How the Miami Heat Can UNLOCK Andrew Wiggins + Lakers TRADE Rumors

How the Miami Heat Can UNLOCK Andrew Wiggins + Lakers TRADE Rumors

Andrew Wiggins will play a major part of Miami success this season, but can the Heat put him in a position to maximize his impact, or will the reported suitor sweep him off the roster instead? We talk about that and the best point guard in Heat history, according to himself on today’s episode of Locked on Heat. [Music] You are Locked on Heat, your daily Miami Heat podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. All right, welcome to Locked on Heat, your daily podcast on the Miami Heat. Whether you’re tuning in on YouTube or on your favorite podcast app, thanks so much for making lock your first listen every day. Today’s episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use the code locked on NBA at monarchoney.com for 50% off your first year. I’m Wes Goldberg, host of Locked on NBA Daily and Real GM radio. And I’m here with David RML. Both of us are credential heat media members who cover this team every day. And David, we have a jam-packed show for everyone today. The Lakers are rumored to be interested in trading for Andrew Wiggins, and we continue our 25 of 25 series with one of my favorite players of all time. But I want to start before we get to any of that, I want to go back to the locked top 100 player rankings. And one heat player who didn’t make the list was Andrew Wiggins. And per I had him on my list, the one that I submitted, I had him ranked 85th. Okay, but that said, I get why the network didn’t rank him after a forgettable season. You know, the the thing that you think about Wiggins last year is he was traded for Andrew uh for for Jimmy Butler, but the guy was an all-star in 2022. He helped the Warriors win a championship that season. There’s, again, I understand him not being on the list right now, but there is potential here for a guy who should be a top 100 NBA player. And for as forgettable as wigs can be at times, he might be Miami’s biggest X factor going into next season. What do you think? I agree. I think there’s a huge potential there because of his two-way presence. The fact that he is a solid defender, although I don’t know that we really saw that in a Heat uniform last season. It seemed like he was often out of place or not quite sure about how he fit within Miami’s scheme. And I think it was kind of minimizing what we’ve seen from Andrew over the course of his career. He has the size, the length, the strength, and the knowledge to be able to play defense at a high level. And we just didn’t get that version of Andrew when the Heat uniform last year. And so I know he was battling nagging injuries and things of that sort, but I think that kind of minimizes what we’ve seen from him as far as his potential impact. But if we assume, and look, I think there’s enough of a body of work there over the course of that career to say that he is an above average defender. And that being the case, I would expect that this season he’ll return to that. And we know what he’s capable offensively. As you said, there are games where he’ll be quite not as impactful as he could be. He’ll miss some shots. Maybe he won’t be as aggressive. You saw that last year, too, in a Heat uniform. But there were also games there where he had 30 points per game or more, where he was really aggressive, where his shot was falling, where he looked like more of the all-star version of Andrew that we’ve come used to seeing or expect that he has that potential to reach. And that being the case, that’s a really solid role player. A two-way guy who can do a lot. He can be a good defender. He can be a good scoreer. He can be a good rebounder. He can make plays for others. That’s a multi-skilled player. And so when you look at Miami’s roster, I get it. Everybody underperformed last year with the exception of Tyler Herro. And I think not everybody expects that he’ll be able to replicate that success. But you’ve got him an all-star last year. You’ve got Norpal who was an all-star snub according to a lot of people. Bam Debio who’s been a regular all-star for many seasons now and Andrew Wiggins a former all-star who underperformed in his Royal Miami. Not to mention the potential of Khal Wear. That’s a really solid lineup and Wiggins is uh poised to be a big part of that success if he can regain some of the form we’ve seen from him over the course of his career. So he’s a guy who’s averaged 18 and a half points for his entire career. That’s good, man. Like there is not a lot of guys who have spent 11 years in the NBA averaging close to 19 points per game for their career. Uh he has a bottom of the ledger production that I talk about all the time, but it’s still production. It’s still there. And despite the fact that he’s a former number one pick who was clearly disappointing as a number one overall pick, he’s a very good