Miami Heat: What did Pat Riley mean by his “change” quote? | Five on the Floor

Miami Heat: What did Pat Riley mean by his “change” quote? | Five on the Floor

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Play across the sports spectrum, excuse me, NHL, MLS, NBA when it comes around again. NFL, MLB, it’s all there. Check it out. prize.com. Use the code FIV ve for five. And now today’s [Music] episode heat nation. Yeah. Down the [ __ ] Five on the floor. Ride for my dogs. Here’s a thing. You can check the score. Hustle hard. Couple stars. [Music] Got all y’all in the block. Stop with one hand and pap have the guts. We’re here to bring the heat. Y’all can hang it up. Welcome to Five on the Floor, a daily insider show on the Miami Heat and the NBA featuring Ethan Skolnick, Greg Sander, Alex Toledo, Brady Hawk, and others from the Five Reason Sports Network. Also, make sure to subscribe to Off the Floor for the most heat anywhere. Welcome back to Five on the floor. Oh my god, we’re potting again. Here’s today’s floor plan. I’m Ethan Skolnick. You can follow me at Ethan J Skolig at Five Reasons Sports. I got Greg Sander. You can follow me at Greg Sander. Make sure you check out all the episodes we did prior to Pat Riley’s press conference because there’s a lot that you may have missed, including Brian Fineka’s pitch over two episodes to just punt. Does not appear that that’s what’s going to happen. Brian, I told you. Um, but it was interesting conversation. Uh, and also George Sedano’s uh thought that basically the Heat needed to pick a lane. It’s also doesn’t seem like it’s happening, but again, great conversation and we talked about DaVon Mitchell, we talked about John Morant, we talked about everybody pretty much so far. We got more to talk about. Uh, but also of course the key episode, Alex Brady and I uh set up in a room right after the press conference ended with our five takeaways. Um, I give Alex credit uh and also my daughter for assisting in this for the ingenuity in figuring out how to prop up cushions so that we could get the computer up to the right level uh in this particular lounge. And so hopefully you enjoyed that podcast. Uh Greg was not there, so we’re going to do what we’ve done before, which is bring him in for his thoughts uh from a completely different state on what he saw because sometimes you’re in the room and you’re just trying to follow questions, take videos, all that other kind of stuff, but what did it sound like from somewhere else? So we got through our five takeaways. Um, I know that you commented on some of them on our text string as we were going forward, but you have some additional notes and then and then we’re going to get into this one comment that Riley made. Um, there’s a lot we’re going to get into in in the next few days, including I’m going to reread the winner within for like the 65th time because somebody a reporter brought the book to the press conference, which I I give credit for that. And I don’t think anybody’s ever done that since literally Pat’s first day on the job where all the beat guys, this is how old I am, all the beat guys brought it um to show that they were reading it. And I can tell you actually Pat quoted his own book wrong. So I’m going to go through it. He’s got the chapters wrong in terms of when the breakthrough is supposed to happen. He said it was chapter getting a phone call. It was actually chapter six. I I’m gonna I got it. See, he’s got it marked up. marked up paperback $7.99 from Amazon. Um, so give Pat the royalties uh and read the book and we’re going to do a separate episode on that. All right, but uh we’re going to get to his other comment today which I said to Alex and Brady I could not put this one on a t-shirt. It’s not like there are obstacles but there are none or even spolsters we have enough or adapt or die or any of those. This one is change is the highest form of sanity. So, we’ll get into that comment, but before we do, that’s going to be our takeoff point after you get to your general thoughts. So, give me your general thoughts. General thoughts. Um, one, I love the Pat Riley pressers, and I’m not going to lie about it. Even though I think that sometimes you get a ton, sometimes you don’t get a lot. Uh, and I know that the organization um that they if they could have some takebacks, maybe some of those comments they’d like to have back. Maybe Riley himself would take certain stuff back. Uh, but ultimately I think it’s good for the fan base to hear from him. Uh, it’s not like a situation where he’s running from anybody and he answered the questions today and these were the things that jumped out and we probably could do an episode um on each one of these at some on some level. So, just know, you know, to our listeners that we can circle back to some of these topics, but these are the things that jumped out to me. One was that uh no opening monologue, and you mentioned this in the other show, so I’m not going to spend a ton of time here. I thought that that was a uh I don’t know some it was a switch up and and to me it showed uh some level of humility standing up there that he wasn’t going to start to like kind of wind everybody up with a long story about how things were back when or or or just kind of you know he didn’t have to repeat his resume. Just some of the things he’s done in his opening monologues he didn’t do. So he did repeat his resume Greg. He Greg he did but not in the opening monologue. There was a lot