A look at the fallout from the Miami Heat failing to land Damian Lillard despite being the frontrunners all offseason. Lillard was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks earlier this week
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 All right.
00:01 Hello, everybody.
00:02 My name is Jay Nariman.
00:05 I'm here with Anthony Pasiola.
00:07 Yep.
00:08 All right.
00:09 And we are going to be talking about everything going on around the Heat and the Miami Dolphins.
00:15 So without further ado, let's just get right into it.
00:18 Absolutely.
00:19 And, you know, it's not a great day for us as, you know, Heat supporters.
00:24 Damian Lillard goes to the Milwaukee Bucks in a three-team deal involving the Suns and
00:30 the Blazers.
00:31 You know, just before we get into it, I'll give you a quick refresher of the full details
00:37 of the trade.
00:38 So the Bucks obviously receive Lillard.
00:40 Portland receives Drew Holiday, DeAndre Eaton, Jumaane Kamara, 20-29 first-round pick and
00:47 two pick swaps.
00:48 And then the Suns receive Yusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, Nazir Little, and Kion Johnson.
00:54 So before we dive a little deeper into the situation, what are your just initial thoughts?
00:59 Because I remember, you know, we were talking right after it happened and you weren't too
01:03 happy.
01:04 Oh, my God.
01:05 So I was I was literally in the middle of class and like I didn't even see the notification.
01:10 Like people were calling me to tell me what happened.
01:15 And I didn't believe them at first.
01:16 I thought they were just messing with me.
01:18 But then I saw the Bleacher Report notification and that's what kind of sealed it.
01:24 Obviously it's very discouraging.
01:25 I mean, like most Heat fans, I was planning our entire year around Damian Lillard.
01:32 I was like, OK, what are our matchups going to look like?
01:35 What is the playoffs going to look like?
01:37 And now that's completely taken away.
01:41 And not only did we lose out on him, but we lost out on him to the team that we just gentlemen
01:47 swept in the playoffs who are going to be looking for revenge against us.
01:51 So not a great look.
01:54 Yeah, it on almost every sportsbook sportsbook now, excuse me.
01:58 It seems like Milwaukee's easily the title favorite.
02:02 And rightfully so.
02:03 I mean, you pair up two of the most dangerous offensive players in the league between Damon
02:07 Giannis and you get a very scary team.
02:10 Not to mention they didn't even have to part ways with Middleton.
02:14 I mean, they still have him on the roster, which you know, getting more into the Heat
02:19 side of things.
02:20 What do you think the Heat's offer would have topped what Milwaukee ended up giving up?
02:26 Because I know the Heat were willing to offer a package of Hero, Nikola Jovic, and I believe
02:33 three first round picks and a few swaps in seconds.
02:36 So how do you think that compares to the Bucs package?
02:40 I mean, it helps that the Bucs had an all star Andrew Holiday to give up.
02:48 But their their deal didn't look like too much better than the Heat's.
02:52 So I was very, like, very confused.
02:55 But there was a report from Shams Charnea today that said that, like, the Trailblazers
03:00 just didn't really want to engage with the Heat.
03:05 They just weren't interested.
03:07 So I feel like they were looking for any other team to trade with.
03:11 Yeah, and I mean, keep it on that same thing about Shams reports.
03:17 It felt like the Heat almost shouldn't have been interested in talking to the Blazers
03:21 because Shams said, I believe it was either earlier today or yesterday, that at first
03:26 the Blazers, the Blazers were asking for Jimmy Butler or Bannon out of bio.
03:30 Like that's just that's insulting, in my opinion.
03:34 I think that's I don't even know.
03:38 No, I mean, and that like defeats the whole purpose.
03:41 The whole purpose of a trade is to better your team.
03:44 I just if we traded BAM, we lose out on our key big.
03:50 And if we trade Jimmy Butler, that's our star player.
03:54 So like we would not be improving on either of those trades, which I mean, that just negates
04:00 the whole purpose.
