"The legends are true, we're building power." "The sauce of testing." "Yes!" "The most legendary sauce has arrived, has McDonald's transformed into the anime world of McDonald's!" "The greatest flavors unite in all news, savory chili McDonald's sauce, to make your 10-piece with nuggets, fries, and sprites ultra-powerful!" "Unlock manga comics with every meal, and sit down for a new anime short every week, only at McDonald's!" "Bada-ba-ba-ba-ba-go!" "And participating in McDonald's for limited time will supplies last." Well, again, we'll end this episode of Five on the Floor and the Five Reasons for Sports Network. Thanks for joining us on your favorite podcast app, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Red Circle. Also, the Five Reasons YouTube channel, make sure you hit like, subscribe, and turn the notifications on. Also, check out Off the Floor, that's our new Discord server, 10 different channels. Communicate with us and fellow Heat fans all day long without the clutter of Twitter. $2.99 per month, the link is right here in the description on the YouTube feed, as well as the podcast feed and pinned to the top of the Five Reason Sports Twitter page. Also, check out the great sponsors of the Five Reasons Sports Network, including Rock Esports Center. We talk about this place all the time, but we've got a special event coming up for you on Friday. This time, we're doing the 2K tournament first. So, get down there at 5 o'clock, it's down in Palmetto Bay, so leave enough time. And then after that, we'll watch the Heat and the Thunder play, so play, and then watch, drink, eat, all kinds of cool stuff. But again, if you mention five reasons, you get $5 off the all day play, any day of the week, but in this particular day, you can actually win prizes. So, check it out, Rock Esports Center, Heat Thunder 8 o'clock, the 2K 24 tournament, 5 o'clock in Palmetto Bay. More details will be on the Five Reason Sports Twitter page. And now, today's episode. Welcome to Five on the Floor, a daily insider show on the Miami Heat and the NBA, featuring Ethan Skolnick, Greg Selvander, and Alex Toledo, plus others from the Five Reason Sports Network. Welcome back to Five on the Floor, here's today's floor plan. I'm Ethan Skolnick, you can follow me, Ethan J. Skolnick, I'm going to Five Reason Sports. I got Greg Selvander, you can follow me at Greg Selvander, we got Brady Hawk, you can follow me at Brady Hawk 305, and Alex Lito, you can follow me at Tropical Blanket. I'm back from a mini vacation, so actually, it's the first time the four of us have been together in a little while. The Miami Heat are still playing well, and now they get the Detroit Pistons coming in here, one of the two worst teams in the league. They actually get the Pistons in the Wizards five times this month. So, we talked about this setting up for the Heat five times on Five on the Floor. So, already 11 and three in their last 14 chance to go to 12 and three, just some details here before we move forward. Tyler Hero is out again, Kevin Love is out again, Josh Richardson is out again. Kayla Martin, who is going to feature prominently into this episode, I'm sure, is actually supposed to be active. So, that's the latest injury report that Heat will basically go with the same players, likely starting lineup and rotation that we saw in the win against Utah. What we're going to talk about today is we're going to go back into the closing lineup. I feel like we do this a lot, but it has changed a lot this year. Just like the starting lineup has changed, a lot of focus on the starting lineup. I think there are 31, is that right? 31 starting lineups. At this stage, Baskin Robbins, 31 flavors. We actually should go through some of the records of these starting lineups to see what they've done. Check out the episode that Brady and I did on Nicole Jovitch. Oh, excuse me, it wasn't Brady. It was eternal and I. Eternal will be angry. Eternal was right. Nicole Jovitch is starting at the power forward position and how long that could last. But today, we're going to get into the closing lineup because it's more important. The Heat value it more. Their entire purpose of acquiring players is to give air spoolster options for the end of the game. And I will start it right here. There are only two guaranteed closers for the Miami Heat. That's it. We've talked about three before. Sometimes we've talked about four. There are two. It can't be three when the third guys are not playing very much. So let's start there. Okay. It's Jimmy Butler and it's Bama to buy him. So we have not really workshopped this prior to the episode, but we're going to go around. And talk about who should be the closers going forward and into the postseason. And I'm curious to see if some of this varies. So Greg, let me start with you because we were talking about this on on our on our internal feed today on our text string. And you were bouncing back and forth like you see like you had settled on your five. You're like, no, no, this guy's got to be in it. No, no, that guy's got to be in it. What did you come to? So what hit me was that I initially didn't have Jaime Hakka as in my closing lineup. And that's just not how I envision this going down. Primarily because of the way Spolstra's trusted him in fourth quarters. I mean, there