal, little deal, no deal. I think you and I were both kind of firmly in big deal camp last night. I’m more in a little deal camp now, having thought about it a little bit more. First of all, I think he has a point. I don’t think that team is well coached right now. He’s playing 28 minutes a game, which is a career low for him. And you’ve got Tomas Iselo, the head coach there, kind of blaming all of their problems on him, despite the fact that Zakini’s been hurt. They don’t really have starter caliber wings out there right now. And they’re all just looking at J and being like, do more. And he’s like, I would love to, but you’re only I’m not even playing 30 minutes a game. And who’s the backup point guard, by the way, that you’re making time for? Cuz Ty Jerome’s hurt. He hasn’t played all year for us. It’s for Cam Spencer or Pat Spencer or whichever one of these Spencer guys that we have on our roster. That’s what you’re that’s the guy you’re trying to make all this time for. So, I kind of think he has a little bit of a point now. Should he go and do this in front of the media and pout and quiet quit on his team on Friday night? No, of course not. It does seem like things are a mess right now in Memphis. But because he has more of a point, I think there’s a way out of this if the message gets across back to the coaching staff and they can maybe mend the fences here. Yeah. I I don’t know that it ever gets to that point. Like I I just feel like it’s not that it’s a big deal in terms of on a scale of how explosive they could get on an NBA level. Maybe I I just I think at some point these relationships between players in a front office run their coach run their run their you know they just they they just can’t be fixed. Um because a player feels a certain way and they just want something in a particular way and they’re not going to get it. Uh and we’ve just seen it too often. And I I think I’m just of the mindset where when a player is willing to say this publicly to reporters by that point, it’s already too late. They’ve crossed the point of no return there. Because when he says to to a reporter that he can’t he’s he’s not happy, maybe he doesn’t mean it. And look, I I can I’ll be more than willing to e crow and say maybe he misspoke. Maybe he he didn’t understand it exactly. But when a player shows that kind of level of frustration and they’re trashing the team at the NBA and football, it’s completely different. In football, they’ll just clean house. They’ll fire the coaching staff. They’ll fire this coach just got hired. And it’s not to say that he’s not deserving of criticism. I think your points are all valid. But when the star player says, “You know what? I’m not happy. This star-driven league usually winds up resulting in a messy divorce where one player gets traded to another location. And I I think that’s the reality is because and in with Morance’s case in particular, I can’t separate this from all the other off the court instances or other issues that he may have throughout his career. And at some point, you just become the sum of all those nasty parts and go, you know what, that guy’s just a headache and I don’t want him on the team anymore. as much as we like him here in Memphis. And I think I think the fans love him. I think the the his co-players, you know, his teammates love him. At the same time, I just think you there’s only so much you can do. And I don’t think he’s willing to repair this relationship right now. That’s the other part of this. It’s one thing for Miami to trade Jimmy Butler. It’s It’s one thing for other teams to trade start. Memphis is such a small market. It’s kind of a miracle they still have an NBA team. And the way that people in Memphis talk about John Morant and how important he is to that organization, he is the guy that sells the tickets. Nobody else does. Jiren Jackson Jr. is a great player. He’s not selling tickets. He’s not putting butts in seats. And I just wonder how that factors into this in terms of ownership signing off because ownership has to sign off on a job trade, right? And maybe to your point, he’s been a headache enough like we can get in, we don’t have to get into all the reasons he’s been suspended, all these things, but his availability has been an issue even health-wise. Like he’s not necessarily the most durable guy either. So maybe they say, you know what, time for a hard reset. Let’s go ahead and trade this guy. But it’s really, we’ve seen even a smaller market like Milwaukee, which is an enormous market compared to Memphis. Just be like, we’re not going to give up on Giannis. We’re going to eat the Damian Lillard contract. Like whatever it takes to not give up with the superstar franchise player. We’re going to go as far down the road as we could possibly go with this. And I just wonder Go ahead. Sorry to interrupt. The difference though, Giannis is Giannis. He’s a much better player, much more complete. won the MVP has guided the team