If you're a facilities manager at a warehouse and your HVAC system goes down, it can turn up the heat. Literally. But don't sweat it. Granger has you covered. Granger offers over a million industrial grade products for all your operations, including warehouse HVAC maintenance. And even better, they offer access to experts and fast delivery, so you and your warehouse can both keep your cool. Call 1-800-granger, click granger.com, or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done. We'll go in the latest episode of "Five on the Floor and the Five Reason Sports Network." Thanks for joining us on your favorite podcast app, on Apple Apple Podcasts, on Android, Spotify, or the Five Reasons YouTube channel. Check out all the floor. This is especially the time that you want to sign up. Give it a shot $2.99 per month. Get the latest information from us. First, also communicate with heat fans all day long. Again, we've got tons of channels there. You get access to all of them for just the one fee. So check it out. Description has the link, both on the podcast feed and on the YouTube channel. Also check out the great sponsors of the Five Reason Sports Network. You know who's a member of off the floor? Our friend Lynette, reach out to her at 954-581-8800. That's 954-581-8800. Insurance by Lynette.com. Life insurance, car insurance, renters insurance. She can handle all of it for you, based in Lauderdale, Florida, services the entire area. And of course, it's probably the biggest heat fan we know. So check it out at 954-581-8800. Insurance by Lynette.com. Two N's and two T's. And now, today's episode. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to Five on the Floor, a daily insider show on the Miami Heat and the NBA, featuring Ethan Skolnick, Greg Soulvander, and Alex Toledo, plus others from the Five Reason Sports Network. Hi, welcome back to Five on the Floor. Here's today's floor plan. First thing, make sure you check out the last couple of episodes, not just the draft coverage, but also I did an episode with the Journal about where the heat stood after the draft. And then three of us here, and you'll hear who's going to be on this episode in a second, did an episode going through the Heat's own free agents, Kevin Love, Heywood, Hi Smith, Kayla Martin, Delaun Wright, Thomas Bryan, and the rest. Now, we're going to project forward. I got Greg Soulvander, you got Greg Soulvander on Twitter, Alex Toledo, you got Tropical Blanket on Twitter, and we're going to get into what the Heat have to offer, what they might be able to do, and why we think it might be quiet at the very beginning of this. Of course, as we're recording this, it's two o'clock on Sunday. Again, we just recorded the other one about 30 minutes ago, so we wanted to give you as much content as we possibly could and split it up, and then we'll have another episode tonight after free agency ends, and make sure that you check that out. Also, playback while free agency is starting essentially around 545. Download the Playback app, and you can catch up with the entire five reasons crew there. All right, Greg, let's start here. What do the Heat have to offer as free agency begins? Essentially, this is where it gets tough. They have their taxpayer mid-level exception, which is about 5, 5.2 million somewhere around there, and then they have veteran minimum contracts, and that is by virtue of the fact that they have already built out their roster, and their salaries are in excess of 175 million combined, and so at that point, you're essentially looking at just veteran minimum additions, and then that exception, but they also need to avoid the second apron, which is going to be a really big point of contention when shopping in free agency this year, so it's a situation where they have exception money. Will they spend it? That's the big question. And then obviously, there's a part of this which we addressed on the prior episode about retaining your own free agents, and I think the primary guy that will zero in on there is Heywood Highsmith. We talked a little bit about Heywood in the previous episode, but again, Greg, before we move on and I'll let Alex jump in on some of this, what the Heat can do in free agency is somewhat determined by what they decide to do with Highsmith. Is that correct? Yeah, essentially, because they need to avoid the second apron, they're in a situation where they may not be able to use bird rights to sign Heywood Highsmith and also spend that exception on another additional player from another team. So they may need to be in either or not a and kind of scenario for those two things. So that's kind of the issue. If Heywood Highsmith were to get an exorbitant offer from someone else, then maybe you do spend your exception money because that would be the route to go, and you do have room under the second apron to do so. But if you want to keep Heywood Highsmith, it's likely going to be that the surrounding players after him are going to be veteran, minimum players like Kevin Love, like some of the names we're going to mention on today's