Miami Heat Sign Precious Achiuwa… But There’s a Catch 👀 (And It Concerns Me)

Miami Heat Sign Precious Achiuwa… But There’s a Catch 👀 (And It Concerns Me)

I’m not going to lie to y’all. This is not a video that I was looking forward to making because I was sitting there earlier today at work and I was checking Twitter. Well, I was checking Twitter while on my lunch break because I was busy working in the morning. Hence why I didn’t see this news when it initially happened, but I was on my lunch break and I started scrolling Twitter seeing more and more posts about Precious Acha. Like I saw Heat verse haters say, “What do you think of the big man rotation of Yoic Wear, Bam?” in Ita and I saw other people mention his name as well and I didn’t think anything of it at first because I’m like okay there’s definitely been a lot of rumors about the Heat potentially ressigning Precious Aua for like the last two months now. It was literally like every week for the last two months there was rumors about the heat signing precious and I never talked about it just because truthfully it’s not something that I was particularly interested in or wanted to happen for reasons that we’ll get into a little bit later. But as I kept scrolling Twitter, that’s when I saw the tweet from Shams that officially announced that the Miami Heat have agreed to a one-year deal for Precious Aua. So, now that it’s official, it’s definitely something that we got to talk about. Not that it’s a gamecher for the Miami Heat. Although, on FanDuel, the sponsor of today’s video, the line for the Miami Heat to make the playoffs actually changed. You know, y’all know this is something I’ve been tracking in every video. And in the last video, the Heat were plus 126 to make the playoffs. Now, those odds actually got better as they’re plus 130. So, for some reason, uh, Vegas thinks that the addition of Precious Achua is gonna make the Heat worse, although barely. I just like to mention this line because again, I think Vegas is disrespecting the Heat a little bit. But back back to Precious Aua, there really is two factors surrounding this that I kind of want to discuss in today’s video. There is the implications on the roster construction/s salary cap, and then there’s also my thoughts on his actual on the court fit. Now, one of the reasons that I really didn’t want to sign Precious, is because I kind of didn’t want to sign anybody because I knew that signing somebody else would put the heat back over the luxury tax, which is what they were trying to avoid. And I was worried that doing that would mean they would make some other move to get back under the salary cap. Like, like you know, y’all know how they traded Haywood and a second round pick to shed some salary. I was worried they might do something like that again, which I don’t want to do. The good news is however in terms of Precious’s contract, it is actually a non-G guaranteed contract. And according to Anthony Chang, his contract has a $2.3 million salary cap hit, but it doesn’t become fully guaranteed until January 10th. So, the important thing to remember about that is the Heat don’t actually need to get under the luxury tax until the end of the season, but they will make they will have to make a decision on precious by July 10th because that is when his salary becomes fully guaranteed and it would it would put the Heat about $700,000 above the luxury tax. I would say with quite high certainty that some way or another the Heat are not going to finish the season above the luxury tax. They’ve talked ample times about how their goal this year is to avoid the repeaters tax and they can do that by dipping under the luxury this year and then going back over for the next couple of seasons. And I do think that makes sense from a team building standpoint. So I am in favor of getting under the luxury tax. This is not about saving Mickey Harrison money because I don’t care that guy. It’s like literally not worth Mickey Harrison’s time to bend down and pick up like a $100 bill. like lit like mathematically not worth his time. So, I don’t care about saving Mickey money, you know, but from a team building standpoint, it does make sense to get under the luxury tax. That’s just kind of something that I want to portray in these videos, too. It does have implications on your ability to to make a team. So, there is a couple of ways the Heat could get under that luxury tax by the end of the season. Of course, the first one is cutting precious early. That’s a decision that would have to be made prior to January 10th. But the other thing that we’ve been hearing a lot is obviously surrounding Terry Rosier. Now, a report did come out saying that the signing of Precious doesn’t have any correlation to the future of Terry Rosir with Miami Heats, but I think it might just because Terry Rosier also has a a nonfully guaranteed contract that does become fully guaranteed the same date as Precious Achua on January 10th. and cutting him would actually save the Miami Heat about $1.7 million in additional cap space. So, they would be able to get under the luxury