From Mediocrity to DYNASTY: What the Miami Heat Can Learn from the Florida Panthers

From Mediocrity to DYNASTY: What the Miami Heat Can Learn from the Florida Panthers

I speak for all Miami Heat fans when I say thank you Florida Panthers. Truly, thank you. Listen, if you’re a South Florida sports fan, please do not take what the Florida Panthers are doing for granted, they just won the Stanley Cup championship last season and then just yesterday, or at least at the time of this recording, they made the Stanley Cup finals again for the third year in a row. Now, I support all the South Florida teams, although for my life, I’ve really just been a diehard of the Dolphins, Miami Hurricanes football, and of course, the Miami Heat. But over the last few years, as as the Panthers have been building this potential dynasty, I’ve really been getting into that franchise as well. Got it. That’s game. Ain’t no way to get it out of that. Yay, baby. we tip for the world because the type of run that they are on right now again should not be taken for granted. But last year in game seven of the finals as I watched the final seconds tick away and see the Panthers hoist that glorious trophy and then just yesterday as they rallied back to win game five and advance to the cup, I couldn’t help but think, damn, I wish this was the Miami Heat. Bill Zitto was hired to be the Panthers GM in 2020 and since then has put on an absolute master class on how to build a contender. So, in today’s video, I want to talk about their rebuild and see what the Miami Heat can take away from that. So, I’ve outlined how the Panthers built this dominant powerhouse that they have today, and we’ll help explain that in Miami Heat terms. But not before the 55.9% of y’all that are not subscribed to the channel hit that button because your support is greatly appreciated. Now, let’s get back into the video. From 2001 to 2020, the Florida Panthers only made the playoffs just four times and won zero series. They were basically stuck in NHL purgatory where they were not bad enough to tank, but also not good enough to compete. So, I ask you Heat fans, does that sound familiar? Because before Jimmy Butler and after Jimmy Butler, it kind of feels like the Miami Heats are stuck in NBA purgatory. They are the definition of mediocrity and because they refuse to tank, well, it’s kind of hard to build a contender. Now, it’s not impossible. We’re looking at a team like the Indiana Pacers who never really bought bottomed out and they did lose game five today to the Knicks, but they’re still just one game away from the NBA finals. So, I’m not saying that it’s necessary to tank. And the Florida Panthers didn’t even necessarily tank. But point is both of these teams kind of started in mediocrity and they have to work their way out. Now there is levels to mediocrity though because a team like the Florida Panthers only went to the playoffs four times in 19 years where the Miami Heats are pretty much consistently in the playoffs every single year. So there is some differences there. But let’s move on as we advance into the Panthers rebuild where once Bill Zitto got here, he wasted no time at all. Immediately, he traded the franchise cornerstone Jonathan Hubedo, who at the time was the all-time leader in Panthers history for total points. They traded him and the elite defenseman of Mackenzie Wager for Matthew Kachchuck. Now, Hubedo and Weaguer, they were great, but they really weren’t built for playoff wars, which kind of reminds me of Tyler Herro. Is that flaw of me to say? I mean, Huber means a lot more to the Panthers than I think Tyler Herro does for the Miami Heat. But in the grand scheme of things, Tyler Herro is beloved by a lot of members of Heat Nation, and he’s hated by a lot as well. But there’s still a large portion of the fan base that stands him. I think the front office loves him because Hero has survived the Damen Lillard allegations, the Donovan Mitchell allegations, the Kevin Durant allegations multiple times, he keeps surviving trade deadline after trade deadline. So very clearly he means something to the Miami Heat when there’s a lot of people like myself who as much as I love Tyler Hiro and how he grew up with this city since being drafted as a rookie at 19 years old and I appreciate everything that he’s done here and all the great moments that he’s had. I understand that he’s not built for playoff wars in the same way that Jonathan Hubedo and Mackenzie Wager necessarily weren’t. So although it’s very difficult to let go of a guy like Tyler Heriro who you’ve developed this relationship with over the last six or seven years, it is time to move on from him for somebody who could actually be the guy like Matthew Kachchuck because Kachchuck was younger. He was tougher. He thrived in high pressure situations. And to me that kind of sounds like Donovan Mitchell who it sounds like the Heat maybe didn’t want to trade Hero for. It sounds like Damen Lillard who the Heat also didn’t want to trade Hero for. And you may be saying, “Hey, Donovan Mitchell got no rings. He gets ousted in the playoffs early every year. Damen Lillard been to one conference finals. He got no rings.” But I think that’s more so the teams that