basketball player. To your point, a good two-way player. He could do stuff with the ball in his hands. And I would even argue he’s better than just a role player. He’s not a star. He’s I would argue a high-end rotation guy, which is why I had him ranked 85th. That to me is high-end rotation players. And Wiggins, like last year, he was a positive on defense for Miami. Miami was plus uh was two points better per 100 possessions defensively with Wigs on the court. According to Cleaning to the Glass, they were actually worse offense. They were six points worse uh offensively. Now, some of that has to do with the fact that he was replacing Jimmy Butler and some of those whatever. Sure. Uh there’s a lot of noise in in in those numbers, in other words. But I want to even go a little bit deeper into the advanced analytics here, and I want to get into some of these synergy stats because it was a little disappointing, not just because of the injuries that sidelined him for a little bit during his stretch in Miami, but you also just want more. You It felt like he never really fit in, right, within the Heat system. So, I was asking myself, how could Miami unlock Andrew Wiggins? How could they do him a favor and help Andrew Wiggins help the Heat? And two things jumped out to me. Number one, Miami doesn’t have a point guard. They don’t have a traditional point guard. It’s going to be point guard by committee. It’s going to be ball handling, initiating offense by committee. Tyler Herro, Norm Powell, Bam Adabio, Nico Yoic, and Andrew Wiggins. Wiggins is going to be part of that. And as a pick and roll ball handler, he was solid for Miami last year. He averaged the Heat averaged 0.9 points per possession. that Andrew Wiggins was the initiator in pick and roll. That’s the same as Tyler Herro. It’s not elite, but it’s good. And if they had an elite guy, they would just throw it to him and he would do it every play, right? The fact is that the Miami strategy is let’s have a bunch of guys who are good at it and we’ll do it by committee. And Wiggins should be part of that committee um on a pretty significant uh by the way volume over five pick and roll possessions per game. I think they should up that to six or seven per game and have Wiggins be a real part of the offense. There’s one other part of the offense I want to talk about, but in terms of just him being a pick and roll ball handler, I think that part at least is obvious because we’ve seen that so much. Going back to his Minnesota days at a very high usage, maybe not that, but he has the capability of doing it in spurts. Yeah, he’s skilled. I mean, there’s no denying it. I I think it’s interesting that we kind of view him through that lens of the number one overall selection. And that’s kind of unfair because he just he hasn’t been that superstar that maybe the Minnesota Timber were getting uh when they traded Kevin Love to the Cavaliers back in 2014. But that’s not to say he’s had a disappointing career by any stretch. He’s won a championship. He’s been an all-star. He’s been a solid role player. That’s a pretty solid career. He’s in his 11th season now when you do the math. and and that’s pretty impressive that he’s been able to be as consistently good as he was. I don’t think you were ever going to confuse him with great. And I think that’s what the problem was when he was added by Miami is that you lost Jimmy Butler who was a clear number one player even at this stage in his career and you were hoping that Wiggins would replicate some of that and that was just not the case. So I remember somebody saying something like he would be a better fit with the Heat than Jimmy Butler. Was that me? No, that was me. Okay, that’s me. We’ll see. I don’t I have not been proven wrong yet. Uh, one other thing I want to talk about is his post ups. His post up game. I was just thinking about that. Really saw that impressed me because I don’t think that I’d noticed that as much as when he came down in Miami, how efficiently he is as a post-up player. 1.21 points per possession as a post-up guy in Miami. That’s better than what Jimmy Butler’s numbers were. He’s a He was a better post up player per possession than Jimmy Butler last season. Now, last season, Jimmy Butler quiet quit on the team, but 1.21 21 points per possession no matter who you are outside of Nikl Joic or prime Joel Embiid is very very very good especially for a wing player and even in Golden State they would run stuff out of w out of Wiggins in the post there they would run their like little pinch post cuts with Clay when he was still there and Steph kind of running off of those screens and stuff like Wiggins can do stuff in the post and we did see it in spurts again in flashes last year it was about two post ups per game and it just felt like there were some games where it was like four or five and then some games where it was zero, right? Because that’s how