Brady Hawk joins Ethan Skolnick to discuss Bam Adebayo finally getting his first first-team All-Defense selection.... and how Miami can maximize him on both ends going forward. Do the Heat need to get him help?
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That's going to be more than that. But across the different sports, you get them all. You win big. Use the code 5FIVE. Get that initial deposit matched up to $100 and check out our Prop 5 shows on the Five Reasons YouTube channel. And now, today's episode. [MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to Five on the Floor, a daily insider show on the Miami Heat and the NBA featuring Ethan Skolnick, Greg Sylvander and Alex Toledo, plus others from the Five Reasons Sports Network. [MUSIC PLAYING] All right, welcome back to Five on the Floor. Here's today's floor plan. I'm Ethan Skolnick. You can follow me, Ethan Jay Skolnick, and I have five reasons sports. We've got Brady Hawk. You can follow him at Brady Hawk 305. We take a break from the 38 consecutive Donovan Mitchell episodes to bring you something about someone who is actually on the current team. Bam on a bio named to first team all defense. The first time that this has happened in his career, it feels a little bit more like a result of sort of a groundswell for him that was groundswell is too strong because that means was moving kind of quickly. It's kind of been a slow moving campaign for him over the past couple of years, getting people to recognize that it's not all about blocks and steals. I don't necessarily think that this was Bam's best defensive season. I think he's had better ones, but they did have a top five defense with guys in and out the entire year. He did finish, I guess, second in the team in games played this year at 71, so he had a lot to do with it. He and Jaime Hawk is the only he players to play at least 70. He was the consistent guy there on the defense all year long. And of course, he's been forced to play different styles to adjust a different personnel that this team has had. So I got a chance to talk to Bam yesterday on a zoom call. Obviously excited about this believes he's the defensive player of the year every year. That's what he says. But I think he values this particular commendation essentially because it's been a long time coming. Brady, I'll get to this before we get into the specifics of what Bam can do better going forward and how he may need to adjust to rosters that come in. I was just curious for your thoughts about the fact that all defense first team was all front court players this time. All bigs and actually I think it was Alex Caruso who remarked or joked. They put all the guards on the second team of which he was one of them. What's your view on that overall? I mean, the bigs are the anchors. The bigs are the connectors of what makes a defense a good defense. You can have an individual player like Caruso or Derek White or Drew Holliday or different good guard defenders. But it's more matchup based. It's more kind of blocking down the guy in front of you and not covering everything else up. The lengthier, bigger defenders that are the actual anchors of their team. This was what was going to happen when they changed it up and pretty much said they're not going position based in the defensive stuff and all those recognition stuff because it just is what it is. You've just got to put your best guys in that direction. But the funny thing is, thank God they did that because with the fact your issue with WEMB and everything going forward and he's probably going to win a couple of defense players. The defensive player, the years himself in the coming years, it would have been tough for BAM who's locked into that center position to try to get first team all defense constantly behind him. So like the fact that now they're going positionless and it really does help him that he's probably going to get a couple more of those. But yeah, I just think his position thinking is why we had such a problem with Marcus Smart winning it that year over him, which was probably one of his better chances in terms of just having a really complete defensive year. It's just the guards are just locked into a certain type of style. And I think honestly BAM being a semi almost like a guard defender because he can guard the perimeter and he's not like a shot blocking guy. He's just I'm going to lock you down guy. I'm going to force a missed guy. I'm just going to force you to a tough shot and that doesn't get accounted for. It's almost like he gets put into that guard bracket at times, which is the that's the tough part. He's not looked at as an elite rim protector, even though he is without even, you know, blocking shots. Yeah, I mean, that's why the heats numbers are always it's about not getting into the paint, essentially is the way that they try to operate. And they've done it without a good point of attack defender at the guard position for a while to the point that they've had to use their fours, whether it was Caleb Martin or Haywood Highsmith. They're they're small floors. They're small ball floors to do that kind of stuff. You know, the thing about BAM when he said what he wants to be known as a defender is as someone who has no weaknesses. I feel like that's, you know, that that is kind of the core thing for him that he's not someone. Okay, you can you can scheme him off the floor in any way. Now, people who follow Minnesota in this playoff run now will say that Rudy has overcome some of the allegations there. I'm not going to give go bear too hard a time for for the yokech because so many problems with the yokech although I do believe BAM plays yokech as well or better than anybody else does. But I think Minnesota what we're seeing now with their defense even the game that go bear missed. It's