Speaker 1: What is up Pelasiko's I'm Dan Valley coming at you
with another twenty twenty five twenty twenty six NBA season
look ahead, We are onto the Miami Heat. I have
the distinct pleasure this year of being joined by Wes Goldberg.
He covers the team for Locked on Heat. Is also
the co host of the Locked On NBA podcast over there,
so also the hosts of the Real GM podcast. He
talks a lot, says a lot of smart things, as
great at his job, credentialed in covering the Heat as well.
Follow him on Twitter at WC Goldberg. It is on
the screen or in our podcast description, Wes, how the
heck are you doing?
Speaker 2: I'm doing well, man, Thanks for having me on. I
think the last time I was on the show was like,
who knows? It feels like a very long time ago.
Speaker 1: So it's in our DMS. I had seen you came
on for our first ever Heat look Ahead series and
then you proceeded to leave and cover the Golden State
Warriors immediately after.
Speaker 3: Oh, perfect good timing. You kicked me out of the
Heat and I went to the word.
Speaker 1: But now I don't know what we did that made
you just want to stop covering the team in general.
But I'm happy that you just didn't.
Speaker 3: Handle the tough question.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's get into this team. I have to start
with last season because it's the Jimmy Butler thing, felt
like it lasted forever and also kind of feels like
it was forever ago at this point, just given everything
that happened last year, you bringing Davey on Mitchell, in
the Jimmy Butler trade, all that stuff, what was just
sort of your biggest takeaway or lesson learned that's still
sticking with you about this team heading into this year.
Speaker 2: As toxic and distracting as the Jimmy Butler thing may
have seemed on the outside, it was even more toxic
and even more distracting on the inside. That was such
a bad situation by the end of it, where you
had Jimmy Butler kind of quiet quitting on the court
for a couple of games to start January. But even
before then, this had been brewing. It had been brewing
for months before that, even before pat Riley's comments during
his end of season press conference where he kind of
told him to shut his mouth, you know, when he
was asked about something that Jimmy Butler said about you know,
not being available in the playoffs. Everybody knew this extension
was coming. Everybody knew that because of Jimmy Butler's injury history,
that the Heat were going to be a little reluctant
to just say yep, for sure, no questions asked. Here's
all the money, full amount of years, no problem. And
as we know with Jimmy Butler in the past, when
it becomes when it gets to his money, he treats
it like a business and all loyalty and anything else
that you might think about. Jimmy Butler goes out the door.
It's all about the money, and he got his money
from the Warriors. He ends up getting traded. But I
think even after that, the Heat were kind of traumatized
after that. I think it was a really huge distraction,
and even after Jimmy was gone, they were sort of
left picking up the pieces there. And fortunately they make
it to the playing tournament. They make it out of
the play in turn thanks to this crazy Davion Mitchell
hot streak in a playoff game on the road again
in Atlanta, and then they get you know, annihilated by
the Calves in historic fashion. And that was really more
of what that team probably looked like at that point,
which was broken. It was just a broken team. So
they go in Toto the off season and it felt
like they all had an opportunity to take a vacation.
Eric Spolster went to the beach like for I don't know,
the first time in forever. I don't know if he's
ever seen a beach in his life. He's probably like,
what is this sand and.
Speaker 1: Grind in film? Though from it, I'm.
Speaker 2: Probably looking at this Pina Colada and just being inspired
by like, oh, you know what. But yeah, I think
this team really needed a break, which was really the biggest.
Speaker 3: Takeaway I had was it was a long, long saga.
Speaker 2: They got a break, and now they come into training
camp in preseason and frankly, I think they look a
lot more refreshed, a lot more energized. Despite the zero
to five preseason record. I just think that there's better
vibes all around.
Speaker 1: When you look at how they navigated the off season,
where it's you get Norman Powell for nothing. One of
the best moves of the off season re signed on
Mitchell Flip Duncan Robinson for Simony von tek Yo. You
end up extending nikole Jovich. What was what's the underline
messaging that they're trying to send about their timeline or
just their ultimate goal.
Speaker 2: That's a great question, and I think it is one
of the bigger questions right now in Miami.
Speaker 3: And really what it is is it's a reset.
Speaker 2: And they'll never say that, right they were competing for
everything and it's always about winning heat culture.
Speaker 3: It's a reset.
Speaker 2: It's a reset and what they have really done here
And I think one of the key maybe non moves
that you didn't mention there was not trading for Kevin Durant,
not taking all that stuff and offering it for Kevin Durant,
because I think this front office looked at itself and said, look,
even if we trade three of these young guys and
some draft picks and some salary for Kevin Durant, we
would love to have Kevin Durant paired with bam Adebayo
and maybe even Tyler Hero depending on what it would
take to go get them. But is that really a
legitimate title contender?
Speaker 3: Probably not.
Speaker 2: Maybe we can make out of the East or not
beating the team that comes out of the Western Conference,
that's for sure.
Speaker 3: And so why would you give up your whole future
for that?
Speaker 2: And I think they ultimately came to that realization, and
in doing so, they also, I think came to the
realization of we kind of have to build these guys up.
It's all about development now. It's about turning jimahak As,
Junior Kleel where Nikolai Jovich, Pela Larson, they brought back
precious Achua in the offseason. They have all seven of
their last first round picks now on the roster. It's
about developing these guys and then just sort of seeing
what happens after that. Do you develop them and one
of them pops into something that was unforeseen in terms
of maybe another all star type of player on this roster.