tax by waving Terry Rosier prior to January 10th. Now, that is something that we’ve discussed before and my opinion hasn’t on it hasn’t changed. Now, I see both sides of it, right? Because the Heat certainly need uh they they certainly need some more help on this roster. there’s a a whole issue particularly with regards to size that needs addressed. They’re trying to do that with Precious Achua, I guess. So, I understand they needed another player and by by acquiring another player, you had to shed some salary. You can do that by waving Terry. I get that. But my point is, I don’t think you you’ll be a great team whether you sign a backup big man or not. Like, the Heat’s odds like we saw in Fan will literally only change by four. like plus 126 to plus 30. Like it has no impact on the actual Miami Heat season. So, I don’t think that’s worth losing Terry Rosier’s expiring contract, which could actually be a valuable trade chip come the trade deadline on February 5th. Because what keeping Terry Rosier allows you to do is it allows you to have that $26 million expiring deal that can help be used uh to facilitate a trade if a star becomes available by February. And all the time we see these stars start to pop up around the trade deadline. And waving Terry Rosier would be a decision that has to be done about a month prior to the trade deadline. So you’re not going to really know too much by then. So me personally, I would rather take the chance and just keep Terry’s contract until the trade deadline. And if something great pops up, if some kind of star asks out, then great. the Heat have a juicy expiring deal uh that I think uh the the other team would really be incentivized into taking because now their cap their cap books could be cleared off uh just this following off season, you know, and to and to the same extent, let’s say the Miami He keep Terry Rosier and they’re not able to trade him at the deadline. Well, then his money comes off the books for us too. So, it’s not that big a deal either. But at least you have that salary that you would be able to trade because if you wave Terry Rosier now you you don’t have that asset anymore. you don’t have that large expiring contract to trade and I don’t think losing that is worth just adding Precious at Chua. So really I guess in my opinion the way things are now you know I would have preferred they never signed Precious but the way they are now it’s not guaranteed you have them for the first few months of the season fine. I personally would wave him by January 10th unless something else comes up. So that’s just how I feel with regards to the salary cap. Now, in terms of the actual roster, Well, Precious does cap them, their normal roster at the 15 players. And of course, we already know that their training camp roster was capped at 21 because they did sign uh several additional Exhibit 10 guys that we’ve that I’ve made videos discussing in depth. So, make sure y’all check those out. Those are Dane Danger, Trevor Keles, Gabe Madson, Ethan Thompson, and Jamir Young. So now, one of those guys that I spent a lot of time doing research on and making a video, so because I figured we’d see them in the preseason, now one of those guys is going to be cut. And I basically talked about one of them for for nothing. But one of them will be cut. And that begs the question, which one will no longer be on the roster by the time training camp starts in just about two weeks now? I think about two weeks. And it’s hard to say. You know, part of me wants to guess my guy Dane Danger, who I do love dearly. He was fun to watch in the summer league. Part of me wants to guess that it would be him just because out of these what five players here, he’s probably the worst one, the the least skill. Well, he’s got skill in the post, but you know, he’s more of an old school game as far as in today’s NBA. He doesn’t quite provide the skills that the rest of those guys have. However, he is the only big man there, and I could see the Heat wanting to have some depth for preseason games in terms of big man size. So, I don’t think Dane Danger’s going to be the one that gets cut. And then it’s like, which one of these other guys is it? You know, I don’t think it’s going to be Ethan Thompson because he’s the first one they signed right away, well before these other guys. So, can it be Gabe Madson? He’s really the only sniper, you know, out of this group. So, I think you’d at least like one of those. Would it be Trevor Kes? I think he’s probably uh the best defender out of those guards left. Or is it Jamir Young who’s really the best player with ball is the only guy that really provides that dribble penetration. So, it’s difficult to say, but I don’t know. If it was me, I probably would wave Jir Young just because as talented as he is as getting into the paint and uh and his crafty drive and kick game, it’s just he needs the ball in his hands a lot and usually those guys don’t really pan out with the main rosters. You know, we we’ve seen that with guys like Williams and Jamari Buouay and Javvante Smarts. Those guys had relative