to the the finals into a championship. Whereas John Moran is still sells the same amount of tickets though. Fair sells tickets, but at some point you want to be able to translate that into actual success and they’re just not going to enjoy it at this point. I I think there is proof of concept of when we have Jiren Jackson Jr. and John Morant healthy, we do win 45 to 50 games a year. They just there’s no playoff success to speak of, but they win games with Bane. Like Bane did a lot while he was filling in for Moran. And I think that’s and they were like, you know what, you’re really good at what you do. Yeah. But guess what? We don’t want you on the team anymore. And so they trade him to I think again you you you can I understand the value of Mor on your team and the ties to the city and yet you could say you know what we got a whole hell of a lot of draft capital from Orlando in exchange for Bane. It’s time to look to the future. Let’s rebuild and and you’re going to get something from Morant too. So you could probably get a valuable player. Maybe not the same level, but I think you can certainly get a high level player that can come and contribute and do some approximately. What is John Morance’s trade value? So, I mean, look, we could discuss what I don’t think that the Grizzlies are there yet, and I don’t think you’re saying this. Like, I don’t think anybody’s there at the point of we’re shopping this guy, but maybe this is the beginning of the end of the the John era. Let’s just let’s just go ahead and roll with that as the assumption for the rest of this episode because that’s what’s going to make this episode interesting. What is John Mar’s value? Because this is a guy who has served multiple suspensions. There are questions about his activities off the court. The health concerns on the court are real. Um, you know, I I think he’s a very good player. Is he one of the upper crust elite point guards? Is he up there with Steph Curry, Jaylen Brunson, Tyres Hallebert, and Tyresese Maxi? No, I don’t think so. He’s some level below that probably. still a really good player, but in our locked on top 100, I think we had him at 28, 29, something like that. Joe Mullenex from Locked Up Grizzlies always complains about it. I think it’s about right. Um, like what’s what’s Morin’s trade value, especially with, you know, some of this new behavior? I think it’s still high. I I don’t think it’s quite superstar level. Um, right. Even though I think he does fit that definition, but in terms of what you get back for Valley, I think there enough knocks on his overall reputation and health availability that I I think you could probably convince a team. I think you can convince Memphis to just take something of value rather than exactly what they think they might would deserve in exchange for Morant. Like on the surface, you hear, “Oh, John Morant, allar, you know, perennial all-star candidate, really great young player, uh, uh, the face of the franchise moving forward. etc. But I don’t think his value is at that point because of everything that’s happened and the availability is a huge concern and you don’t know he could seem somewhat mercurial at this point too and and I think a lot of teams just don’t want to hassle. Now uh I know we’re going to talk about some potential trades so so I’m curious to see if there’s a team out there maybe one even in South Florida that might be interested in acquiring a player like Morant. So we’ll talk a little bit more about his trade value. We’ll do some fake trades. will do it all after this. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA is back. There’s no better place to get in on the action that FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you missed the start of the game, you want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game exciting, especially when your team’s making that late push. And right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So, head to fanduel.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Today’s episode is also brought to you by Rouette. Let’s be real, making excuses doesn’t solve anything. We’ve all heard them before, it’s just stress, I’m tired, or it happens to everyone sometimes. But when it comes to performance, sometimes your body just needs a little extra support. And that’s where Rouette comes in. Rouette.com offers fast acting doctor prescribed treatments for ED designed to help you stop making excuses and start making moves. Rouette makes it easy to get started. You just connect with a board-certified doctor 100% online. No awkward waiting rooms, no inerson appointments. If prescribed, your treatment ships discreetly, and straight to your door. The process is fast, simple, and private. And it’s all handled by real doctors. It’s about conference connection and getting back to the moments that matter. So visit rugg.com/lockdonba and get 15% off your first order. That’s rugg.com/lockdonba. And don’t forget to use our code lockdownba so they know we sent you. Rouette, stop making excuses and start making moves. We’ll be right back. [Music] So John Moran over the last few years, he played 50 games last year, nine games the year before that, mostly because of the suspension. 