of repeating the resume, but yes, that’s true. Later on, you’re right. He’s still But right, but the opening monologue there has always been one that I remember. And I’ll let you continue here, but this was very meat and potatoes. This was he sat down and we didn’t expect that. I will tell you in the room because the fact that they’re putting this on their own YouTube channel now and the monetization and everything else that comes with that like I I we were expecting less I think and we were also expecting and I gave the keep credit for this on the last podcast. We were also expecting you know some of the in-house folks who I have great respect for and they have a job to do but to be asking about how great the fans were and all that kind of stuff. And there was honestly none of the fluff in this press conference. It was they allowed us to ask questions and he answered the questions and again he didn’t have a monologue or anything like that. So anyway, continue but I I just want to be clear on there was a lot of resume as it went forward like the there was there was he’s reshaped the things. So I just wanted to be clear on that. Yeah. No, I I guess to your point about kind of the meat and potatoes of this and we’re gonna talk, you know, bigger picture as we go here too. Um he didn’t try to sell anybody on this team being a contender right now. Uh he didn’t necessarily lean into the idea of them being a contender immediately like that. He talked about maybe not being so patient and ownership not wanting this to be a long process, but they he he definitely um adjusted expectations I thought in the way that he started and the fact that he didn’t start with an opening monologue. The other one is that I see I I’ve immediately saw quotes from the aggregate aggregator websites and and stuff like that and people commenting that um that kind of Pat didn’t take responsibility for the Jimmy situation. He did say that the Bucks stopped with him. Um I know that like everybody wants him to say something different to that. I thought that he was uh pretty clear and and and it was interesting that he he didn’t say like that they were arguing about different stuff. He just said I told him no, which was just about the contract. And that’s what we knew that this was all about. And I know the one thing I wish would would have got snuck in there was if you knew that the answer was no, why didn’t you do something sooner? But um but so so that jumped out at me and I’m going to run through the rest of these pretty quickly. He explicitly mentioned getting out of the luxury tax for a year to reset the repeater tax rules and not wanting to be in that too long. Take note of that. I think that that’s going to be important going forward. Um the other one was and we’re probably going to have to do an episode on how this maybe maybe or maybe doesn’t impact things at some point. Uh I thought him talking about Spolster’s personal stuff and you mentioned on the other episode, so I’ll only weigh in here quickly. um when he’s done that in the past, it hasn’t always been the best. And so I’m just interested to see how Spo and how that’s done. I thought like when they also asked a question to him about how the offense had been ranked so low, instead of talking about personnel and what his role in a good offense is, he deferred to saying the coaching this and that. And so I thought that that was like an interesting deflection towards Eric Spolstra. Um, and then the other thing was is that the word rebuild or like retool, even though he didn’t want to talk about it and like tanking kind of that that part of it, just the the overall conversation of the idea of having to have a lean season or a retool that that includes multiple years, which there’s always a rev up process, so you may not have the highest uh, you know, best seed or any seed in next year. I just thought that that that the fact that he even acknowledged that and didn’t go pie in the sky with work trying to win a championship here, you know, next year, right? Um I that jumped out at me. So that that’s my notes. And lastly, with the ribbit ribbit ribbit stuff, uh he also said they’re not going to run it back. They’re not going to do anything drastic. And I think by that event, BAM and and maybe Tyler, although my my my stance there could change at some point about what they do there if the extension number comes in too high. Uh and Tyler said the price is going to go up. I actually may dispute that. We’ll talk about that another day. But just to clarify everyone, he did say that they do not plan to run it back. And that’s my notes for now. Well, that’s a loaded word, right? and I how it got into the Liberty commercial and Ribbit Ribbit and all the rest of that stuff. Um I don’t know. I mean Pat has actually dropped some good nuggets at press conferences before I started watching um what was the show unfortunately he was uh he’s been discredited since House of Cards. Uh I started watching that because Pat talked about how he was watching he always drops something his press conferences. The there was no Springsteen references in this. Like I said there was very little fluff other than that whole ribbon ribbon thing. Uh they don’t like the the view of roll it back. They don’t that’s not they’re not they will challenge you on that and say that really only Duncan Bam and Tyler have been here for any length of time at this stage. I guess you could throw in now Hey Haywood. So they’ll say it’s