04:01 So I mean, that just shows the asking price, which I can understand because, you know,
04:07 it's Damian Lillard.
04:08 It's again, one of your three your franchise is like three best players in the franchise's
04:15 history.
04:16 But I mean, it's just like it just shows that they wanted too much from us.
04:22 Yeah.
04:23 And I think I think Lillard's agent, Aaron Goodwin, summed it up really well when he
04:28 was talking about Miami's negotiation process.
04:31 And he said it takes two teams to get a deal done.
04:35 At the end of the at the end of the day, that's the truth.
04:38 And Miami was interested.
04:40 They put up multiple packages and Portland was either just not responding to them or
04:46 asking for unreasonable prices.
04:48 Right.
04:49 And I feel like that's a bit disrespectful to a guy who's committed so much of his career
04:56 and has went through so much of like, you know, them not giving him any assets and him
05:03 still staying there in spite of them not supporting him.
05:10 And to not trade him to the team that he specifically asked to be traded for, that just seems a
05:15 little bit disrespectful, in my opinion.
05:17 I mean, the Bucs, obviously, he gave the OK in the end, but that wasn't his preference.
05:22 So that like I just yeah, that just seemed like kind of kind of, you know, just like
05:29 not morally correct, you know?
05:31 Yeah.
05:32 But I also think you have to give a lot of props to Milwaukee's front office.
05:38 Giannis comes out this summer with multiple comments, you know, kind of putting his future
05:42 up in the air, so to speak, saying unless everybody here is as committed to winning
05:47 as I am, I'm going to go wherever that's possible.
05:51 And for them to within two months of that, go out and get a guy like Damian Lillard,
05:56 a seven time All-Star, you have to give a ton of respect to their front office.
06:01 Oh, absolutely.
06:02 And like I you know, I like Giannis.
06:05 So I'm glad that that's the team that he ended up going to, you know, even as someone that
06:11 roots for the Heat.
06:15 So yeah, and it kind of like what you were saying, they needed to get like somebody that
06:21 would justify Giannis staying there for at least the near future.
06:25 And I do believe they can win at least one championship with Giannis and Damian Lillard.
06:32 I remember, you know, I always bring this statistic up.
06:35 No player has ever won multiple championships without a Hall of Fame teammate.
06:40 And if you looked at their roster, you know, before the Lillard trade, I mean, you got
06:46 Chris Middleton, Drew Holiday, who if, you know, they were if they ended their careers
06:51 tomorrow, wouldn't really have a chance.
06:53 But you get a certified Hall of Famer in Damian Lillard that can help you get over the hump
06:58 and get back to the championship.
07:00 Yeah, and it's funny, just a few weeks ago, you brought up that same statistic when talking
07:05 about Giannis.
07:06 And now now we're looking on the flip side.
07:09 And you know, speaking of that, Miami's front office has been getting killed on social media
07:14 for this, because, you know, people are even going as far as to say this is like the fourth
07:19 or fifth superstar they've missed out on in the past couple off seasons.
07:23 And I even saw some people going as far as to say Pat Riley in the front office weren't
07:29 even to thank for getting LeBron and Bosh.
07:31 They were saying that's thanks to Wade.
07:33 Yeah, I did see some of that.
07:35 And I can understand some of the frustrations when you look at Kevin Love, Bradley Beal,
07:42 Donovan Mitchell, you know, guys that were like on the brink, it felt like of going to
07:48 Miami.
07:49 And Damian Lillard, I mean, this one hurts so much because it felt like we had him on
07:54 the ropes, even though it would take a lot of negotiation, like it felt like, okay, there's
07:59 truly nowhere else where he truly like end up.
08:04 So I can understand some of their frustration.
08:07 But to go as far as to say that he's like Pat Riley shouldn't be credited for the LeBron
08:11 trip, I don't know about that.
08:13 Yeah, I would have to agree with you there.