really good without him. I mean, Anthony Edwards is is a plus defender. And Danels is an elite defender. Alexander Walker has become a good defender and towns is actually playing defense now. So like their core defense would be good without go bear. It's just better with him. Whereas BAM, this heat defense. I don't know what this would be. Honestly, I mean, I mean, you've got Tyler, you've got Duncan, you've got Caleb, I mean, you know, guys who I mean, let's just be honest. I'm not considering the plus defenders. I know Caleb does a good job, positionally, but then, you know, additionally, Caleb didn't have an elite defensive year. Hey, what is really, and Jimmy, yes, can be an elite defender when he's engaged and playing. But really, hey, what high Smith was the only other kind of a team that you would say, and hockey is is better than advertised, but but high Smith is the only one to be like, okay, that guy would be part of a top five defense. There's nobody else on this roster other than a guest, again, again, engage Jimmy, who would qualify in that way, right? I guess you could throw Delaun in there, but I guess he does he really proud because he was, yeah, it was short term and, yeah, you did not get a lot of minutes, but, yeah, he would, he would give us kind of the, the definite one there, but you brought up go bear. It's funny because you can't knock him because of what he's doing in that system, but the keyword is system. And that's the key word when I look forward to these defense player the years is because he plays a style that works for them. And he plays in the drop because that's him and he's a lead at it. He's absolutely a lead at blocking shots, all three shots kind of playing in that drop. But like the versatility of BAM is what's standing out and when you talk about no weaknesses, that's what he means. He's like, I can play drop, I can switch, I can blitz, I can play in a zone, I can do all of that. And nothing takes away from me being elite. I can be an elite in any system because essentially I am the defensive system. And I think of it like the way we judge offensive players where a guy has a certain offensive scoring package and you say, oh, well, he doesn't have the three ball in lock though he doesn't have a mid range game or something like, we don't talk about that with like defenders where like if they, this guy can't switch, this guy can't play blitz that's on the effectively and do that all game. Well, like BAM could do a lot of that stuff. So I think that's where he looks at it in terms of like the weakness part and individually. And I actually asked so about it in the X debut, I asked him kind of where he felt he's grown the most defensively because there's no, you can't really judge defensive improvements like it's just like once you're like, even guys that are named are called good defenders at some point, don't really lose that, like lose that thing even even if they tail off defensively, you still hear people calling them good defenders because they once were good defenders, this is what you heard. And there is a way to grow defensively and I asked him kind of what he felt like he's grown the most with and it kind of kicks into the stuff you talked about with being a captain it's communication. Like I have the ability to play in a bunch of different coverages, a bunch of different schemes, I just need to have the communication down and I felt like I've grown in that this season where he felt like he wants to be able to yell at somebody, he wants to go and say you have to be in this spot. No, you have to go under the screen, you have to do this or that. So it's like, I just think now it's just about using his voice, which is kind of like the stuff you talked about being captain. And we were talking before the show about how their best defensive season was actually a season that bam missed some time. But they had PJ Tucker doing the communication stuff and I think that's what they missed the most and I said this before there are only two things that Jimmy Butler's asked the front office for according to the people around him and one of them. Was go get Kyle Lowry we know how that worked out or didn't at times the other he asked for was them to resign PJ Tucker I think a big reason for that was the PJ had the credibility and the gravitas just generally to tell people where to go. And I feel like a lot of that is falling on and now without you D to and you wasn't on the floor at that time but at least he was on the sideline they don't really have that voice and I think that is where we talk about bams growth people are going to talk about okay the three ball right okay we saw a little bit of that right the post game well I don't know where that's going to go at this point okay. You know getting to the line even more often okay and holding up offensively as the year goes on and then we talk about defense I'm not really sure where the improvements can come other than communication. But the big improvement is going to is going to be overall communication is captain and I think that you know it was funny when he said I asked him about what he learned his captain this year and he said it sucks. There's always truth to every joke and so I explored that a little bit afterwards and I've been told he did not enjoy it at all. That it was it was it was more of and it's funny because when I when I talk to him about it when I thought he would be named captain and I said do you want training camp and FAU when we were close to that happening he says well I don't know who else would be. At that point I'm like well yeah me either and then I said to him in a group interview which I don't think he loved the question where it's like you know are you too nice to be captain essentially everybody likes you. I don't think he enjoyed that