TRADE: Brooklyn Nets acquire Haywood Highsmith, draft pick from Miami Heat | Assessing the deal

TRADE: Brooklyn Nets acquire Haywood Highsmith, draft pick from Miami Heat | Assessing the deal

Coming up, the Nets make another offseason trade, this time with the Miami Heat. I’ll tell you why the deal is a win for Brooklyn after this. [Music] You are Locked on Nets, your daily Brooklyn Nets podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. Welcome in to the Locked on Nets podcast right here on the Locked on Podcast Network. It’s your team, the Brooklyn Nets, every single day. I’m Eric Slater, Brooklyn speed reporter for clutchpoints.com. Thank you for making me your first listen of the day. The show is 100% free on all those great platforms. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner. Visit the FanDuel app today and start planning your futures bets now. And on today’s show, I’m going to be reacting to the Nets trade with the Heat that sent Haywood Highmith and a future second round pick to Brooklyn. I’ll break down why I feel the trade is a win and what other roster moves could be in store. But just setting the stage for what went down. The Nets made a trade with the Heat on Friday. They acquired Haywood Highmith and an unprotected 2032 second round pick via the Heat. and they sent out their own second round pick in 2026, but it is protected for selections 31 through 55. So, it’s not going to convey. The Nets would have to finish with one of the five best records in the league for that pick to convey. So, this is Shawn Marks returning to the well, returning to that familiar play in the playbook, and we have seen it this off season. It is the salary deta’s only team with cap space this off season and still up to this point. and they acquire Haywood Highmith from the Heat. They take on his salary which is expiring $5.6 million. They get an unprotected 2032 second round pick and they essentially get it for free because the pick that they sent out is just there for the write up of the trade. It’s just there because the Nets have to send something out. It’s not going to convey. So, my initial reaction to this deal is I thought it was another smart business move by the Nets and I like the way that they’ve conducted this off seasonason. We all knew that they were preserving this cap space. They were prioritizing having this cap space entering this off season. That is why they held on to Dennis Shruder and Dorian Finny Smith to the point where when they finally did made the make the trades, they made sure that they were taking backspiring salaries last season in order to preserve this capace. And we saw the moves earlier in the offseason. They took on Terrence Mann’s $15 million into that cap space and got the number 22 pick in the draft. They took on the difference between MPJ and Cam Johnson salaries and got that unprotected 2032 firstrounder from Denver. And this is now at a much smaller scale, but it is still them picking up an asset for free in this unprotected 2032 second round pick from Miami, an organization that usually does have a good team and a competitive team, but you don’t know what that pick is going to be down the line. It perceivably could be, you know, near the top of the second round. You just don’t know when picks are unprotected that far out. So, a good piece of business by the Nets and I think Shawn Mark Shawn Mark sticking to the strategy of being in asset accumulation mode. You know, I’ve gotten a lot of questions with the Nets remaining cav space. Before they made this deal, they had 20 plus million dollars in cap space left. Were they look to go over go after free agents? How are they going to utilize this? And I said it’s going to continue to be salary dumps. That’s really the only incentive that the Nets have is to accumulate more assets. They’re not looking to make this team better via the free agent market. if they’re using that cap space, it is going to be to get more assets and that’s that’s exactly what they did. So, getting that 2032 second round pick, I like it. And then they also get Haywood Highmith, who is not, you know, like a great player by any stretch of the imagination, but has been a serviceable rotation player for a Heat team that went to the finals with him as a member of the rotation. And for those of you who aren’t familiar with Haywood Highmith, he’s a guy who played D2 ball, was undrafted, found his way onto the heat after some G-League stints, has really had to scratch and claw for everything that he’s gotten in the basketball world, not just in the NBA, and has really been a major success story as somebody who came from division 2 basketball in a really small school. So, he had a good career there with Miami. But the reason that the Heat made this trade was they were a smidge over the luxury tax line. and I think about $2 million and they needed to get under it. They still had a few roster spots left to fill. So, they needed to create breathing room under the luxury tax in order to be able to fill out their roster, duct the tax, you know, financial implications there obviously. And they do it by getting off of Haywood Heightsmith’s $5.6 million inspiring salary. And for the Nets, they not only get that second round pick, but there is potential for Haywood Highmith to be a flippable salary and a flippable player down the line because, as I said, he has been a serviceable player. I mean, last year he