ONE MORE THING: What's the Miami Heat's Plan for the Buyout Market?

One more thing here on Lockdown heat now that the buyout market is set or the heat ready to make a roster addition. We'll talk about that next

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I'm Wes Goldberg host of Lockdown NBA daily and real GM radio

Here with one more question that we got from the cookie gang in Saturday's post game show after the heat beat the rockets

If you want the post game show with me and my co-host David Vermil you can find that up on YouTube or in your podcast feed

Got talking a lot about my Amy's defense some improvements that we've seen we handed out some credit cookies and got to a bunch of listener questions

But we have a couple more stragglers here that I wanted to get to here on a Monday morning

Let's jump right in this question comes from Denzel who wrote via the all-access club and the cookie gang

Should the heat open up that roster spot and get a Chris Middleton Lonzo ball or a big

It's an interesting question. I think it it's a good jumping off point for a larger conversation about my Amy's plans in the buyout market

And whether or not they will make a roster addition before the end of the season and short answer is I think they might all right

So let's jump into what's going on here so

To Denzel's question the specific names Chris Middleton Lonzo ball or a big man

Since getting this question Mark Stein reported that Chris Middleton is actually going to stay in Dallas

It had been believed that after he was required in the Anthony Davis trade from Washington that Dallas might look to buy Middleton out

Allow Middleton to go explore opportunities with playoff teams for whatever reason

Chris Middleton decided he's going to stay in Dallas finish out the season and make a decision on his future in the summer

So Middleton off the board for the heats purposes Lonzo ball still out there right in terms of a big

Not a whole lot of guys out there Mason plumbly recently signed that he'd been available for a while

And I don't know that there's a big man who makes a ton of sense right now for the heat but we'll get into some of that stuff

The options in terms of the big names on the buyout market right now Lonzo ball to Denzel's question there is still available

Teams like Golden State and Denver had reportedly showed some interest in him but he's still out there

Chris Boucher George Neang and highest Jones those are the guys who are really out there

Anthony was reported to be waived but wasn't waived before March 1st which is interesting March 1st is important day by the way because in order to be eligible to participate in the playoffs

Players have to be waived or bought out prior to March 1st you can sign at any point after March 1st but you have to be waived or bought out before March 1st

That's the NBA rule so anybody who's waived after March 1st can still sign with the team and play out the regular season but won't be eligible for the playoffs

So that's an important note here when it comes to the heat also potentially but all those guys, Lonzo, Chris Boucher, George Neang, and highest Jones those guys were waived before March 1st

And if they sign at any point will be eligible to play in the playoffs and I do think that that's important for the heat here

Before I tell you which one of those names actually intrigues me the most

Probably important to give you an idea of where the heat's roster stands they have 15 players under contract on standard roster spots so they do not have an open roster spot after promoting Myron Gardner from his two way deal to that full time 15 man roster spot

So in order to sign a player they were going to have to waive a player and that player would obviously be tear rose or if they were going to go that route

They're not against waiving tear rose here but it is interesting that they've held on to him for as long as they have

There was a deadline earlier in January where they could have waived him and avoided paying out the additional $1.7 million of guaranteed money on his contract

That became fully guaranteed at the beginning of January they decided we're just going to keep him

Now the reasoning for that at that point was because they thought that they might need his expiring contract ahead of the trade deadline

So they said we'd rather keep his contract on the books in order to potentially build up to a honest trade or something like that before the deadline

I think it was the right move then and unfortunately just didn't work out for them

Now there's really no rush and no deadline to waive tear rose here

And I could see them just ending the season with rose here on the roster saying look there was just nothing out there for us that we wanted

It wasn't worth kind of jumping through the soups of waiving him and signing somebody else and spending that additional money

Even though they're still under the luxury tax it's still money that they have to spend

We just didn't see anybody out there that made any sense for us nobody that was a free agent that was actually going to play rotation minutes for us

So we just decided to not do anything I could see that happening I could also see them waiving tear rose here or making a move closer to the end of the season as they approach the playoffs

And I do think that that's probably what they're waiting for now

First look if they were really interested in any of these guys they would have signed them by now

