Miami Heat draft series: Did Pat Riley signal a direction for #20? | Five on the Floor
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I’m Ethan Skolnick. You can follow me at Ean Jolnik at Five Sports. I got Digital Adele. You can follow him at Digital Dell. He handles the draft stuff for us. You can also find him on playback, playback.tv/5rsn as well as our Discord server off the floor. And there’s a draft channel there specifically. So if you want to go to the latest information, you can find it. Also check out the recent episode. Yes, we are producing more content lately. We also just had our best 24 hours ever. So uh more people are tuning in even with the heat not playing. Thank you Pat. You want to speak tomorrow, you can do that. It’s fine. We’ll be there. I’ll I’ll make arrangements uh to get there. But, uh, lots of content we’re going to be putting out, experimenting with some different things here. Getting in some more voices, but nothing’s happening to Alex and Brady and Greg. So, don’t worry about any of that. They’ll be back. But, just, you know, more of these twoerson episodes, conversations that we’re having lately. We’re going to talk about the draft a lot in the next month. He’d have the 20th pick. It’s not their pick. It’s Golden State’s pick. They should have their own pick next year because that is now not unprotected. It’s not being given away. Um, and they basically reset the pick clock as Pat Riley spoke about. So, one of the many things he talked about was kind of being in better position than they’ve been in in recent years. We know some of the reasons why they haven’t had picks. In one case, it was because they had to execute a Jimmy Butler trade. That seemed to work out okay. Nobody really complained about it. Just like people didn’t really didn’t complain about the extra picks they had to throw in to get LeBron and Bosch way back in 2010 because of the rules at the time and because they wanted opt outs after four years to get their full six-year deals and that’s the way it had to be done. Uh or at least that’s the way that the teams that they were negotiating with Toronto and Cleveland wanted it to be done. Um, so they are in better position, but people are complaining of course about the Rosier pick, which, you know, as we get to that point, but at least now it’s not pushed back. It’s not unprotected. They’ll be able to clear the decks on it. Uh, but Adele, they do have the 20th pick in the draft. And I was just curious because I wasn’t I guess we were focusing so much on big picture stuff with Riley and also his comments on Spolster, his comments on Hero, a little bit on Bam, a lot on Jimmy. uh but there really wasn’t a lot as far as what kind of young players they want to add to the mix and he did talk about having a crew of young players. My understanding though is or at least my sense of it when he was talking about making an Iguodala Crowderl like trade is that it was up to him he’d have more veteran role players on this team that could be counted on a little bit more. Maybe I’m reading that wrong, but that’s the sense that I got. And you know, right now, like they’ve drafted a bunch of guys like Hero and Bam are their cornerstones for better or worse. They were drafted 13th and 14th. They drafted Yoic. They drafted Hakez. Hakez was a disappointment this year. Yoic, uh, might not be a disappointment if he could stay on the court consistently. and and then wear who showed promise as the 15th pick but also showed some of the warts that we knew about before the draft which you talked about related to motor and things along those lines. Um when you listen to Pat, what was your impression of what he might want to do in the draft this year if anything? My impression of what Pat Riley said at the press conference was a little bit of covering his bases in all avenues. like uh if he goes and gets an aging star like that aging star comment um we all know he’s talking about Kevin Durant um quote unquote uh or not quote unquote but my our our interpretation of what he is saying my objective was my objective when I asked the question was for him to say Kevin Durant without saying Kevin Durant so for the first time in my life mission accomplished yes mission accomplished absolutely now the thing with the whole ribby thing and the whole, you know, that whole Liberty commercial thing. He’s really saying that if they swing and miss on Durant, like somebody like Houston, for example, swoops in, steals Kevin Durant away, uh, and they don’t get the opportunity to to acquire him, they’re going to have to pivot. And the retool may be something he really didn’t want to do, but he’s open and the organization is open and willing to do. So, it seems like he was just covering both sides of it to me, right? And and then there’s also the third option which is that you kind of kind of split the difference and make a reshuffleling trade. And I know that’s the one that gets us in a panic uh w with with where they’re at right now as as said I suppose Sedano said you know pick a lane you know and so I it does seem like he’s got two lanes like there’s the Durant lane but if that exit is blocked off then yeah okay we’ll keep going down the street like that’s sort of what this feels like to me. Um, but in light of that, look, they could trade this pick. Like they could they they have they could make it and then trade it. They could draft it for somebody else. Um, this is a little bit more of the quote unquote flexibility that they have at this stage. So, if that’s the case, uh, you know, let let me just ask you this question. If if they go get Kevin Durant without having to trade this pick, does that change what you would use this pick on? Because you and I have already had a couple conversations about what they need. They need a playmaker in the back court. I Pat said that he said we need another guy like