was nearly a full-fledged starter for the Heat. He made appeared in 74 games. He made 42 starts. That was careerhigh. And he’s a guy who’s a capable defender. You know, 6’5 on the wing, really good length, is athletic, has a good motor on that end. so he can guard across multiple positions and he shot 39% from three over his last two seasons and he’s a guy who’s played in playoff games. He played in the finals um against Denver and he’s a guy who has experience. So, we’ll see what his role is going to be with the Nets. He’s just coming off of a meniscus surgery for a meniscus tear. He had surgery on August 8th. Um and I said I think the Heat said that he’s going to be out for 8 to 10 weeks. So, that timetable would probably put him missing the start of the season. But if the Nets bring him back and make him a member of the rotation, he should be able to get in there, you know, around November somewhere at that point. And as I said, you know, as a guy who is a capable defender and a near 40% three-point shooter over his last two seasons, if he’s able to come back from that surgery, he’s able to play well, he’s a guy who could be flippable down the line. Because if there’s a team who is looking to add some depth to their wing rotation and they look at a guy like Heismith who’s playing well for this tanking next team, he could be a guy that they say, “Hey, look, we’ll give you this expiring salary and a another second round pick or whatever asset you want to say and we’ll take him for the cheap.” And that obviously is a move where if the Nets are able to do that, they can turn this trade into not just one second round pick, but potentially multiple or whatever other assets, whatever other flyer, younger player maybe they’re able to get with this. So, I think it’s a really good deal for the Nets. You look at Haywood Haywood Highmith’s profile. He is a three andd wing player. He is a guy who has been serviceable. You know, outside of that, he’s pretty limited. You know, if Nets fans are managing or outlining what their expectations should be for him, I’d say that he’s a guy who’s going to play hard defense. He’s going to shoot threes. He’s not really a guy who’s going to score outside of that too much. Last season, he averaged 9.5 points per 36 minutes. Most of his shot attempts were threes. That gives you a little bit of an idea of what his offensive shot diet is looking like. But a guy who should be serviceable. He’s another veteran player in this Net’s locker room to start the year, which they were clearly lacking. Haywood Highmith is just a smidge younger than Terrence man. So they are the two oldest players on the Nets roster and they’ll both be in that wing rotation alongside Michael Porter Jr. So if you’re looking at the veterans on this Net’s roster now, you have MPJ, you have Nick Claxton, you have Terrence Man, you have Haywood Highmith. We’ll see how they all factor into the rotation. But with all of those faces being in there, we also have a continued add to this roster crunch the Nets are going to be facing. And that could lead to more roster moves that need need to be made. So, I’ll talk about that. I’ll talk about what moves could ensue after this trade after a quick break. But before that, want to tell you about our friends over at FanDuel. Guys, August 26th is officially FanDuel Futures Day, a brand new holiday for football fans who live for bold predictions and preseason hunches. For just 24 hours, FanDuel is giving you deals on NFL season predictions. So whether you’re calling your MVP, eyeing a longot division winner or ready to crown your Super Bowl champ before week one even kicks off, this is your moment, guys. You can take a flyer on the MVP race. Maybe you think that Josh Allen can repeat and the Bills can get over the hump. Maybe you think that Joe Burrow has a chance this year with that Bengals defense potentially improving. Maybe you want to go with Old Faithful with Patrick Mahomes. You can also crown your champion in August. Whether you think the Eagles are going to repeat, whether you think the Chiefs could avenge their loss, whether you think the Bills can get over the hump, you can pick that guy or you can parlay your division winner dark horses. Guys, visit the FanDuel app today and start planning your futures bets now because futures day is one day and one day and only. FanDuel, play your game and always gamble responsibly. Coming back from the break on today’s locked on Nets episode, reacting to Brooklyn’s trade with Miami acquiring Haywood Highmith and a second round pick. I just outlined why I feel the deal is a win for Brooklyn, what I think Nets fans could could expect from Haywood Highmith and what he could potentially be as a flippable asset down the line. But with them bringing in Highmith, I want to talk about what it means potentially for the roster and the implications because I have talked throughout the off seasonason about the Nets potentially facing a roster crunch as we get towards training camp. And it’s only continuing to grow, you know, with all these guys they are bringing in via trade, some guys that they’ve signed via free agency. After this deal with Miami, the Nets now have they have 17 players on standard contracts. That’s going to grow to 19 if you include the reported deal for Ricky Council that Champs Trirania reported that the Nets have not announced yet. You also have Cam Thomas in restricted free agency. If