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Five On The Floor: Miami Heat/NBA

Miami Heat: What must break right, to be in top 6?

Duration:
29m
Broadcast on:
10 Jul 2024
Audio Format:
mp3

Now that the transaction season has slowed down, can the Miami Heat avoid the play-in this season? Is it mostly about Jimmy Butler? Tyler Herro? The young players? Or something else? Ethan, Alex and Greg handicap the East as it stands.


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If your day sounds like we need the report ASAP you deserve Mandela if you've persevered through You deserve this rich golden logger with a crisp or refreshing taste or if you overcame You deserve this ice cold reward. Mandela, the market will fight. Trick responsibly, gear imported by Crowley Port Chicago Illinois. 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, our collaborative approach creates solutions for your unique business needs. We leverage industry-focused insights with the collective technical resources of our firm to elevate your performance, uncover opportunity and move upward at MossAtoms.com. Welcome to this episode of Five on the Floor and the Five Reasons Sports Network. Thanks for joining us on your favorite podcast app on Android. Recommend Spotify or the Five Reasons YouTube channel on Apple Apple Podcast. Also check out Off the Floor. Communicate with us and heat fans all day long. This is where you get all the information first these days. Again, the link is right here in the description $2.99 per month. You won't even feel it and you won't be going back on Twitter all the time. Also, check out the great sponsors of the Five Reasons Sports Network. Price picks. Use the code 5, FIVE. Get that initial deposit matched up to $100. It is legal again in the state of Florida. We know that the NHL and NBA are on hiatus, which you got MLB. The NFL futures are on there now. You've got all kinds of different sports. You can play players together, put up to four players together in your lineup and you can win bigs. So go to prizepicks.com. Use the code FIVE. Again, it's prizepicks.com. And now, today's episode. Welcome to Five on the Floor. A daily insider show on the Miami Heat and the NBA featuring Ethan Skolnik, Greg Selvander, and Alex Toledo, plus others from the Five Reasons Sports Network. All right. Welcome back to Five on the Floor. Here's today's floor plan on Ethan Skolnik. And follow me, Ethan Jay Skolnik. And in Five Reasons Sports, I got Alex Toledo. You can follow him at Tropical Blanket. I got Greg Selvander. You can follow him at Greg Selvander. Check out the last episode we did about the signing of Heywood Highsmith. Now, we're trying to put things in some kind of perspective in terms of where the team actually stands before we get to a whole bunch of team USA coverage. I did an episode with Alex Dono on the YouTube channel today on the Five Guys. We call it the Five Guys. We go every Tuesday and Thursday. We cover all South Florida sports, but I got Alex to indulge me on some heat stuff. And we were trying to look at where the heat stand in the east. And you get to seven teams pretty quickly that on paper could be as good or better than Miami. There's four or five teams that are just going to be awful. And then there's kind of like Atlanta and Chicago. You know, they're just like, they're always going to be on the nine and the 10. Seems like no matter who they have. This is not a place. This is a winning or misery team president. I know he's backed off from that a little bit in recent years, but even last year, he just, you know, Eric Spolscher described the heat as one of those teams. They were coming off a finals appearance, even though they actually entered, I guess as an eight seed after losing a play in game. And you know, there was expectation. I thought the team was going to be better last year. It wasn't. They, a lot of it was availability, but some of it was, was fit and performance and consistency. And they ended up basically with a flat net rating. And of course, they lost a huge game up in Indiana towards the end of the season, which really damaged their hopes. And then they ended up in a play in game and then Jimmy Butler, who had, let's be honest, coasted for a good portion of the regular season, seemed to be turning it on as he promised. And then he got hurt. And then pretty much that was it. I don't know if the roster, if this team, and we've talked about it, Greg, is better or worse than last year. I think a lot of it has to do with the development of a couple of the higher upside young players. But I do know that nobody's going to be picking this team to be in the top four. No. And I guess the right. And I guess the question is like, what has to break right for them just again in the top six? That's what we're going to do today. So you start, I mean, what's the number one thing that needs to break right in your opinion? Well, first, I think it's important that we detail that there were only two games in the loss column from being out of the four seed last year with all that went wrong. And I know that there's been lots of different changes, but I expect parity to continue in the east. So it's never as bleak as we feel it is, or as fans may make it out to be. But to your point, availability is going to come first with this team. They're going to need a string of good health. I'm actually going to piggyback