Shewasfly wrote:The Kings trade talk unfortunately brings to light what a lot of people have called out. The Kings are making the right move with their star in a way that our FO did not.
The truth is, if our FO was fully aware that 2026 was the plan, that they were not going to extend Jimmy, and also that they were not going to aggressively get pieces to help him compete in the short term, he should have already been traded. Either during the off-season, or during last year before the trade deadline like the Kings are doing with Fox.
If we don’t end up getting a decent haul for Jimmy the way things are being reported, and the King’s are able to get a haul for Fox, the juxtaposition of those two trades is going to look very bad for the heat FO. Yes, it’s true that fox is a much younger star, but it is well known that Jimmy is a far better player. The gap in what a team would be willing to trade for each of them shouldn’t be that large when done correctly.
You are missing a couple of things about this situation, Miami kinda went all in with the Rozier trade and deciding to go into the tax a 2nd year in a row. This isn't a franchise that does into the tax all that often.
The financial situation nobody is talking about (because it's bad and the FO created it). The FO has put Miami into the tax the past two seasons (this current one being one of them) meaning if they are in the tax just one time in the next two seasons (3 of the last 4) they start the repeater tax, I've been talking about this since last season.
Why are the Heat looking at a 3rd year (next year) of being in the tax which would start the repeater tax? Not only did they trade a 1st round pick for Rozier but they also traded a nearly ~30 million dollar expiring for Rozier's 3-year contract which is 25 mil this year and nearly 27 mil next. The FO NEEDED Butler to walk, why not trade him? To get off the money you're talking about getting almost only expiring's back with assets and dealing with the backlash from part of the fanbase who would have hated not only trading Butler but getting nothing really tangible for him. Just poke the bear and let the fanbase turn on him (which of course is on Butler also allowing the poking to affect him).
My opinion, since I never thought Rozier and Herro made any sense at all nor paying both of them I still think the plan (AT THE TIME) was to bring in Rozier (high volume scorer) to basically replace Herro in a "go for it" situation (moving Herro in the summer before he popped). Rozier gets hurt during the season, then can't play in the playoffs, then he has some long-term neck injury and, in my opinion, decided or at least heavily leaned towards changing the plan and they couldn't move Herro. I think some anger from buyer's remorse on Rozier got directed at Butler although obviously Riley had some anger for Butler talking like he does. Once again, how does it make sense to pay 2 high volume and no very efficient (at the time) guard scorers who play no defense, it doesn't.
Understand, had Lowry not been traded for Rozier last season, not only would Miami have another 1st, it would have made getting out of the tax much easier by just letting players walk but the FO didn't. It is interesting that media around Miami is hyping up Miami's drafting to find talent yet didn't say much last year when they moved a 1st and Lowery's expiring for a 2nd (AT THE TIME) high volume average at best scoring guard. Just odd that if they're so high on this team's drafting, they didn't critique the trade more than they did last year.
