CONTENDERS: Can Miami Heat LEAP Ahead in the East—or TRADE Tyler Herro for Superstar SHAKEUP?

CONTENDERS: Can Miami Heat LEAP Ahead in the East—or TRADE Tyler Herro for Superstar SHAKEUP?

At 9 and six, the Heat have exceeded expectations this season. Fans love this group, but can a potential trade make Miami even better? Uh, yes, 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, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network. Whether you’re tuning in on YouTube or on your favorite podcast app, thanks for making us your first listen every day. Join the Cookie Gang and become everyday or that means listening every day and subscribing. I’m Wes Goldberg. I’m host of Locked on NBA Daily and Real Jam Radio. I’m here with David Rmill. Both of us are credentialed heat media members who cover this team every day. Got a fun episode for you today. Recording this Friday morning. We’re going to rebuild the Heat’s trade target big board in a minute, which is definitely going to be a fun exercise. But David, before we started recording, you pointed out to me that there’s been a lot of trade talk around the Heat in this early part of the season. You’ve got former players like Jeff Teague suggesting that they should trade Tyler Hiro for Bobby Poris in a in some sort of package that didn’t make any sense. Uh some people have said that Miami would be a good landing spot for John Morant, something that we’re going to talk about more specifically here in a second. But um generally kind of zooming out big picture here. Are you surprised that there’s been this much talk about the Heat trading for somebody here considering that the start of the season has gone better than expected and we still haven’t seen Tyler Hero in this mix? No, because I I think uh the overall point I made was that they’ve exceeded expectations. Nobody saw this version of the Heat coming. I think you and I were more bullish than the average media member about what this group was capable of. And that was even when we considered Tyler Her will be available for this team. The injury kind of derailed things. And I think a lot of people viewed this group and said, “Oh, they just traded Jimmy Butler. They were a playin team. They’ll continue to be a playin team.” Um, I don’t think anybody envisioned this group having an above 500 record at this point of season. Like we even looked at the start of the year and all the different challenges going on the road and things of that sort, the different kind of opponents that they’d be facing and it did look pretty dire. And yet at nine and six, clearly they’re better than what a lot of people expect them to. And then when you have this group that kind of comes off unexpectedly and is wind up winds up being better than a lot of people thought they would, the next thought unfortunately when it comes to uh NBA media is uh well, how do you make this team even better? If they’re not real contenders, and I think that’s what most people view this this team as. They’re not real contenders, whatever that might be, then how do you get them into that position? and and considering that it’s Miami, they’re always almost linking a superstar to this group, whether it’s, I don’t know, a disgruntled star or somebody who’s about to approach free agency, which is why they’ve been linked to, you know, other players like that in the past. And I think that’s what the buzz is about. This is a good team, but nobody really sees them as a great team until they make a trade that makes them great. That’s exactly right. You’ve got two sides of the spectrum when it comes to trade talk, right? You’ve got the blow it up side, which is where Memphis and Sacramento and some of these teams reside right now. And then you have the oh that’s interesting side of the spectrum. And that’s where teams like Miami and I think Detroit is in there too. Uh teams that are oh these teams are a little bit better than we expected. And maybe one more thing here and then we can have a kind of different conversation about this team, right? And so with the Heat, I would consider it sort of a compliment that they’re being lumped into these trade conversations right now because the East is even more wide open than we were saying going into the season. There’s no question about that. The Knicks are up and down. The Cavaliers are very up and down. These were considered the two top teams in the Eastern Conference. And right now, they are not the top the two top teams in the Eastern Conference. And nothing that we’ve seen on the court suggests that they’re going to run away with this thing, that they’re in some sort of tier by themselves. Right now, Detroit is number one in the standings. Toronto is number two in the standings. Miami, that’s a surprising, is fifth. Toronto. Yeah, Toronto’s another trade team where it’s like, hey, maybe they’re a team that can maybe make a consolidation trade and really go