61 games the year before that, 57 games, 63 games, played 67 games as a rookie. He will have he he’s qualified for the new 65game limit uh in order to qualify for end of season awards. He’s qualified one time in his career. Nice. This is a guy who is very injured. Memphis always has to employ a pretty highlevel backup point guard whether it was Taius Jones or Scott Pippen Jr. a couple years and and now it’s uh and then you had to ask Desmond Bane to kind of transform into a point guard last year and Bane was awesome at it but to like that’s not really what they wanted for him. They wanted him to be more of an offball guy and to the point where you had to go out and spend for Ty Jerome this year. So there you always like when you have and acquire Jarant you also have to plan for insurance like Jarant insurance and that costs money and that costs something. Now I think it’s just worth considering when you talk about Jarant’s trade value is yeah this guy is really awesome when he’s on the court. There’s a very high win percentage that Memphis had when he’s on the court. Can we trust him to always be on the court? Uh on the flip side the contract is not that bad. He’s making $39.5 million this year. He makes 42 next year 44.8 eight in 2027 2028. It’s a lot of money, but it’s not crazy. Like, it’s not a bad contract. It’s not super long. No options at the end of it. So, if you’re trading for that, I you could build a team around it, right? Like, it’s not trading for a $70 million Jaylen Brown contract or even like a $50 million plus Larry Markin type deal. Like, this is a pretty modest contract. Now, he will be extension eligible beginning next summer. You have to have those conversations. Maybe those are conversations you can kick into the following summer going into that uh uh contract year. But these are all just things you have to be cognizant of if you are a team trading for John Marant. In terms of the trade value, I actually don’t think that it’s extremely high right now. Only because I don’t think that there’s a ton of teams in the league at this point in the league in the season that are saying, “Yep, let’s go get a new high usage point guard and just dramatically reshape everything that we’re doing 3 weeks into the season.” And so I think in that regard, it’s a little bit of a tough ask. And that leads me to my next point here with Miami. Should the Miami Heat be interested in John Morant should he become available on the trade block? Had you asked this in July? I think the obvious answer is yep, go get him. Right. But we’re not in July. We’re three weeks in the season. It’s November 4th and I think a few weeks in the season I’m really like this new offense is very intriguing. Miami has a top 10 offense right now. Offense is not the problem. John Mar is the solution for offense. Now, I think there’s still some concerns that we have about the half court offense, what this offense looks like in the playoffs, and just generally like a lack of direction offensively in terms of like we know what the identity is, but who’s the guy, right? Yeah. Well, we we’ve we’ve also heard, sorry to interrupt, but we also heard like Morant apparently did not like the offense that was being implemented in Memphis. Like, right, they were implementing uh what was it? Noah Lar Ro, right? He was implementing an an offense similar to what Miami is running now that was less dependent on ball screens and Morant was like, “No, no, I want those screens. I want to be able to create my triggers that way. I want to be able to initiate that way off those screens.” Hence the reason why Lar Ro was let go as part of Taylor Jenkins’s coaching staff. So that’s why he’s a consultant to Miami. So we’re kind of talking about this, but I mean, did you take that into consideration? And 100%. That’s exactly where I was going with this. So, my bad then. Sorry to interrupt. No, no, no. It’s it’s the right way to go. Um, I think the Heat have been intrigued by John Marant in the past. I think it’s unclear where they stand now on John. I do generally think, this isn’t breaking news here necessarily. I think before they make any sort of major decisions, they want to see more of what this team is, right? I think they want to see it when Tyler Herro comes back. I think they want to see all of this. I think they want to get more of a barometer on what this team is. That said, exactly where you’re going, I think, is the big question. Probably a bigger question in January, maybe. I don’t know how when this John stuff comes to a head, if it does, whatever. Yes. Yeah. But the question of would you rather keep this offense, the Noah Lar Ro inspired offense. So Eric Spolstra spoke with