Perhaps do they all pop and become really valuable trade
pieces that they could eventually move in a guy who's
a little bit more age appropriate for this roster and
a superstar type of player. Maybe that's the case too,
But right now, I think what they really want, without
trying to forecast a head too far and maybe or
even too specifically, is just to leave their options open.
Whereas for a long time, based on where they were
in the salary cap, and the tacks and all these things.
Speaker 3: Their options weren't very open.
Speaker 2: They reset the clock on the Peter tax, are under
the luxury tax. Now they have some more of their
first round picks coming by, They have all these young
guys like they've signed them to extensions and rookie controlled deals.
It's about resetting things and keeping your options open now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because when you say reset, in my mind immediately
faking like a year's long process. But when you still
have Tyler Hero and bam Adebayo, just as like the
Core too. That's also not the message that this roster
sends too. So the optionality, where I think, is spot on.
It's just they're trying to be ready for I guess
whatever directions that they could take at any given time
is what it sounds like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and look they among a lot of other teams
are like Yiannis would be the great option for us,
right and.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how many of his family members are they willing
to sign?
Speaker 2: So when they traded for Goren Dragic, they also traded
for Zorn drag So there is a precedent here of
them willing to do that, so maybe they could.
Speaker 3: Maybe that's a selling point.
Speaker 1: So they've talked a lot getting into the actual basketball
of this team. Now, they've talked a lot this year
about wanting to play faster. I watched a lot of
heat preseason basketball, probably more than is healthy. Do you
think that they are making an effort to do it,
especially when you just look at the percentage of their
offense that was coming in transition for like a good
part of the preseason. Anyway, do you think that that
is stick, will stick, or is sustainable or do you
think that this is more so something that will fade away,
not just coming out of the preseas, but maybe also
when Tyler Hero comes back and they get their primary
ball handler back in the lineup.
Speaker 2: I think seventy percent of it will stick. I do
think they will play faster, and I just I don't
even know if it'll be on purpose thing. I mean,
Jimmy Butler played so slow and it was effective, but
that was his style of play. It was just slow
it down, get it to me in the post.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be a.
Speaker 2: Jab step, jab step, shoulder shoulder shoulder push shot, get
fouled and go to the line. And that was really
what how Jimmy Butler played and Jimmy's not on this
roster anymore, and so it's just sort of the faults too,
I think a little bit faster. Bam likes to play fast.
He always has Tyler Hero to get up and down
and get up shots. Norm Palell did oh right, Andrew
Wiggins wants to play fast. These all these guys around
them want to play fast. So I just think they
are going to naturally play faster. My question is how
effective is it going to be. The pace has noticeably
picked up, to your point, Dan, in the preseason here,
it hasn't really resulted in a lot more shots, Like
they're still in the bottom of near the bottom of
the preseason in three point attempts. I think they're behind
the Chinese team that just showed up for a.
Speaker 1: Few can finish at the basket for shit. In the
preseason either, for the most part.
Speaker 3: The finishing has been poor.
Speaker 2: The turnovers have been a real issue, and I think
a symptom of trying to push the pace a little
bit too much. I mean, I know they've just thrown
the ball into empty spaces where I think they expected
a player to be, but that player wasn't there. So
I think eventually they might have to just slow it
down just to get gain more control over the offense,
right to kind of get your hands on the reins of.
Speaker 3: The whole thing. But I do think they'll play a
little bit faster than they did last year.
Speaker 2: My question is like, how does it translate and is
it enough to just play fast, Like everybody can just
play fast, You kind of need somebody to control things,
to control the chaos. And that's why guys like Tyrus
Halliburton are so valuable, is that you could play fast,
but also he's controlling everything and seeing things so far
ahead of time. Even when you're playing at the fastest
pace in the league. The Heat don't have a point
guard like that Tyler Hero isn't that guy?
Speaker 3: Bam Adebayo? Isn't that guy? Norm Pals? And that guy
Wingings isn't that guy?
Speaker 2: And they keep talking about, Hey, we're gonna we're gonna
handle our ball handling.
Speaker 3: Duties by committee here.
Speaker 2: Okay, cool, that's all well and good, But at the
end of the day, who's in control, who's pushing the pace,
who's doing that? And that to me is the is
the core question that I have about this offense.
Speaker 1: Do you think It's more challenging for that because I
think when we talk about playing faster, I mean I
do too. It's all getting in transition, running after rebounds,
running after makes even but a lot of it is
just like, well, you're half court, like you're going up
against set defenses, and you're running that faster. Do you
think they have you already mentioned that they don't necessarily
have that primary organizer good do it? Do they have
the rest of the personnel to where if they get
that guy or for some reason, someone whether it's cast
developing into it or Tyler Hero comes back and levels
up his passing again, have the personnel to kind of
even operate at this clipp or Another element of that
would be do they have like the defense of personnel
to force a bunch of turnovers and just get out
and easier transition opportunities.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll start with a defense part of it first,
because that's where things always begin with Miami. Every time
you kind of talk about offense, they immediately shift the Commandam.
Speaker 1: Is a versatile defender according to that NBA GM survey.