was a time at one point in the season for a long stretch. He was leading the league in fourth quarter minutes. So like I feel like him closing. It's a rare scenario with a rookie where usually I would deviate and say, no, like he'll probably end up not playing a ton. This is a different situation. So with that being said, I also lean into Terry Rosier being a closer. I think he's going to be. And I think this may be where we vary to some degree, as you mentioned, I think he's going to come with some huge plays. I think that he is exactly what they need. I also understand that there's been up and down stretches, but I do think that in a playoff setting when the game slows down, he's going to be an asset to them. Jimmy Bam, as we mentioned, and then a guy who I flip flopped on this season is a guy who I think Spolstra ultimately is going to trust and that's Kayla Martin. So that's where I land. Terry Rosier, Jaime Hakka, as Kayla Martin, Jimmy Butler, and Bam on a bio is who I think will be the five trusted closers at this current moment. It's crazy though, because in the same text string that you refer to Brady mentioned how matchup dependent this is and I think that that is something we'll need to consider. But ultimately, that's the five guys that the five on the floor that I think are the best. And I'll finish by saying this, I know it sounds crazy that I'm not including Tyler hero or Duncan Robinson in that scenario. I've seen Duncan start play prominent roles and not close. With Tyler is we're in a spot where he has, he has to prove he can be available. And so like that's a weird place for me to be but I trust other guys to be available and so that, that is another weird part of this where I think Tyler's going to get a little bit docked because of the fact that he can't stay healthy right now. They almost never lose when Duncan Robinson plays at least 29 minutes. Like I assignment Smith put that up today. They're wearing like 85% of their games. So I'm just saying that because if he's not going to start and he's not going to close. We're going to somehow find 29 or 30 minutes for him. And we talked about him playing at least 25. They got to find those minutes between what the six minute of the game and the 42nd minute of the game, right? Like so 36 of those minutes. He's got to play a lot and by the way, if he doesn't start and he's not starting playing the first six of the second half either. So you're almost talking about to get him to a minute count where they have been most productive this year. And every minute, but the start of both halves and the close of the game. I want to give some Caleb Martin numbers here for context because Caleb has had a roller coaster this year and right now the arrow is up. And not only is it up. But he's now basically replicating his numbers from last year. Overall, even with the slow start, even with all the games missed. He's now played a bunch more games than Tyler hero has and that's with all the injuries that Caleb was dealing with earlier in the year. Right now he's shooting 55 excuse me 45% last year is at 46%. He's a 39% from three. per minute or per 36 minutes, whatever you want to extrapolate it to. His overall effective field of up percentage then is essentially the same, even though his two point percentage is down. He's averaging more rebounds per 36 minutes, more assists per 36 minutes, same number of steals per 36 minutes, same number of blocks per 36 minutes, same number of turnovers per 36 minutes, and actually two more points that last year per 36 minutes. So Caleb has not declined this year. In fact, by the end of this season, if he keeps playing the ways playing, his numbers are going to look better than they did last year. And it's looking like the best trade that they made at the deadline was the one they didn't make. We talked a lot about would they trade Caleb? They're going to need Caleb. So Brady, Caleb is going to be one of my five closers. I'll just, I'll just put it there. Is he one of yours? 100%. And I know I'm glad you phrased it like that because I think this should be a lot on Caleb on this episode just because of the trajectory. And it's not, this isn't a one time thing. And I think that's what the case is to be made here. Like we talked about, and it's on a much lower level, but we talk about playoff Jimmy and guys that get better around this time of year. But Caleb has proven that he gets better around this time of year. And you see, and I think the big topic around him is the fact that his jumper looks a lot better and the hitch is gone and everything along those lines. And the thing I keep bringing up is like, if you go back over the past two or to three seasons, it goes away around this time of year every time. And then by the playoffs, it's as smooth as ever. It's almost like the more reps he's gets throughout a season, he gets to the point late in the year. And it's like, it's just all pure. He's shooting 41% on spot on catching shoot jumpers this season. You think back to last year's playoffs, he's around 42 43% from three. You look at what he's doing. This post all start break and it's kind of getting back to that same level. So with all that said, I'm right there with you, Caleb Martin is going to be a air exposure closer. And they're going to need him to guard