episode. Alright, so Alex, real quick here before we kind of move on to these free agents that the Heat could look at. Do you see any scenario which is just not worth resigning Heywood because you want to keep as much flexibility from what may be out there? Well, to me, it's just about the second apron. Or at least that's what it seems like it's out for the Heat. So if I believe there are about $13 million or so under the second apron, as it stands, again, shout out to our guy Brian Goings from Heatbeat, who's been documenting all this stuff and keeping us informed there. So check his stuff out. But according to the stuff that he was looking at, it was about 13 mil under the second apron and calculated that if the Heat bring back K-Love on the deal that is expected, which would be, I think it was a 3.3 mil, and then probably a player option in the second year is, I think, what people are expecting. If that's the case, then it's around nine mil below the second apron. So I think, you know, that's to be, you know, you got to think about that when you're signing Heywood Highsmith. If he fits under that and you also have space to sign a couple more guys at the vet minimum, it also depends on how many guys they already have under contract directors. I feel like it's already getting close to 15 with, you know, the couple of guys they just got in the draft. So I think Heywood is worth bringing back, but at a certain amount, right? Like on the last episode, Lape has said, you know, they'll probably have, you know, a certain amount for the lawn. And I think it'll be a similar thing for Heywood here, right? I think just you can't, whatever that amount is for them that they, that they calculate, it's like you can't go over this because we also need to be able to sign other guys. And, you know, you just do not want to go over the second apron. I get it. I just think like, you know, a scenario where you lose Caleb and Heywood kind of sucks. If I'm, if I'm being real, like you could maybe get a couple of guys. Like I'm looking at this list, you know, some of the names that stand out. I'm not going to get into right now, but, you know, could be good value ads, but that's assuming they take the minimum because that's what you have, right? If, if you don't sign Heywood using the, you know, the bird rights or whatever it is, like you can use the tax pyramid level on somebody else. That's like where the, you know, the, the alternate decision there, right? Like if you, that's your, that's your backup plan. But I think Heywood is somebody where, you know, if you, if you've already lost Caleb, I feel like losing him as well. It's just, it's a lot because it's pretty much most of the guys that we're doing point, point of attack defense for you and guys who are guarding wings for you. And I think like you've got something there in house with Josh because I think Josh can help with that. But frankly, I think Heywood was just doing it at a higher level than both him and Caleb. And I think the lawn was showing some of that as well. So maybe I think that's why we expect to see him back because I think he can be had for the minimum. But yeah, like there's a certain line I will go to with Heywood. Despite like somebody like me who wanted to see both of those guys back in Caleb and Heywood. Well, I think we have to be honest with ourselves about minimums. And we're going to talk about the front end of free agency here first. And of course trades play into this. And I feel like he fans for good reason are more interested in the trade prospect here, Greg. But I mean, you have to be honest in what you're going to get for a minimum. I mean, you get a Josh Richardson, you get a Thomas Bryant last year. Like, okay, you got, you know, some contribution from Josh before he got hurt. It was a little choppy at first until he found his way, particularly defensively, which is a bit of a surprise. And Thomas Bryant, okay, he was a part-time player that they really didn't want to play very much. You know, had a few moments. But again, that's what you get for minimums. You know, Philadelphia got a lot more from Kelly Ubre, who's a player who the heat considered last year or may have come if Dame had come. So you can find some. And Delon Wright, you know, on a minimum, I think would be, you know, a really, really good deal. You know, so I think that we have to take a look at, you know, again, what is realistic. But before we get to the trade market, we'll get to that on the second half of this episode. And I hope we have something to discuss about that in the coming days. Let's look at the free agent market in the NBA here, just so people kind of understand what it is. And I'll give you some, of course, there have been some players who have already kind of been locked in. OJ Ananobi with New York, $212 million. Pascal Siacom with Indiana, $189 million. Emmanuel, quickly, $175 million. Nick Clackston, $100 million. Patrick Williams, a player who really hasn't even really found his role so far in Chicago. He's shown progress. And he's young, 90 million Malik Young. I'm in the league. Malik