Speaker 2: So that's right, that's right, He's not versatile, not one
of the better interior defenders.
Speaker 3: In the league, even though he was last year in
the GM survey and then just isn't anymore.
Speaker 1: Not kidding a vote is weird. I not, I don't
place too much stock in those things, and I'll have conversations,
but him just not being on any of the other
twenty nine gms' list is insane.
Speaker 2: It does feel like they just sort of forgot about him.
Speaker 1: Having their drop down menu or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, yeah, it felt like they, like, again, he
was third in both of those categories last year on
the GM survey. I don't know what BAM did last
year and just be like, oh, actually, he's not a
good defender at all. He was like top tops and
all the advanced metrics again, like right, you.
Speaker 1: Could actually make the case that maybe the past two seasons,
having theory, been his most versatile seasons because of like
they've had to use him in more of those traditional
big man coverages, which is something everyone's like, oh, it's
not where he's best or it's not where he's most effective.
Speaker 2: I still don't know the center that can dominate as
a drop center defender, as a switch one through five defender,
and as a zone defender, as the anchor of a zone.
Speaker 3: Defense like Daniels.
Speaker 2: Apparently, Apparently Daniels Apparently, Amen Thompson's already the most versatile
defender in the league. I love Amen Thompson, but like
most versatile defender in the league right now, felt like
a little bit.
Speaker 1: Of a stretch him recncy bias is a hell of
a drug. I love it too, But you're right, You're right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I saw Thompson might even be a
better defender. But that's a different take.
Speaker 1: Hey he got a vote instead of as well. I know. Cool.
Speaker 2: So going back to the defense question, though, you're right
because for so much the Jimmy Butler defense, the Jimmy
Butler era defense was stylized to force turnovers. Let's get
turnovers and get out and run, because there was an
understanding that they were only going to ever be at
best in average half court offense, and they weren't even that.
Andrew Wiggins is a different kind of defender than Jimmy Butler.
Jimmy Butler is a get the ball type of defender.
Andrew Wiggins is very much of a kind of, very standard,
keep your man between you and the basket type of defender,
and he doesn't force a ton of turnovers. Nobody else
on this rosteruts out of Davion Mitchell really does. So
we'll see if they're able to force some of these
stort and tile like Hero strangely enough, actually averages quite
a few steals. But we'll see if they're able to
turn those turnover, able to create turnovers, if they pick
up the pace and maybe force opposing offenses into a
bit of a frenzy. I don't really think that that's
going to be a staple of how it is that
they generate offense. And then that leads us back to
the half court. Here's a question, Dan, like close your
eyes and imagine what the Heat's offense looked like last year,
Like what's the play? What's the play that.
Speaker 3: Comes to mind?
Speaker 2: It doesn't, It doesn't. They didn't have a stable play.
I don't know what the identity of last year's offense was.
Like we're way past the dribble hand off stuff from
the bubble. They didn't even run that stuff the last
couple of years. Like close your eyes and do that
for the Oklahoma City Thunder, you got shake build just
Alexander running pick and roll with Isah Hartensteiner Chet homegrin
or really usually a small, small type of pick and
roll with Shay, do it with Denver. You've got Jokic
facilitating right from the high post, like you could do
it for so many of the good offenses.
Speaker 3: Do it.
Speaker 2: For Boston, you have them just chucking a three four
seconds into the shot clock. But at least you know
what it looks like. With Miami, I just didn't know
what the offense was supposed to be on a possession
of possession basis, and frankly, watching them in the preseason,
I still don't really know what it is. And so
that I don't know that they have the personnel, and
I don't know that they have the identity offensively, and
it feels like a little too haphazardly put together. But
that's just based on the preseason. Maybe the regular Maybe
Eric s Bolster is just spending the preseason trying a
bunch of stuff and he knows exactly how he wants
to run things when the regular season starts, and none
of this matters.
Speaker 1: One of the things that stood out at the start
of the preseason anyway, and they kind of got away
from it that you know, heroes out Yovic is now injured,
but they felt like they were very much trying to
keep Norman Powell in that I call him like the
perimeter play finishing role where it's like he is just
making his decisions off the catch, whether it's shooting, whether
it's driving. I know that's his optimal role. He showed
that he could do a little bit more than that. Well,
he was like in Los Angeles last year. But is
that the role that you think they're gonna try to
keep him into or well, the personnel is you've just
talked about where you can't envision their pet player like again,
even dealing with injuries, will that necessitate trying to force
to put the ball in his hands for just longer?
And I don't want to say as a playmaker, because
that's not what he does, but as someone who might
need to just break down set defenses.
Speaker 2: It's a great observation and it's one we talked about
on Lockdown Heat a couple different times. Is like they
almost feel they're almost like stubbornly keeping him off the ball.
In terms of a primary initiator, it's very much like
swing to the second side, let norm palall attack event
defense kind of plan. I'm a little surprised, especially with
Tyler Hero out and by the way, On Mitchell just
got back into the lineup. They haven't had cosparrasy Aka
chonas their first round pick and a couple of these
preseason games, so it's not like they've been flushed with
point guards. But we're like, sorry, we just can't get
it to Norm. Like the first couple of games, he
was the only starting guard in the lineup. They started
Kimiyakas Junior, who's a forward at the other two guard
spot technically so and they still weren't running their offense
through them. So they seem pretty content to not run
offense through Norm Powell for whatever reason. I actually think
he has a little bit of an ability as a
pick and roll ball handler. I think he saw you
saw that a little bit when James Harden was off
the court for the Clippers last year. They just haven't
done it, and so that's Powell's I think that's a
great way to phrase it. He's sort of a perimeter finisher.