and I feel like in a way it was a little bit forced by the organization because they want him to grow into it. You'll see where that goes but I think that plays into what we're talking about here what you're talking about with communication it is feeling you have the right to say listen I'm that guy okay. I'm a first team all defense guy. Please do what I say like now and I don't know that that's necessarily BAM's personality and that's something you know I think you'll have to grow into so all of these honors I think in that regard help. I think again when you're you can call someone all defense when that can be your nickname hey all defense okay that's you know my players call them the loudest names I remember James Jones. You know what he was he won that one three point contest and literally for the entire tenure of the big three LeBron and Dwayne called him champ. One okay now you know that I mean they were all champions at a certain point right. But they all called him champ and now you know BAM is all defense okay and so that's you know that you know he's not DPO why which I know is what he wants but he's all defense and so I think that that may lend a little bit more credibility to his voice which I think is a positive. But the best side is we will get into over some overall stuff with BAM and also scheme related like kind of what this may look like next year. Big brother iron work that's what I want to tell you about right now go to bigbrotherironwork.com. This is where you can get a free estimate all across the state of Florida including Dave Broward the keys and more for your metal work they specialize in that aluminum fences gates per goal is railings and all of that they guarantee steadfast fabrication and installation they got more than 20 years of experience they are experienced experts in the field. Evan Miami he fans we always add that as well and licensed and insured so find him at big brother that's bigbrotherironwork.com bigbrotherironwork.com or reach out to Abraham at 786. 406.5780 that's 786.406.5780 bigbrotherironwork.com Hey it's Ethan Scolnick from 5 on the floor in the 5 Reason Sports Network as you know we heard from Pat Riley recently everybody has an opinion on trades free agency who they should keep who they should give up who they should get well whatever it is that Riley in the heat do you don't want them giving up too much and getting too little right well the same is true of shaving products and that's why I use Harry's shaving products I love the way to handle I love the way it looks and I love the quality of the shave I have a little bit of trouble growing out a good beard so better to just shave it off and make sure that it looks somewhat professional these are German engineered blades made in their own factory so they stay sharp longer means you can use them 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imagine if that were you well if you get in a crash it could be hitting the windshield at just 30 miles per hour feels like the equivalent of falling three stories see felt save lives that's why you should always wear one you reduce your risk of serious harm by 50% nobody is above the laws of physics click it or ticket shipped in to save the message from the Colorado Department of Transportation all right so we don't know who's going to be on the roster yet that's the thing and we know that they had to play a lot of zone this past year we know that there's been switching over the period of time you know from drop to blitzing to all kinds of different schemes that's always tried just to keep the team in the game defensively since offense has been such a struggle what do you think is the preferred style of defense around a bam out of bio type player preferred if everything was the way you want it to be would be switching I mean he's just that good of a switch defender and he talks about it a lot that he hates when they go switch and they just pull them to the strong side corner and just to kind of eliminate him as a as his that's like the only way you could eliminate bam as a defender because even if you switch you pull him weak side he could weak side help and recover if you're strong side you gotta stay there and he's kind of pigeon old but realistically the heat are going to have to use him and drop that that's kind of the way when I look at the way this roster is currently looking the way they did that this past season they have to play more drop because you can't really if you're running Terry Tyler line ups you can't go switch a ton and you know you're doubling your group constantly trying to recover I you kind of force to play the style to kind of fight around screens and even if like some of the options that were doing politics on don of a Mitchell tray on like all these different guys that were talking about that could potentially like be in the system would probably be would still play drop I don't think there's there's unless you're like building a style where it's like like that would be like the one outlet to do that but other than that the realistic options of what this roster is going to look like they're going to use a bunch of drop they're going to play him in zone that's what I think is the funny thing about versatility is the fact that he's effective in zone like he one of the hardest things you could do is play in that bottom zone where you're limited you're just kind of helping around and that's what the communication comes from this because his job in the zone is communicating to tell this guy to help down to this guy to screwed up to this guy to do that where he's kind of just had to learn to just bought find a guy to box down rebound well which he's done at a high level but I'll say the other thing I thought was interesting that he said yesterday in the press coverage was where he