Right they would have waived tear rose here and signed that player already they're in the middle of a playoff push every game is really important if they really thought that any of these players could help in that playoff push they would have signed him already

They would have signed him already so if you're wondering if the heat are interested in Lonzo ball Chris Pushe George and the angtias Jones any of these other names the answer is not enough

Okay, and I don't need to do any reporting to tell you that that's evident by just their actions

So they don't really they're not in love with any of these guys

So that tells you really everything that you need to know about my amy's approach to the buyout market right now now that said

They could like some of these guys kind of

And strategically it might make more sense for the heat to hold on to rose here for now if you don't think any of these players are going to walk into a rotation spot and take somebody else's minutes

It which is clearly what the heat feel right now that it makes a little bit more sense to just wait get closer to the playoffs get closer to the postseason and reevaluate your roster then somebody could get hurt

What if this norm pal growing injury lingers he's weak to week right now we don't really know what if Tyler here gets hurt again we don't really if the rib thing acts up again the foot thing acts up again we don't really know

What if you lose a big man what if you lose a wing

If you hold off as long as possible

Then it still opens up that opportunity for you to address the need at the last minute if somebody important in your rotation goes down and you need depth at that spot

At that point it might make more sense to just wait and then say okay

Right before the death like right before the postseason starts let's wave rosier and then go address that depth and get some insurance for that injury

So I can see them doing something with tear rosier waving him and signing a player closer to the end of the season as they approach the postseason either to address a roster need because of an injury that happens between now and then or the other option of course is sign another development deal like they did with my own gardener

And those to me would be two options and I suspect they'll either they'll go in one of those two directions

They'll either sign a vet to a rest of season contract to help for the playoffs or just sign another player to a development deal

I don't know who that player might be it could be somebody currently on a two way could be somebody else in the pipeline could be somebody else that we're not even thinking about my enemies always get their feelers and tentacles out

In terms of the names out there out there that I like in terms of the bio guys the vets I'll tell you who I like the most plus I have one more question about Kaleil wears minutes on the court

And why a recent decision by Eric Spolstra might hit at more minutes for where playing alongside bam out of bio we'll talk about that next

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Welcome back to locked on heat. This is one more thing if you missed the post game show of the heat swing over the rockets

You can find that up in you on YouTube or in your podcast feed hit that subscribe button on YouTube like and follow the podcast on your podcast platform

Leave us a five star review as well while you're at it in terms of the options on the buyout market the player that I like

The interest for me the most and you might be surprised by this. It's not Lonzo ball although I do think that his quick decision making and passing

Would be interesting in this fast paced offense. There are real questions about his knees. There are questions about whether he'll ever play again in the NBA frankly

And while I'd still lean on the side of yes probably I could see Lonzo kind of just taken the rest of the year off getting healthy and then re-evaluating the situation in the summer

Or rather teams re-evaluating him over the summer. I don't know that Lonzo is the right fit. If you watch any of him in Cleveland it was not inspiring

And I don't know why he could come to Miami and take minutes from somebody like cospheres Jacoachonus. I would be absolutely against that. Play Jacoachonus don't sign anybody that's going to take minutes from him

Lonzo would pretend hypothetically at least theoretically at least. So I wouldn't go in that direction. Tyas Jones. No thanks. I don't want to be the next team that talks yourself into Tyas Jones be like he could save our offense whatever. No he can't. That's not Tyas Jones's game pass.

The names that are interesting in terms of the buyout guys Chris Boucher and Georgian those are the guys that are interesting to me both are forwards who could play multiple positions. Boucher could play small ball five for you in a real pinch

But I honestly don't know if that's a better option than Nicola Yovic at this point. Boucher is not a good rebounder. Not a very stout defender has that lawn chair mentality of kind of folding when he gets hit in the chest under the basket when he plays the five and you know to be fair

That's not his position, but he's played it before at the four. I don't know that that makes a ton of having a little bit of depth there in terms of a floor space like Boucher.

I kind of like that to me that's more of an option if you decide okay Yovic just is not going to be available for us in the playoffs because of this injury this back injury that he's dealing with.

We just need a little bit more insurance behind guys like Wiggs and Larson. I could see Boucher Georgian he's falling off after you know he was pretty solid for the sixers and a couple other teams like three or four years ago.