for it here. I I think the Heat are a contender in the Eastern Conference. And that says more about the conference than it does about the Miami Heat, to be honest. Yeah. But I’m not willing to rule anything out with this team until I see Tyler Heriro back. And I and I want to just I want to see it all together. I want to see it all together because they have the best coach in the conference. They have the depth has been great. I’m still not sure how good Haime Hakas Jr. is. And I mean that in a good way, right? Like he might be better than what he’s even showing right now as he continues to get more comfortable and continues to get better right now. Um I think Bam is going to figure out his spots. Kell has just been progressing. Even in the early parts of the season, he’s been great. We expect Nikloic to turn things around. All of that said, that’s why I’m not surprised the Heat have been included in these trade talks because it does make sense when you see a team like this. It is a blessing for the trade machine people like me who just love to hop on the trade machine a couple times a week and just be like, “Hey, like let’s see what we can do if we move some things around.” when you have kind of a new team to lump into all of that because I think most people expected for this season for Miami to sort of just be a back up, take a break, catch your breath after the Jimmy Butler era and kind of lick your wounds and figure what out what’s going on. And they clearly are not approaching it that way. And there’s the added f factor of well they’ve been doing this without Tyler Herro. And I think this kind of reminds me of where the group was in 2023 after the run to the finals. Of course, just as a reminder, Tyler gets hurt early on in the process. They wind up excelling despite it in some people’s views, in spite or because of the fact that he was injured. And so, I think you look at what this team is now and they’ve been doing it without Tyler. How useful is he really? How necessary is he to Miami success? And that just adds even more fuel to this potential trade conversation that everybody’s having about this group. So, it is a compliment, but it feels kind of like a backhanded compliment, too, right? Like, yes, we see that you’re good, but we also recognize you’re not good enough. And I’m sure the players are like, “Well, what the hell are we shop? Why do we need to make a trade? Why do you think that we need to upgrade this roster?” This doesn’t feel like it did um you know, last year when things were so dire and the whole Jimmy Cloud was hanging over everything where you really needed to make some kind of a a big overhaul or a massive improvement to this team. Uh and you wanted to maximize the Jimmy Butler window. I don’t think it’s this doesn’t feel the same way. This is more about trying to make a change to improve this current team and as such I don’t know that an overhaul is even necessary. Yeah, I’m not sure. I was I was talking with some people before the Warriors game and I’m saying look I understand all the trade talk. I don’t know that I would do anything unless like we’re we’re going to build the trade big board target list in a second and there are definitely some names where if they become available you’re like yeah just go ahead and and get that done if you can. But there’s no there that level of urgency that was there over the last couple years during the Jimmy Butler window, that’s gone, right? Like the reason why they were interested in Damen Lillard and maybe, you know, trading everything that it would have taken for Damon Lillard and the couple times they were involved in Kevin Durant, I they weren’t even willing to do it at that point to move all of it to go get him. And they’re certainly not going to be willing to do all of it this time around um because I don’t think that level of urgency is there. I think they’re still very much in the um what’s the what’s the lawyer term? Like the data finding, the information finding phase of what’s going on here. That’s where they are. And and so while you’re here, I I don’t think you really want to jump to any conclusions or make any dramatic changes that are going to sort of change the data set that you’re working with. um other than of obviously bringing Tyler Herro back and I do think that that’s where people are also coming at this from is well they’re doing all this without Tyler Herro so you might as well trade Tyler Hero and I frankly don’t understand that logic because we also saw how bad this offense was when Norm Powell was out and some of the problems that they had when Bamabio was out we talked about the rebounding and defensively but they had some offensive issues with Bam out too. I think you this idea that hey, you’ve got Pal so you don’t need Tyler Herro. I maybe that ends up being true. I don’t know that we know it to be true yet. And in today’s NBA, you can use a lot of scoring