he often brings up the voters where he talks about that type of stuff but he mentioned he's like he had the respect of my peers my peers know that I want that probably the best defender in the league it's just getting the voters now to realize that but I just think that's a funny aspect because you still see many guys that are like teams are scheming to pull a guy to the strong side corner before they get to their action like that's like that's why I think they're priority before they get into their offense that it's like teams and players have the respect his respect totally they're not thinking about his shot blocking or his numbers here they're like they know how good of a defender is that that's why he's the system that's why they don't really have to that smoke and do the things he does and keep altering styles because that that's just you know how good he is but he's next and I'm interested to hear your opinion on because I know you brought up the fact and I know you asked about is like how much is the offense going to be impacted by how much they use them defensively and that's why like blitzing blitzing is a perfect example because they could be really effective with that like against really high level scoring guards they could blitz a ton and throw them off their game but do you want that guy sprinting trapping at half court recovering yelling out defensively if you're relying on him the way you are offensively so that's why I think they're at certain points you've seen them go zone you've seen them go drop and not do certain things because I think they are preserving them in certain ways especially because he's not a guy that takes games off he's a guy that plays so if he's shooting for 82 games played you have to maximize them as much as possible and that's why I think this availability press conference that Pat Riley did excluded him in all ways and I think that's we have to reframe the way that we view a lot of this stuff I think when it comes to ban and this is where some who are sort of you know that are not damn believers and there are some I respect who are think that we over rate him on the podcast okay who are in the space I'm not talking about fans necessarily I'm talking about those who are sort of peripherally related to the team in some way but I think that we have to view it as it's always been this thing like get Jimmy some help get Jimmy some help get Jimmy some help get Jimmy some help well get bam some help like this is you know because I mean you're asking him to carry a bigger burden than Jimmy to just keep this team's floor like Jimmy is the ceiling razor I don't argue with that okay and I've seen I saw that I wish I could attribute that tweet because I thought it was a good tweet that I saw out there about a month ago that that bam sets the floor and Jimmy raises the ceiling but they fall through the floor without bam like this has been a consistent product Kevin love patched a lot of this and then again they play zone with Kevin when Kevin was effective this year but again we saw in the playoffs it was the same thing they could not go to anybody else but bam and and so I do think that there has to be focus on getting bam to the finish line fresher and you know we talk about his minutes like I want him them to up his minutes in the playoffs but they may need to figure out a way somehow to get the minutes down a little bit during the regular season like you mentioned play certain styles that will preserve him a little bit because we can't have it all ways like you cannot I mean there is not another guy in the league like if you look at the top 15 players in the league right now okay there's not another guy in the league who's asked to be due to do this defensively like and then you're like okay now get me 22 and and all the rest it's a lot it's a lot and look he's a young man he's obviously in great condition but he's not going to be a young man forever and and at a certain point you are you know you are let you are shortening his prime I think if you're asking him to do this much all the time and he's the one that's the one playing you know in the upwards of 70+ games and as I was told last year there there are basically you know two guys on this team I would add a third based on what happened at the end of the year but there are two guys on this team that were always trying to play through anything which were bam and Caleb and the third one I would throw in his dunk in because it's clear how much he pushed himself at the end of the year some of these other guys need to do some of that to push through this through okay so that it's not just bam and also they just need to get size next to him I that's where I'm at like and I it's got to be functional size it's got to be skilled size but even if they're rebounding numbers look okay with 65 guys next to him and a lot of times they do it's just not it's not sustainable Brady that's kind of where I'm at like they need they need a big body who in who imposes his will on the opponent so that it's not bam having to absorb all of that all the time is is that fair at this point oh it's fair I just think it has to be the right size it has to be because you could get size as we've seen the past but they don't have to play like suppose not going in that direction because they do play a certain style so I think it has to be the right size like a PJ Washington fit in Dallas is like the perfect example not that you're going to get that type of player but that's the type of fit where there's versatility to him where he's playable at the end of games where there's just that aspect where it's like they're going to go best player available to draft and we'll get into draft stuff moving forward but like they're not just going to say okay we need a big we're going to pick a big they're