off of that and say that the other really big component here is that they're going to need big leaps from their young players. And so that's something to look forward to. You know, availability is kind of a layup of an answer. So that's why I want to give you something with a little more meat on it. And that is Jaime Hawkez, Nico Yovitch, those guys taking a big leap, that's something fans can look up, you know, look out for and the team needs desperately. With you on that, we'll get some more of that in a minute. We talked about availability. I mean, Alex isn't the number one thing that they need to get and engage Jimmy Butler from day one, which they're kind of counting on right now based on his contract situation. Don't feel great about the whole counting on it thing because that's not exactly the direction it's been trending over the past few years. It's not like he, you know, from day one, year one of him on the heat, he was giving you playoff, Jimmy, you know, in the regular season. I think we've always felt this way, except it's only gotten worse because I remember like these types of complaints being there in the first season that he was here too, where it's like, you know, what, you know, people expected him to be like a 25 points per game type of guy at the regular season. And he's been more like, you know, 21. That's how it started, right? And so I'm not expecting him to turn up and be this guy who all of a sudden plays 70 plus games and is playing at the top of his game. I just, I can't expect that. Like, I just, I can't. And so yeah, like, I agree with you that that would change a lot. Like, that's the best path towards, you know, staying out of the plane. But as of right now, they're expected to be a playing team and they should be. And, you know, once again, they're going to find a different way to call them dangerous rumors and march or whatever. But nobody's going to be afraid of this team. Like, it's just, it's what it is that the East has not only gotten deeper, but the best teams have gotten better, right? So you get it's both things. Well, and when I say deeper, I mean deeper as far as like, good teams, not that there's, you know, 12 contenders or anything like that. Because like you said, there's plenty of bad teams. And I also think like even that middle is going to come down a bit this year, like there might be a nine intensity in there who are nowhere near playoff teams because, you know, the Raptors don't have Siakam and the bowl is traded to Rosen, who is a big time like floor raiser. I don't think they're going to be anywhere near that. And maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they get like 80 games out of Levine and he's playing well along with Kobe White, who's turned into a really good player here. But I really doubt that I doubt that Levine is going to have a career year right now. And I think the Bulls are going to be bad. I think the Raptors are going to be bad. Maybe not as bad as some of the other teams, but the actual pool playoff teams has gotten better. And I think that's where what has left fans frustrated on top of, you know, the lack of moves or whatever. And the lack of flexibility. So now it's like, Jimmy can't be what you depend on. I just, I don't think it's a sustainable plan. I think the way that you built this roster, you better, but you're actually kind of depending on Terry Tyler on top of like the internal development from Jaime and Yovitch and whatever you get from your rookies and whatever average play you get from your vets like Jay Rich and Bergson Love, like guys who will kind of just keep the rotation intact. I don't know that that's a great plan though, but Terry and Tyler, like those two guys are going to be carrying a lot of offenses here. I'm just trying to prepare people for that because that is what they traded for Terry. Tyler was, I mean, traded for Terry for Tyler was already doing that. You know, even Duncan was having, you know, his own fair share of the offense. Like I think we're going to see a lot of guys contributing. And I think that's the blue print of this team. I don't think it's Jimmy carrying them. I think we're past that point. And I don't think that's, that should be the move either. Because if you're trying to consent, we've already seen like, I don't think like trying to gas out Jimmy in the regular season is the move to be good in the playoffs for this team. Like he's going to be 35 years old. I don't think that's the move. Well, I don't think it's the move to force it. I think that there is, there has to be an expectation of more overall engagement. And we've talked about this before. Tyler's got to play more than 42 games. Well, I get it, but and we'll get to Tyler. But I'm saying like, as far as Jimmy goes, like, you know, it's not just the games he misses. It's the games he played, but was not into it. That was more, I think, my frustration. And I really think that's more was the heat's frustration was like, okay, if we're going to, we're going to miss 22, and you know, there's going to be good reason for 15 to 17 of them. All right. But then in the 60 that we play, particularly against the good teams, can we get max effort? Yes. I think that's my important team. And again, as we talk about the stats against top 10 defenses and everything else along those lines, like that is that they were not good. I mean, he was, you know, basically a 19 point score in about 41 to 42% shooting. That's, we can talk about Tyler. We're going to talk about Tyler. I understand it. I know I know where people go with this when we focus too much on Jimmy, but Jimmy is the highest paid player. Well, is he now, I guess, I guess he now I guess the ban extension kicks, you know, he's still is. So I mean, there still has to be an expectation that he's going to play at a higher level. When we come back though, I want to talk more. We'll talk about Tyler. I want to talk more though about Jaime and and Yovitch, and what is reasonable to expect based on past jumps that players have made and sort of how they fill in the role players. Do want to mention a great sponsor. 