And by the way, I think they look at Andrew
Wiggins in a very similar way. They haven't run a
ton of offense through Wiggins. They ran more offense through
Wiggins when he first got here after the trade deadline
than they have in the preseason. So in terms of
who's in charge, I still don't really know. BAM's usage
rate is way up and it still doesn't really feel
like he's put his fingerprints on the offense.
Speaker 1: That man, so many five questions to that. But the
Norm Powell thing, I wonder if it's just like, do
they not maybe trust the spacing around him because his
numbers without Kuai and James Harden were insane last year
on the court, But like the Clippers, is it a
nod to maybe they don't trust the spacing around him?
Speaker 3: I think that's what really needs that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but yeah, I think it's with Hero out, Powell
becomes essentially the lone floor spacer.
Speaker 1: With Hero out. Is there any concern about him coming
back and whether it's November or December or whatever it is,
and just oh, I have to familiarize myself with the
new offensive principles and then like kind of a lot
of new faces or do you just view him as
someone who, based off how he played for a lot
of last year too, is going to be able to
come in and be super plug and play for them that.
Speaker 2: Is a first world problem for good offenses to deal with.
Speaker 3: But if what Tyler.
Speaker 2: Hero and I don't mean to sounds super down on
Miami's offense, I just again, I haven't seen it to
the point where I have any level confidence in it.
This is an offense, it's fault that's been in the
bottom ten and offensive rating for the last three years
and lost their best offensive player in Jimmy Butler, and
I don't yeah, Norm Pal and maybe Niko Jovich makes
a leap or hot Ma hack it. I just I
don't know that the personnel is on this roster to
be automatically to suddenly become a good offense. And so
if Tyler Hero walks into things and he's like, yeah,
I'm not really sure how I fit here, the offense
might be like, there's not really anything to fit into.
Speaker 3: We kind of stink.
Speaker 2: Just take the ball score more than we've been doing
it the last couple months.
Speaker 3: So I'm not as concerned about it now.
Speaker 2: If it was the Indiana Pacers offense, like with Tyris Halburton,
for instance, and I was trying to like wrap Hero
into that, fold Hero into that offense, yeah, I'd be
a little worried about how he fits. But right now
there's not much of an identity where I feel like
there's there's gonna be a problem there.
Speaker 1: Where do you think just because I don't think his
season received enough appreciation. Maybe it's because of like he
did go back to some of the mid range stuff
by the end of the year. But where do you
think that Tyler Hero improved the most or turned your
head the most last year as.
Speaker 2: A decision maker, especially when it comes to his shot selection.
I thought, because you're right he started taking more mid
range shots towards the end of last year, it's because
Jimmy got you because they needed to try to figure
out ways to juice the offense. They had the ten
game losing the streak in the middle of the year,
and they were just basically at that point, just do
whatever you want, just score some points. Some done like
Spoe just gave up on the five out system and
everything like that. But I think for the first half
of the year where he earned the All Star nod,
you saw him really develop into a three level scorer
who was getting to the basket more. He took more
threes than he ever had, made more threes. There was
three months where he was the best three point shooter
in the league, and then all of a sudden, he
wasn't anymore because he was everything. Every three pointer he
was taking to in the second half of the year
was off the dribble, pull up threes, and it's just
not efficient offense. But I don't know that there's anybody
outside the Bay Area that's a better three point shooter
than Tyler hero Like. Qualitatively, I think he might be
the second best three point year.
Speaker 3: In the league. It, you know, just if I were
grading things, but.
Speaker 2: He didn't really have a chance to show that. And
then and then yeah, you also saw him develop the
elite floater.
Speaker 3: Game that he has.
Speaker 2: And then obviously he knows he's very comfortable in the
mid range, and he started getting that too, started getting
to the foul line a little bit more, started driving
into defenders and is supposed to try and drive around
those defenders. So I do think that Tyler Heroes developed
himself into a legitimate three level score at the NBA level.
He's never gonna get to the line the way that
Shay does that rate, but he can right He's not
gonna shoot it the way that Steph shoots it from three,
but he gets pretty close right. He's really good, and
his mid range numbers have been good. They've just been
sort of skewed too far in that direction where it's
the math just didn't work.
Speaker 3: But he's a good mid range shooter.
Speaker 2: So now that he's sort of balanced his shot chart,
I think you're gonna see Tyler Hero be one of
the more like one of the better offensive players in
the league. The problem is who's handing them the ball,
who's making it easier for Tyler Hero, because when he
comes back, is it just gonna be a similar situation
where he's still the primary initiator on offense, which I
don't think is his best role.
Speaker 1: Which that was one of my other I guess reads
or thoughts about the way they're using Norman Powell now,
is like, are they trying to prime him to play
alongside Tyler Hero a bunch more than because when they
he's got normal Powell. I was worried because I want
to see those two together because I'm just I'm at
the point where Miami it's just focused on your offense
and I assume your defense will figure it out, right,
And so if you're gonna play normal Powell off the
ball a ton. That would seem to me like, Oh,
you're prepping him for life alongside Tyler Hero.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's exactly the right read.