Monk, $78 million. Roy Soneel, $44 million. And then that's basically who's resigned. And here's, so here's the free agent list now. LeBron James is the top. This is based on previous average salary. Okay. LeBron is first. I don't think he's leaving his son. Paul George second. Somebody will discuss Clay Thompson right there. It's been discussed as possible sign and trade candidate where Lando's been talked about some other teams to bias Harris. To bias Harris over me. James Harden, Gordon Hayward, who was kind of a bust with OKC last year. Kyle Lowry. I don't think they're bringing him back. Demar DeRosen, they're working on an extension. It didn't come to pass. Buddy healed. Evan Fornier, who hardly played the last couple of years. Gary Trent Jr. has a useful skill set. Mark Hill Folds, Contabious Caldwell Pope. He's looking for big money. 25 million a year. Valen Schunis, Malik Beasley, Tyus Jones, Luke Canard. It starts to drop off here. Doug McDermott, Gary Harris, Robert Covington, Rashan Holmes. Nick Beasley. Now we're shopping. Now we're shopping. I mean, so looking at this list, I mean, the premium guys know basically, I mean, they're not going to go sign Contabious Caldwell Pope for $25 million a year or more. DeRosen, we've discussed him a million times, but no. So, I mean, you really are talking about trying to find some bargains here, Greg, right? Like this is down the line. And that's why I think you're saying we're not going to see much at first, right? The market has to kind of weed itself out. Yeah. Unless there's a situation like where Coach Spill gets on the phone with a player like he did with Josh Richardson, and that was an early agreement where a guy took a chance on the situation. You have to think that there could be other guys that would maybe look at Miami as an attractive destination that way, particularly if Haywood Highsmith and Kayla Martin were out, you could maybe convince a wing who typically would be getting a little bit more money. Like to come and have a one year prove it season. I mean, a couple of the guys out there, people are not going to be so excited about these names, but, you know, could you convince Robert Covington to do that for one year? Could you look at Torian Prince, a player like. I was going to mention, I was going to mention Sadiq Bay. Like that, like to me, the Torian Prince thing does not excite me in any way, but like Sadiq Bay, someone they've looked at before. I just don't know that he's a minimum guy. Like you said, you'd have to convince him. I mean, there's some old friends here, like a J Crowder. Yeah. Mark Heath Morris, I don't think there's going to be a reprisal of that. Justin Holliday, Cody Zeller, and there's not going to be a reprisal of that. Marcus Morris has been rumored to the heat many times. Uber is a free agent. Again, you ain't getting him for the minimum this time around. Joshua Kogi, it's another name that's been mentioned. I mean, Dennis Smith Jr. is a player who's been linked to the heat, had interest in coming last year, probably would have come if Damon come, like that would be interesting. Could you get Lonnie Walker for the minimum? I doubt it, right? But Aaron Holliday. Again, these are not franchise changers, but it's just like, can you find somebody who can be a back end of the rotation player? Xavier Tillman didn't really seem to work out in Boston, right? I mean, even Spencer Dinewoody, you know, coming off of, you know, really a nondescript performance after his trade to LA. I mean, these are some of the names we're talking about, and I don't want to say it's bargain-basement. I mean, these are guys who could help. Like, Sadiq Bay could help. He has skill sets that could help. They've looked at him before. I know that. I just, again, this is about tempering expectations here. Like, hey, would Highsmith maybe the best fit for the money for, you know, what they actually have to spend right now? I just think that's the reality of it. We'll get to the rest of this list here in a second, but I think we want to pivot on the other side of this to why the trade market is really where this is probably at for the heat. Before we do want to mention a great sponsor of the Five Reasons for a Server, it's kind of like trading stocks, actually. They got to market. You can find the line that you want. Go to BetterEdge.com. Use the code 5RSN. Don't pay the VIG. We know that there's another sportsbook. It's legal in the state of Florida. They've paid, you know, I don't want to say it, but they figured out a way to get them monopoly on a lot of this stuff. But what they also have a monopoly on in terms of compared to BetterEdge is they charge you a VIG, which means that you're basically paying three or four percent more than you should to make a bet. So don't do that. Go to BetterEdge.com. Use the code 5RSN. You can use the code 5RSN. You get $20 to play right away and also join all of our contests. Again, it's BetterEdge.com. The code is 5RSN. If you're a facilities manager at a warehouse and your HVAC system goes down, it can turn up the