the point of attack and all of those things. Now with my closing lineup, like you said, it's, it's Jimmy, it's Bam. Caleb Martin's obviously in there. You start looking at those two guard spots. I have Tyler, hero in there, they're going to need him to kind of be not only to balance off the catch and shoot stuff next to Jimmy, but they're going to need him at times to be kind of the stuff that Greg was saying about Terry, they're going to need him to be on ball at times and be that productive score, be the pick and roll guy, be all of those things. So then it gets down to the fifth spot. And naturally, you think you would just go to the five best players and go to Terry. But I don't, I'm not there. Like when I think about closing lineup and I think about, I'm also thinking about like the, the most times we'll see this closing lineup in the playoffs. Like that's kind of how I'm thinking about it. I think a timey Hawke is in there. So I have, I think it would be Tyler, Jaime, Jimmy, Caleb, Bam. I think you have enough defenders. You have enough two way guys. You have Tyler, if you're in there that could get, that could play point guard, but I hate the point guard thing because all of them in the playoffs are going to be playing point guard. And here's the biggest thing. And it's, I'm totally there that I think Terry was, he was going to play a major role for them on this in his playoff run. I think they're going to need him because he gives them a different element. But late in games, Jimmy Butler's going to have the ball in his hands 90% of the time. Like this is Jimmy Butler's show. This is Jimmy Butler's game. It's the product that we see every year in the playoffs. I just think about the fact of not only if we're just comparing Terry and Tyler one on one, which is not what I'm doing, you put the better catch a shoot player out there. And that's the way I'm looking at it. But it's just, that's just one element. I also just think Tyler's going to end up kind of in certain matchups. And this is why it's matchup dependent being needed to win matchups to win what playoff series to beat the Milwaukee's of the world, the Cleveland's of the world. As we've seen against Denver, they need a pull of shooter. That's another matchup. Like they're going to need him in so many of those ways. But I think the interesting one, even though me and Greg both went with Jaime, I think he's kind of the one that's the most intriguing because he's the rookie. He's the one that's kind of you talk about Caleb being on the upward trajectory. Jaime's kind of been the one that's kind of on the downward trajectory in some ways. Like he's kind of been the guy that started out really hot. And now he's kind of shot from deep spin kind of up and down to bend those ways. But what I mentioned about Jimmy and having the ball in his hands late in games, they're going to need a guy that does not need the ball in his hands. That guy that does not need that could kind of do stuff offensively and make an impact with just his cuts and his baseline work and all that stuff. And I've just seen too many times this season the way that Jaime's taking big shots in that corner and made plays and made got relief buckets and done all of those things. It's like, even though he's rookie, Eric Spulsch is going to trust him too. So those are the five guys I'm at right now. Great. Alex, I'm going to tee you up with this. But I want to play off one comment that Brady made here. You talk about needing catch and shoot guys with this. The ball is going to be in Jimmy's hands. So I'm leaning away from Hawkins. But Alex, I'll let you go here. Who would be your five? You knew I wasn't going to have an answer that I just felt good about. There wasn't going to be a quick answer here. So what I'm going to do instead is break down my thought process. I lean with Brady's lineup when it comes to what's the most likely. I don't think Spuls is going to shy away from Tyler as a closer in the playoffs. I think we've seen him be a good fourth quarter player. We obviously know that this is a huge playoff run for Tyler to perform in. And I think everything is set up for him to be in that role until further notice. So I think that's the third spot. It's funny that we're here with Kayla because he had such an up and down start and there was so much talk about him being replaceable. There's so many repeated roles and repeating skill sets with these other wing players and guards in there. And now we all have Kayla as a closer. And I tend to agree there. I think Kayla just kind of, with the way that he played last year, the way that he's been wrapping up recently, the specific skill set he has, all of it I think translates well to the playoffs and translates well to playing around their best players. We've already seen it. So it's easier to think about it in that way. Hakez is the one that made me think the most. Not just because he's a rookie, but because of what you were just talking about there with the spot up stuff. Now, that doesn't mean I don't think he will be closing. Like I said, I think that's probably the most likely one, which is kind of crazy for Spuls, right? To just, we're just like, to be thinking about it is Hakez is a, like, it's almost like a lock to be closing in a lot of playoff games. It's pretty crazy. And