not really running it back and and all the rest of this. I know the fans will go crazy about that. But the idea of a two-year build which is kind of what he talked about. He even said we’ve talked about this before that when they got Shaq it wasn’t right away. It was after that. So he went through his history. I don’t know where he’s getting the 13 the number of 13 like whatever it is retools from. I mean I that has to be in his whole career. That’s not with the Heat. He hasn’t had to do that. It can’t even be in his whole career though. I mean with the Knicks how many retools were there? He added Starks. He added Mason basically, you know, off the street and they built around Patrick. Yeah. I mean I mean two Lakers there was no rebuild really required there. Um I mean he inherited worthy and right. I mean, he did inherit worthy, right? Or am I missing me? Was that Wes? I I can’t remember all. Now you’re too far back for even me. Well, he inherited Well, yeah, he made that whole comment about who was born before, you know, when he came in and that was funny. Yeah, because I was It was Brady and Alex. Uh, well, yeah, Brady, Alex turned 30. Um, but uh yeah, I mean, I was I covered his first season in Miami, so and I was what was I 23, I guess. So, um, so yeah, there was a lot of stuff about age today. There was sort of this sort of awkward question which he took pretty well about Pop’s health and succession plan. Yeah, there were there was some heavy moments in there today actually. Uh and you mentioned the spo thing. But before we get to the SPO thing, the 13 ret again, I don’t know exactly what he’s talking about. I I know that there has been and he’d have to list it. He said it would take 30 minutes or more just on that alone. So perhaps, you know, we’ll bring a rundown of that. I’d love to hear it. He has clear this thing many times, right? We’ll we’ll take it. We’ll there’s no way to it. Um but uh we we we’ve we’ve chronicled how many how they’ve done their builds and how they they’ve had very shallow valleys and they haven’t lasted very long and all the rest of that. Like I I get all that. He also admitted they tanked. I’ve never heard him say that before. And by the way, the league probably didn’t shouldn’t hear that and he tried to take it back right away. But he said basically he’s tanked twice, right? Or he didn’t use the word tanked word to use tanked. And you you hit one you hit on one thing and that is um one of them they didn’t start out the season wanting to tank. I think 0708 and when he says that like one of them was a circumstantial moment where they said listen we have no other options but to punt on this season and I guess the other one is Karan’s rookie year. They probably 203, right? But I’ve also reported well reported I experienced I wrote a column for the Sunset on the last day of the season saying that they should lose in Toronto that night so that they could drop down to four instead of five and have a better chance to take Bosch and because nobody was projecting Wade in the top four at that point and he’s predicting to go ninth basically to Chicago. And I got a call right away from folks with a heat saying, “We don’t do that, so stop writing that stupid shit.” Basically, uh, I remember the call specifically in exactly where I was. So, they were they were saying they were not doing it at the time. Maybe they were. Uh, but anyway, all of that, it is how it goes. But all of that, okay. Um, the one thing I I I come out of the press conference and I know the fans are focusing on, and we’ll get to this quote about change and whether or not there’s going to be real change. And look, I tried to get in with three or four different types of questions. And to the credit of the other reporters there, they asked them before I could get in, okay? Like about the new CBAs and how you adjust to that. Do you need to change your direction? And Tyler’s extension. There’s a whole bunch of stuff. But basically, I had like five things. And by the time they got to me, I got to my fifth, which was what I said I was going to ask if if all these others were exhausted, which was, would you manage an aging star again? And then I I didn’t even mention Zo or Timmy or uh Gary Payton or or Ray Allen, guys who came to them, Hall of Famers who came to them past their prime, but I did mention Shaq, Jimmy, and Dwayne. And he basically said yes. He basically said yes. Okay. And everybody has taken it as yes because there’s one aging star they would manage and it’s Kevin Durant. And and we know that. And we’re going to do separate episodes about that and I want to get to this on the other side of it. But the the the spo thing to me is the thing I come out of the press conference a little queasy about. Um knowing how private, right? Knowing how private I mean the personal stuff. Um yeah, over the course of the last couple years and we are just to be clear and you mentioned it on the other uh pod and please check that out because Brady, Alex, and Ethan did a great show right from the uh arena and it was like you know reaction directly after which is priceless. But um you mentioned like Spolster is a very private person. He has not made any kind of excuses, but he didn’t have a great season. Uh and um he just for him to acknowledge that in any way I thought was an interesting move even and you mentioned this is a little bit more light-hearted like him going to Hawaii. Sper probably doesn’t want anyone knowing where he is on