you include him, which I expect the Nets to bring him back, that brings them up to 19 players on standard contracts. In the NBA, you’re allowed to carry 21 players at training camp. So, if you include their 2A guys, they’re at 21 right there. And then you’re only allowed to carry 15 standard contracts at the start of the season. So, the Nets have 19 players, I said, on standard contracts right now. They have five players who want partially or non-g guaranteed standard deals with uh Drew Timmy, with Tyrese Martin, Jaylen Wilson, Keon Johnson, and now also uh Ricky Council, who apparently has a partially guaranteed contract. So, if they’re going to get down to 15 contracts, they’re going to have to cut four of those guys. So, they’d only be able to keep one of them. I’ve outlined on previous episodes who I think have the best chance to stick around out of that group. I said I think Keon Johnson would probably have the best chance just based on the role that he had last season. But also, you have guys like Jaylen Wilson who they spent a second round pick on and they were apparently high on when they brought him in. You also have a guy like Drew Timmy who came in and performed well during his um stretch later in last season. Also has some past pedigree with what he did at Gonzaga, dominated at summer league last year. You have Tyrese Martin who was probably the best three-point shooter out of the group and looked the most capable during his NBA minutes last season. And as I said, this does put the Nets at 21 contracts if you include the reporting signings and you include Cam Thomas anticipating him returning. That puts them at 21 deals. You’re only allowed to have 21 at training camp. So, could they be done potentially? Like, there could be more moves to be made, but they are at that cap. And that’s not even including also Grant Nelson, who signed with the Nets ahead of summer league. There was not clarification on what kind of deal that was, but it was expected to be an exhibit 10 contract. So, that would mean that he was coming, he said that he was coming and expecting to fight for a two-way contract at training camp. So, if he’s expecting to be at training camp, he would be contract number 22 right now. So, there has to be more moves to be made if you were going to make room for him. But, you look at the players that they have, especially on the wing, the Nets have a very crowded wing rotation now with Haywood Highmith coming in. I mean, you go from the top down, they obviously have Michael Porter Jr., they have Terrence Man, they now have Haywood Highmith, you have Drake Pal, you have Dariq Whitehead, you have Zire Williams, you have obviously the non or partially guaranteed guys and Jaylen Wilson, uh, Tyrese Martin, uh, Ricky Council. Also, it’s just a lot of players and there’s not going to be room for all of these guys, it seems like, in the rotation. There were already questions about how many of the rookie guys were going to be getting consistent minutes. you know, where does Drake Pal factor into that equation? You would expect definitely that uh Jagor Gilman and Nolan Troyer are going to get minutes. You would expect also Drake Pal to also, but you talk about the guys that are now ahead of him in the wing rotation where you have obviously, as I said, Michael Border Jr., Terrence Man, um Zire Williams, Dariq Whitehead’s probably going to need to get minutes. It’s just a lot of players there. So, with Haywood Highmith, he’s going to be coming back from injury as I said with that miniscal tear and the surgery that he has. the 10-week, the long end of that time frame that the Miami Heat put out would put him right around opening night on, you know, October 22nd, 23rd, but usually you need some more time after that to get reaclimated. So, could this be a situation like what we saw with Buon Bogdanovich last season where the Nets brought him in as kind of just a salary filler in a trade or in Hwood Highmith’s case, a salary dump. He’s recovering from an injury. It doesn’t seem like there would probably be a rush to work him back into the rotation. Obviously, if he’s not ready, but also with all the guys that they need to get minutes, but you know, if they were going to use him as a flippable asset, you would want to get him on the court and showcase him to be able to, you know, see if he could build that value up, see if he could, you know, become enticing to whatever contender you want to talk about, whatever playoff team. So, it’s kind of that same conundrum, but the have a very crowded wing rotation. They have a very crowded roster right now and there’s going to be a lot of guys that are going to be odd men out. The other thing the Nets have is they also have remaining calf space. They still have moves that could be made. So, what could be next for Shawn Marks in this Nets front office? I’ll talk about that when I close out Lockdown Nets after a quick break. Coming back from the break, closing out today’s Lockdown Nets episode, reacting to Brooklyn’s trade with Miami and their acquisition of Haywood Highmith and a second round pick. I just outlined, you know, the Nets are facing a roster crunch after this move and there could be more moves potentially to be made to clear some space for some partially or non-G guaranteed guys. They have some younger guys, some flyers, but also the Nets are reportedly still staying active, you know, in their canvasing of