Tyler, right? And we Da’Von Mitchell, but that’s not his description. I mean, there’s a lot of good things to say about DaVon Mitchell, but he’s not a Tyler-like player. So, if let’s say they trade for Durant, they don’t give up this pick. I don’t know if that’s possible, but if if they don’t give up this pick, let’s say they don’t give up Tyler Bam, uh, and maybe they give up Wiggins, okay, but we’ll see. Or Duncan, you know, partial guaranteed contract, whatever. Does it change what you think they would go for? It does actually. So if if you’re going to have a core that consists of Kevin Durant, Bam Adabio, and Tyler Herro, DaVon Mitchell, you know, being your first guy either off the bench or holding down the back of point guard spot, you need somebody that can create, facilitate, and get buckets for you out of the guard spot. And that would kind of be a perfect fit for Cam Jones. Cam Jones is not without his limitations. I mean, his foot speed leaves a lot to be desired. His vertical athleticism, kind of like Tyler, leaves a lot to be desired. Uh, but he’s a very crafty scorer. He’s very smart. He’s a senior. He can facilitate and he can ball handle. So, I would I would think they would lean the older ball handling guard type prospect. Also, Walter Clayton Jr. in that spot would be good off the bench because he’d be able to provide that scoring punch leading that second group. Um, and DaVon then would have to start with the starters in that scenario in my opinion. Kind of like a Payton P. Pritchard has developed into in Boston. Similar. And that’s like a Pritchard like a Patty Mills from the Spurs days, right? That that sort of player. Yeah. Okay. All right. So, on the other side of this, what I want to get to with you, they don’t trade for Durant and they use the pick. What do you think he will be looking for? So, we’ll get to that uh on the other side. Before we do, we want to mention our friends over at Cousinsusa. Moving and storage, both, by the way. They handle that. They got a great deal for you, too. Check it out. Okay? You can only get this from us. Go to cousinsusa.com/5rsn. You’re going to get these wardrobe boxes free. We know that that’s a pain. You don’t want to have to pack all that stuff uh yourself and little boxes and all that. You got your clothes. They’re going to get all messed up. Okay? They just don’t if you don’t like to iron, like I don’t like to iron, uh, go to cousinsusa.comrsn. Cousinsusa backfirsn. Your Fort Lauderdale movers, but they service the entire area around here. You can also find them at 888-3006683. That’s 888300. That’s 30006683. Great family business, really good people. And again, they are South Florida people, huge Miami sports fans, family-owned since 1996. cousinsusa.comrsn. All right, so let’s say they don’t get Duran. And I It’s not just Houston, by the way. It’s also um Minnesota, I think, has been a team that’s been mentioned. Or he may not go anywhere. We’ll see. I mean, it looks like they they have to do something that that they were awful this past year. Now, it wasn’t his fault. Wasn’t Booker’s fault. Jeez, what did I just do? I just coughed in my screen. Uh wasn’t his fault. Wasn’t Booker’s I not even I don’t even smoke. Anyway, um well, let’s get to it as as you’re cracking up at me. Uh I if if he is not acquired There we go. It just faded. If he is not acquired by the Miami Heat, uh and they are sort of with this roster that they currently have, you still think a Cam Jones is the direction that they might go or that type of player or is there something else that they’re going to need? Oh, you’re on mute. I was too busy laughing. Um, if they don’t if they don’t acquire Kevin Durant, uh, I strongly believe it’s going to be best player available at that point and they could go in a number of different directions because the board can fall in probably a 100,000 different ways. uh it feels like in this draft because I think there’s also going to be quite a few significant trades during the draft because of the teams that have four and five draft picks. Like a lot of them are good teams. They can’t even support that many players. So like just the tea leaves tell you there’s going to have to be some trades that are made during this draft with all these draft picks in my opinion. So but with that being said, best player available. I have this sneaking suspicion because big men with foot injuries tend to be um they fall down the board sometimes because when you have a big man with a foot injury, you never quite know how that’s going to go. It’s not really a great sign for you know seven foot a near sevenfooter to to come off a foot injury in college. But Thomas Sorber as a freshman, yeah, he’s my second favorite big in the entire draft. Um, that’s counter to most draft experts. You know, they like Derek Queen, some like Colinary Boils and all that, but if Sorber falls to the Miami Heat at 20, I mean, you take that guy. Uh, cuz I think he’s that good. Um, but I’m not opposed to somebody like Leberon Phylon. I don’t think Ben Sif is going to make it to 20. I love Ben at the point guard spot. Doesn’t seem like Yeah, I think you I think you’ve talked him up too much among others. Uh, I guess the question about going for a big and yeah, you mentioned foot injuries. I think Yaoing, I think Greg Odin, I think a whole bunch of stuff. Um, but okay, it is the only way guys fall. So, it’s it’s sort of like everybody’s like, well, they should have gotten Kevin Durant four years ago. I mean, you realize what would have been more expensive then. Like that’s that’s it was more expensive then. It was Muel Bridges and a whole bunch of picks, right? I mean, there’s a reason that values decline. Uh, but with that being said, if you’re talking about going after a big, I mean, is that you’re just talking about a player who’s going to play basically 15 minutes behind Bam and