and a lot of shooting and especially in a team like this that’s going to be leaning on its offense. Why not juice your offense even more? And it’s not as if this is the top offense in the league. Right now, they are um they’re 15th in offensive rating. This is not an offensive juggernaut. They could use Tyler Herro. I think at least the idea of Tyler Herro. I want to see what at least at least what it looks like when you add an all-star scorer back to this mix and see if they can climb into the top 10. Yeah, I I I think that makes a lot of sense. I mean, it’s a they’ve they’ve again, they’ve been better than a lot of people thought. Why not make this roster better? And uh leaning into that identity offensively uh is great, but I think you would also want to target somebody who can provide some two-way capability because you don’t want to sacrifice just leaning into the offense and sacrifice your defense as a result because we’ve seen some defensive missteps from this group and and they’ve allowed some teams, even the Warriors. I mean, they were held the Warriors to under 100 points, but that wasn’t really the Warriors, was it? That was, you know, a a kind of shell, a shadow of what that team actually is. And and yet there were some defensive issues there and that they want to clean up. So, there’s a lot of potential names out there and uh I’m curious to see what you think about what this team needs and I know that’s a discussion we’ll have throughout the show, but uh yeah, I I think an improvement is necessary and at the same time I wouldn’t pull the trigger on anything until we see what this group is like without Tyler with Tyler Hera because that’s definitely going to I think and you think as well add something to this team that they’re desperately in need of. And if it doesn’t, then you can make a decision, right? There you go. Uh, but you got to at least see what this is and I think for a while and but the trade deadline isn’t until February and I don’t think the heat are going to make any major moves before then unless something crazy happens. But um, we’ll get into all that here in a second. One quick update on Tyler Herro. It sounds like he’s targeting this upcoming week. Doesn’t sound like he’s going to play uh on Friday night, but potentially Monday, maybe a little bit after that. Uh, so we could get the return for Tyler Herro here pretty soon. But a lot of people have said that Miami is a perfect spot for John Morant. The problem with that is that they’re missing a key detail and a reason why maybe he’s not. We’ll talk about that next. Today’s episode is brought to you by Quo. Let’s talk about something every business owner knows too well. Miss calls. When a customer tries to reach you and can’t get through, well, that’s money just slipping away. Quo, spelled Quo, is a smarter way to run your business communication so you never miss an opportunity. Quo is the number one business phone system built for 2025, not 1995. It’s simple, modern, and designed to help you communicate faster, look more professional, and stay connected wherever you’re working. You’ll love that Quo works right from an app on your phone and computer. 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Dash Pass members only. 50% off up to $10 the next day after a 50 point game with promo code. Terms do apply, no purchase necessary, and ends April 13th. Open to US residents 21 or older. Visit door dashinyourbag.com for full details. Do store door dash in yourbag all season long. We’ll be right back. You’re right about that dash pass 50% off thing. I haven’t even ordered lunch yet. I think that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Maxi, thank you. D Maxi, uh, thank you for making the Lockdown Heat your first listen of the day. Thanks for making the Lockdown Podcast Network the number one sports podcast network. Let’s talk a little bit more about John. It’s been reported that teams are still monitoring Morant’s situation in Memphis. He’s currently out with a calf injury. He’sn’t going to play for another week or so. Uh but the Grizzlies are 5-1. It’s not exactly like Morant was playing great before the injury either. He’s made some comments to the media. There’s friction between him and the coaching staff over the his role and the minutes and all these things. So, people are wondering, okay, what’s up with Morant and is he the next superstar to hit the trade market? or is Memphis at five and 11? If things keep going south and keep going in this direction, would they actually explore a John Marant trade? So, I understand why teams are monitoring John Morant, right? I also understand why people on the outside are interested in potentially John Morant in Miami. To me, David, John Morant makes no sense as a trade target for the Miami Heat. I understand why outsiders are connecting these dots. John Morant needs culture. The Miami Heat have culture. And when John