averages work. But, um, I want to see him being used in the post a lot more. When we’re talking about the facilitating, it’s not just pick and roll. It’s not just bringing the ball up. It’s throwing the ball in and then running actions off of that and Wiggins out of the post with spacing from Hero and Pal and guys like that around him. Yeah, there’s potential for part of the menu that Eric Spoler likes to talk about offensively. The one other part of this that I want to see more of for sure, they didn’t use him on cuts nearly enough. And Andrew Wiggins for his career has been an elite cutter. Minnesota, Golden State, his numbers are elite. He averaged 1.36 points per possession per on cuts for Golden State last year before he got traded. And that’s right around where he’s been for his career. It’s always been like 1.2 up to 1.3 somewhere that it was a high number for him last year. This guy is an elite cutter. Great timing. obviously the athleticism to finish basically anything, you know, when he when he’s got a head of steam. They need to figure out how to unlock that part of his game. Well, it’s interesting because I I think that’s a really good point and I wonder how much of that could be attributed to well, he just wasn’t really familiar with Miami’s offense. I think there’s certainly part of that where he just was uncomfortable and he was just kind of standing in the corner for a lot. Yeah, that’s for sure. He needs a training camp. Uh secondly, I think also Miami’s lack of a playmaker. Like a true point guard certainly doesn’t help in that regard either. You’re not going to have somebody with the same kind of court awareness as a Steph Curry or every just within relation of the that system that they’ve worked down to such a perfect science. They know exactly how to do it. You have to have an uber aggressive high IQ level basketball player, which I think is why Jimmy flourished the way he did in Golden State is because he does fit that criteria perhaps more so than Andrew. Um, so I think that’s a big part of it. Also, look at Bam. That’s who I like. Can you run Bam as the facilitator up high as like trail big and then just have him throw over the top to a cutting Wiggins. That’s the part like an inverted offense. That’s where I think Bam can thrive more than just like the dribble handoff. And Nico too, by the way, like Nico can potentially do this stuff. And then obviously if you can get if you’re playing faster as you and I have argued that the Heat should, then we’re playing in transition a little bit more and Wiggins is able to cut off of those situations as well. Yeah. So these are the things that we’re talking about in terms of unlocking Wiggins. There’s a lot here that they didn’t tap into last season for, you know, again, you’re building this plane in the sky. So now with a training camp, um, this is what I hope Eric Bolstra is looking at in terms of unlocking Wiggins because the Heat do not they are not actively shopping Andrew Wiggins despite what Lakers fans think. We’re going to talk about that, a new report from Dan Wiki over what the Lakers would might be willing to offer for Andrew Wiggins. Plus, 25 of 25 continues after this. Today’s episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Most people can’t name all their financial accounts or even what they’re worth, whether it’s 401ks, properties, or investments. And when you don’t have the full picture, you can end up leaving money on the table. And that’s why there’s Monarch Money, all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean, easy to use interface on your laptop or your phone. Monarch is built for people with busy lives. If you put off organizing your finances, Monarch is for you. Monarch does the heavy lifting for you. You can link all of your accounts in minutes, see clear data visuals, get smart categorization of your spending, and finally feel in control of your money without ever touching a spreadsheet. 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Before we get to our 252 series, one last thing quickly that we want to touch on here. Dan Wiki from the Athletic reported on the Lakers potential interest in Andrew Wiggins. Uh on the heels of Luca Donuch uh being elim his Slovenia team being eliminated from Euro Basket. Unreal run for Luca though in Euro Basket. Made it to the Elite 8. Elite 8, that’s not what they call it there, but the final eight teams there. uh did make it that far which was way further than that Slovenian team should go because outside of Luca that team stinks. So um he was very good in the tournament and Wiki was reporting how that might change the calculations a little bit for the Lakers how they might want to be a little bit more aggressive in their timeline here uh in terms of hey maybe we are willing to give up some future stuff in order to improve the team in the near term because it looks like Luca is that good and we still have