08:16 I think just emotions are high from the whole situation.
08:19 Because, you know, it's like, where do we go moving forward?
08:22 Where's the organization going?
08:24 Because the identity of the Heat has always been to get these gritty players who are good
08:29 on the defensive side of the ball.
08:32 And you know, we're going to continue looking for those guys.
08:35 And speaking of those guys, we just signed RJ Hampton yesterday, who's seems really excited
08:41 to be a part of the organization.
08:43 I've seen a couple of social media posts from him, kind of expressing his excitement and
08:48 really putting emphasis on his defense.
08:51 So I'm interested to see how that'll work out.
08:54 But you know, one guy who just got traded, who's already being talked around in rumors
08:59 is Drew Holiday, and the Heat are among the teams that are showing interest in him.
09:03 How do you think that would work out?
09:07 I think, you know, obviously we lost Gabe Vincent, who was kind of like one of our best
09:14 two way players.
09:16 He, you know, even for the inconsistency, I think Drew Holiday is still a very good
09:21 defensive player.
09:23 And he does provide good, you know, good scoring on the offensive end, obviously not to the
09:30 caliber of player that we wanted, but at this point, we kind of just have to take what we
09:34 can get.
09:36 And going back to your point about like kind of what we do now, it kind of does feel like,
09:43 you know, where do we go from here?
09:44 Because we missed out on so many of those like small signings that the Heat usually
09:50 do to go get Damian Lillard.
09:52 Like when we look at Kelly Oubre or Christian Wood, we didn't get those guys because we're
09:56 like, oh, whatever, we'll get Damian Lillard.
09:59 Now that we don't have him, it's kind of like now we can't go back and get those guys.
10:04 I mean, I'm sure there'll be someone out there that would want to play for the Heat.
10:10 And I think Drew Holiday could be a good trade for us, but you know, he's not Damian Lillard.
10:18 Yeah, I agree with you on the one hand where Holiday is just not the same caliber of a
10:24 player as Lillard is.
10:26 But for some people to go as far as view him as almost like a consolation prize, to me
10:31 feels a little disrespectful because Holiday has proven himself year in and year out as
10:36 a winner, a veteran presence, and just one of the best two guards in the league.
10:41 So I do think that would be a very nice acquisition for the Heat.
10:46 But you know, tossing a hypothetical out there, if you were in charge of the Miami Heat, where
10:51 would you go from here?
10:55 If I were in charge, I mean, I would probably go get Drew Holiday because it's just like,
11:00 all right, well, now that we've missed out on a superstar guard, let's at least get an
11:05 all-star point guard who can, you know, facilitate the floor really well and give you good defense.
11:13 Because theoretically, I mean, a lot of people are talking about putting Tyler Hero at the
11:17 1.
11:18 I think he's more of a shooting guard than a pure point guard.
11:22 So I would like to have like a facilitator, you know, like a true point guard type of
11:28 player, not like a scorer.
11:30 Yeah.
11:31 And, you know, taking on that same hypothetical for me, I would like the acquisition of Holiday,
11:38 but I also don't think that puts us over the hump to win a championship.
11:43 I still think Milwaukee with Dame now would probably beat us.
11:48 So I tend to view more from the future perspective where you look at a guy like potentially Joel
11:55 Embiid, you know, if he becomes available in one to two years time, we're not totally
12:00 sure what Jimmy's going to be looking like in one to two years time, but you can't imagine
12:05 it's going to be too much regression.
12:06 And if that's the case and he becomes available, I think that's a roster that could heavily
12:11 compete with that new Bucs look.
12:14 Right.
12:15 I'd say so I would say I agree with you that Drew Holiday doesn't put us over the hump,
12:20 but I'd say for now we should at least stay competitive because if we put the squad that
12:27 we have out there like right now, like there's just like no chance.
12:31 Like there are so many teams that are on paper better than us.
12:35 So I think we should get Drew Holiday for the near future.