Morant is right, he is amazing, phenomenal, entertaining, all it was only a couple years ago that we were talking about him in the same vein that we talked about Anthony Edwards right now as a potential American superstar. Right. And I think that people generally that who are fans of the NBA just want to see John get back to that level. And so do I. Yeah. And I think they see the Miami Heat and Miami Heat culture and being like that’s what can get John back to that level. So from that perspective, I totally get connecting these dots. My question is if you’re the Miami Heat, do you want that responsibility? Do you want the responsibility of rehabbing the John Morant situation and turning him into the the ideal version of John Morant, especially with things going the way that they are right now? and potentially, by the way, what it would cost uh to have that opportunity. And we I don’t really know what John’s trade value is right now. It’s a hotly debated subject in NBA circles right now. Um but not only that, David, that’s not the only reason why I think this is not a good fit for the Heat on the court. I also think it’s a bad fit. We know how John Morant feels about this system. Noah Lar Ro who came over from Memphis to Miami as a consultant with the Miami Heat right now and helped Eric Spoler and Chris Quinn uh build this current offense with no ball screens and all this stuff. Lar Ro came from Memphis last year and John Morant hated that offense to the point where they had to fire Taylor Jenkins, promote the Thomas Eolo and then they started running even more pick and roll than they’ve ever run before because that’s the offense that John Mar wants to run. He wants to run a pick and roll offense, right? and the Heat don’t run a pick and roll offense. So, that’s the part where the detail I think people are missing is that Morant doesn’t like this offense and he’s the one star in the league that we’ve already seen in this offense who openly bristled against it. And so, I just don’t see the fit here. Am I wrong? I don’t think you’re wrong. I I think we see it from a different angle because you you hear about some of the people making these claims. It’s it’s former players uh you know Carmelo Anthony and even a guy like Bill Simmons who’s fairly plugged in obviously and so it it just does seem like a puzzle piece fit. It’s troubled superstar X with team that always handles troubled players and knows how to assimilate them into a culture that is rock solid and unshakable. No other team could have withstood the past five and a half years of Jimmy Butler. Um, I don’t think any other team could have handled the assembly of a big three the way they did in 2010. And while the rest of the country and even to some extent maybe the league itself was rallying against a team like Miami, Miami is like, “That’s okay. We’re okay. We can handle this. Uh, we know what we are.” And that that’s a kind of internal confidence and strength and that that this organization is unflapable that they could withstand that sort of thing. And so they know when a player like Morant is perhaps on rocky ground they can accept that and they’ll help him to get better. The problem and this is where I have some concerns about the Morant Fed even aside from the whole Lar Ro factor which I think is a very valid point to people overlooking. Does he actually want to improve? And I don’t think he does. I think this is where the issue with Jaw is. He’s a guy who is so much better than a lot of people expected him to be. And that he’s he’s grown into this superstar level. I don’t think he wants to hear it. And this is a team where you need to be able to accept the tough love. You need to be able to have Eric Spolstra and Udonis Hasslam and Bam Adabio and everybody else affiliated with this group tell you, I don’t care what you did in Memphis. That doesn’t matter here anymore. Now you’re here. You’ve got to do the work and you’re not good enough and we want you to be better because we love you because we want you to be your best. And I don’t know that Morant can accept that because if he did, he’d probably be a lot easier for Memphis to handle and I don’t think he would be creating some of the off the- court issues that he has or some of the enc court ones too. So I I think that’s where the the problem for me about Moran is I don’t doubt his talent. I think he’s a much I don’t think the I think the stories about him and what he does off the court have been really blown out of proportion to a certain degree and there’s some cultural things there that probably make it uh a little difficult for a lot of people to accept and I don’t think that’s the problem. I just think there are just some players who like you know what I don’t want to hear all that. Yeah. I don’t want to accept what Miami is selling. We’re not for everybody. How many times have we heard Eric Schmolster tell us that? And that’s the