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Before we get to Jaime and Jovitch, Greg, what is, I mean, looks like Tyler here is going to be on the roster. He's going to be on the roster. He confirmed today what we've been saying that he's expected to be ready for heat camp. What are reasonable expectations? Can Tyler and Terry be floor-raisers for this team if they're both healthy? They're going to have to be. I think they're going to rely on both of them offensively. Alex alluded to it. He's absolutely right. This team has now boxed itself in in a way where Terry and Tyler have to be huge contributors if you're going to be good or if you're going to even be respectable. It's going to be the decisions that are made with the rotation and things like that, and who compliments who, but I think are going to show us if they can maximize those guys. I don't know that them together, playing together, is going to be the answer necessarily. We've chronicled that on this show, but both of those guys are going to have to play really well for this team to climb out of the play in and fortify a spot in the top six. I think that there's no doubt about that. What I'm interested to see is if one of them is able to accept a six-man role and really embrace that, and then that raises the floor of the rotation, just the bench is better, and things like that, and for the betterment of the team. That's where this is heading for me, but it's just interesting because I think both are thought of as starters at this point. And for that, too, I mean, they need a healthy dunk at Robinson because if Duncan is hurting the way he was hurting in the last month of the season into the playoffs, then it's really hard to separate Hero and Rosier in any significant way. We talk about them playing well together, but they're going to have to play with Duncan at times. Look, this team, I don't know who the other shooter is going to be. Is it going to be Birx? We talked about some rotation stuff. I don't know if you can project him as a as a long-term rotation option. Seems like kind of a, you know, and then again, Pelley Larson, we don't know. I mean, I've shown some things in Summer League, but he's a young player. You don't know how he's going to adjust right away. Alex, I had made the case that Tyler has gotten better over the course of his NBA career, but it's been marginal each year. Is there any hope of a bigger jump? I don't have my hopes out for that. And it's not like trying to throw shade at Tyler in any way. It's just, I think that, you know, like we've talked about for so long, the physical limitations are what they are. And I just think it limits who he can be as a player. And I know he doesn't like hearing that. And you know, it's fine. Like if Tyler hears this or just hears that sentiment in general and doesn't like it, that's fine. Like he's a competitor. He's one of the, you know, but he's in the NBA for a reason. He's one of the best competitors in the world. I get it. He's supposed to feel that way. But just from looking, you know, from the outside in, I just think he kind of is who he is. I don't know if that's unfair. I still think he can get better at certain parts of the game and keep growing marginally. But I don't see a big leap happening. I don't, and I don't want it to be this thing where they try to force him to do even more, right? 26 points per game. Please stop it. Stop it. Like that, that stuff is ridiculous. I'm sorry. Like Tyler averaging 26 points per game is not a bad thing inherently. The problem is, how are you getting to it? Right? I don't think his game is like, unless all of a sudden he comes back in and he's like a lot stronger and he doesn't lose a weight over the season. All of a sudden, like he's getting to the free throw line more. Like if you've added stuff like that, yeah, that's great. But if you're doing more of what you're doing, you better be getting to 26 points per game coming off the ball more and not just playing on ball pick and roll, which he's going to do plenty of. I'm not saying he shouldn't do any of it. What I'm saying is I think he's got to keep, you know, advancing in, you know, like the arc of his career, where it's like you keep adding and polishing stuff to your game, even if it's if you're not adding anything like huge, it's more like just figuring out, you know, when to take certain shots. And to me, it's, it's just about polishing who he is already. And I think that's what the growth, you know, that's how players get into their prime. It's not because, you know, a lot of times they added something that they didn't have, they just got better and kind of put it all together and polished their