the planet. Uh so he can really enjoy himself and he probably will still enjoy himself. So, we’re probably taking that a little too seriously. But the other part of it is just something where when you look at when he mentioned something in in the arena of LeBron, there’s been probably some stuff about Dwayne that I don’t 100% remember and can’t quote right now, but then the stuff he’s there’s some stuff he’s revealed about Dwayne that I know didn’t go over great. Also, the LeBron thing I know did not go over great. I I said this in the last pod 2014 when he revealed Savannah was pregnant and there were two people in the bronze camp who I got texts from immediately. Why the f is he talking about that? So I I just again I’m not spell may not care. Okay, I don’t want to speak for him. I can’t speak for him. You know, I’m just saying I we’re not trying to start any [ __ ] We’re not. But when I heard it, I was just like wait a second. like we’ve been keeping all that stuff private. Um because that’s what I believe in. Um and you know I’ve gone through my own personal issues that I that got misinterpreted and and I’ll just say that. So I don’t I I have a deeper respect for when people are going through that kind of stuff particularly because the heat uh have been very supportive of me and others as they’ve been going through it. So it’s just it it hit me a little weird uh cuz it’s not something Spo would ever say. Correct. ever say it. Not an excuse he would ever make. And it it wasn’t framed as an excuse. It was just like he’s more worn down than I’ve ever seen him. And we’ve we’ve witnessed that, but I didn’t I made I’ve made sure not to attribute it to the personal stuff, the the Jimmy. [Music] So, it’s like we’re being more careful about this than the team president. I I I don’t know. I I’m not gonna make a big deal of it, but we just did for four minutes. I just it hit me a little weird and it hit me. It was worth four minutes or whatever this conversation took and then we move on. Then we move on. All right. On the other side of this though, uh we’re going to do separate episodes on KD. But on the other side of this, we’re going to talk about one specific quote here because I don’t know necessarily that fans came out of this knowing what side of this Pat is actually on. But let’s get to a sponsor. And now it’s time for the X-ray of the play of the day, brought to us by our friends over at Mobile Carm and Staffing Services. Nelson and his team will bring the X-ray equipment and the staffing to you if you work at a hospital or a medical office. Get a consultation today at c-armmanstaffing.com or give them a call at 561891-9620. Their fleet of trucks at your service. Again, it’s mobile CRA and staffing services. 561-891-9620. And now the X-ray of the play of the day. You’re muted. I’m going to make it the quote of the day. Uh you sent this one to me. Um it hit me a little bit when he said it, but now that I’m reading it again again, it feels a little like the obstac there. you know there are obstacles but there are none from back in 2018. Uh change is the highest form of sanity which I guess is the opposite of saying insanity is the is you know doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result right like I guess this is the inverse of that the same theme. Okay. So, change is the highest form of sanity. But he kind of said they were going to make changes but kind of said they weren’t. Like he he he said he he’s okay. He spoke about the culture, right? Which and he took shots at sort of the outside podcasters, the former players, everything else who’s saying that his way doesn’t work anymore and all that. When we both and he said something I’ve said, which is that they don’t really know how things operate inside anymore. The organization is not exactly as it was when Pat was running it with an iron fist. We don’t sit outside practices for eight hours anymore while Rex Walters is on the board showing uh Tim Hardaway on the video how he should play point guard because Pat wants that enforced. Okay. Like that does that stuff does not happen anymore. There’s been a lot that’s been relaxed over the years. Even KG spoke to it and KG is one of those who would have fit in Heat culture who I think they have a lot of respect for and has spoken very highly of the Heat. But he talked about that they wear different socks than everybody else and the Pat way doesn’t work anymore. And the reality is they aren’t really doing the PAT way the way they used to do the Pat way. Okay. And he was kind of making that point as he made the point as we’ve made that they’re more collaborative than they used to be and all the rest of this. Spo has I don’t want to use the word relaxed that stuff, but he it’s more human. Okay, I think it was under Riley’s sort of iron fist heyday. Okay. And and Pat’s more human. Pat’s more sentimental than he used to be, I believe. Okay. Everybody says that inside the organization. Pat’s the one I I there’s there’s so many things that Pat Pat has refused to fire people inside the building. I can tell you that. Like he just he doesn’t do it. Like they don’t they are very and I can speak to this myself because of the way they’ve dealt with me over the years and this does not affect the way that I cover them. But again, even today they set up my daughter in a separate room and it’s just they’re they’re a very human organization and this sort of ways and Pat is with the employees. The arrisons are with