Speaker 2: The plan as soon as they traded for Powell was
we're gonna play Hero and Powell together and we're not
gonna have a primary initiator between the two of them,
but between the two of them, we can generate enough offense.
Between those guys Wigs and Bam, there's enough guys here
at potentially Nico if he ends up being the starter.
There Uh, there's enough guys who can who can play
make where we can we can generate enough fisient offense.
Speaker 1: What have you made of Nikola Jovic pre back injury?
Speaker 2: Best player for the Heat in the preseason, he looked great,
Like he's looked really good as a playmaker, He's looked
really good.
Speaker 3: Twelve assists to one turnover.
Speaker 1: Like he's going downhill. Things happen.
Speaker 2: I always the way I always described Nikola Jovich was
it always felt like the Heat's offense was approaching a
yellow light and slowing down, like they were just never
gonna speed through the yellow light. Niko was the one
guy who was just like fifty yards away from the
yellow and was just like flooring it and just trying
to get past it before I hit red And that
was always kind of and just left the rest of
his teammates behind him. And now it feels like the
offense suits him a little bit more, where now he
looks around and the teammates are running with him, whereas
in the past that wasn't the case. So I think
he looks really comfortable. Obviously, he was playing great for
Serbia at EuroBasket. I talked to him at media day
and talked a lot about just how much he learned
from Nikola Jokic, just in terms of like positioning and
spacing and how to attack defenses. He picked his brain
a lot. Nobody's sitting here saying that Yovich is going
to be the next Jokich, but there are some similarities
in the way that they I think approached the game
in terms of wanting to push the pace, wanting to
be selfless with the basketball, and all these things. And
I think Nico is a really strong connecting piece for
what I think ultimately will be Miami's starting lineup. But
either way, whatever rotation, whatever lineupso decides to go with
Nico always seems to be part of their better groups.
Speaker 1: Do you like the idea of giving him like touches
in the nail the post and facilitating out of there,
Because I haven't looked at any of the numbers on it.
I just don't know if that's I've seen him test it.
I just don't. I don't see I like him more
getting down like operating from the outside in. I guess
I would cause where I feel like he could make
the most plays for everybody else, not just himself.
Speaker 2: I agree, because if you're gonna start feeding them in
the post and start running like split cuts off of
him or something like that, nobody's gonna buy it. He's
not a physical post player, right. It's not like when
Yokic gets in the post and you're like, well, he
could just throw the elbow at me, so we got
to be ready for that. Like Yovich isn't going to
do that. He's gonna if he's in the post, he's
probably looking to get rid of the basketball now as
a play starter, as a play finisher. I've actually been
really impressed at EuroBasket and a couple times in this
preseason where he's looking to attack smalls where even in transition,
instead of running to the corner, he's running to the
basket for those duck ins if there's a smaller guard
on there in that space where he can post him up.
So that's been part of the coach process with him,
is trying to get him to use his physicality that
a get him to be more physical in the weight room,
and then b use that new physicality on the court.
He's obviously just not there yet. And frankly, I'd rather
have Bam in that spot and then have Yovic finishing
plays off of Bam if those two guys are gonna
be playing together, and if not, maybe it's coloe Ware
that's in that spot and Yovic is throwing it outside
in to Coloware and for a post entry pass or
something like that. But yeah, I think I still like
Yovic as like the second guy who touches the basketball
more than the first guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and even with where it's do either of them
and I guess they can develop it over time, have
the strength to move people if they're starting plays from
the inside. All right, Yovich feels like catch the ball, like,
turn around and fire type of guy more than a
run it that way. My question for you not scientific
or thorough at all. What is khalil ware? What's his ceiling?
What are your concerns he is among the players in
the NBA that I readily mean, I just have one
of the worst feels for just bar none.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because the numbers are staggering sometimes. I mean, this
is a guy that rolls out of bed and just
gets nearly a triple double, a double double. And he
did it in one of the heath his first preseason game.
He got a double double, and Spoe in postgame media
was just like, don't really care.
Speaker 3: He was a minus twenty one. He needs to be better,
he needs to impact winning. I don't care about the points.
Speaker 1: This past few months have been incredible.
Speaker 2: Big time, Right, It's been pretty crazy because you don't
hear Spoe talk about the players like this, uh.
Speaker 3: In front of the media very much.
Speaker 2: The couple times he did it was Michael Beasley and
Hassan Whiteside, which isn't a great track.
Speaker 3: That's not great company.
Speaker 1: Guy's got a nine figure contract at one point though, Right.
Speaker 3: That is true, Right, that's true.
Speaker 2: But with Khalel I'll go back to my scouting report
on him, I just thought too often he was doing
a really badl Marcus Aldridge impression where he was using
that he's got crazy. I think he's seven to one,
seven two. I think he's listed at seven foot flat.
He's got crazy, a crazy high release.
Speaker 3: Point on his shot.
Speaker 2: But he is, or he was in college, very much
a finesse player, where it just always seems like he
was fading away from the basket twelve feet away, trying
to shoot over guys. And you know, it worked for
the Marcus Aldridge, it works for Kevin Durant. It doesn't
work for Chloe Are he doesn't have that kind of touch.