game. I think Tyler can still do more of that. And I think he was showing growth as far as being willing to play off ball when we did see him play with Terry. And just a quick stat here, by the way, just that I thought was interesting. And this is not, you know, an end all be all by any means, but it was just kind of surprising to me. I was looking at the data on, excuse me, pvp stats.net with Tyler Terry and Duncan, and they were like a plus three. I mean, I'm sorry, Tyler Terry and BAM, not Duncan, Tyler Terry and BAM were a plus three net rating. And when you look at Terry Duncan and BAM, it was a negative six point 30 net rating. So you wouldn't, that's a pretty surprising gap to me. Just before we get into this thing, we're like, we're declaring that they can't work together. I've already said, like, I don't, I don't think that's the move. Like, when you get to like the playoffs or anything, I still think you got to work out some of those kinks. And I think it almost forced Tyler to grow as an off ball player a little bit last year. I'm not saying he is now a solely off ball movement player, nothing like that, right? But I think like I would like to see him be put into that position again, because I know he will be, right? And I want to see how he adjusts to it. Or if he still just try to force his playing, like more on ball, I think him finding the balance of his game is, is what this is about now. Do you think that there's more of a chance for a Terry jump, Greg, from what we saw last season, and then there is a chance for a Tyler jump? Maybe from an impact perspective, but not necessarily statistically, I'm not looking for Terry Rogier to be like the 20 point per game guy that he was in Charlotte. Charlotte was an awful team and he averaged 20. That's not his role here. It's more about the impact, the way that he balances being a score when they need him to be a score, getting to the basket and finishing better. He needs to be a better finisher for this team to be good. So that's something to watch for. I think he can probably make a more. This is the thing, they didn't really get to see Terry Rogier on this team for a long period of time. So that really is, if you're looking for something incremental from the playoff team we watched against Boston, it's Terry Rogier. So that's just where I lean in that direction. Having a healthy Tyler obviously is going to change things, but for me, it's Terry kind of taking command of the offense to a degree and learning to be a point guard on this team because that's not the same as being a lead guard in Charlotte. To me, the biggest thing that we need to see from Terry is he started to make a lot of clutch shots for them late in the season before he got hurt. His numbers and those situations were pretty good. I mean, once he started to find the jumper and I do think that there are more actions that they're going to run to get Terry those looks at the end of games this year. So I want to see him in those clutch spots. I do want to pivot to the other two guys here before we close. We talked about him at the beginning, Caucus and Yovitch. So I'll throw this at you, Alex, which of those two players growth is more important for this year. I'm not talking about for the future. I'm talking about for this year. My instant reaction is high me and that's without having, you know, thought out or anything, but I feel pretty good about that answer just because I think he is somebody who is not that there's no upside for Yovitch. He's only 20 years old and he's already grown a lot. You know, I'm still excited about him and his upside. Still expecting to be a starter, wanting to be a starter. So just make it that clear because I know people get defensive about Yovitch. But look, I think high me is somebody who has scoring upside, you know, and I think he has clear parts of his game that are a strength. And we talked about it last year and I talked about it that I think they can get to him in the post more. I think they can, you know, maybe just try to find different ways to get him in the post, right? It doesn't always have to be the same like the way that they try to get Jimmy and Bam in the post with certain sets. I think they can run similar things like that and kind of get him in his office there because you need extra scoring. And I think that's the way that he can kind of up his production. And if you are starting Tyler and Terry, and if Jaime is coming off the bench, maybe he's kind of like that six man type of guy. And again, I know everybody like wants Tyler to come off the bench. I get it. I get why I think Duncan is better as a starter and more impactful as a starter. You know, the fact of the matter is when he did start with Terry and Yovitch, those like we mentioned in the last part, those, you know, the net rating wasn't great. So I'm not saying don't go back to it, whatever. But if it seems like Terry and Tyler is going to be a starting back court. And if that is the case and Yovitch is starting there with them, Jaime is going to have a big role off the bench. And I love that role for him. You know, the fact that you can sub out Jimmy and have a, you know, a mini Jimmy come in. And I think a guy who can get you a lot of stuff and the paint is that sorely needed. You weren't able to trade for, you know, another big time creator, you know, other than Terry. And I think at this point, it's, you