Wear. Is that what we’re doing here? Well, the league is sizing up. Sorber Sorber’s a little different than Wear. Wear has greater athleticism. You know, he’s just a freak athlete for his size. Thomas Sorber’s technical. I mean, he’s got great footwork. He’s strong as an ax, great hands, plays hard all the time. He’s a big mouth communicator, so he gets people set on the back end. I think he could play 20 25 minutes right away, and he gives you Callware insurance in case those motor issues and strength issues don’t get rectified in the offseason. Um, but also, you could go with a big like Danny Wolf if he’s still there. And Danny Wolf is 7 foot 250, but he can handle the ball like a guard. Um, so there’s going to be somebody there, I mean, that they can use and they can take. I genuinely think it’s going to be best player available at that point. Can you make a case uh with what we saw from Wiggins and playoffs which was highly disappointing? Uh, I know he had some games in the regular season. He was in and out of the lineup for a variety of reasons, bro. ankle. But um that that this team like we when we’ve talked about the structure of this team, if you are let’s say you’re not making the Durant trade, let’s say you’re bringing back Bam and Wear, you’re resigning DaVon, you’re bringing back Tyler, right? Whoever is in the middle of that like needs to do a whole bunch of different things because right the DaVon hero back court is small and doesn’t have a ton of creation overall like compared to some others around the league. and the front court. We don’t know if that’s going to work right now with BAM and wear. That’s still kind of a work in progress. The spacing is not ideal. Um, so like are you say like I mean could you look at like a versatile wing 3 and D type player there. Those are at a premium right now. The Knicks, they’re losing today as we record this, but obviously they built a strategy. We talked about it all offseason to beat Boston, which was, you know, go get as many athletic defensive wings as you and physical athletic uh defensive wings as you can. Can you make a case for that? Absolutely. You could never have too many of those guys on your roster. Functional size and length is something this team’s been missing um in the past three to four years with the league has gone to that. Rasheir Fleming is a name I see all the time. I love Rashir Fleming for what he can do. um shot 43% from three in the college, long arms, can defend point of attack. That being said, and everything you said, he’ll be gone in the teens. Uh I don’t think he’ll be there. But could a guy, an older guy like Meek Clifford from Colorado State, one Hold on, hear me out now. There’s somebody on the Miami Heat roster that he played with. Isaiah Stevens was his point guard. Guy your guy. He was a point guard in college. So Nick Cliff, I forgot Isaiah Stevens was on the team because they were force-feeding us for a zero the whole year. Oh, it’s really Yeah, it is. It is. It was horrible. You and I just both lived through it. Um, okay. So, that’s an interesting one. I mean, I just I think there’s a bunch of different directions here. One final question here. We’ll do more of these episodes with Adele as we go forward. Chicago camp’s coming up, right? It’s real real soon, isn’t it? It Well, it’s going on right now, right? Okay. Okay. So, it’s being G League Elite Camp is in Chicago and then the other one is coming up at the end of the week. Okay. That’s what I thought. Okay. So, and I’ve been there a couple times and and I know obviously this is where some players jump. Uh give me before the Chicago camp your one uh this it doesn’t have to be a heat target, but your one expected riser in the Chicago camp and your one expected fall dropper. That’s a great one. Um that’s a great one. I have to pull up the list of who who was invited to that camp because there’s two Chicago camps. I want to make sure we’re we’re referencing the correct one. Are we talking about the G-League Elite camp? No. No, we’re talk No, we’re talking about the the college prospect camp. Copy that. All right. Chicago College camp or so I guess all the college kids are going to be there, right? All the major ones. So I mean in all the major ones I see a faller in Liam McNeely. I don’t think Liam McNeely is going to be a guy that people are going to really fawn over. I mean, his three-point shooting is very reminiscent of like how Jason Capono was for the Heat back in the day. But picture Jason Capono’s game in the modern NBA. Yeah, he doesn’t really do much else. Like there isn’t much point of attack defense. He can’t take anybody off the dribble. That’s Liam McNeely. So, he’s he would be a guy that I think is going to fall. Jace Richard, actually, I’ll tell you what, there’s two Jace Richardson and Tahad Pedford are gonna blow people’s doors off for what they are going to be coming out of that game. Well, you’ve like Jace Richardson a lot uh from from from the beginning of this. All right. Well, we’ll see how it plays out. We’ll have coverage of all this as we go forward. Want to get you some of these quick episodes. Uh just to kind of give you a sense as we’re leading up to the end of June and the draft. I’m assuming the Heat will do some kind of a draft function this year. They they didn’t last year because I think they had a conflict at the arena, but uh we’ll have our crew there covering it. Adele’s going to be with us. Check us out on the Discord again. It’s it’s digital Adele uh on Twitter as well. And also check us out on playback.tvrsn. Have a good one everybody. See you.
With the draft now just 6 weeks away, Ethan Skolnick brings on Digital Adel again — this time to discuss what Pat Riley might have signaled for the Miami Heat’s approach to their 20th pick. And would trading for Kevin Durant change it?
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