it says a lot about where he's at. But I do think he's the X factor there because I think everything else he brings, right, makes up for the lack of confidence you have in him as a spot up shooter. But at the same time, what Brady was talking about there just kind of keeps ringing in my head when it comes to Jimmy's going to have the ball in his hands more often than not. And I think with that being said, if they're not feeding highmate in his type of, like, in his office, right, his theoretical office on the court, if he's not getting his type of looks and he's only having to find things off ball, I think that takes away from some of his game. And I still think he could be a positive player for you and all that, even with that. But I feel like he is a little bit more out of rhythm and it's going to be a lot of pressure for him to hit some of these shots, even if they are open. And I think that's going to be the scouting reporter for the heat is some of what we saw against the Nuggets. And this has happened over the years, but it's like, there are certain guys on the heat that you can help off of. And highmate is going to be one of those guys, no doubt about it. Like, there's no reason for teams to be worried about his three point shooting over some of the heat's other threats out there. And I think, you know, he shot 32% for the year from three. And about 90% of his shots, I think it was 90 or 95% are assisted from three. So most of those are pretty damn good looks. And, you know, I don't think he's a non shooter, but I think the fact that he's kind of like an air shooter takes away from him being an absolute lock to start me. I mean, excuse me, to close on a night to night basis in the playoffs. The other thing I wanted to say was, you know, and you, you mentioned it earlier, late with the matchups, obviously the matchups can change things. So if you're talking about a matchup versus perhaps like the Bucks with the two bigs or another matchup where Spope might feel like, you know, you have to match up with a second big. I think Kevin Love could be a closer. We saw that happen last year. Now he wouldn't be like my night to night guy. But again, certain matchups, I could see that happen. And of course, like guys who are having a great night that night, like Terry could close certain nights, maybe, I don't know, Heywood is kind of a long shot, but, you know, we've seen him have important minutes in the playoffs too. I'm just like naming guys who could potentially be having a good night that night. So I'm not trying to give out a cop out answer because I do think like Brady's is probably the most likely lineup, but I can see it going a lot of different ways. So I'm not going to give a different lineup here. I think I would probably just stick with that one. But if you told me it was like one night Terry Tyler, you know, Jaime, I wouldn't be that surprised. And there's kind of like a lot of different variations. I feel like they have a lot of good players. So I don't feel super confident about one line up. But hey, I'm just trying to give you as much of my top rise as possible. All right, Brady has a question for me. We're going to hold it till after the break. I want to mention, excuse me, a sponsor of the five reasons sports network. Some of you may have noticed it's become more difficult to play fantasy sports in the state of Florida. You can still play props on better edge those check it out better edge.com use the code five RSN or five reasons. You get $20 to play right away. They got the props on there. It's peer to peer sports betting. That's why it's legal in the state of Florida and 43 other states. So make sure you check it out. It's good and oh better edge.com. We also run our contests on there. Actually, the last day of our March NBA contest is March 5th. So if you're listening to this on March 5th, check it out again. I'll pin it to the top of the five reasons page for a period of time on the fifths as you can get in there. We've got a lot of participants in there. Nine questions. And we've got prizes for the top three finishers. So check it out better edge.com use code five RSN or five reasons. All right. I'm going to get my line up here. But Brady, what's your question? So I don't know if it's as much a question. But before you went, I just wanted to show bring up a stat from last year's playoffs. So last year's playoffs and starters. I mean, the most minutes played in the playoffs for the heat was Gabe Vincent, Max yours, Jimmy Butler, Kevin Love, Bama to bio. If you go to the to the fourth quarter numbers of minutes played, there's one line up that's played way more than any other lineup. It's Jimmy Butler, Kayla Martin, Bama to bio. And the two guards were Kyle Lowry and Duncan Robinson. So it's like, it's just a very interesting dynamic to see the way they went because when we're sitting here talking about like Terry and Tyler, not like not closing because, you know, getting hunted or this and that Spoden really go away from it last year. Like he went to certain lineups that were able to. So maybe it's this case of overthinking it. Maybe it's, I just think it's funny to see that that type of lineup being because 59 minutes compared to the second most line up is 21. So it's definitely a big gap. I'm going to give you my fourth