those guys were on. I guess for Mitchell’s case with the Cavs, they were literally the best regular season team. So, they had a good team. But in the postseason, it’s not like Mitchell played bad. It’s not like Dne played bad. Both of those guys were consistently playoff risers and had incredible numbers in the postseason. But for other varying factors, they just didn’t have playoff success as a team because it’s a team sport. But both of those guys are franchise risers. But the Florida Panthers, they pulled the trigger. They made the hard decision to get rid of Hubo, brought Kachchuck, and he instantly became the face of the franchise, whether he was scoring clutch goals, igniting comebacks, and setting the emotional tone. So, I think that’s the first step that the Heat have to do is find their guy that could be the culture again. Now, the next thing that the Florida Panthers did is they found tons of undervalued players, or I guess they found good value players and guys who were overlooked is maybe a better way to say it. They got Carter Verhagy, Sam Bennett, Gustav Forsling, just to name a few. Another guy that they had was Brandon Montour who was on the championship team last year but unfortunately they weren’t able to afford him to retain him for this season but that was fine because they continued to give other guys more playing time that they had previously or just added whether it was Etu Lucarin. I always have trouble pronouncing his name but him. You also got my guy Nico Mikola. Both of those guys really had more bigger roles this season and really shined when they got that opportunity. So, the Panthers were not really built off tanking. It was more so smart scouting and taking these calculated risks. Although, I do want to point out that that isn’t all true because Aaron Ecklad, Alexander Barov, those guys are pretty good. Not sure if you heard of them. And Eblad was actually the first pick in the draft 11 years ago. And Alexander Barov was second in the draft. That was 12 years ago. So, it’s really crazy to think how the Panthers have kept both of those guys for over a decade now through some really really bad or or mediocre times where in the NBA you never see a team hold on to a guy for that long. That’s why like Damen Lillard was the rarity. He was the one guy that didn’t run from the grind. That that’s why that was a thing because he’s the only guy that never asked out and didn’t have success. But in the NHL, it’s a little bit different because of the contracts. Right now, Alexander Barov is in the middle of an eight-year deal for $80 million, meaning that he’s only getting 10 million a year. I say only in terms of NBA money. It’s not a lot of money. So, only 10 million a year, which is about 10% of the salary cap. Matthew Kachchuck is actually getting paid a little bit less per year. So, less than 10% of the salary cap, but he’s also on an 8-year deal. So, they have these guys locked in on these good value contracts for a long period of time. Meanwhile, you compare that to Bambio, who is literally about to get paid when his extension kicks in, five times more than Barov, and takes up 30% of the salary cap. And obviously, Tyler Heroes do for an extension. if he gets the max money he wants, he’ll also be making 20 to 30% of the salary cap, which is way too much. And because these guys are on shorter three to fouryear deals, it means that when their deals run out or they cut their deal a year short because they have a player option or that they’re ready, they’re up for an extension after only a couple of seasons, it means that they’re due for new contracts so soon, which means that they get paid even more money so soon because you can’t lock them into these long-term good value contracts like the Panthers did with Kachchuck or Barov. But I do understand that in the NBA you need to pay that much to get stars. You need to pay 30% of the salary cap. We understand how that works. But you should do it for a true superstar. So if the Heat can get a 1A this off season, they will need to fill out the rest of the roster with good value players like the Panthers. So you get the guy, you pay the guy. Now Tyler Hero, you already paid dam that’s too late. get the guy somehow, pay the guy, and then you fill out the roster with those good value players, which the Heat have been very good at for a while. Think about all the undrafted guys they’ve developed. Duncan Robinson, Gabe Vincent, Caleb Martin, Max Strus. Now, you think to the Panthers, they had a lot of, you know, guys like that to for good depth on the roster. But then when you couldn’t afford to pay Brandon Montour, you didn’t overpay him to stay. And I think the Heat should learn that lesson of not overpaying these non needlem moving role players to stay. They made that mistake with Duncan Robinson who has had a bad contract for the last couple of years in terms of his production. Now he’s an expiring contract. So you finally might be able to move him after all these years. But I do think maybe the Heat already learned that lesson from Duncan because they didn’t overpay to keep Max or or Gabe Vincent and they tried to overpay Caleb Martin and fortunately his whole agent messed that up. But at least they