LeBron. Um, he mentions Andrew Wiggin at the right price. And he mentions Andrew Wiggins in that report as a guy that they could potentially be interested in, which I find interesting that his name keeps coming up in Lakerland. But he also reported that they are not likely to give up the 2031 or 2032 picks. And Lakers people keep talking about a package built around Daltton Connect, who with his name, he might Daltton Connect might as well change his name to former first round pick Daltton Connect because they keep trying to include him as opposed to a first round pick. And you can hear right Rob Pelinka having that conversation with the with the Heat Front office being like hey by the way like we can’t give you a first but can we just took him in the first round by the way. It’s like yeah he also slid in the first round. You guys seemed like to be the only team that wanted him and then you didn’t even play them last year. So um I don’t want to spend a ton of time on this David but this idea that the year’s where it is right and this is based on reporting. The Heat are not gonna the Heat are not looking to trade Andrew Wiggins as we just discussed. are actually pretty excited to see what Wiggins can do in a second season with a full training camp. I think they want to see that first before they make any decision on his future. He’s got the player option next year, all these things. Um, and they are certainly not going to give up Andrew Wiggins for Dalton Connect and salary filler, right? Because every Laker fan wants to be like, here’s Daltton Connect, understand Maxi Cleber and Gabe Vincent. You guys love Gabe Vincent, right? It’s like, yeah, they did. Not enough to offer the money you offered for him, though. So, I just I don’t see it. Now, if Ruh Chimura is part of the deal, maybe that’s interesting. But right now, no. The answer is no. And un and it’s no on Miami trying to move Wiggins. And it’s no on the Lakers, including one of those future first round picks that is actually valuable to Miami. And unless any of those things change, I don’t see a trade like this getting done. No, I just think it kind of speaks to exactly what we’ve done in the in the past where we’d look at teams that might be struggling and be like, why do they need X player there? And and also just offer pennies on a dollar for said player, too. But the more I think about it, and I know a lot of fans do tend to agree with this, I think I’m getting bullish about this team, like just even from our own exercise of the top 100 list to have four top 100 players. I don’t think anybody would necessarily well realistically four with Andrew Wiggins I think deserves to be on it. Yeah. He should have been on top of the 100 players. He’s he’s better than Alexander. Uh I think he’s a good player and and he could be a potential swing factor in this season because he’s better than what he was last year in Miami and he could really make a huge difference with this team. And that being the case, I think I I see this group as a very competitive one that doesn’t have their true superstar, but has five really good players as starters and some pretty solid backups as well. This is a very good, deep team that is being underrated by many. And hence, I think that’s why they think Lakers fans and Lakers exceptional being the factor that it is. I think they say, “Oh, why would you want an Andrew Wiggins for a team that’s not going to win more than 35 games?” Well, I think they’re going to win more than 35 games. And to your point, I think the heat front office feels the same way, which is why they want to continue to explore that path with Andrew. I shared more of uh our reporting on this uh situation with the lockdown heat insider community earlier this morning. So, if you want access to that uh in the future, you could do that with the link in the show notes. But David, this is our 25 of 25 series looking back at the top 25 Heat players of the last 25 seasons. Each episode, we’ll be taking an in-depth look at every player who made the list as voted on by us and our Lockdown Eat insider community through the lens of what made them a definitive part of the franchise’s history. We have finally gotten into the top 10. Yesterday, we talked about Alonzo Morning at number 11. And today, we are kicking off our top 10. It’s everybody’s favorite punching bag. A man not afraid to tell LeBron what’s what and the king of irrational confidence. He was the subject of one of our very first episodes of the Heat Check podcast. David, it is Mario Chomers. It’s so funny because the things you just mentioned there, all of those specific words are in my historical description of Mario’s career because that is just how indelible a figure he is in Heat history. Mario Chamers had won a national championship at Kansas over Derrick Rose’s Memphis Tigers when he was selected with a 34th pick in the 2008 NBA draft and traded