12:38 And then when a guy like Joel Embiid becomes available, we could be one of the first teams
12:42 to, you know, to hop on that.
12:45 Yeah.
12:46 And I just find it funny how we keep talking about on paper.
12:50 There's so many teams better than the Heat.
12:52 But if we look at what they did last season, they come out as a number eight seed, make
12:57 the finals.
12:58 But, you know, as great as that was, I do think it's nearly impossible to repeat that
13:03 level of success.
13:04 Right.
13:05 And I think that's the frustration from fans is that they know that their team can potentially
13:10 go to the finals with like a below average squad.
13:13 But I think they're just tired of seeing Jimmy carry all the time, you know, a squeaking
13:18 past people in the playoffs or us just going in the year with low expectations and having
13:24 to overcome.
13:25 It would be nice to actually have those championship aspirations and live up to them instead of
13:30 having low expectations and them being, you know, exceeded by, you know, good play.
13:37 And yeah, and especially losing out on, you know, key free agents, like you said, little
13:42 acquisitions like Uber or Wood hurts and losing Struce and Vincent.
13:47 I mean, that's huge for us.
13:49 They were really, really key for us in the playoffs this past season.
13:53 Absolutely.
13:54 That was our starting backcourt.
13:55 And then, you know, Victor Oladipo, he got injured.
13:58 But like the fact that we just traded him away, you know, that he was a good he was
14:04 good off the bench.
14:05 There was like a stretch during the season where he was like he looked like Pacers Victor
14:10 Oladipo.
14:11 And I was just like, OK, well, maybe this will be, you know, good, some good depth for
14:15 the playoffs.
14:16 Then he got hurt and then we just traded him to Oklahoma City.
14:19 So like, you know, we are reeling in the backcourt right now.
14:23 Yeah, we I think holiday is someone we really need to go after.
14:29 Absolutely.
14:30 But flipping the switch on a less depressing note, one team in Miami that's done a lot
14:36 of winning recently is the Miami Dolphins, who just put up an absolutely historic performance
14:42 Monday, 70 to 20 against the Broncos.
14:46 What are some of your takeaways from that game?
14:48 Oh, my God.
14:49 I mean, I don't even know where to start.
14:51 Like it was just like.
14:53 I mean, it's just like every time they touch the football, they were scoring and like they
14:57 were scoring touchdowns.
14:59 Like their kicker didn't even have to go out there for field goals.
15:02 He just knocking in those extra points.
15:06 And I think if they scored a field goal like they would have scored the most points in
15:09 a game in NFL history, which I mean, a lot of people are saying, oh, well, it's the Broncos.
15:16 But it's like they put up 70 points like that's a very difficult thing to do.
15:21 And so when you are amongst the top teams in the league, that's what you should do to
15:26 your opponents, like the lesser opponents is you should blow them out.
15:30 If this were a close game where it's like a field goal to win, I'd be like, OK, there's
15:35 some cause for concern.
15:36 But they're they're like establishing their other dominance upon their opponents.
15:43 And so that's why I think Miami is one of the hottest teams in the NFL right now.
15:47 Absolutely.
15:48 I mean, we got to a point in that game where Mike White was throwing touchdowns to Robbie
15:52 Chosin over Patrick Sertain.
15:54 So right.
15:56 That was just an embarrassing performance by the Broncos.
16:00 But you know, I don't I don't think all of that's Russell Wilson's fault as much as people
16:03 might say.
16:05 But on Miami side of the ball to looked amazing for the third straight week.
16:10 I mean, just look so composed in the pocket.
16:14 And then you have a chain and most are coming out of the backfield with four touchdowns
16:18 each.
16:19 I mean, they look so explosive and dominant out there.
16:24 You know, neither of them are the biggest of guys.
16:26 But I mean, Miami's offense isn't built on size.
16:30 They're built on speed.