the league for ways to utilize their cap space. You look at what the financials are after this move. The Nets have Yosi Goslin, I think, said the Nets have $16 million in cap space after this move. That is not factoring in the Don Sharp or Zire Williams signing. So, both of those guys signed for $6 million contracts. The Nets could use the room exception, which is 8 million. So, they could use the room exception for one of those signings to preserve some cap space. So, if you take away that 6 million, the Nets could be working with roughly $10 million in cap space left. That is obviously before resigning Cam Thomas, but they can exceed the cap to resign Cam Thomas because they have his bird rights as a draft pick. So, if the Nets are working with $10 million in cat space left, they reportedly are still trying to be active. They’re still in asset accumulation mode. Champs Tranni reported after he broke news of this trade that the Nets have remained active around the league making calls, seeing what the appetite is, seeing what teams are trying to shed money and there are still teams that are going to need to duck under the luxury tax line, the aprons. There are teams that are looking to remain active in those conversations. Before this trade, we saw a trade with um the Utah Jazz and the Boston Celtics where the Celtics sent George Nang to the Jazz and they got back two second round picks. Nang is on around an eight or a $9 million expiring salary and they got the Jazz got two second round picks from the Celtics which are the more favorable of two picks in the second round both of them I think in 2027 and 2031. So that package seemed a little bit more attractive than what the Nets got obviously for Highmith. Obviously, Niang is making a little bit more money about probably 3 million more than what uh Heywood Highmith is playing is making. So, you know, why weren’t the Nets in on that deal? Maybe the Celtics didn’t want to deal in division. They’d rather send those assets out west. It is interesting. Um but it just speaks to the fact that other teams are trying to shed money. Other teams are still incentivized. There are always teams that are incentivized to duck the luxury tax and that doesn’t just go right now like that. It does extend into the season. in the Heat didn’t necessarily have to make this Haywood Highmith move now. They could have held him up until the trade deadline and you can still dip below the luxury tax at the trade deadline. And why is that significant for the Nets? Because the Nets only have to spend up to a minimum of their cap space. They don’t have to use it all. They can go into the season with cap space, you know, maintaining that financial flexibility for teams who are at the deadline trying to shed salary, trying to get their books in order ahead of when the payments become official at the end of the season. So expect the nets to remain active around the league canvas and calls. I said on my last episode, my mailbag episode on Friday that I don’t expected to be anything significant, you know, really significant in terms of assets like first round picks, premium assets right after that. Obviously, the Nets, you know, uh execute a trade right after I put that episode out, but they get a 2032 second round pick. Obviously, a modest modest return, but still a good one for them. So, we’re looking at that remaining $10 million in cap space. There are several ways that they can use it. I think path one would be salary dumps and accumulating more assets. And then path two is they can use the remainder of that cap space to sign their three guys, their three incumbent free agents, which are Dron Sharp, Zire Williams, and Cam Thomas. All those guys are presume or Sharp and Williams we already know. and Cam Thomas is presumably going to be back. Whether he comes back on a short-term contract extension or the $6 million qualifying offer will make a big difference because if it’s on the qualifying offer, the Nets will obviously preserve cap space because whatever short-term contract they give Cam Thomas, it’s reportedly in the range of two years at the mid-level exception or the non- taxpayer mid-level exception, which is 14 million. So, that’s an $8 million difference that would preserve cap space. We’ll see what’s going to go on there. But the remaining cap space could be used to sign some more of these guys. You just into the space as opposed to exceeding the cap or it could be used for salary dumps. But we’ll have coverage of all that, all the rumors, any deals that the Nets do make here on Locked on Nets. But that does it for today’s episode. If you guys do not already, make sure to subscribe to the show on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast, whether Apple Podcast or Spotify. If you enjoy my content, smash that like button, leave a comment. Just takes a second. Let me know what you thought about this Haywood High Spence trade. Let me know what you thought of the Nets salary dump strategy as a whole this off seasonason. But we’re chugging on through August. We got more stuff to cover. So, I have all that and more when I’m back here tomorrow talking more Brooklyn Nets basketball.

Erik Slater reacts to the Brooklyn Nets’ trade acquiring Haywood Highsmith and a draft pick from the Miami Heat. He analyzes how Brooklyn fared in the deal and what Highsmith could bring to the team.

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