the employees. I know this, okay, from speaking to employees who’ve been there for a very long time, but they’re not run exactly the same way as they used to be. And uh and so Pat was kind of coming back at that, but he was also saying, “We’re not changing this shit.” And he basically went through like the best, you know, the hardest working, most, you know, best condition, blah blah blah blah. And he said what we said. I I literally said this at the end of the show. They haven’t been any of those things this year. And he he acknowledged that. He says we haven’t been like four of those things. So it’s like what he’s saying is the blueprint is not going to change. At least not from what it’s been lately. It has evolved, but not from what it’s going to be lately. But we’re going to do it better to that degree. But I think that the problem the fans are going to have with this and the reaction is that what they really want to change is the personnel. they really want to change the personnel and and I think some now what’s happened is that the two have been conflated where a lot of these former players are saying well they can’t get better personnel they can’t get the star because they don’t want to do the Pat thing anymore so they’re being tied together here so by Pat saying we’re not really going to relax our standard like when he said in 2019 I let the culture slip right then they traded for Jimmy got rid of Hassan and That was a culture riser for a while, okay, until it wasn’t. Right. I And and I So I think the way the fans are going to receive this is there wasn’t enough talk of change to the personnel in this press conference. It was I we hope Tyler’s going to be with us for the rest of his career, right? There’s no moving off of BAM. That’s clear in the way that he’s talking. He did say they can’t rely on internal development. I mean, like he said we can’t. He did say that. Like so that that was one. And I just think that uh like he did say we’re not going to run it back. We’re going to look at changes. You can’t keep, you know, the same roster. If you’re not winning, you have to look to change. The the quote that you mentioned about it being the highest form of sanity. Uh I I immediately went to Google to see like did he pull that from somebody? And it doesn’t appear to be a quote. Maybe he was trying to say that change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change. Something like that. I don’t know. Um that that’s one that’s as I’m scrolling here, I’m reading it. I don’t make much of the quote other than to say that Hold on. I’m looking. Well, while you’re going, I’m going to look. I’m going to see if I find it in here. Let’s see. Go ahead. I mean, you don’t make much of the quote, but what? But but I do think that this does set up for them to for the Heat fan that um just basically wants to see the group get shuffled. I think that there’s some of that that is inevitably coming. Uh I think that uh he made that clear when he talked about like the big changes and if they needed those and some people really took that and ran with it. I think what he means there is Bam and Tyler. Although the bamic the Tyler extension, excuse me, is gonna make that an interesting conversation move forward. But to me, like the the lateral move, the fact that he brought up the Jay Crowder Andre Aguidala move like that um he knows he needs he also very politely, kindly, and with a lot of mindfulness dodged calling Bam and Tyler like 1A and 1B being like the pillars of the build. So, I think he kind of left the door open for somebody to take that kind of position. So, to to me, I I think that he said enough about change. What he he’s not going to come out and say, “Yeah, we’re trading everyone for picks.” Like, so I think that kind of what social media wants him to say. He has to be a little more articulate and he has to position it in the right way as a professional. Um, and so that that’s just where you’re never going to please the fan base that way. No. And but did you notice I don’t think he said a single other player’s name today? No, he didn’t address like retaining DaVon if that was a p No one said is it a priority to keep your restricted free agent? That’s a normal question to him in an exit interview. They didn’t even get to that. So it really was meat and potatoes. Like they didn’t Wiggins didn’t get talked about a ton. I thought they may weave him in as a piece that like they’re wanting to integrate and see more of. We didn’t even breach. The only thing that was even broached about Wiggins, DaVon Mitchell, and Kyle Anderson was with him talking about we really were only dealing with one team and then we had to deal with another. So, it was like, okay, we got what we could get. That’s what it felt like. And again, no, nobody asked. And I I give and I know they’re not going to get any credit for this. I give the reporters credit for this today. Like, there was no [ __ ] okay? It was what had to be Look, he’s going to give better answers, okay? if you open questions to him than if you make declarative statements at him. It’s just not people don’t understand how this works or how he works. So the questions were asked in a way I thought very well by Ira, by Tim, by Anthony, okay, by others. Barry wasn’t there today. Okay, but but they were asked in a by Will uh and by Brendan, okay, people who were around a lot, okay, they were asked in a way and Hyde and Hyde. Well, Hyde, it was funny because because Hyde’s