big thing, right? It’s right. you’ve got to do your due diligence on John Mar. And maybe, by the way, Lar Ro knows a little bit about John Marant. And maybe he’s the one that can come in and say, you know what, it’s just not the right situation. Memphis, he actually does want to get better. He just doesn’t trust the organization to make him better. But in a team like Miami, maybe he does trust this organization. They took away his ball screens, right? Like, yeah, no wonder he doesn’t trust that organization. But that I’m just laying out a hypothetical. On the other side, Lar Ro could go back to the Heat and say, “Yeah, he’s not for you guys. He’s not for everybody. He’s definitely not for you guys aren’t for everybody. He’s not for you guys. Um, so we’ll see what happens there, right? But potentially, I guess the other thing about John, why I don’t love it as a fit, it’s kind of the Jimmy Butler 2.0 thing. In a couple of different ways. Number one, his availability. It’s not just the suspension that he had a couple years ago. He played 50 games last year, nine games the year of the suspension, 61 before that, 57 before that, 63 before that, 67 as a rookie. He’s only ever qualified for awards one time in his career, and that was his rookie season when he won rookie of the year. That’s it. He’s not available. The the Memphis Grizzlies had to build an entire system and scheme built on him not being available. Doesn’t that sound familiar? Yeah. Uh they’ve had to invest in backup point guards, whether it’s Taius Jones or um uh I’m blanking, whoever they the guy they just signed from Cleveland, Tai Jerome. Um they’ve had to invest like real money into their backup point guards because of that. And maybe Miami can get away with that because they just they already invested in Dave Mitchell, assuming that he wouldn’t be part of that trade, which I don’t know that we can assume, but like just if you can keep him or Drew Smith or something like that, you at least have somebody there. But still, um, you don’t want to trade for a superstar player and pay him superstar money if he’s not going to be available, which is again the Jimmy Butler problem. The other problem with that is he’s not an outside shooter. And we saw how that limited Miami’s offense and it forced other people to become outside shooters like Jame Hawkeyes Jr. to just stand in the corner last year that which is one of the reasons why he had a bad second season. Like that’s an issue. And uh, you know, he’s a 31% career three-point shooter. That’s really tough to build around. John Ryan’s not an easy fit. They do. Yeah, they do get to the rim a lot and they do take pride in that. There’s definitely good things about them. They’re they’re, you know, star players for a reason. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know. I I Are you concerned about the onc court? Forget about the Lar Ro screening stuff. Like it just from what we’ve seen from Morant and the talent level, the athleticism that he has, I still think he would find a way to be good here. Of course, I love, for the record, I love John Mar. I’ve been writing about Jaw Morant since he was in college. I love Jaw. When he’s right, I have a concern with the availability thing. That’s the biggest part of it. It’s when he’s right, he’s amazing. And to your point, too, you’re not the first one to bring up that concern. I know that you’re hearing the same stuff. It’s we don’t know if this guy’s trying to get better because he frankly hasn’t gotten better in Memphis and it’s been a long time. And he had like the league was at his like it was his it was his league to have and he just went the other way with it. And I think that’s that’s a real big concern uh if you’re the Miami Heat any team, right? If you’re any team that’s potentially uh acquiring him. Um so John Moran, you and I I are we sort of out feels like too extreme to say, but we’re um hesitant about a John trade. Is that a fair way to put it? Absolutely. I think that’s that’s fair and you’re open to the possibility if if things really go south for this group, but uh you do so knowing that there’s a heavy amount of risk involved. I’m cautious the way that I would be cautious like surfing in New Smyrna. Like I know there’s sharks in there. I’m not sure I want to do it. Uh but it seems like a lot of fun. Uh we build our new trade target big board next. Today’s episode is brought to you by Prize Picks. You and I make decisions every day, but on prize picks, being right can get you paid. Don’t miss any of the excitement of this sports season. Whether you’re following the NFL, NBA, or both, there’s no better time to jump in on the action. And if you haven’t tried it yet, Prize Picks is the simplest way to play. Just pick more or less on at least two player stats. 