no Lar Ro who came uh ca came on as a consultant over the summer. Uh Eric Spolstra, Chris Quinn, and Noah Lar Ro constructed this new fewer ball screen offense, high tempo. We’re going to push it. We’re not going to use screens. We’re going to play in the open floor. That was a system very similar to what Lar Ro was brought on as a full-time assistant with Memphis last year. Tried to install. To your point, it didn’t. It kind of worked. Then it didn’t really work anymore. John Morant preferred the ball screens. There was some issues with the front office. The front office was kind of forcing this on to Taylor Jenkins. They end up letting everybody go. Tomas E isolo ends up being the head coach. And now he’s running a ton of ball. Nobody runs more ball screens and pick and roll. Then John Mor is solo and the Memphis Grizzlies now. So, and he’s still unhappy. And he’s still unhappy. But the idea that you would then trade hypothetically Miami, you would then trade for Morant and bring him into this offense that he did not want to play in does not seem to mesh. Right. So, I think there’s a choice to be made hypothetically of would you rather keep this offense that has been so exciting and so productive in a way that is downright surprising for the Miami Heat or would you rather have John Morant? And if the decision between this offense and John Morant is at your desk, David, where are you going, [Laughter] man? Um, that’s a tough spot there. No, no. And it’s a it’s a legitimate question and I think it’s one that um Miami has to consider. I think I think he’s a star. I think he’s a hell of a player. And yet, I kind of feel like this season is their chance at kind of reclaiming the way that they want this team to be run and the way they want to identify as a team and how they project themselves to the outside world. And for better, for worse, because right now it’s it looks great. It’s a lot of fun. You can sell it on. You see, this is what we were missing. this kind of joy, uh, this selflessness, this kind of sharing, etc. Eric Spolzer was asked following the Clippers game, I think the last question he was asked was, uh, you know, how does it feel to be coaching a team without any egos? And he was like, what are you talking about? Of course, we have egos on this team. So, uh, an interesting question there and and but I get it like every you cannot be in the NBA without being somewhat arrogant, which was always the question about Steph Curry is, uh, you know, oh, he’s he’s so humble. say, “No, he’s not. What are you talking about? You don’t get to be one of the five best players on the planet, maybe even one of the five best players of all time, and be like, you know, a shucks. I’m just happy to be here.” And it does take a lot, but but you also have to buy in. And I think the past few seasons, as much as Jimmy carried this team and did so much for this group, it kind of wore on some people. And I don’t know that they want to enter into another relationship where they feel we have to couch down to this player and worry about what’s going to happen next or taking up a lot of oxygen in that locker room, right? And that that was the thing with Jimmy. It was a lot of Jimmy Butler all the time and and for better for worse. And with Jaw, it’s very similar. And you know, he’s got his dad involved and he’s got the whole thing and it’s it’s just yeah, whatever you want to think about that stuff is fine. I’m not here to judge it. It’s just it is what it is and it’s a lot of things. It’s a lot of it’s John Marant and right it’s just it’s not just John Norm Pal is the one saying hey I’m a very lowmaintenance player. John’s a better basketball player than Norm Pal but Nor Pal is really easy to just absorb into a locker room and be like all right let’s see what this is all about. But Jaw you have to reshape everything that you’re doing. And I think that’s the key question in front of Miami right now. What happens when they kick out DJ Collid and say no no no these seeds belong to team Morant now. Like you got to get out. Uh they better not do that. Who are you going to kick out? The opera lady? I mean, she’s I think she’s glued to that seat. They only they only let her up when she has to change dresses. Um I I I don’t I I can’t believe this is a question that we’re actually struggling with here. But David, if you ask me right now, trade for John Morant right now or keep the offense the way it is, understanding that you’re going to get Tyler Herro back and we’re going to get at least a look at that maybe by the end of this month. I kind of pick the latter. Yeah. And part and and it actually has less to do with the coomons of John Morant than I think that we’re even talking about right now and more to do about the direction of the league. That might be a good way to tease this. We’ll do that into the next segment. Plus, uh, the Sacramento Kings scooped up precious aua. So, what does that mean for the Miami Heat? We’ll talk about that next. Today’s episode is brought to you by Gusto. Let’s be real, no one starts a business for the joy of calculating tax withholdings or managing payroll spreadsheets. And that’s where Gusto comes in to take the stress out of payroll, benefits, and HR so you can focus on running your business and supporting your team. 