to the Heat that same day for cash and two second round picks. He made an immediate impact his rookie season starting all 82 games alongside Dwayne Wade putting up 10 points and nearly five assists a game. In his second season, head coach Eric Spolstra played point guard by committee with Chomemer’s getting just 22 starts as Carlos Aoyo and Rafer skipped to my Louston got the majority of the starts that season. Chalmer’s production dipped accordingly despite making 73 appearances that year. But nothing changed the following season even after the formation of the big three as Mario would continue coming off the bench behind a royal while still providing some solid defense and shooting. Never unwilling to take any shot and supremely confident in his abilities even when playing next to three Hall of Famers in the lineup. Chmers would regain his starting job in 2011 and would maintain the role for the next three seasons of the Big Three era. This stint is what really defined Mario Chmer’s career with Miami with Chmer’s irrational confidence both endearing and frustrating fans. For every big shot, there was a bad pass. And Mario never seemed shy about telling LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, or Chris Bosch that it was their fault. There was at least one notable sideline altercation between Rio and LeBron. And the running gag even by former President Barack Obama where the team celebrated one of Chalmer’s two championships in the White House was that Rio was sort of the team punching bag/scape. He was the square peg that didn’t seem to belong next to the comparative round greatness of his teammates. Yet Chalmer’s uh was generally beloved and his stellar play along with Norris Cole to shut down the hype on Jeremy Lynn and LSanity is fondly remembered by fans and teammates alike. When LeBron left in 2014, Chmer signed for two more years in Miami, but lost his starting job to Goran Dragage when he was acquired in 2015. Chalmers was never quite the same and in a surprise move was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies in November 2015. He would suffer an Achilles heel injury late that season, an injury made even more unfortunate as Chalmers was an unsigned free agent. While he had recovered sufficiently by November that year, he went unsigned by any team and did not play that entire season. He did sign a one-year deal with Memphis in 2017, playing 66 games, mostly as a reserve, and never quite the same player he was. He would become a vagabond of international basketball playing in Italy, Greece, and Puerto Rico, and then later the G-League until 2021 when CO restrictions had players missing time regularly as they continued to wait for symptoms to pass. Chalmers was signed as a in a 10-day contract in December, but failed to play a single minute for Miami. Chalmer’s would play in the G-League and internationally before finally retiring, a two-time champion that was almost universally loved and sometimes hated, often by the same fans. So, one of my favorite things about Mario Chamers was the irrational confidence and I know that he missed some shots and I know that he did some silly things and the way you put it right his overall averess next to Dwayne Wade and LeBron James, Chris Blash’s greatness, it just stuck out like a sore thumb for a guy who was a starter for that entire period of the big three era. Right? There was sometimes where Norris Cole was the starter, sometimes where Carlos Aoyo that first year was a starter, you know, like Ray Allen in that 2014 finals. Remember, he replaces Mario Chmer in the lineup during the during the final series. But for the most part, it was Chomemers who was the starter. And they could just they could all they always tried to find a better Chomers and then there was Chomemers just right there being like you can’t quit me. When you think you’re out, I pull you back in. And that was just the way Rio was. But Eric Sper used to be asked about Mario Chmers all the time. What do you make of that confidence and things like that? And what he would say, and it sounds like coach speak, but I really do believe this, David. He would say this all the time. Some way, shape, or form, he would say, I’d rather have the guy willing to take that shot than the guy who isn’t. Absolutely. And I that speaks to my basketball soul, David. Like that is you miss a 100% of the shots, you don’t take stuff. Like that is that’s why I love Mario Chmer. It’s why I love a lot of players. It’s like it’s I love that confidence. I love the hutbah. I love everything that it was. People don’t understand the level of self-belief it takes to do that. Oh my god. On the NBA level when you’re sharing a court with arguably the greatest player of all time, Dwayne Wade, and then LeBron James. So, it it’s I I just I I fall for those guys, David. I fall for those guys. No doubt. on a team that has had Anton Walker and Dion