heat, literally. But don't sweat it. Granger has you covered. Granger offers over a million industrial grade products for all your operations, including warehouse HVAC maintenance. And even better, they offer access to experts and fast delivery, so you and your warehouse can both keep your cool. Call 1-800-granger. Click Granger.com or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done. As you look at that list, Alex, if they want to get better significantly, they need to make a trade, right? It's been the case for a long time now. You're 100 percent right that they're a trade team. You know, it's just kind of, it is what it is. It's that type of situation. As Lake mentioned before, they've built up their team. They have their big contracts. They have different guys on rookie scale deals now, but they've got multiple guys with double-digit deals. And some of them are obviously bigger than others, like Jimmy and Bam. What I'm trying to say is they don't have much to improve the roster. They've got the better minimum. They've got this tax pyramid level. And I think that's kind of the whole point of this episode, right? We're trying to give perspective as to the types of options that may or may not be out there. And I think that's just kind of where they're at. If they don't make a bigger trade, like the one that everybody wants for another star player, then this is the kind of stuff that we have to talk about. And honestly, I don't even hate it. I like getting into the weeds with this stuff and looking into like, maybe we can get Nick Batum to take a minimum and play. Like, guess what? I think Batum could help, especially if you're losing one or two of those wings. Like, I wouldn't mind. Like, I think those types of guys help as well. And they're not going to change the course of this team or this build. But like, it's always going to be a part of it. So like, I think, like I said, a Batum or maybe even a Covington. If you can get one of those guys to take a minimum, I think could maybe be worth it. You know, I, Lafe had mentioned Josh or Kogi on Discord, which of course you guys should check out in the link. I mean, excuse me, the link is in the description of every podcast episode. But like, that's another guy, right? Who would kind of fit right in as far as like the type of wing you're losing. Somebody who is a questionable shooter, but who is physical, who plays kind of above his size can defend. Like, oh, Kogi really feels like a pretty seamless replacement if they lose both of those guys or even just one. So I think like those are like realistic names who, and that guy is still pretty young, by the way, like not extremely young, but you're not getting somebody who is like 36 years old or something in Josh or Kogi. So that one kind of sparked my interest a bit of Marcus Morris, like, would any of us be surprised if Marcus Morris finally signed with the heat? Like, I think he could take the vet minimum. I think that was a little more realistic. You know, I mentioned Jamontae Green last summer. He's a free agent, you know, he's had some productive years for the wolves. And, you know, you mentioned the guards, right? You mentioned Lonnie and Dennis Smith Jr. I think Pat Bev is a free agent as well. I don't know how much space there is in the guard room. So I'm not quite as interested there as I am in the wings because it seems like there's going to be more space there. And you mentioned Sydney Bay. I don't know if you'll be available at the vet minimum. Other than that, the only two names that kind of popped out to me were like, if something happens with Kevin Love and he's not returning and it's like a plot twist, right? I think the guys who you could kind of look to replace him would be maybe like a Michael Scala. I know there's like a weird history there with his dad or something and Jimmy, so before everybody throws that at me. But just basketball wise, I think, well, Scala kind of fits that skill set and sort of a Dario Sarge was just a little small for a five, but too slow for a four. But, yeah, they've looked at before. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, that's fair. Let me, let me ask this one too. A lot of times they prefer and they told me this last year when we were looking at a lot of these names, right? They would prefer to use one of their own developmental guys than necessarily progress stop with a vet who has limited upside and isn't like, hasn't been raised in the quote unquote culture. Like when we were talking about the whole list, I kept hearing that we keep looking at the list. It's the same damn list. It's, you know, there's nothing else that's going to pop up there. And so I'll just ask this with the guys that they have in house now now they've added two draft picks. Some interesting, undrafted free agents, because shot being one of them, but there's others on the list that are kind of interesting that may be in camp or Summer League. Alondis Williams and Cole Swider. And we, by the way, if you've been watching us listening to us, we've basically telegraphed this that those were the two