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The reason I would be a little cautious to trade for John Mar if I’m anybody, especially from the Miami Heat right now, considering the system that we installed, the system that Miami installed to me is the direction. This isn’t just a experiment that hey, we don’t really have a ton of offensive talent and we’re just trying to figure out some way to juice it and then we’re going to go out and get that superstar player and then we’re going to throw this all out the window and then we’ll just do whatever that superstar player might want to do. And but they could still do that depending on who the superstar player is. Absolutely, that’s an option for them. But I don’t think that that was the premise of installing this offense. I believe that Eric Spolstra and this coaching staff saw where the league is trending and said we got to get on board because we are so dramatically behind that the only way for us to get on board is to kind of start leading and we got to kind of push this to the extreme and have this crazy pace and play this crazy up style understanding that we’ll probably have to make concessions. By the way, we saw concessions in that I don’t think they’re totally rigid on this. we saw them run a lot more pick and roll in that Clippers game at towards the end when they needed to just find some offense uh in that Lakers game too. So, I don’t think they’re totally rigid in it. That said, I think that there’s a part of it that they want to keep. And when you trade for somebody like Jaw who’s such a pick and roll heavy point guard, I don’t know that where the league is going that that’s as viable as it used to be. And I think while I it probably is a guard league still point he high volume heliocentric type of point guards like Jaw I don’t know that that really works right like you think about the the guards who are winning the most and have the most success. It’s guys like Steph and Hallebertton who are playing in the full court pushing the pace have a little bit of a different sizzle to their stake, right? It’s these heliocentric we’ve seen it right with Trey Young there’s limitations. Jaylen Brunson right now with the Knicks it just feels like there’s limitations to what they can do. um uh James Harden for years. I mean, as great, nobody’s been better at running this off a a pick and roll offense than James Harden. And we saw the limitations of it. And unless you think you can get Morant to buy in to something different, which he clearly wasn’t willing to do in Memphis, maybe it would be different, but it doesn’t really bode well for Miami that the guy that didn’t get him to do it in Memphis is now the guy as a consultant on the staff in Miami. Uh, now Eric Spolster is a very different kind of cat than even Taylor Jenkins, who everybody kind of agreed was a good coach and was wrongly fired. But, um, that’s where I would be go. That’s what I would be thinking if I’m the Heat. It’s not really system versus Morant. It’s really just like if we’re willing to replace the system for the right superstar. Do we think that John is the right superstar to be winning in the NBA in 2026, in 2027, in 2028, considering where the league is going? And that would be my main question. It’s it’s a good one. And um I on the surface again I think that the answer is probably no. And yet even as we’re having this conversation something is just I’m just thinking at what point like how bad do the heat have to plummet this year in order for them to revisit the question and change the criteria because it’s like you know what we lean into this experiment it didn’t work etc. We brought in Tyler, it didn’t Let’s say this is all worst case scenario and me kind of supposing here. We brought in Tyler, it didn’t work. Uh, somebody gets hurt or whatever. Let’s say they just go on a massive losing streak where they can’t quite seem to figure things out and then you’re staring down the barrel at of the trade deadline and you’re, you know, 15 20 games under 500 perhaps, you know. Yep. I think you’re right. I think we got to be double digits under 500 and or the Tyler Hero thing just doesn’t take which you and I don’t really anticipate, but we haven’t seen it. So, let’s let’s get into some fake trades here. All hypothetical. No reporting done on this. I want to be very clear on that. Uh I pulled up the trade machine. That’s the homework I did. All right. So, for John Morant, who’s making um uh $39.4 $4 million this year. There’s a number of ways that the Miami could get it done. And if the hero thing doesn’t take, then he becomes the obvious guy