Waiters. Somehow Mario Trump supreme and we don’t even have to ask him. He knows where he falls on that list. He’s number one with a bullet. He’s just always that guy. But I just always loved how he was so willing to just tell everybody else, “No, they just couldn’t catch the pass. If they had just cut a little harder, they would have gotten it.” And this is about three Hall of Fame level players. And and to be able to tell LeBron off on the sidelines, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen that. And he wasn’t wrong. Story goes in the 2011 finals, hey, do more in so many words. He wasn’t wrong. He was not wrong. So, um, love Mario Chmer’s around these parts. Like I said at the beginning, he was the subject of maybe our first podcast that we did as the heat check. It was definitely one of one of the one of the earliest jokes I remember from our podcasting career. And you have to be a longtime listener and I don’t even know that there exists any of these. There’s a bar called Churchill’s Pub known for being a haven for local bands. They just recently reopened a location. Definitely go check it out. And I was sure because of the vitrial and love for Mario Chmers that he just inflamed the fan base the way that he did that there has to be a local band in Miami called F Mario Chamers because it was just that was how we would address him every time. Like I don’t know how many games we’ve been to where it was just like F Mario Chmers. Like you couldn’t separate. That was almost like his nickname. the way that he was always talked about by fans. It was always something frustrating but also just kind of lovable in the same sense. Sliding doors moment is next. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL season’s here. Maybe it doesn’t feel that way in Miami, but definitely it’s here. FanDuel is making sure you’re ready for kickoff with a can’t miss offer because right now new customers can bet just $5 and if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. You’ll love using FanDuel. It fits however you like to bet. Whether it’s player props or building a same game parlay or maybe even jumping in live as the action unfolds on each and every game and makes it so much more exciting and it’s quick and it’s easy. It’s the best way to add a little bit more energy to your Sunday. So, are you ready to play? Download the FanDuel app now by visiting fanduel.com to get started. That’s fanduel.com to place your first $5 bet. We’ll be right back. [Music] So, I do think that Mario Chmer’s reputation has been helped with time because I look at where our panel ranked him. He obviously cracks the top 10, which I found surprising. I had him at 10 on my list. You had him at 14. Uh, the highest he was ranked was eighth by a locked on Heat Insider member. The lowest he was ranked was not ranked. Mario Chmers. The lowest he was ranked. Yeah, he was he’s part of the community. The It would have been number one. The lowest he was ranked was not ranked. Now, I want to be clear on this. Only one of all of our people who voted on this, only one person did not rank him. And I’m going to believe that that was an oversight. Yeah. Because there’s no way you don’t rank Mario Chamers. I I think that was a mistake. Nobody else ranked him lower than 15th. of all of our voters, nobody ranked him less than 15. So, he comes in here at number 10. And I think that’s awesome. And I love that his reputation has been helped with time because I do think that we appreciate now how hard it is point guard, shooting guard, center, whatever, just to find a guy who does fit and can hang around long enough and just won’t let you quit him. And I think that’s a real skill. And that’s Mario Chamers. But let we we’re uh we’re we’re short on time here, David, so let’s just do trivia really quick. All right. Uh what city does Chalmers call his hometown? Anchorage, Alaska. Ah, ding ding ding. Anchorage, Alaska. Good job. What team originally drafted Charmers in 2008? So on draft night, he was he was selected by the Timberwolves and then traded. Is that what you’re talking about? Yes, it is. Okay. Yeah. So he was he was technically selected by Minnesota. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay, there you have it. All right, and the third trivia question. Charmers was, this is a great start, kicked out of what NBA program to start his career with Miami? One that involved a fellow Heat rookie. Yeah, this was in 2008. It was what do they call it? It was the uh he was kicked out with Michael Beasley out of like the um Oh, I know exactly what it is, but what is it called? It’s like the uh the NBA rookie symposium. It’s like the uh the welcome to the league symposium thing. I forget what it’s called. You give yourself a half point for that. Every rookie has to take it. They’re part of it and they got kicked out of it. That was so Mario. It’s the rookie transition program. The rookie