hardly been there the whole year. Hyde’s basically almost all dolphins these days or was a little bit of Panthers. And and the funny thing with Hyde was that Tim was starting to ask the question sort of the the career mortality question that I’ve asked before, by the way. Okay. At least at least two press conferences. I’ve stopped. But I guess I guess Riley associates that one with Hyde. Yeah. So like he he joked about it was Hyde’s question and then when it got to Hyde Hyde didn’t even get to ask David didn’t even get to ask the question of course Dave the longtime columnist in the sun settle like Riley just started answering it and then Pat’s like okay what do you got Dave’s like well you just basically said it which was about his own career mortality but this was all like I said there was no like fluff about you know there was bigger picture questions like I wanted to ask him about the direction of the organization with the new CBA and how you adjust to that. Um he said a lot of things that we’ve talked about about the way the organization operates now. He talked about the arrisons kind of giving him the go-ahhead. You do your thing. Okay, that’s how it’s been. We we know that Nick has final say, has had since 2011, but Pat helps still craft the vision. Okay, and obviously has a say in these decisions as they go forward. And I just thought the overall tone of it was like again, we’re not going to deal with the petty stuff. Like, and it’s crazy that a guy like Andrew Wiggins who makes $30 million a year and is going to make that for the next two seasons, is considered like the petty stuff, like the small stuff. But in the course of where they are as an organization, he is, and Duncan is, and Haywood is Heywood wasn’t asked about Dave, too. It’s like a mistake. It’s like not even worth mentioning anymore. Well, and and there were fans who wanted us to grill him on Terry. Okay, here’s here’s the deal. Spo and Pat wanted Terry. Okay, so what do you want us to do? Okay, we wanted Terry. So, what do you want us to do? Pat, you got this guy who was basically a looter in a riot in Charlotte. Okay, you gave up a first round pick in Lowry’s expiring contract. What kind of position would you be in right now if you hadn’t done that? What’s the point of that? Like, how does that direct them forward? They know what they have to do with Terry Rosier now and whether or not they’re gonna be able to do it. They showed you by playing DaVon Mitchell ahead of him, okay, in 37 minutes. And finally, Spo, you know, gave up that ghost, okay, and stopped playing Terry. But like even before he got hurt in the playoffs. But like I don’t understand the point of that. Like the point the point is to see where they’re going. And what I want to ask was are you going to consider another aging star? He is. He is. And the reality of that is that’s not really changed for Pat. That’s not really changed. Like that’s what he does, right? There’s only one guy. I mean Giannis. Yes. Giannis. Yes, that is drop everything to be honest. Of course. Yeah. Right. But KD like you’re making a conscious decision, okay, that you’re going in to compete with this team right now because you’re not bringing KD in to just have a retirement tour. You’re bringing in KD because you want to do what he said they couldn’t do this year, finish their fourth quarters. He kept talking about that. Okay. And also, he kept talking about alphas and all this sort of stuff. Alex was gonna cringe because he hates when I do this, but like he was talking about, you know, characters and how that to adjust on that. Yeah, he’s literally talking about Kevin Durant. Like this the whole idea is like you bring in Kevin Durant to solve this problem for you. Now, at what price, right? So, we’ve talked about what they were willing to offer. Jimmy’s Jimmy’s contract, which basically they wanted to get rid of anyway because they couldn’t keep him anymore. um Yovic, who they like but is extensionel eligible and hasn’t been able to stay healthy and a first round pick. Phoenix wasn’t interested in that. Phoenix asked for everything. I don’t think Phoenix will ask for everything this time, but they just put someone else in place in the front office. Okay, James Jones is not he has a role, but it’s not the same role. So that that connection with the Heat front office is not going to be quite the same. And Ishbia is still like big game hunting, I think. So like maybe he wants to cut some salary. Could the Heat make a very And we’ll do more on KD. I want I want to bring people on to talk about what KD’s game really is right now because I don’t think people understand he is elite still. Like elite. Like you look at his offensive numbers, they are where they were his entire career. He doesn’t finish as well as he did before or as much. He’s not around the rim as much. He’s not as good a defender, but man, he is still like at what he does. Like he is still great. The question is, we’ve talked about this. Are they close enough to anything of significance that there’s any point to it at this stage? Okay. And what do you have to give up to get him? Are you going to give up KL Wear or can you make this work with Wiggins and Duncan’s contract which will help Ishbia save a little bit of money uh and all the other things that are involved there? And do you give up two picks or do you give up three picks or you even have three picks to give up? Do you go to the swamp? Like that’s these are all conversations