16:31 And it clearly is working when you have four of the fastest guys in the NFL on your team.
16:37 Right.
16:38 And then so I think most are had like forty five fantasy points and then a chain had like
16:43 like fifty two.
16:44 Like it was just like that was just one of the best offensive performances I've ever
16:48 seen.
16:49 And they didn't even have Jalen Waddell.
16:51 So it's like they did all that without their number two receiver.
16:54 So that I mean, that's just the sign of a very good offense.
16:58 I think Mike McDaniel has perfectly utilized the team's strengths.
17:03 And yeah, I mean, I'm very excited for, you know, when they play teams like the Chiefs,
17:08 you know, because those are going to be like testament games, like they're going to really
17:12 have something to prove in those games.
17:14 But most importantly, I think, you know, they are up to the task and not not to mention
17:20 they get Jalen Ramsey back later in the season.
17:23 That'll be a huge acquisition for that secondary, because in these big games against like the
17:28 Chiefs, like you said, it's going to come down to can the defense hold Kansas City and
17:34 Patrick Mahomes off the field?
17:35 Can they keep Josh Allen off the field?
17:38 Whoever it may be, because we can see what two is going to do out there.
17:42 He's going to put up points.
17:44 But can you keep those other guys off the field?
17:46 Right, right.
17:48 Miami's big problem last year was their defense, especially on the road.
17:53 So if they can clean that up, I mean, there's no there's no reason we shouldn't have them
17:59 like coming out the AFC.
18:01 Absolutely.
18:02 You know, and you talk about their weaknesses from last season.
18:06 That was a glaring one.
18:07 And then I also think they struggled a lot when teams would take away those middle of
18:12 the field throws where you get Hill or Waddell in space.
18:16 And now you come in this year and you expose those holes with a chain and most are in the
18:21 backfield because, you know, they explode up the middle for 15, 20 yards and then you're
18:26 forced to come down and then you get Hill and Waddell in space.
18:29 Right.
18:30 I definitely agree with that.
18:31 I love what most is doing.
18:34 He's amongst the top running backs in the AFC right now.
18:39 And then a chain.
18:40 Is that how you pronounce his name?
18:41 A chain, I believe.
18:42 A chain.
18:43 OK, yeah.
18:44 If he can keep that up like Jeff Wilson is still hurt.
18:48 So if he can keep that pace, that could be a very scary.
18:53 That could be a very scary backfield.
18:57 And obviously, they're not going to score 70 points every week.
19:01 But, you know, if they can continue that offensive consistency, if Tua can stay healthy, then
19:07 I would have the Dolphins as a top threat in the AFC.
19:11 Yeah, I completely agree.
19:13 And it feels like the only thing stopping them now is injuries.
19:16 So you just got to pray those don't happen.
19:18 Right.
19:19 And, you know, the Chiefs look good, but they were playing the Bears.
19:23 The Bengals look good.
19:25 They looked OK and they were playing the Rams.
19:28 Not much out of them.
19:30 Like, there's not really a team I see in the way as of right now that could stop the Dolphins
19:37 or look better than the Dolphins, I should say, in the AFC.
19:40 Yeah, I agree.
19:43 But, I mean, that pretty much concludes everything I have for you today.
19:48 I mean, on one hand, you got a really depressing situation out of the Heat and one excited
19:52 fan base with the Dolphins.
19:54 Right.
19:55 And I think that's going to hurt our views.
19:57 I think a lot of people are going to flock over, start rooting for the Dolphins, not
20:00 really rooting for the Heat.
20:01 So we got to do something soon.
20:03 Got to bring that back.
20:04 Absolutely.
20:05 All right.
20:07 But that's it for me.
20:08 You got anything else?
20:09 Nah, man, that's it.
20:10 Thank you all for watching.
20:11 Yes, sir.
20:12 These are the undrafted rookie free agents.
20:14 We will see you all next week.
20:16 See you.
20:17 [BLANK_AUDIO]