that has to get moved out. So, Tyler Herro plus Keller pretty much gets it done salary-wise. Uh should mention both of these teams not a ton of limitations on where they are against the cap or the apron or anything like that, right? Memphis made some serious cap cleaning moves when they made the Desmond Bane deal. That was a big part of it to increase their flexibility. Uh Miami obviously we know that they’ve increased their flexibility and spent the last few months doing that. So no real issues in terms of second apron. We don’t have to worry about that stuff. Um so Morant for hero plus Kell wear salary wise pretty much gets it done. You could replace the KL wear contract with like a hamehakage junior or something like that. Like we could that seems like smaller potatoes compared to the big picture thing here. But that would be one way to get it done. The other way would be what if it’s not Tyler Herro that you move? What if you like Tyler Herro’s spacing next to John Morant? Is it Norm Powell on a one-year? Is Memphis more interested in Norm Powell on a as an expiring kind of comes off the books. They can kind of clear things up a little bit, not have to deal with the Tyler Hero extension. That could be that could be interesting. Maybe Memphis is not in to hero at all because they don’t want to deal with the extension. Um, Wiggins plus DaVon Mitchell would get it done. Okay. And if you’re looking at Memphis right now, the big need is on the wing. And they could say, “Look, we’ll figure out guard going forward. But if we can get Jiren Jackson Jr. with Andrew Wiggins, we feel pretty good about our front court rotation here, our forward rotation. We’ve got Santi Alama. We’ve got Zack Edy coming back. Maybe Brandon Clark will play for us again one day.” Like Wiggins kind of just makes everything kind of come together there. Maybe that’s interesting for them. The Heat cannot trade Terry Rosier right now because he’s on leave from the team. So, he’s not eligible to get traded. So, I’m not even including him in any of these um yeah things. So, you could build a trade around Hero. You could build a trade around Wiggins. You could potentially build a trade around Norm Powell. Although, you’d have to make up with Pal making $20 million, you’d have to make up $19 million. So, you have a lot more pieces going out. It could be Powell plus DaVon plus like Haime plus Kell. It’s a little bit harder to get up there. So to me, I think the two main pieces are either Hero or Wiggins. David, what about Nico? So Nico is a little bit harder to get traded because he just signed that extension and there’s some um there’s some u limitations that uh come with that. I figured u he has a team option for the this so he can veto the trade. Oh, veto it outright because of the team option because of the extension. Yeah. So, because you sign the extension in that window, that rookie scale extension window, you actually have the ability to veto that trade during any mid-season trades during that, you know, ensuing season in which you signed the extension. Well, I mean, there’s a possibility he wouldn’t veto it, but so I I it doesn’t really matter. I I guess it’s just I just kept it was too complicated, so I kept him out of No, no. I I understand. I I don’t It’s uh those are all interesting options. It’s I I don’t know. I just feel like torn with the whole idea of bringing Moran in in the first place. I just think that what we’re seeing now might is I’m sorry, not even might. What we’re seeing now is definitely worse than what we experienced with Jimmy Butler in that iteration. like for all the complaints that we might have about Butler or whether or not he left on bad terms or anything else about taking up too much oxygen in the locker room and those are all valid. At the same time, you cannot overlook the fact that the team was its most second most successful iteration in franchise history, only second to the big three. You know, I guess 2006 in the short list Shack era might have resulted in a title. And I get that my second most I but we’re we’re that that’s not even an error really. It was just like a really good it was, you know, okay. Okay. The point being that uh I think it they’re just they don’t want to lean into that idea anymore. They don’t I don’t think they can. So I I don’t know. Again, I I my question is my my thought is this team would have to be really really bad before they can go h here we go again. we’ve got to do something different. And then by that point then you start looking at what you have on the roster and saying whether it’s Tyler that’s the problem or we don’t think we want to resign Wiggins or again even Powell let’s say he you know has a meteoramic meteoric plummet uh from what we’ve seen over the first few games of the season then at that point yeah you have to consider whether or not Morant is a valid option. Uh last thing here it was reported by Shamsania that Precious Aua is signing a deal with