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That’s code locked on NBA for $50 in lineups. That’s your first $5 lineup. Price picks. It’s good to be right. We’ll be right back. So, this is something that I’ve been thinking about for the last couple of weeks, David, is the Heat are always going to be involved in these trade conversations, whether it’s for John Morant or whoever, right? This is the position the Heat have put themselves in. But with this new offensive system, uptempo, pushing the pace, a ton of isolation, not a lot of pick and roll, does that change Miami’s potential like big board of trade targets? And do we have to reconsider the ideal trade targets for the Heat now that we’ve seen this scheme? And it’s a conversation you and I have had about John Morant, for instance. It’s would you choose John Morant or the system? So, there’s always going to be a part of that, right? Like there’s a certain like if Luca Donuch says, “I want to come to Miami.” Then you’re like, “All right, I guess we’ll run a Luca Donic offense then that then just throw this whole offense in the trash.” And that would be fine. But I don’t think you’re going to do that for everybody, right? And so I thought it would be fun to kind of go through quickly here with an exercise of just sort of rebuilding our trade target big board. We don’t have to do it in order like from top to bottom, but just names that are at least on the whiteboard here. And so when I think about superstar players, the the the the juryy’s still out on John Morant. I’m also going to leave Trey Young and LaMelo Ball just over here, right? Like those guys, pick and roll type of players. Maybe you disagree with me, but I just that’s a whole other kind of conversation. But in terms of players that I know can fit this offense, the number one guy is Giannis still. And he’s probably the number one guy no matter what, regardless of what scheme you’re running. But imagine Giannis in this offense. This is exactly the kind of superstar player that could unlock this offense to whole other levels and turn this team into a legit championship type of contender. And again, that probably goes without saying, no matter what your scheme is, no matter who your coach is, frankly, it’s Giannis, right? He’s one of the best three players in the league. But imagine him in this team on this system. It’s even more exciting than I think it was even before. Specifically, also, I think we’ve always always had questions like if could you fit Giannis and Bam if you ultimately didn’t have to move Bam in a trade, which is a, you know, another thing. But I think with Bam’s three-point shooting, you definitely could, right? I think that’s also a thing that’s changed. Yeah. I haven’t even considered Giannis. To me, it just feels like that’s such a unreasonable thing. It’s a pipe dream right now. Especially Milwaukee has been pretty good. So, yeah, I know they lost yesterday and they’re without Giannis. he’s going to be out due to injury for a while. So maybe that’s enough for him to be like, “Oh, you know what? I don’t want I don’t want to do this anymore.” But that’s just that also feels like an offseason conversation more than anything else. But hey, you know what? Nico Harrison straight away Luca Donic overnight and nobody knew or saw it coming. So, who knows? Maybe they’ll they might be willing to do something in Milwaukee. So, yeah, Giannis is I I agree with you. I think most people expect that to me be an offseason thing. And by the way, like we just talked about in the first segment, the Heat are probably looking more like a offseason type of decision, but these are still names that are out there. Um, I got one name, please. Let’s see if it’s on my list. Askak. Okay, so this is in the case that the Pacers just say we’re going to reset the timeline here. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, do they punt? Uh, they’re two and 13. Like, this season is unsalvageable and they need that and Yeah. So maybe they look to this season and be like, “Oh, it’s okay. We’re willing to kind of take the loss this year, but it’s Pascal willing to do that. Like he just got paid.” Yeah. Uh he hasn’t really done anything like he he’s won his championship in Toronto. Does he want to win again? It just feels like that’s the right kind of professional championship experience. He knows what to do. Has gone on deep runs with Indiana, too. So I don’t know. I I just I’d be shocked if the Pacers traded him. They were just in a win away from winning the championship with Seakum playing a huge part in the finals. I think what they do, they have their pick in 2026. They draft somebody at the top. I think they probably trade Benedict Matin who’s another player who would be very interesting because you don’t want to end up in a Kaminga situation with Matin this upcoming summer. I think they could explore the trade market for him and that’s a guy I would be very interested in if I’m Miami depending on what the price is, right? I’m not trading Powell or Hero or one