He can at least play a couple spots he's a good trash talker good locker room guy. Kind of annoying when he's on the other team but kind of one of those guys that you kind of end up liking when he's on your team.

If I had to go the insurance route in case of injury or just replacement rotation minutes in case injury I would go with either Boucher or Neyang I would bring them both in for a workout and see who fits the best in terms of who looks the best conditioning wise who's most ready to go for the playoffs.

I have another question though lingering from a cookie gang this one comes from the cookie gang thanks again to everybody use the question to the post game show you can do that by.

Signing up for the everyday club with the link in the show notes question is do you think clow wear will be on the court at the end of games now for more from now on his 10 rebounds and size made a difference today today being the rockets game.

I don't know I don't know that clow wear and BAM are going to play more minutes although it is trending more in that direction we have seen our expulsora use those guys on the court more often first half second halves and potentially and especially in fourth quarters more recently is more open to playing those guys together especially when clow plays well which he obviously did against Houston.

Spowe challenged clow wear during the walkthrough at shoot around before the rockets game and clow wear responded with a big game.

Spowe challenged them to match Houston size and their physicality and where certainly did that the rebounding to the question was a big part of that obviously.

Here's what's interesting though and why I think there a specific decision by Spowe might hit at more minutes of wear and BAM together.

Spowe used the zone defense with BAM and wear on the court together in the fourth quarter in that rockets game and I thought it was really impactful very helpful and we didn't see a ton of that the first you know stretch of the season when wear and BAM were playing together we didn't see a ton of zone with those two out there.

But it was interesting to see Spowe use the zone with those guys and I kind of think it's a genius move at this stage of the season to kind of throw that wrinkle into things because in that zone defense what you really want to do is cover a lot of space and close up passing lanes and when you have your two bigs out there.

You're literally the two biggest players on your roster and wear and BAM out there at the same time when those guys stretch their arms out they're able to cover a lot of space and close up a lot of passing lanes.

And I thought it was I thought I threw Houston's offense for a loop down the stretch of that game I talk to David about this in the post game it was one of the best defensive games I've seen from the heat in a long time this season and I think a big part of that was the zone and this new experiment.

Callell for to get to give credit to callell he's really figured out how to kind of anchor that zone in the middle and then putting BAM on the wing in the zone is a really interesting kind of wrinkle and and sort of monkey wrench for other opposing offenses to deal with because now you've got the super versatile super active handsy instinctual defender on the wing as opposed to the middle of the court.

And the way to zone works if you strong side on the zone BAM if he's on the weak side he ends up playing center and callell ends up kind of closing in on you on the strong side.

And then obviously if you flip it it's the same thing right if you go the other side to BAM and you strong side on BAM side that BAM ends up closing in on you and now you've got BAM is a one-on-one defender which is no bueno for a lot of opposing players and then you got callell still anchoring the middle as he would normally.

And having those two guys on the back lining be able to kind of switch that way not switch switches the wrong word because they're not switching to playing the zone but like kind of swap spots that way and move around along in that front court on that back line in the defense that way that's hugely impactful and I think very interesting something that I'm monitoring going forward and if this is something that works because one of the reasons spoke out away from BAM and where was that Miami's defense was worse when they were on the court together as opposed when you had one of them on the court without the other one whether it was BAM without where or where without BAM.

Well if this zone defense fixes that issue and all of a sudden Miami is able to turn that thing in from a bug to a feature and all of a sudden now you're getting the benefits of that and it's tough to rebound in his own because you're not you know body in a specific player so boxing out becomes a little bit more complicated.

It gets a little bit easier if you just got to your tall players on the court so rebounding was not as much as an issue when they were in that zone either which is always a concern when you go to zone.

So this is something that I think a decision by Spowe that could unlock more minutes of BAM and where together because it's maximizing their strengths mitigating some of their weaknesses and making sure that those minutes on the court are actually productive and not just experimental and I think that's really key in the middle of this playoff push thanks so much for talk tuning into one more thing here on locked on heat make sure you hit that subscribe button follows on your favorite podcast app and we'll talk to you soon.