know, you've got to find ways to get Jaime more in his office and not just trying to fit in alongside others. I know maybe it's a little bit early to do that, but I think the way that this roster is built, you should find ways to, I think, maximize your guys. And it doesn't only have to be that, right? Like I like him playing alongside others too and trying to figure that out, figure out that role so that he can play different ways. But I do think if you want to get the most out of Jaime and get a jump from him and get more paint touches from somebody else because you need it, I think that's, that's the way to go. I think that he's got a lot of upside there and they can go to him more. Well, Greg, I mean, we saw him kind of break through the rookie wall the end of the season. I, I, it's interesting because in some ways, I thought that they kind of found their game a little bit, even though again, some of the net rating stuff didn't show it. Although I know, as you know, like individual net rating and the overtures was very good, but I know when you start to group it with other players, there were some combinations that didn't work that well. But they kind of found their game when Jovitch sort of found his place next to BAM, I thought. And so I could argue with Jovitch, because again, it does seem like his overall upside may be higher from where he kind of came from. But I do agree with Alex that I think for this year, it's still Hawkes and it's because they just desperately need somebody who can get them a bucket. They're still in that position, right? Someone has to soak up the Caleb Martin touches too. And what he did for the offense, which was not, you know, I mean, I'm not saying he was a dynamic score, but he did make plays and, and get buckets at times. And you know, he could have a breakout game here or there. Jaime's going to soak up all of that usage, all of those minutes. So to me, that that's his major opportunity. It's maybe a blessing in disguise that Caleb isn't here because they're going to kind of have to throw caution to the win with Jaime's role. And to Alex's point, let him play his game versus fit into some specific role. And I think that that's just going to be best coming off the bench. I think as we come up with some of these things, a lot of this, we haven't talked about it, but they're going to need some other teams not to live up to expectations, honestly. You're going to need Milwaukee to struggle with depth, which it does. I don't really like their roster beyond their top two at this point. There's really nothing you do to get Boston to come all the way back. Philadelphia, I think they're going to be fine. I think they are fortified against some of their previous problems because I think Nick Nurse is a better coach than they've had before. And I think Paul George actually slots in pretty perfectly there. So it's hard to really see where the weaknesses are going to be for them. The Knicks, I can see more problems than maybe people are anticipating. I do think Indiana, there was a little bit of a flukishness to their run last year. I think the teams also have scouted Halliburton in a way now that he's going to have to adjust. Obviously, they have Siakam for a full season. Orlando should be better, but we see teams that are young and they've had a KCP. We see young teams that slip back the next year a little bit. Cleveland, they resigned Mitchell, but they really didn't address that their four top players don't really fit that well together at times. There's duplication in the back court. There's duplication in the front court. So again, I'm looking for things here. I'm searching. I think probably Vegas will have the heat seventh in the east to start the season. We'll see where this goes in about a month, but they are going to need a couple of teams to not need expectations. That happens every year, and then they're going to have to capitalize on it. But the other team's stars seem more inclined to give effort during the regular season than Jimmy does. Other teams seem to have a little bit better balance on the roster. That's why, again, as much as I try to be a positive guy here, I think there are five or six teams. The heat are clearly better than the east. I think there are probably five or six teams that they are clearly not as good as in the east, at least as things stand. All right. Thanks. Water clean up in Florida. Thanks to prize picks. Use the code five. We'll have more episodes for you during the week. 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. Every day we rise, challenging ourselves to work for what we believe in. At U.S. Border Patrol, protecting our borders is more than a job. It's a calling. Agents answer the call working together to keep our country and community safe. If you are ready for a new mission, join U.S. Border Patrol and go beyond. Learn more at cpp.gov/careers. 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, our 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 MossAtoms.com. When you close your eyes and think about wealth, what comes to mind? Early tea times? Giving back? Seeing your kids go further than you ever thought possible. The thing is, everyone has their own idea of wealth. So no matter what your idea of wealth looks like, our wealth management team is here to help make it a reality. Be okay financial. 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