didn’t overpay for these role players because just like the f the Panthers found some other guys to take those spots, the Miami Heats should continue to do that as well. Maybe they already have some of those guys on the roster like Kashad Johnson or Drew Smith. And the final thing the Panthers did in 2022 was they instilled a culture of toughness because in the 2122 season they were great in the regular season. They had 122 points. That was the most in the NHL which of course means they got the President’s Cup. But in the playoffs they were exposed by Tampa Bay where they got swept in round two. At the time, the Panthers head coach was Joe Quinnville, and he had to step down for some other allegations from a previous team he was on. But once he was out of the system, the Panthers brought in Paul Maurice, who brought structure, accountability, and a defense first mentality. Under him, the Panthers became a playoff team all season long, not just on paper. meaning they played with that physicality every single second that they were out there. Prior to him, you had a high-flying offense, but once he came in, he developed a responsible, punishing type of hockey system. Before him, you had regular season stars. After him, he developed playoff killers. There’s levels to this. And the players really bought in, especially Matthew Kachchuck. So, you made this monster trade for a guy who was not only super talented, but he fit the type of tough culture that you wanted to instill into this franchise. And he was a playoff superstar. That’s what the Miami Heat need. They need to get a guy who fits their culture and is also very talented in the terms of playoff success, in terms of being a superstar when it matters most. That’s kind of what I always said about Jimmy Butler. We always felt like that was a match made in heaven for his first few seasons here because he was tough, he was gritty, he was hardworking, and all those other adjectives, toughest, nastiest, meanest, most hardworking team in the NBA. All those other adjectives that describe the fake heat culture that was once a thing, but now it’s just a marketing scheme. Jimmy Butler was that until he quit on his team and then that all randomly went out went out the window one day. But when he still believed in it, you saw the success that this Heat team had going to multiple NBA finals under his leading leadership. Another Eastern Conference Finals because you had a star that was a playoff riser and fit the culture. So, three things that I think that Miami Heat can take away from the Florida Panthers is one, do not be afraid to trade some of your lovable guys for a true superstar. Number two, do not overvalue guys who are not worth it. Trust your development system. Stop overpaying for guys who are not needlem movers. That’s how you get in salary cap hell. And then number three, bring back a culture of toughness because it it frustrates me so much. They wear these damn Heat culture jerseys and then get blown out by 55 in the postseason. That team had no heart to finish the season. And the fact that they even make heat culture a thing is just ridiculous cuz it’s not no more. It’s a marketing strategy. That’s the truth. But I think you got to instill that toughness back with guys like DaVon Mitchell. Get some more guys like DaVon Mitchell. That would be a good start. Now, I guess another lesson I could say that the Heat could learn from the Panthers is is patience. Considering Bararkov and Eblad have been stuck here for over a decade. And to that point of patience, I’m not opposed to keeping Tyler or Bam. I think they’re good players. You just can’t overpay them. which maybe you already did bam the you know it remains to be seen what they will do with Tyler Heriro and his extension but more importantly get them their true 1A get them their Matthew Kachchuck and I should also point out that Alexander Barov is that guy he is him so he’s also a 1A so the Panthers have two of them or I guess they have a 1A and a 1B that brings me back to some good times Anyways, that’s really all I got to say for this video. So, let me know your thoughts down below. What are some other things that you think the Heat can take from the Florida Panthers? And more importantly, what are some steps you you would like to see the Heat take to get back into finals contention? Hope youall enjoyed the video. If you did, make sure to leave a like and subscribe because I’m on a grind to hit 8,000 subs. That being said, I’ll see you on the next one. Peace out, everyone. Pull up in your city trying to get that dead face. Do it on my own. I don’t need no dead weight. Had to kill them off. Yeah, I need a head space. You know this homegrown [ __ ] don’t fan.

Discussing the Florida Panther’s rise to contention in Miami Heat terms. NBA and Miami Heat News featuring Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Andrew Wiggins, Terry Rozier, Nikola Jovic, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Duncan Robinson, Josh Richardson, Kevin Love, Haywood Highsmith, Kel’el Ware, Pelle Larsson, Keshad Johnson, Erik Spoelstra and more. Subscribe for more Miami Heat, Miami Dolphins, NBA and NFL news.

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