But in the NBA his first summer league, the coaching
staff is basically like, stop stop doing that.
Speaker 3: Go A to B. A is where you get the ball.
B is the basket. That's it. And to his credit,
he did a really good job.
Speaker 2: I think he's received coaching really well, whether it was
in front of the media or privately, he does receive
the coaching really well. I do want to give him credit. There.
There are still times, though, where I think he kind
of defaults to his more natural state of the bad
LaMarcus Aldridge impression, or like a bad DeAndre Ayton impression
or something like that, where he really just needs he
needs to be using his height and his and his
catch rat is to just be slamming down lobs. There
are times where he just doesn't feel like he's hustling
for rebounds. There are times where he maybe he's chasing
blocks instead of positioning himself to be a better rim protector.
But these are all things that you expect from a
young center, right. Eventually they get better at this, they
get stronger, they understand positioning more, they understand that it's
not about block shots, it's about you know, team wide
defense and things like that. I think that's coming to him.
I actually think it's coming to him pretty quickly with
this coaching staff. But yeah, there's just I think there
are times where his talent is so obvious that it
almost becomes frustrating when he's not playing up to his potential.
But at the same time, I think people have to
remember that it really is a slow process for big
men in the NBA.
Speaker 1: It does seem like they've kind of decided, at least
what preseason shows us, that staggering Bam and Khalilware is
the way to go. And I think when you just
look at the big man rotation, it's okay, well, yeah,
we don't want too many pressures to you a minutes.
But also you're mentioning all these things that Khalil Whare
can do on offense. I think it's a lot easier
for him to do them on offense without Bam on
the court, just like where you sometimes want to occupy
the same space and rather than having Khalil Whare maybe
be in place in space he's able to do more things.
But shouldn't the idea of be like they want to
get plenty of time with these guys together. And then
also having Khalil ware in theory you have him by
the basket and that allows bam At a Baio to
be like the best version of bam At of Bio
on defense. So my questions would be, like what do
you make of just like how to balance this dynamic
in this sort of just tug of war between maybe
what's best for Khalil and what's best for Bam.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's one of the biggest talking points right now
in Miami because up until the last preseason game where
Nico didn't play because of the injury, Bam and ware
had not shared a single possession on the court together
in all of the preseason until the last preseason game
where they did see a few minutes together. What they
started together, and then that that lineup was a minus
three against like the G League version of the Hawks,
who weren't playing most of their rotation guys. But whatever
they at least we saw it. We also saw it
at the second half of last year. And the other
thing you'll notice in the second half of last season
when they started starting Khalel next to Bam, Bam playing
more that power forward spot instead of having to try
to shoot over other seven footers. He was able to
use his size to his advantage and punish smaller power forwards,
and you saw what was an underwhelming the scoring season
to start the year become a really good scoring season
over the last couple months of the season after when
he was starting with Where. But I think what's best
for Bam is for.
Speaker 3: Where to start.
Speaker 2: To your point, though, I think what's best for Where
is to play where in space, which means don't start
him with Bam. At the same time, defensively, I do
think Where thrives with Bam because Bam can literally just
tell him where to go and where to be, and
that's still something that we're trying to figure out. So look,
at the end of the day, has Klowaer earned the
starting spot? I think that's just where are expulsure is.
He doesn't really care about the lineup data. He's not
going to start. He's have you earned the spot or
haven't you? And so far, based on some of the
comments that suppose made in the media and things like that,
I think it's fair to assume probably not yet. And
then also the way that he's talked about nicol Yovich,
he has earned the starting spot right He got the
extension from the organization a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 3: He has played really well in training camp.
Speaker 2: We already you know, we talked about how he's looked
in the preseason and how comfortable he's been. He's just
earned that spot right now. So as long as he's healthy,
I think he's there. What'll be interesting is when you
get into a full forty eight minute rotation pattern, do
we just start to see Bam and war together anyway,
whether they start or close together. Are we gonna get
in the middle part of the game where we're just
we're getting Bam and weear minutes regardless, I think we
have to. I still think we're gonna end up there.
And if it ends up looking a little bit like
what what Houston does with Shangun starting at the five
and then playing a ton of minutes with Steven Adams,
I think that's fine. It doesn't matter whether or not
it starts or is in the middle of the game.
I just think you have to see it because you
want the best of both worlds, right. You want to
have you want to have Bammed by himself. You want
to have Kalel by himself. You also want to have
Bam and Kalel together. I think that's really the only
way to maximize that that that those two guys in
the front court is to just see all the versions.
Speaker 1: Of it where pressed for times are going to sandwich
a few things together. When you're looking at Pele Lars
and jimiyakas junior, who do you think has like a
more important role for this team this season?
Speaker 2: I may right now everything about Pella this organization likes.
He has to keep the fouling down and stay on
the court. I really like pel Larson. I wouldn't be
shocked if he ends up being the better player long term.
But Hime's looked really good in the preseason, and I
think he's carved out a role for himself.
Speaker 1: I love pel Larson. There's just like a there's like
a Jimmy Butler and wave to what he can do,
like inside the lane. Do you buy into his jumper
being better than we've seen from not just three point range,
but like his free throw percentage has been all over
the place too.
Speaker 3: Not really.