transition thing. All right. And there. That’s a full point. Come on. I knew what it was. F point. It’s so good. But anyway, I I Yes. The idea that he and Bees were just high as hell going to the transition program. Does it speak highly of what your NBA career Yeah, both of them lasted for a number of years in Miami of all places where that doesn’t really get tolerated all that much and just to go in there blazing along with a teammate of his Daryl Arthur who has also played for Kansas and he went in there blazing as well. So it was just a heck of a start to a great career. Beast wasn’t kicked out. He was just a more notable player as the second overall pick that same year. But he was actually fined $50,000 that hit him where the wallet is. He probably was just like, I spend that on weed anyway. So, it didn’t really matter. But, uh, it’s just a funny heck story to to for Mario in the start of his career and just to have the conference. He probably was like the one saying, “No, they won’t know we’re high as they go.” You know what? I think Mario Chamers is the second round pick that year kind of was little brothering with Michael Beasley and then he got caught. He got into some trouble and I think from that moment on he’s actually, you know what, I’m not going to be the little brother to anybody. I’m gonna be big brother or I’m gonna like at least try to act like it. And maybe that’s why he always had that carried himself the way that he did with on on teams with LeBron and Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosch for the rest of his career. Um, not to do too much psycho analysis here, but I like my version better. I like I like the idea of Mara just saying, “No, hell no. They ain’t going to see that we’re high. Cloud of smoke and red hooded eyes.” You see the shot I just hit in Kansas? Yeah, they can’t kick me out. Um, I was high for that. No, I’m just kidding. Um, recurring segments. This is our sliding doors moment. It’s a what if moment that could have changed the way that this player is remembered. This is this was a tough one for Mario because it kind of feels like if you if you played out Mario Chamers’ career a 100 times. This is the best one, right? He He is a sliding door. Like he doesn’t have a sliding door. Yeah. But here’s what I came up with. If the Heat win the 2008 draft lottery, they take Derrick Rose number one, they don’t take Michael Beasley number one. Everybody wanted Derrick Rose that year. Derrick Rose played point guard. They don’t acquire Mario Chamers in the second round if they draft Eric Rose number one overall. They got their point guard of the future. They don’t need Mario Chamers. That’s an interesting sliding doors moment. Not so much for Mario Chamers because he would have just played for Minnesota somewhere and did something like that. And maybe he would have played well in Minnesota. They needed a point guard for years. But yeah, but think about that. Like then he doesn’t become the guy who thrives alongside the big three. Then he just like that. He would have frustrated Minnesota fans. Oh, you bet. Mario sure has some confidence. Yeah. You could argue that ever happens because it’s Derrick Rose and Dillian Wade’s team at that point. That’s that’s a whole other sliding door there. But yeah, that’s incredible uh to proceed. Yeah, because then Bees got gets traded to Minnesota that same year, 2010, after they acquired LeBron. So, it’s a and maybe they would have played with each other in in Minnesota after all. They Beasley and Mario Chmers were always meant to play together and win a Big Three championship together. Shout out to Mario Chamers for hitting that shot, by the way. Um I don’t know. Yeah, I can’t I couldn’t come up with anything else. Like I I tried to include the Linsanity thing because I still think it’s something that’s remembered. Even recently, I I think I saw Dwayne talking about it in a podcast and he brought up specifically Rio and Norris Cole and how they just shut down Jeremy Lynn, but that was just part for the course. You knew Mario was going to be pissed off. It’s like, “Oh, this guy is getting more notoriety than me. I’m the best point guard in the league. How’s he going to do that?” So, you know what? He shut him down pretty good. That was That was a real Yeah. Um, is he jersey worthy? Yeah. Come on. Yeah, that’s Mario Chmer’s. I might get Mario Chmer’s jersey. You You’d have a Chmer 6 jersey just to be like LeBron who? Yes. I thought that was going to be one of your trivia questions, by the way. But it’s too easy. That was too easy. I want to get that real. You’re right. A Chmer 6 jersey, by the way. You know what? That’s Can I ask for that? I don’t ask for anything from the Miami Heat organization. Is there an old Mario I don’t know if it was stolen, but is there an old Mario Chmer’s number six jersey hanging around? I won’t wear it. I won’t ruin it, but I will display