we could have but it’s clear where he’s going and that is not change. That is what Pat has typically done over the course of his career. It’s not changed when you’re going to go after the same guy that you went after in 2016, 2022, and just recently in early 2025. That is not change. I’m not saying I disagree. I would love to have Kevin Durant here. Give us something to podcast about. Okay. What did KD say? All he wanted when he got into this was play ball and get girls basically. That’s it. Like Katie doesn’t want to lead. He just he wants to ball. He can still ball. Okay. And and that’s where they’re at. But I I think that’s there are some Heat fans are going to react to this and say he wants to run it back. I think that what you and I came out of with this was they’re going to make a run at KD without trying to give up too much. And if they can’t get him, they’ll change the the the group around Bam and Tyler. Basically, delay Tyler’s extension at this point. Tell him to prove it again. Okay. Right. Isn’t that what you took from That’s not a ton of change, but Right. Right. Yeah. And and it’s also um I I just I want to emphasize it again uh them saying that him saying, but you know, this is more collectively the benefits of getting ducking under the tax just for one season. Like if you think about what it takes to do that, they would need to shed Duncan Robinson somehow. And um then the DaVon Mitchell deal like you you you have to make sure that you can still stay under the luxury tax and retain him. And I think that that would be an important thing to do. So you just would have maneuvering to do, but first it’s going to be about checking in on KD. They want to suit they they want to try a star player of his caliber, but they want it at their price. They have not been willing yet. And sometimes it’s because they don’t have enough assets, but also uh they can’t give up their like such a large percent of their total assets where other teams have more to stack onto. So there’s just a lot of question marks there for how they get a deal done. But it felt like it signaled Durant. It felt like it signaled that if that kind of thing doesn’t happen to your point, they are preparing the fans. and he mentioned the world re word rebuild and retool and and talked about being in these situations before. All of that is acknowledging the reality of where this team is. It may take a lean year and I think that this is why Ethan when people talked about why the hell do they not want their 2025 pick um the ninth pick in this draft would be great but an unprotected pick next year in the event that they don’t get a player like Durant and it is a lean season would have been just unfathomable to go through. So like there are the benefits of that and understanding why the protections are still in place. And that would have been a good question to ask. Why were you guys so afraid of losing the unprotected picks? Right. But we we didn’t get to it. But that that is kind of the natural place. And I know some people proposed that question when we put it out there the day before, like, okay, if you think you’re going to be good, like, why were you so concerned? We we understood the reason for it, but to have him actually say it might have been uh a compelling thing to listen to. I I just think again, we’re going to do episode I want to do an episode about Durant and kind of where he is with his game. We’ll bring on somebody from Phoenix. I’d love to bring on Gambo actually. Um I’ll reach out because I I think that would be uh a good get here for those who followed his work with the Suns. I there there, you know, there are reporters I trust around the country who do a good job with this. I’m also going to bring on Howard Beck to talk about Giannis. Um going to bring on Vinnie to talk Vinnie Goodwill to talk about the the league climate. So, we’re going to we’re going to do a whole bunch of this stuff, but I think the one thing that also concerned fans, and we’ll close it here, is when Pat talked about how weird the league is and got into like Indiana and New York and teams coming back late and all these road teams winning. And I think that is when I was checked out social media, that’s where fans were like, “Oh god, like does he think they’re close?” like just because some of this other stuff happened including the fact that he did he said that they were not the team that they were in those last two games and I I didn’t like that. I just let me be go on record so vehemently denied that they are that type of team this version let it be that type of team and let’s make and then maybe they won’t be that type of team. They were that type of team by the end. I I just I right I mean that they were I mean look look Cleveland pro has proven and I know they’ve had injuries and as we speak tonight probably we won’t know by the time people this post you know whether they’re down 2-1 or three 3 0 to Indiana but uh we did a whole episode on Indiana and how the Heat lost pace with the Pacers and with Cleveland like they did not look like they belonged on the same court with the exception of game two where they got within two points. I I just don’t think unless he knows about some stuff that was happening behind the scenes that was really ugly that got in their way. I don’t think you could watch that product over the last two games and think they were anywhere close no matter what the rest of the league has looked like otherwise or the fact that Boston