success in their summer leagues, but they never could get real minutes with the real roster just because they’re so ballheavy. And I think Jir Young is is probably the worst off ball out of those guys there. So maybe he’s the one that ends up getting cut. Uh although of course the injury to Hero could maybe make a little bit of a difference since Hero will miss the first month of the season. Obviously he’ll miss all the training camp in preseason. So maybe they want a more ball dominant guard like Jir Young and instead they they wave a guy like Gabe Matson who’s more of an offball type of guy. So that’ll be an interesting thing to keep an eye on uh over the next week or so. Uh speaking of Tyler though, I did also notice on FanDuel that his odds has obviously changed a lot for a lot of awards and stuff since his injury. And I think this one is a decent one that could get it that that y’all could get in on. Right now they have Tyler Hero at plus 135 to average 24 points per game. I think those are great odds. Plus odds on hero to average basically as much as he did last year. Last year he was at 23.9. So didn’t quite get there. And man, that would be annoying if he finished with that this year and you had 24 or over. But the reason I think he could actually hit that this year is because regardless of his injury, he’s going to come back strong. you know, the the time missed doesn’t really affect his points per game average. And on top of that, I just think he he has a lot more to prove this year coming into a year where he’s going to be contract extension eligible and obviously extension eligible next off season. He’s going to want to ball out for that money. He’s going to want to put up numbers. I know there’s Norman Powell now that he’ll have to share a lot of touches with, but last year he did also have Jimmy Butler for like the first half of the season, minor suspensions and stuff, but he also had to share the rock with Jimmy a little bit. So now you got to know Jimmy. Tyler is going to be looking to put up numbers for his contract. This is a bet that I do like on FanDuel a lot. But anyways, back to the roster spot stuff. I know a lot of Heat fans might question the uh the two-way contracts. If Precious is eligible, he’s not. He has too much time spent in the NBA. Uh although there is a two-way spot open on the Heats that can’t go to Precious. Of course, right now the guys with two ways are Vlad Golden and Myron Gardner. Golden was kind of the backup big that you were hoping that he could have this season, but from the summer league, it’s pretty clear that he’s not exactly ready. I like the hustle he provides out there. Uh he’s just a he’s big for the sake of being big, which I do appreciate, but he’s a little bit too slowooted to to be trusted on defensively uh at this point, you know, but that’s just goes back to the whole glaring hole that this team has is they need size. Like I I kind of wish they would might get another guy who is big for the sake of being big except maybe a more proven guy than than Vlad Golden of course because I hear people saying that he’d fixed their size issue with Precious Aua. It’s like nah nah fam like Precious ain’t it. Like he’s 6’8. He’s not the type of size that Miami needed. I think he’s a fine player. I mean the numbers won’t really show it. Last year with the Knicks, uh it wasn’t a huge part of the rotation. only played 57 games, about 20 minutes a night, and averaged about 6 and 12 points per game and about six rebounds. The field goal percentages were not great. You know, 50% from the field, uh, but 28% from three, uh, on low volume, but also 60 60% from the free throw line. We’ll round up for him there. So, not great efficiencies, not really numbers that will jump out at you uh, outside of his first year in Toronto where he shot 36% from three on two attempts. I remember back then as a Heat fan thinking, damn, we let a good one get away. They got the switchy stretch for the future. But it turns out that that hot shooting year for Precious was a little bit of the outlier because he’s been hanging in the high 20%s since then. So, not really a a player I’d say has a ton of potential and he’s not going to put up numbers, but what he does well is I still think he’s a relatively uh versatile defender in terms of he could guard, you know, threes through fours. You know, he’s an okay rebounder per 36 minutes. He’s at about 10 a game, but again, there’s a lot of limitations when you’re 6’8 and Spo’s going to be trying to play him at center. You know, he’s not going to be out there guarding Joic or or or whoever else, you know, whatever other true big is out there. That’s just not what you get with Precious Aua. And I think that’s what the Heat needed. You know, Bam needs someone to help clean the glass for him. I don’t really think that’s Precious Aua, you know. And again, I like Precious. He’s a fine player. I think he’s always been a really good locker room guy. comes across as very humble, hardworking guy, but there’s just bad aura surrounding him, you know? Like when I think Precious, I think back to the