it proudly. for the Lockdown Heat podcast. I don’t know what kind of marketing that is, but that would be sick to have that in the background of this show. A Chalmer 6 jersey. If anybody’s going to steal it, it would probably be Mario. Um, he’s probably paying the old cop to get his jersey back. Um, like this is a memorabilia you should be stealing. This should be hanging above the What do you want the 20 2012 LeBron Finals jersey for? Yeah, there’s a nice Mario Chmer’s number six jersey from 2008 in there somewhere. Uh, does he pass the Jones Badier Zo test? Uh, interesting because like part of it is he thrives because he’s playing a role alongside three Hall of Famers. So, would he still thrive with this current version of the team? I’d have to say yes. Like, we we’d love him just the same. Like, I think Heath fans would hate him, especially now with social media being what it is. that wasn’t around during the big three era to the same extent. But I just imagine what would have happened, the vitil he would have unleashed for every bad pass or every missed shot. Uh but yeah, he he couldn’t make plays. He was a solid defender and he was a pretty good scoreer. Yeah, I mean really good at getting his hands on the ball, generated steals. Um I think he led the league in steals among rookies his rookie year. Yeah. Um he I I go yes for him to be in the locker room to be honest with you. I’d love to see him in the logger and be like, “They should have given me the ball just at the last second. Why Why’d you lose by 20?” Well, 10ame losing streak. This is why. Um, no. I think the answer’s got to be yes. He he he could play next to Tyler Herro. He was a good defender. Like this is so the Jones Bad Zo test. Is Mario Chomers at his prime. We’re taking these players in their absolute heat prime. And in his heat prime, Chomemers was a good defender next to Dwayne Wade. Probably even I would argue his heat prime was probably right before LeBron and Chris Bosch came. like those first couple years where he was really aggressive defensively. Um if you had that Charmers next to Hero and Powell and these guys you it’d be it’s not quite DaVon Mitchell, but then offensively he’s way more polished than Mitchell is offensively. So, um I think the answer is yeah, I don’t know if he would start. I don’t he would come off the bench probably, but either way, if you had him on the roster, it would be helpful. uh versus pin this player against the player who came before him and ask if we got it right. Mario Chomemer’s versus Alonzo Morning at number 11. It feels Mount Rushmore of E players, right? Damn straight. Um in any other exercise, this is not even a debate. It’s Alonzo Morning with a bullet. Uh but in this particular exercise when Alonzo Morning Mo his best seasons were cut off uh by the last 25 year timeline I think we got it right. I think it’s Mario Thomas. Yeah. Two championship. I agree there. Yeah. Well in the entire career. Yeah. He was on the team. But no I mean this eight seasons with Miami that’s more productive and a part of those a significant part. And he did have his moments in in big games too, like uh in the finals. Again, never shy about taking the shot. Uh would have been more than willing to take Yeah. would have been more than willing to take more shots in the stretch, but that LeBron guy kept getting in the way of his glory. But um yeah, I I think he absolutely deserves to be recognized as better than Alonzo Morning. Not over the aggregate of their careers, but over their respective heat since starting 2000. Yes. Uh let us know what you think in the YouTube comments. Have you softened your stance on Mario Chamers? Do you more fondly remember that time that he was with the team or are you still just like f Rio like that like that band at Church Hills? Uh the locked on NBA top 100 is here voted on by the NBA host of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Our our top 100 was formed by experts who cover these teams and players every single day. So find the full list on Lockdown Sports Today on YouTube wherever it is that you listen to your podcast. Don’t miss our reaction here on the lockdown heat feed. with episodes from uh reacting to the top 100 throughout the week up in your feed. Thanks for making Lockdown Heat your first listen every day. This is our last episode of the week. Have a great weekend.

Andrew Wiggins might be the Miami Heat’s biggest X-factor next season.

Wes Goldberg and David Ramil analyze how the Heat can get the most out of Wiggins in his second season with the team, including ways to use him on offense. They also discuss the latest rumors around the Los Angeles Lakers’ interest in trading for Wiggins before continuing their 25 Of 25 series with a look at Mario Chalmers.

0:00 Intro
1:30 How to unlock Wiggins
12:30 Lakers trade rumors
17:00 25 Of 25: Mario Chalmers

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