closer. Duncan Robinson. For some of the reasons, some of the things that you guys have brought up. I don't think this necessarily what's going to happen. I think it's what should happen. Okay, I'm going to put that out there right now. Jimmy, Bam, Caleb, Duncan. That would be my core for because the ball is going to be in Jimmy Butler's hands. And I want the space. And now that Duncan is so much better at creating for others and also is not a foul machine. Okay, like, look, they're going to hunt him some. There's no question about it. They are better with him on the floor. Okay, I don't see why you can't close with them. I don't, I look at the match ups and I'm like, I don't see why you can't close with them. And to me, the question becomes the fifth spot hero, rosier, Hakka's. And I think the lean will be Tyler. But as someone who has said over and over and over, the Tyler should get his starting job back when he comes back. And I think I've been sort of over the top supportive of Tyler's situation this year. He's got to get on the floor soon. I mean, there are 20 something games there are 20 games, right? Where were we at? 22 games left in the regular season. He hasn't played enough with this core group this season. We can talk about past seasons this season down the stretch of games. And we saw the clunkiness that has gone on at times when this group has played together. I don't think it's a default at this point. Like if he, I think if he has a strong last 15 games or something along those lines leading to the playoffs, then I do think it becomes more likely. But I don't think you can just say it's a given at this stage. We just, we're just not seeing him enough. He's on pace to play like 45 games this season. And then we have obviously what happened in the playoffs last year. My lean on the fifth would be Tyler and I would be okay playing Tyler and Duncan together. But if Terry's having a better game than Tyler, then I'd use Terry there. If Terry's getting into the, into the pain, I would use having a good shooting game. I could totally see him like being taken out there. But I think it's a really good point that you make when it comes to Duncan and, you know, Brady bringing up the lineups last year. Do you have that faith that he'll close with them two together? No, I don't. But I think he can. And I think at times he should. That's where I'm at with it. Like I don't, it's looked better this year than it has in the past for exactly what Tyler said. They're not food on defense anymore together. And so I understand, and Greg saying here in the chat, if Caleb and Jimmy are shooting three is like they have, then they can lean, they lean defense there. I get it. But I just think against these teams, if you're going to beat a Boston, okay, you've got to shoot him out of the gym late. You just do. And I just think Duncan's upside there and the space that he creates, the gravity that he creates, the connection with BAM, I want the option of being able to go to a D.H.O. with BAM and, and, and Duncan at the end of the game when you can't get anything else. And I just think that again, the space that he creates for Jimmy, the lineups that are created, do I think some of these others could close in certain situations? I agree with Alex. I think Kevin Love could close some games against some of these teams. I think there's a trust level there and he'll close with him more during the playoffs. I think Highsmith could close the occasional game, although I think it's less necessary if Caleb's playing well, okay? I don't think he closes with the Obitch. And I think the long right only closes. We haven't seen him play much yet. Only closes if like Dame is going nuts and like you need, you need him to do something there. But I'm coming around, I'm coming around to Duncan and I Brady just messes, and this is the key point. And I'll go to all you guys here before we close. Brady's lineup hasn't played a minute together this season. Most of these lineups have hardly played together. So Greg, give me, give me what would be sort of the wackiest. The wackiest lineup, probably the one I proposed would be the wackiest lineup because it doesn't have any catch and shoot players in it. Although the way Caleb has been shooting and Jimmy's been shooting, I just think that if that happens during the playoffs, they're going to be okay. But I guess the wackiest lineup is finding a way to get Niko involved. You know what I mean? Like, I think that that would rank up there, but that's not going to happen. I don't see it. Although, you know, he could be that token starter that just starts the first and the third, you know what I mean? Like that can be his role as it's been, but I don't see him closing. I think he starts with doesn't close. I think in most of these matchups, he's going to start but not close. And Caleb, who told me during training camp, he cares about closing and starting, I think is going to get his wish. I think he's going to play those minutes down the stretch of games. And it is going to be absolutely imperative that he hits that corner three and is a knock down shooter in those situations because I still think he's going to get those opportunities. I'll say this about Hawkins, okay? I think Jaime is going to be extremely important for pockets of the game. But