going to go best player available but like even if I look I look around like we've seen them do the big thing and not that each player that they potentially draft would be precious but will that guy play that they draft unless he's a four year guy like if he's like a like a high me hawks type guy maybe they can find ways to slot him in but the issue is that I don't know who that guy is or where that guy is going to be because if he did the only option that you maybe you're thinking about is if they can find one in Sioux Falls or Summer League this season because other than that I don't really see who that guy would be if they have their focus on certain guys are improving this roster in a way I just don't know if that versatile front court pieces there because we could talk about moving bam to the fore these certain fives and or like in the draft there was like Zach Edie was talked about like I don't see smoke playing Zach Edie like I don't see there being that type of like they just like versatile bigs they that that's what you need to do I guess feel like in today's day but also in Miami scheme and style so they need to do it like Minnesota what we're talking about Minnesota is a perfect example but Dallas who's batched up with them of the western coverage finals also has functional size. They had they added functional size at the dance. Yes. Right. I mean that that's the thing in Gafford and PJ Washington and I you know what when I it's a close this out when I when I look at at the situation we're all like okay yo which is the perfect guy to play next to ban right we talk about that all the time. I think he's developing into that he is the perfect idea to play next to ban where you get versatility but there's but he has height obviously now the the way the strength has been the work in progress here and I right. Right. Right. Right. Right. And this has been this is clearly they said you know it's both said it others has said it to me prior that they you know the first year was kind of a red shirt year then he got her hurt the back you know lost a little bit of time there they didn't really expect a lot this past season. Okay they really didn't they were just trying to see if there was someplace they could get him a few minutes that's why they sent him down to work at playing at the five but the ultimate goal ultimately was the four but it's when he grow not now it's not just putting on the way. Okay which he's done but it's being comfortable doing the other things you used to do with the weight but now it's using the way to impose yourself on the opponent. That's probably going to be the next step that's not going to happen right this is a guy who was a guard. Okay so that's not going to happen right away just instinctually this is going to take he's not you know it's just not going to be his mentality so. Again I wanted them to keep you over I think the over which is the long term fit next to ban. They need one more piece in that front court though that they can go to for twenty five minutes is supposed to be comfortable going to for twenty five minutes. I mean they need not a nose read okay and that's easier said than done but you know who's the third guy in that rotation right so you sort of have. You know towns and go bare and then you have not a nose read but again this was an undrafted free agent I'm not saying that you're going to find another one like that but. That's the kind of player and now we can look back and say okay maybe you could have moved Tyler here to get him a year to who knows okay. Right now I don't know that they have a piece they can move for a player that good so it is it is about. Trying to to find somebody somewhere who can at least plug that gap and give bam give just give bam a break that's it like this is give bam a break so that you can get him his shot attempts have decreased last year. They decrease every month month over month why he's tired he's tired like that's the thing like he's the one that's being asked to carry. You know and again it would help if his if his star partner would play sixty five plus games I just think that would make that would make a difference and that's the topic we're going to keep coming back to this entire off season. All right thanks to Brady thanks to our sponsors big brother iron work dot com make sure you check them out. And also our friends over prize picks use the code five FIV they're more my friends today than two days ago because why had big last 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 to listen to my dad. What's next at Moss Adams that question inspires us to help people and their businesses strategically define and claim their future. As one of America's leading accounting consulting and wealth management firms are collaborative approach creates solutions for your unique business needs. We leverage industry focus insights with the collective technical resources of our firm to elevate your performance uncover opportunity and move upward at Moss Adams dot com. That's the sound of something falling three stories now imagine if that were you well if you get in a crash it could be hitting the windshield at just 30 miles per hour feels like the equivalent of falling three stories. See felt save lives that's why you should always wear one you reduce your risk of serious harm by 50% nobody is above the laws of physics click it or ticket shipped into safe. A message from the Colorado Department of Transportation. When you need meal time inspiration it's worth shopping king supers where you'll find over 30,000 mouthwatering choices that excite your inner foodie. And no matter what tasty choice you make you'll enjoy our everyday low prices plus extra ways to save like digital coupons worth over $600 each week. 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