guys that they seem to have the most interest in developing that the cane thing appears to have run its course. He's not going to be playing in Summer League. We don't know what's going to happen with Orlando Robinson, but that may have run its course also. So it feels more like Greg, it feels like Alondis Williams and Cole Swider. I mean, would you bring in a guy to progress stopping a lot? I mean, does Alondis Williams have enough upside from what we saw? I mean, he kind of exploded in the Summer League. I'm not Summer League in the G League last year. They did put him on the, they did give him the two way. They clearly have some commitment to him and to Swider. So, I mean, does that influence at all what you do here? I think they still, excuse me, I think they still look at some veterans. I mean, Thomas Bryant found his way onto the roster last off season. And there's guys that, you know, like we're in the pipeline that you would expect Orlando Robinson maybe to take those minutes and they, you know, doubled up with another big man. I think that they're still going to have to look at veterans to fill out the roster. It's the right type of veterans that they think will fit the system. Also understand the role, not come in for more than what they bargained for. So I think that there is probably some functionality to looking outside for at least one, maybe two players, but then to your point, it's really going back to the well of your developmental guys and reinforcing that and empowering them to get better to take on more. And that's just kind of the situation that you're in because you're the top of your roster is set until you make a trade. I mean, we talked about that being the next part of this and you got to have a willing partner and you also want to be in a situation where you feel like you're getting value for what you're trading out. And so those are just a lot of things that have to go right. And that's why we keep veering back to this kind of vet minimum conversation in terms of additions. All right, so Alice, let's close it out here as we look at the sort of the limited options that they have in free agency and the limited vehicles they have to use on said options. And in the context of the Jimmy Butler cloud, which we discussed a lot on the last couple of episodes. Are you more inclined and what they added in the draft. Are you more inclined to say, if you can get a star, get the damn star, because otherwise there's just no way to compete in any serious way with what you have. Yeah. You know, I hate to make it that simple, but yeah, like, I mean, I guess like the only thing I could pick out from what you said was like, yeah, they'll compete. You know, they'll compete. They'll be competitive. They just won't be dominant. They won't be a clear cut contender. They'll be called, you know, a dangerous loom or whatever it was. They called them this year that I can't quite remember right now, like you're going to get, you're going to keep getting thrown into those, I mean, into the, like the categories with those other teams because guess what, you've been a playing team. You know, the last couple of years and you lost the first playing game too. It's not like you're just getting out of there real quick and easy, like you've almost been eliminated from the playoffs before they started for two straight years. You know, despite, again, an amazing, like a pretty damn great just era in general with the Jimmy stuff like it's completely blown expectations out of the water, right, but that's the team that you are now. So yeah, I think like it is all about that. And I, you know, you can have conversations about which one of these stars that are out there would be worth it which ones wouldn't be like, you know, I've kind of sold myself on a guy like Trey. I think I could sell myself on a guy like Brandon Ingram, like I think, you know, if you can get into those conversations for a reasonable price where you're not, you know, doing the, you know, what the next did for Michael Bridges, right, if it's closer to like what the second different Dejante Murray, I think that type of move is worth it for the heat. I don't think you trade for unprotected first, plus another protected first, plus another pick swap or whatever that package was for, for, you know, a decent player like I think if it's a reasonable price, you know, pick or two for a star like that, you know, and if you could keep your younger players like eternal mentioned on yesterday's pod. I think that is a worthwhile outcome now. Who knows if that's available right like these teams might be asking for more than that and I think that's always like what what's to monitor with the heat is like they wanted at their price. And, but you know some of these guys are out there so, you know, if the he can get in on these conversations that they gets worth looking into for sure. Right now, and then everything just kind of on hold for Donovan. I mean that's well that's the thing and look, that's a good place to take this as we close Greg because, you know, the thing last year was you