the huge mistake of the 2020 draft, you know, where the Heat took Precious at 20 and Tyrese Maxi went 21. Like that haunts me to this day. You know, it just sucks. That was the 2020 co year. So, the Heat couldn’t do all the scouting they wanted to in person because, you know, everything was closed down. And it’s just you wonder what could have happened if the Heat would have taken Maxi back then. Part of me thinks that, you know, the Heat would have traded Maxi and Goran for Kyle Larry, which would have just screwed everything up because of course the Heat ended up trading Precious for Larry. But who knows? You know, I guess that we can say bad bad aura is just surrounding the Kyle Lowry trade too. Uh because the Heat traded Goran and Precious for Lowry. And hindsight, I wish they never did that. You know, you did get a really good first year from Lowry. He ended up being a part of that team that went to the 2023 finals and played well. But as a whole, I think if you ask most Heat fans to grade the trade for Kyle Lowry, you know, it’s the Heatsent Precious and Goran plus the second round pick we lost for tampering, which I still think is BS, but I think if you ask most Heat fans to grade that trade, they probably would say it was a bad one for Miami. Especially when you you compound it with the fact you traded Kyle Larry for Terry Rosier, lost the first round pick. It’s just it’s bad vibes. You know, you can’t blame Precious for all this stuff that happened after him. It’s just I don’t really associate him with great times as a Heat fan truthfully. Uh it is an interesting stat though of the Heat actually have their last seven first round picks on the roster with Casper where uh Hakez, Yoic, Precious, Tyler, and Bam. You wonder how many teams have something like that in a sense. It it gives a you know a sense of a team that has stability which is pretty cool. But you know it also gives a sense of you’re too scared to move some of these young guys for a whale which also has been the case. But anyways, in terms of uh the lineup, obviously with Tyler Herro being out, you’ll have a lineup of DaVon, Pow, Wiggins, Bam, and Wear. Then off the bench, you know, I think Yoic and Pella are probably locks. So that’s a sevenman rotation right there. People are forgetting Drew Smith. I think he’s going to get run. Spo loves him, man. Looks like he might be healthy by the by the first game of the year. So you got a couple backup guards. You got Yoic. And who’s the backup forward? You know, Fontekio or Hake. Maybe they split some nights. And then you got a Chua as as your backup big. I mean, that’s a 10-man rotation right there, which you might see a little bit in the regular season, but that’s not even including Tyler Herro. So, when Tyler Herro comes back, which one of those guys gets booted? Does Terry Rosier play with Tyler Herro out to try to get his trade value up? I don’t know. It’s just like the point is you’re going like Precious Sua playing Spogo’s 10 deep. And that’s without Tyler Herro. So, when hero comes back, how much of a role is there for a Chua? You know, like are you going to play Chua just because he’s bigger but then not play a guy like Jame Hake who I who I certainly think deserves to play over presses or not play Fontekio who had a really nice Euro basket or not play Drew Smith who we’ve seen have success in a Heat jersey when healthy. I don’t know. Of course, the other part of this is uh who else was out there in terms of size for the Heats? Kai Jones is the guy that I wanted. We’ve talked at with at length about him. He ended up signing overseas and I don’t know, there was just other guys too. I just saw Thomas Bryant went for a minimum to the Cavs. Like that’s a great pickup for the Cavs. I know Thomas Bryant’s had his annoying moments with the Heat fan base, but he’s a guy who was big, always tried hard, and just his hustling on on the defensive and offensive glass is something I think that he could have used. And I just think he would have been a better fit for what Miami needs over Precious. But anyways, that’s all I got to say for this video. I like Precious Aua. I’m not trying to hate on it. I am looking forward to seeing him play. I just think there might have been better options out there. But let me know what y’all think down in the comments below. I’m very curious to hear what y’all think. But also make sure to like and subscribe because your support is greatly appreciated. And I’ll see y’all on the next one. Peace out, everyone. I don’t need no dead. Yeah, I need a head space. You know this homegrown don’t a fan. Hm.

The Miami Heat bring back Precious Achiuwa on a non-guaranteed deal. NBA and Miami Heat News featuring Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Andrew Wiggins, Kel’el Ware, Kasparas Jakucionis, Terry Rozier, Nikola Jovic, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Duncan Robinson, Kevin Love, Haywood Highsmith, Pelle Larsson, Keshad Johnson, Erik Spoelstra and more. Subscribe for more Miami Heat, Miami Dolphins, NBA and NFL news.

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