and Cleveland in fact this this whole thing about he also brought up this other thing which I think would concern people where he talked about uh how uh rest didn’t matter right like like right and and there’s a couple different ways I take that one is that rest didn’t matter in terms of you know getting the extra week off and all that. The Boston and Cleveland, you know, they got their rest and look what happened to them early in the series. But also like there’s this other thing that’s going around and I saw Isola, Frank Isola, who’s been a Tibs guy forever, even before he got the Knicks job. And Isolola has been putting it out there like looking at how Tibs has all the minutes, right? Like I think five of their top five of the top eight minutes getters in the league are on the Knicks, okay, this season. And Cleveland totally like they didn’t play anybody any minutes. Like I think Donovan Mitchell and Mobley led them at like 31 minutes this year and and his and Isola’s point is well see maybe Tibs like running them into the ground. He really wasn’t running into the ground. He was getting them ready for the playoffs. So there were some there was when he talked about like not needing rest. I’m like oh my god I well Tyler get ready to play 45. Um and and all that. So I I think there was some things that uh and he also said the other one he said this is why I’m saying there was a lot of resume stuff in here. He also said that he mentioned his playbook. I could bring out my playbook from whatever it was 2005 2006 20 it’ll be okay. But then he he he stopped himself and basically said that it would still work. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Some of that is just like coach head coach pride. And um yeah, also like in the course of a press conference like that and Brady mentioned it briefly um and I know we’re closing up shop here, he did speak out of both sides of his mouth and that in certain moments he said like that he thought that they had pieces and that they could do certain things and that they uh weren’t that team that lost those games, but then in other moments he’s talking about all the other rebuilds that’s kind of alluding to what they’re having to be up against now. So, I think just in the course of these Riley pressers, inevitably, he’s probably going to uh uh uh contradict himself just by virtue of him just kind of he he is really arrived at a place where he uh he kind of free flows these things. I don’t think he plans very much. I don’t get the sense that that’s the case at all. Um but anyway, uh another Riley Presser in the books. Another one in the books. Um, I’m just going to read a couple of things, but we’re going to do more of this later. I’ll close with this. He said that they were at the thunderbolt stage of Winter Within. So, that’s chapter 4. Um, and I’ll just say this, I I don’t see it. By the way, he said that next comes the breakthrough, but actually his next chapter was the choke. Are we in the Thunderbolt stage? Because we owe our pick to the Thunder now. I I guess. But I mean, I’ll just I’ll just I’ll just read this and we’ll take this out the door. Okay. Ri’s go guide to bolt proofing. This is from chapter 4. Stick to your key strengths and core values. They will be your emergency generator when a bolt strikes. Ground the bolt shock value by involving your core team. Exploit the equivalent benefit in any adversity and milk it for as much personal development as you can get. And for God’s sakes, get the weather report before you go to the door. meaning stay attuned to any regulatory hearings. Competitive innovations new competitive innovations competitive innovations competitive innovations new twists in behavior or attitude of key teammates or slippage and standards or procedures that give the inkling the thunderbolt may be uh unleashed. Um I mean I’m going to review it. Um I don’t know man. I I don’t think this is there’s another chapter in there the innocent climb. Um I remember when when Dwayne was drafted and he spoke about the innocent beginning. I remember the column I wrote the night Dwayne was drafted and and Pat spoke about that this doesn’t feel like an innocent climb or an innocent beginning. This feels like a crossroads. Uh they, you know, like and I think Sidano said best, just pick a lane. Pick a lane. And it feels like right now, okay, it’s it’s KD or like you said, maybe take a step back, reset a little bit financially, um and go go that direction and kind of see what you can do around Bam and Tyler. But uh I I don’t I I the I I don’t think he’s committed to like Bam and Tyler as his one and two. That’s obvious long term. But I don’t know that he fans are going to get quite the change that they’re looking for based on this press conference. Anyway, Greg, we’ve gone too long. Uh check out the sponsors C-Rmanstaffing.com. Reach out to Nelson. Great guy and they do great business there. Uh if you work in a medical office and also prize picks, use the code fiv. We’ll do KD episode over the weekend. Have a good one. Thank you for listening to the five on the floor on the five reason sports network. After all, someone needs to listen to my dad.

Pat Riley said a lot at his end-of-season press conference. But one quote stuck out: “Change is the highest form of sanity.” So what does that mean in terms of his true plans for the Miami Heat? Ethan Skolnick and Greg Sylvander attempt an interpretation.

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