of these. I that’s to me more of a flyer type of guy, but it would be interesting depending on if you could get him. Yeah. Um I kind of like in terms of his contract last year. He’s in the final year. So you’d have to pay him. Oh yeah. And that’s why you would have to do it at the deadline. Number one, his contract’s coming up as a LBR restricted free agent. And number two, uh you want to see him in the system and and determine whether or not you want to pay him. No, I think he’d be a great fit here. Oh my gosh. Yeah. and and he’s from uh he’s from the Caribbean, too. So, there’s a definite tie there. Like, I mean, it would be fantastic. Like, he would probably leave to be love to be closer to South Florida. So, yeah, that’s a that’s an interesting match there. Okay. Yeah. Um I’ve got kind of feels like he has to be on this list, but it’s kind of a John situation. Zion Williamson. I probably wouldn’t. Yes. Yes. He’s on my list as well. New Orleans again, that season has gone so far south. Oh, yeah. and they might just be like, you know what, time for the reset. And Zion in this offense, if he’s right and healthy, I mean, it’s Giannis like it is. That’s was I was just about to say, and it’s not even an exaggeration. We’ve seen it. When Zion is right, he is Giannis. He’s basically, you know, whatever, like a half notch below what Giannis is. The big question is, can he stay healthy? Can he stay right? It’s similar to the jaw thing where I think the rest of the league is more interested in this science experiment than the Heat are. But if they could salvage Zion, they have a star level player, but that is a big if. I know there’s off the court things too with him, but it doesn’t feel the same. There’s a Duke connection running through the front office. That feels like the flyer that Miami would be willing to take. Not only John Morant if it was just between those two. Oh, 100%. I agree. 100%. I agree. 100%. Uh, and I think he’s a better fit, too. Like a guy who he’s not going to give you guff as far as what the offense is or what the coaching staff is like. I don’t think those are his concerns. He just wants to be healthy and he just wants to have the ball and he just wants to crush people on the way to the rim. Yeah. And I think he he needs direction and New Orleans has nobody that nobody with a map. There’s nobody with a map in New Orleans. and the Heat have a lot of guys with maps and all of them are pointing the same direction which is body fat index is going to be this uh you’re never going to be in better shape of your life. I do think Zion wants it. You hear the stories every summer. Yeah. Like Zion to me is the captain of the all epiphany team. It’s just every summer we get, oh Zion really figured it out this summer. He’s finally taking X, Y, and Z seriously. And I don’t think it’s lying when we see that stuff. like he is he was in better shape. He thought he needed to get thinner. He still got hurt. Yeah. But he’s sort of just out here in the wilderness by himself trying to figuring out on his own. I think he needs guidance like, “Hey, these are the things you full that you actually need to do.” And there’s questions about the the front office. There’s always co questions about the coaching staff. Yeah. The medical staff has been under fire. Like there that that organization medical staff in the league that just needs an overhaul. If you just and all of a sudden you come to like the exact opposite in Miami where everything’s stable. The worst arguably the worst medical staff in the league to one of the best training staffs and medical staffs in the league. I won’t say that the Heat are the best, but they’re definitely one of the best. Yeah, that’s fair. That’s a big difference. And I that’s why I call it a science experiment. I think the rest of the league is interested in that science experiment just to see what it would look like because we’re all interested in what Zion Williamson can do when he’s healthy because like Jaw, he’s tremendously entertaining. My question is, do the Heat want to shoulder that responsibility? Depending on the cost, that’s the big question. Um, a couple other names that I don’t want to spend a ton of time on, but are on my kind of maybe list depending on it. Jonathan Kaminga, Jaden Ivy, John Collins. I think those guys are sort of interesting. Um, I think it’s probably too much to get any of those guys. Maybe the Clippers blow it up and you can get John Collins for something cheap, but he’s even on an expiring. I don’t think they’d be in a rush to move him for anything that was not very valuable. And if it is very valuable, I don’t think the Heat should trade it for for Colin. So, isarden an option? Who? Harden. I thought about James Harden. The isolation stuff is a fit. The way he slows the game down isn’t a fit. Yeah. So, I And at this, you know, I I thought Harden should have been on the Heat already, but that was