know heat fans who all wanted them to wait on Dame. And then we're upset that they waited on Dame and didn't make a move for like a Porsingis or some other kind of move that would have upgraded the roster I feel like we're right back where we were right where you're waiting on the star who could be franchise changing. You've got a party on the other side that is more trustworthy this time that you can actually can work with Cleveland I believe on a trade if that was Donovan's preference. And you can give something of value or create a multi team trade that gives them something of value. So that's a little better but ultimately, you know, nothing's resolved with Donovan yet and that just so it just feels like you're in this holding pattern. And then we're going to be it's going to be this like daily drip of players that sign elsewhere and you're going to have the same three people on Twitter please join the discord everybody because it's a little more sane. But you're going to have the same three people on Twitter who are lamenting the loss of a guy who shot whatever 39% last year the average seven points a game and just played in four playoff games simply because the heat didn't get them because of course I have a hundred roster spots. That's where this is sort of headed. And then ultimately you don't get Donovan and then it's like okay now we're scraping for minimums and talking about internal development like I just, I feel like we're in a weird timeline here and it's a repeat timeline. Wasn't there a word? That that my bad life it wasn't their report today that like, there was supposed to be like there's expectation that he might sign today. Well he might say we post this episode but I'm saying yeah I mean one of those aggregator accounts put that out but we don't know if that's true it's prudent to wait for Donovan Mitchell right now for the heat and see if that's possible but they probably have more intel on that than we do and I would expect them to have more than one plan or else fans should be a little upset that there isn't a little hit it, you know, to this because we're talking about, you know, whatever year it is of this build I think it's time to shake it up. I think that's how the fan base feels I feel like even probably the own locker room to some degree feels that way that a shake up should be necessary. So yeah you wait for Donovan but you should have other plans so that you can kind of get a little, some new blood, that's what I think that this roster needs and that may include trading a Tyler hero or a Duncan Robinson to get that done. Well and new blood again it's got to be in certain degree the right blood and I'm looking at this report from Bobby Marx today that there's no market for Zach Levine they're trying to give them away and attach a first round pick. I've been told that by multiple multiple people. There are some players that I've been out on that I could be talked back into. If it helps your asset, you know, if it helps your asset pool and potentially adds a useful player, although God I hate that contract so it's just, it's, you know, again, everything has a poison pill right now that's the thing it's either you're going to make up crazy amount of draft picks I mean when the Kelbridge is who's a good player but not an all star, I think he all star but he's not a superstar is going for that. You know I know that the markets effed basically and I in that I know people are going to say we're making excuses for the front office they should have more picks. I can we can we can break down every particular move that put them in a particular position. But like I said if you're going to take a player with a bad contract when your salary structure is already kind of messed up right now. And you better, you know, you better get something back that allows you to do something else. That's that's the way that I look at it and I think that's the way that they would likely look at it too. All right, I want to get out of here because I want to give everybody a chance to listen to this episode before free agency starts playback download the app playback TV backslash five or a cent or just go to the playback app. Look for the five reasons room will be on there at six o'clock we'll have a rotating crew of people will have a post will wrap up podcast I'll also be on wsvn channel seven in Miami tonight to wrap everything up. And obviously anything that happens the next few days will be all over it on the discord subscribe to off the floor everybody I know you like our free content. We appreciate all of you anybody who listens but that helps keep us in business and we give you a lot more there so check it out. Find the link right here in the description have a good one everybody. Thank you for listening to the five on the floor on the five reason sports network after all. Someone who's listening to my dad. Is your vehicle stopping like it should does it squeal or grind when you break don't miss out on summer break deals at O'Reilly auto parts. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, righty. Auto parts.