I think there's duplication there with Jimmy. If the ball is going to be in Jimmy's hands at the end of the game, I don't think you need Jaime out there. Do you do Brady Alex? Do you disagree with me on that? Because I know you both, well, Alex, you both, I mean, you went with the same lineup. So you both leaned Jaime late. Yeah, the reason kind of what I said before, I would disagree is just because Jaime as my camera goes a little crazy. The stuff that Jaime can do off the ball with his cutting and everything along the lines is what does it for me. So like, if Jimmy's got the ball in his hands, put the best cutter on the team in there and let him make plays off ball. I think if you involve Jaime a little bit on top of that stuff, then I'm completely with it. I think that's like the you try to get the best of both worlds there where you're keeping him in rhythm. And you know, not every single possession is Jimmy dominating the ball as it has been in some of these other playoff runs. I think that's part of the theory with this season, right, is you have more dynamic players, more shot creators than in, you know, last year's playoff run, for example. And it's like, yeah, you're going to have to lean on that stuff throughout the game. And I know, I know when it's closing time, it's Jimmy time. But if you're going to have Jaime out there, I do think you got to you got to feed him a couple of times. And there's like too many times I feel when they're on the court together, that Jaime might have a post mismatch that they'll get to a lot if Jimmy's not on the floor. And for whatever reasons, like since it's like the Jimmy lead offense, they don't feed him. And then Jaime just kind of goes back to the corner and tries to get out of the way. And like nothing was done with the mismatch. And I think like, you know, little possessions here and there to kind of get him in his rhythm, I think helps supplement the other like offball stuff that he's good at because it helps get him in that rhythm. But I guess like the wackiest lineup that I could, the wacky is closing lineup that I could somewhat realistically see is maybe like Tyler Duncan and Jaime. I guess that's like one of the like the variations that we haven't really gone through yet. You know, all guys that spell trust to a certain extent. And if Jaime is having a good game, if you know, he's already in rhythm, I could totally see that as a closing lineup. You know, like Lape said, Terry could be in there, agree with Ethan that Duncan is a great option. I feel, you know, you can actually come up with a lot of like variations with three other closers on top of Jimmy and Bam that kind of makes sense. And I think that's where it's going to be really interesting for Spill. But yeah, I'm I guess the most likely is Tyler plus two wings. But to me, the X factor is Tyler Duncan and a wing. And if that is something that is, you know, you can work around, but I'm skeptical. Can I just say the fact that nobody like mentioned that the Terry Tyler, Jimmy, Caleb, Bam lineup that I feel like everybody would just naturally go to like the five guys, just like the fact that we nobody mentioned that one is just funny to see where they're at or Terry Tyler. Right. Well, we just haven't seen it. I mean, that's the thing like, I mean, they got Terry then Terry got hurt. Tyler got hurt. That's been kind of the story of the season. You know, the one advantage this bolster has through all this people talk about while others got opportunities and they play better with more guys out and all of that has been true. The other thing is the opponents haven't had a chance to scout this stuff. Like spring that hasn't seen it. Well, at least he's maybe seen some of it in practice. These other teams haven't seen any of it like they're going to spring lineup. He's going to spring lineups on playoff opponents that seem like normal lineups that we expected him to use that he hasn't had a chance to use because the team hasn't been healthy the whole year. And it's going to be like they're not going to have any tape on any of it. They're not going to have, I mean, they're not, you know, Boston Milwaukee. I mean, and I do think that there's a certain unpredictability there that could be used to the heats advantage. All right, we're going to close this one now because actually tonight we're doing a playback as well. Make sure that you're subscribed to our playback channel playback.tv/5RSN. We back with Pistons heat coverage Brady Alex and I will all be at the game on Tuesday night. Have a good one, everybody. Thank you for listening to the five on the floor on the fibers and sports network. After all, someone needs to listen to my dad. When you fly Southwest, we always give you our mile high heart. That's why we're giving Denver more flights than ever before. Not only do you get our low fares, but you'll always get two free bags and never pay change or cancel fees because we mile high heart you Denver. Book today at Southwest.com. Based on USDOT OMB scheduled daily flights from Denver starting in July, 2023 surpassed all prior days as a 512-2023 for consecutive check bags waiting size limits apply. Fair difference may apply. Failure to cancel a reservation at least 10 minutes prior to schedule departure may result in forfeited travel funds.
