1. Lets talk about the state of the Heat as an organization (Specifically why we haven't pulled the trigger on a trade or specifically the Pistons trade I was told was there for the taking), there are some upset people up and down the latter in the oranization. The owners do not feel like this team is worthy of tax implications and has given the Operations heads to go find ways of getting from under or reducing next years tax hit as the primary reason for a trade, then secondary to that improvements if they can both me. I am going to keep specifics to myself, but I will say that I was told the owners are not happy with Pat Riley, and vice versa Pat Riley is not happy with the owners.
- Owners feel like the Executive managers need to take accountability for contracts to players like Duncan, Lowry, and going all in for homerun plays missing out on the small improvement trades sitting out there, they need to be able to fix it without adding more money to salaries as currently constructed. They will not sign off on any one trade that is not considered Homerun championship caliber, any mid standard trades must involve some sort of lessening of the current salaries on the team as the number 1 priority.
- The senior executive are mad at the owners because they are in this situation because of the limitations set by them to begin with, the current structure of the team to stay under the tax is hard unless you develop undraftees and pay veterans at the tail end of their careers to squize some last bit improvement. Miami has created this development structure because the owners will not approve adding to the tax or go into repeater tax unless this comes with a superstar or real chance at winning. There have been some available opportunities in the market the last couplet of years that would have added Miami to higher tax paying numbers but could have put us in a greater position, one of those possibilities was actually during last years run, and ownership veto going for it.
- I was finally told exactly what the 10 game conversation with Spo was actually about and why he was upset, Spo is actually not happy either, he has expressed concern to Seniors about this roster. Spo says even last year the team started to show signs of being tired of playing with one another and we needed some shakeups to the roster. This year the team is actually getting worse and he is actually struggling a bit to get them focused game to game. Jimmy does not have the same fire he had the last couple years, and the tale tell sign is Jimmy doesn't go at our players anymore during live games when they do stupid things, and has been hoping Bam becomes more vocal moving forward to take on the leadership mantle. Anyways, Pat Riley told Spo to push through the next ten games to end the year strong and come out winning to help him sell to ownership this team is a trade away from being a top East team, Spo was upset because he didn't think this was possible and was gonna be looking like an escape goat come the end of the year with things not being done because he couldn't get the team in line or squiz anything anymore out of them. The consensus from the coaching staff even last year this team had some sizeable limitations but were masked by a very productive bench and Jimmy turning into God Mode in the playoffs.
- Apparently this year a lot of false hope was spread to the Heat writers and the heat staff not around the early practices about the teams internal improvements. The reality of it was the team looked abysmal in their private practices, disjointed and very unprepared the first couple of weeks with it not looking good heading into the season. The only players who truly came somewhat to show up was, Herro, Bam, Caleb, Dipo. For example Jimmy came back way too relaxed and kinda looking around like oh we running it back with the same guys minus PJ. It was also noticeable as the pre season and camp games went on that Oladipo overworked himself over the summer he started to look injured/slow again. Miami had to make a decision and pull early to let his body recover from all that training. Last tidbit of things he heard was last years executive meeting heading into 2023 end of the year operations review, Spo usually a very vocal person in these meetings was very very quiet and didn't have much to say.
2. Now lets get into current situation for trades, I asked about what Miami has in front of them as opportunities: His response was, its been quiet the last couple weeks. Miami is in a bad spot, and will need to wait for the trade deadline to get closer, and or hope for some buyouts. He reiterated that the Piston trade was vetod by Ownership because it was saving the team enough money and also the team would not get the type of improvement to be a championship contender. Duncan is pretty much one of the most un-tradeable contracts in the league at the moment. There is no market where Miami can offload him short of losing 1 FRP & a young player like Jovic and even then the teams are limited. He says there is a bigger possibility of Lowry being traded than Duncan. So there are rumblings within the staff that Pat spoke to Jimmy at the end of last season when we lost to Boston to tell Jimmy that if there's an opportunity to trade Lowry we were gonna take it. Jimmy told management to please let Lowry come back and prove them wrong, since he was in an out due to family reason to give Lowry a full year for him to show Miami what he could do. My boy thinks based on the play to date they will not give him all year since they can clearly see what Lowry is at this point.
- He said priority one is make a trade that were we can offload either Duncan/Lowry if both even better. We must also include one of Struss or Vincent if possible in outgoing trade since signing them both next year will difficult and try and get back serviceable players under multi year contracts to give Miami some wiggle room. Three team trade that was recently available in San Antonio is no longer there, Miami thinks they have an agreement with an unknown team to help shed salary with trade to happen prior to the trade deadline. The 6 teams currently listening to some of our trades request and haven't shut us down yet are: Lakers, OKC, Memphis, Indiana, Orlando, & New Orleans.
- I asked about if were planning on trading Herro for reinforcements since he is one of our better assets, he said no the team is invested in him long term, no team has asked to have him included and Miami has not put him on the trade block either. He said they wouldn't get equal value back anyways because of the salary structure.
- He also mentioned that other teams know Miami wants to compete no matter what year in year out, so teams are playing hardball knowing Miami is wanting to get something done to improve playoff chances, so the conversation starter is usually higher than what Miami would be willing to reach even half way. Also First round picks are valued way more than ever before seeing as the talent pool in the upcoming drafts are way higher than previous years.
3. There are some other cool tidbits, but they really are more team centric on the operations side. I will post those later today sitting here remembering all the sht I talked about last night. luckily I only had 6 old fashions and 1 beer so memory is pretty crisp.
***EDIT*** forgot to mention about conversation about size and Jovic in the starting lineup I asked about:
4. I asked why Jovic is getting such a cold shoulder treatment from Spo, he said Spo loves Jovic and has some pretty amazing ideas to incorporate using him, unfortunately this is not the year, he wants to twinkle with the offensive game plan to introduce Jovic there. He can definitely see him and Bam playing along side each other. The teams priority is to get Bam involved as the primary offensive talent where the offense runs through him, the coaching staff feels like Jovic can also do those things but would have prevented Bam from growing this year and learning to hold that mantle by himself. Spo is also slowly introducing different playsets he couldn't incorporate all in training camp. Additionally he said, Jovic may seem skilled to us but the crazy thing is he is very unpolished in a lot of areas and coaching staff knows this, the team knows that 2-3 years from now Jovic could look like a world class talent, but they need to nurture that slowly.
Have to give to get. I could see Martin as an attachment with Lowry or possibly even Duncan. Duncan and Martin equal about 20ish million in salary which is like a sweet spot for many of the players we are looking at.