Speaker 2: I think the jumper is the big swing skill for him, right.
I buy his work ethic. I buy it eventually getting
to where the heat would like it to be. I
just don't know that that's going to be this year.
Speaker 1: What are your early impressions of Casper shacaccionis.
Speaker 2: Disappointed summer League, really impressed in the preseason. He might
know he is already the best passer on the team,
point blank. It's the best passer on in that locker room.
He walked in day one in that locker room, I'm
the best passer on the team. I love his competitive energy,
which is not something that I expected. But talking to
people that knew him a little bit in college after
he drafted him, they're like, Yep. This guy's just a
total dog And I was like, no wonder that Heat
drafted him. You know, he just sort of fits in
in that way. And I love the way that he
wants to play fast. He's pushing the pace. We mentioned
Goran Dragic earlier. Dragics has taken him under his wing
as somebody that's sort of affiliated with the Heat organization
but not technically employed by him. And if he can
kind of get some of that Dragach magic in terms
of playing fast, getting to the basket, creating quality looks
for teammates, I think that's huge. Really, I think they
got to steal there at twenty.
Speaker 3: I really do.
Speaker 1: He interests me. Summer League I was concerned too, but
you could see like the vision with the passing and
now he's playing with inferior NBA caliber players who can
catch the ball. And there was the one preseason game
where he played a bunch. Just his ability to draw
two to the ball when he's getting into the lane
is just that's something that would help kolil wear. That's
something that would help like a ton of people on this.
Speaker 3: He had tennis. In that game, seven of assists went
to Kollel seven of.
Speaker 1: The tech did not realize that there is a that.
Speaker 3: And that was the big I said this last year.
Speaker 2: I think Miami had the worst pick and roll attack
in the league last season because it was like who's
in charge of it?
Speaker 3: Again?
Speaker 2: Going back to the initiati the primary initiator, and you
just saw a natural two man game start to form
between Yakachonas and where in one preseason game, and it
was pretty jarring just to be like, Oh, this is
what a normal pick and roll with a guy who
could throw a lob to a seven foot two guy
can look like it should look this easy all the time.
Speaker 3: Why doesn't it? But he makes it look easy both
of them.
Speaker 1: Do who has the bigger role for this team, Simontey
fontect Here or Drew Smith, Which I think the answer
to that is like kind of points towards a philosophical Oh,
how many three guard lineups are actually going to be
on the court for Miami this season?
Speaker 3: I think it's Drew.
Speaker 2: I'm not really sure how many minutes fin Techio is
going to get because he is competing with guys like
Jaime and Pella and Jovic and he's played a little
bit of three a little bit of four here so
far in the preseason. This Heat organization loves them some
Drew Smith. Dude, they love them some Drew Smith. Season
ending injury doesn't matter, Come on back. Season ending injury again,
doesn't matter, Come on back. They've invested a lot of
time and development into Drew Smith. I think you're gonna
basically see him, especially with Tyler hero Out. I think
you'll basically see Davion or Drew Smith on the court
for ninety percent of the game at this point. I
just think they like having that point of attack defender,
set the table type of point guard out there on
the court to just help pal be in that place
that we were talking about, help and help get guys involved.
Speaker 1: Mega Lightning round. Portion of the podcast time looking at
this roster and among things that we haven't talked about,
what is their single biggest need that we haven't discussed yet, that.
Speaker 3: We haven't discussed yet.
Speaker 2: I do worry about the three point shooting with hero Out,
that that to me is a concern. Who pops as
a high volume three point shooter? But other than that,
it really is just a primary playmaker this team. It
feels like a lot of things would be unlocked. If
this team just had one guy who can create an
advantage consistently, what.
Speaker 1: Would be the biggest strength of this team to you?
Speaker 2: Defensive versatility with BAM anchoring, I think you could play
a lot of different looks. I think you also had
the Cololwaar seven foot fly swatter element to it. I
think you have a lot of really interesting perimeter defenders.
I think there's more size than people give this Ronster
credit for. Right now, this has historically been a small team.
They've kind of quietly turned themselves into a younger, longer team,
so I think they have and then obviously being coached
by Spoe, they're gonna be able to show offenses a
lot of different looks.
Speaker 3: So I'll go that defensive versus.
Speaker 1: I think they also just might be sneaky deep, Like
I think you go through a bunch of names that
you just want to see on this team on the floor.
Is there something about this team that's flying under the
radar that you think deserves more spotlight?
Speaker 3: That's an interesting question, is it.
Speaker 1: Davion Mitchell continuing to shoot a trillion percent on pull
up threes? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I think I think the Devon thing is that's a
good answer. I mean, he's not going to shoot forty
five percent on threes again, is it real?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 3: Can he make.
Speaker 2: Threes consistently even if it's not at forty five percent? Offensively?
I think he really fits the uptempo stuff that they
want to do. Defensively. Is he Patrick Beverlely or is
he actually a really good defender? Because I want to
see the on court metrics match the eye test with him,
the on off stuff match the eye test with him.
But that's the thing.
Speaker 3: And then I do.
Speaker 2: This team is sort of primed for a trade deadline
deal if they want to make it, because that Tira
Rozier contract is still out there. We haven't mentioned Rosier yet.
He is still on the roster on an expiring deal.