the Sacramento Kings. Obviously, the Heat brought in Achua during training camp in the preseason to a non-g guaranteed contract. He did have a chance to make the team. Didn’t make the team. They waved him. Get on got under the luxury tax. Now, um we were talking about this before we started recording like what’s the plan B now? Because the Heat things are a little bit different now because of the Teo Rosier situation and I think they’re a little bit more of a a a hold position. But before all the Rosier stuff, they were able to sign on December 14th a player to a a pro-rated minimum contract and still stand under the luxury tax. Most people had Precious Achua sort of pinned as the guy that they would maybe bring back. We don’t know that that’s the case necessarily, but I think I made this point before. I think the team liked the idea that Achua at least went through a training camp with them and understands the system that they just tried to install. Right? He was there for the install in Boca Raton, right? But um he’s off the table now because now he’s playing for Sacramento. Good for Achua. Like to see him land on his feet. Maybe not necessarily great for him to land on in his feet in Sacramento, but that’s that’s what it is. Um what’s plan B now, David? Yeah, I don’t know that there is one, right? That’s the whole problem is that now you’re looking at this team and you’re saying you need to kind of add somebody. Um I don’t know that there’s a valid option out there. Yeah, I think um I mean we’re looking at the same sort of retread group of of centers that that have sort of just been around the league for a long time. Other guys will get bought out. Other guys will well maybe not get bought out but get waved and things like that. Like we’ll see what else happens, but there’s not a name when you look at the list of free agent centers that’s like, “Yep, that’s the guy that we definitely have to have on the roster.” And you know what’s the archetype? What’s the archetype for a backup center right now? A guy who can run, I think. Right. I mean, would you want a guy that at least fits the system? He can get up and down the floor. Floor spacing ability or no floor spacing ability? I mean, if you could, that’d be great. Is that guy out there? Like, those guys aren’t usually available free agents. That’s what I’m saying. That’s why I like the idea of Precious. It’s like that guy can run, you know, north south. He could be out there. I mean, that that’s that’s sort of the deal, right? Like, are you healthy and available and can run fastish for a center? That’s sort of the That’s sort of their Orlando Robinson. Yeah. Is that what you said? I said run fastish for a center. Run fast. No, I think he’s under. I think he’s Isn’t he on Orlando? Isn’t he like the one guy who’s ever had his full name on a on the front and back of a jersey? I don’t know. So that to me, and we don’t need to spend a ton of time on this because we’re running up against it. To me, plan B is just figure out the Tay Rosier thing before you can worry about your third center and all this stuff. Like, we saw Miami go small the other night with Nico at backup center or at center, right, when they wanted to go small. There’s ways that you could do that. Heck, in this offense, you could play you could put Wiggins at the five at the quote unquote five. You could just play five wing players. I mean, it wouldn’t shock me if we saw it at some point this year. So, um, to me it’s figure out the tail rosier situation and then figure out what your salary cap situation is before you end up doing anything in regards to a precious type of backup third break glass in case of emergency center. But that’s going to do it for us today here on Locked on Heat. Thank you for making locked on heat your first listen every day. We’ll see you back here tomorrow.

Miami Heat face a potential franchise-altering decision: is Ja Morant the answer or a risky distraction? With trade rumors swirling around the Memphis Grizzlies star and his unrest in Memphis, David Ramil and Wes Goldberg break down how Morant could reshape Heat culture, impact their up-tempo offense, and raise questions about locker room chemistry. Will Miami pursue Morant, or stick with their newly installed Noah LaRoche-inspired system that’s delivered a top-10 offense?

Key topics include Morant’s trade value, the feasibility of Miami sending Tyler Herro or Andrew Wiggins to Memphis, and whether Morant’s pick-and-roll style fits the Heat’s vision. The hosts also analyze the fallout from Precious Achiuwa signing with the Sacramento Kings and explore Miami’s backup center options amid ongoing roster instability. Can the Heat build on their early-season offensive surge, or does a superstar shakeup loom on the horizon?

00:00 Intro
01:30 Ja Morant joyless in Memphis
14:10 Ja Morant Trade Value Analysis
27:43 Fake Trades
34:10 Precious Achiuwa Plan B

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