during the Jimmy Butler era. Um, two more names that I think are more interesting. I’ve come around on Larry Markin. Okay. I’m still concerned about the contract and based on the reporting that it’s going to take basically four first round picks, that’s a hard no for me. Yeah. But if some if the Heat could somehow get him for something less than that, I don’t know. I’m at least he’s on the It’s worth a phone call understanding that you’d probably not want to give up everything that it would take and also have to pay Markin, but him and this offense would be an ideal fit. My my thing with Markin always was he’s a play finisher, not a play starter. And that was always my concern because I think this team needs a play starter. But in this offense where everybody’s kind of starting plays, I’m less concerned about Markin’s lack of playmaking, I think it would actually be a better fit in this offense. And so I’ve kind of come around on Markin, but I’m still not fully there just because of the contract and what the reported cost would be. What about like a Keegan Murray from Sacramento? So, I do have a Sacramento King on my list, but it’s not Keegan Murray. Okay. What about Damont Sabonis League Monk? What about Sabonis? No, wait. Hold, hear me out. I I can’t I don’t like his game. I just don’t like I just don’t like it. But you know what? He fits the toughness. Yeah, see, I see it. I see it. We can find him at center and play Bam at the four. He’s exactly the Bam is exactly the kind of four that can cover up for all of his bonuses defensive inefficiencies. Yeah, it makes too much sense. It really would. And he would I mean that rebounding edge, they like his work work ethic. He’s a he’s a no hassle kind of guy. He just fits in. Never been a problem. Yeah. He’s kind of like a He’s kind of like a throwback Heat player, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, it does. I I I just don’t like I like Sabonis. I’ve always liked Sabonis. No, I like Sabonis personally. I don’t like his game for whatever reason. It’s just not It’s so unappealing to me. But, um I think he does fit a lot of areas of need for Miami and I think it would be a pretty seamless fit. I would probably go so far as to say he might be third or fourth on this big board. Maybe even higher to be honest. He could be second to Giannis. I know that’s crazy. Um there there are definitely limit people have said with Sabonis and I think that’s right that there’s like a ceiling to how good you can be with him. But I do think if you have a guy like Bam and shooters like Tyler and or Norm Pal. Yeah. And you have Eric Spolster coaching it. I just I don’t think there is a ceiling to a team that has those elements on it. Now I don’t know what it would cost to get Sabonis. The Kings would be asking for basically the rebuild package, but I think the package would be based mostly around picks and it would probably cost you a young player. Whether that’s would you do it for Khalil, Nico, I don’t know that I would tra I don’t know that I would trade Khal for for Sabonis at this point. I’m still not sure I’m willing to do that. I hear you. But if you’re looking to contend immediately though, you might be the better fit. He is the better fit. But yeah, if you’re looking to cont if you’re looking to try to make that leap right now, but that’s I’m not sure the Heat are and we’ll see. We’ll see what happens when Tyler Herro comes back and we see a little bit more what what this team can do. That’s going to do it for us today. Let us know in the comments section who you think should be at the top of Miami’s uh big board. If it’s not Giannis, who else should the Heat be targeting before the tread deadline or this upcoming offseason? But this has been Locked on Heat, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day.

Miami Heat shake up NBA trade rumors as unexpected contenders rise in the East. Could adding a star like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Zion Williamson, or Domantas Sabonis turn the Heat into true title favorites? Wes Goldberg and David Ramil examine the team’s 9-6 start, evolving offensive identity, and how missing Tyler Herro impacts future moves.

Key topics feature potential fits for John Morant, the postseason viability of Jimmy Butler’s roster, and pressing questions around Bam Adebayo’s development and the depth provided by Jaime Jaquez Jr. The hosts rebuild Miami’s trade target big board, analyze system compatibility for players like Lauri Markkanen, and consider whether a blockbuster trade is necessary in a wide-open Eastern Conference. With insider perspectives and timely updates, this episode unpacks why Miami’s surprising success could trigger a major shakeup before the trade deadline.

00:00 Intro
04:45 Miami’s Potential and Trade Speculation
15:57 Ja Morant’s Fit in Miami
24:59 Miami Heat Trade Targets

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