They can move him as an expiring in January or February,
help another team get out of maybe a luxury luxury
tax situation, maybe improve their roster.
Speaker 1: You're building a ten man rotation for this team at
full strength. Who are your five starters? Then who end
up being the five most used reserves?
Speaker 3: So I think the five starters are we including Hero?
Speaker 1: Yeah? So full strength.
Speaker 4: When they're all okay, I'll go Hero Powell Wigs, and
with Hero back you might be able to get away
with starting where with BAM just because you have enough
offense there, whereas with Hero hurt, you might have to
go Nico and that's starting five to balance out the offense.
But let's let's so let's call it Hero Powell Wigs BAM,
where Nico is sort of the first reserve slash maybe
other starter.
Speaker 3: Hi may Davion Mitchell, I think I gave you eight.
I'll go.
Speaker 2: I'll go Pella, Yes, And then I'm gonna so it's
between Drew Smith and Casparis Yakachonas. I'm gonna be an optimist,
I'll go kaz Here. I'll go Cosparras Yakachonas.
Speaker 1: All right, I mean, look, seeing him get reps would
be good. This was a problem for this team last year.
Wes what should be their go to closing unit. I
know it's matchup dependent, but you have to pick a
go to closing five.
Speaker 2: I hope it's not matchup dependent. I want this team
to just I want Spoe to pick a star closing
group and then just go with it so that that
group can develop some chemistry. Because I just didn't know
what to expect from this team at end of games.
By the way, played the most clutch time games in
the league last year. If any team had an opportunity
to develop a closing lineup that they felt good about,
it was Miami, and yet they didn't.
Speaker 3: That was more due to personnel and having a tree.
Speaker 2: Jimmy Butler, to answer your question, I wanted to be Bam, Wiggins, Powell, Hero,
Davion Mitchell. Okay, that's what I would like the closing
line it to be.
Speaker 1: Is there a whack a dudal, weird, quirky lineup? You
really want Eric Belstro to run out this season?
Speaker 2: I want Kollel at the five, I want Bam at
the four, I want Nico at the three.
Speaker 1: Do it wait?
Speaker 2: I want Hero in one of those backwards spots, and
I really don't care who's in the other one.
Speaker 1: I would like to see khalil Ware with just four
guards so they could be bigger, Like let's go with
pele cast like, let's get really weird. Who else would
be throw in there? And Hero? That's why me. I
don't know what the defense looks like, but the offense
will be funny, not very good. Most important question, how
many games. Do you have this team winning, and where
do you think they end up landing in the larger
context of the East.
Speaker 2: I think Tyler comes back sooner than expected. I think
he should be back. Maybe let's let's call it the
beginning of December. And if that's the case, this is
always gonna be a rough start to the year for Miami.
I think there's a soft part of the schedule where
Hero will be back and they maybe could take some advantage.
I have them winning forty five games and getting the
sixth seed in the East.
Speaker 1: I'm at forty four. We just did our over we
just did our win projection, so we're kind of I
just think they're deeper and are going to win more
games in the regular season.
Speaker 3: Did you have him play in or playoffs?
Speaker 1: I had their sixth in the East for me, Yeah.
Speaker 2: That's where I have them. So we're saying the same thing.
They're over under according to most sports books is like thirty.
Speaker 1: Thirty seven and a half. See, yeah, I know they
won thirty seven last year, but I think you just
removed the idea of like this trade drama superstar holding
out is big for them. Yeah, do you have time
to give me one additional Heat prediction for this season.
Speaker 3: Let's go, oh anything, yeah, and it could be whatever
you want. Oh, the roster right now won't be the
roster at the end of the year.
Speaker 1: But are we talking like closing unit edition or are
they selling someone that we're not I hate selling people,
but trading like an Andrew Wiggins to get back picks
or something.
Speaker 2: It's a it was a little bit of a fake
prediction because they're a couple of million dollars over the
luxury tax, so they're just gonna get rid of a
salary to get under But it might just be waving
precious Atchua whose salary is not guaranteed.
Speaker 3: But other than that, that's an easy one. I'll give
you something better.
Speaker 2: I think that somebody on the Heat will finish on.
Speaker 3: An All NBA team.
Speaker 1: Ooh, there is there more than two candidates for that,
because Tyler writs, honestly, is there more? Is Tyler herro
even gonna qualify?
Speaker 3: I think it'll be Bam.
Speaker 1: I mean that's I mean, he's an All NBA caliber player,
So I dig it. Wes, this was great. I know
you have to go where you're able just to tell
our audience where they can find you and all the
great work that you do.
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me on DAN.
Speaker 2: If you want more Heat stuff, Locked on Heat Monday
through Friday over the lockdow on podcast network. Find us
on YouTube wherever you get your podcasts. Also Locked on
NBA daily Monday through Friday. We post every every afternoon
at one pm Eastern Time, covering the biggest news of
the day with Matt Moore and Hayes. And then check
out Real GM Radio. If you love great you know
longer form NBA podcasts like Hardwood Knocks, You're probably a
like REALGM Radio too.
Speaker 1: Wes, thank you so much. This was great. Really appreciate
your time, and as you know by now, I will
be pressuring you again down the line, and it won't
take seven years for me to ask them. Please do.
Speaker 3: Hopefully I'm not covering the Warriors tomorrow.