The truth about the Miami Heat, spending, the tax and results | Five on the Floor

The truth about the Miami Heat, spending, the tax and results | Five on the Floor

Welcome to latest episode of Five on the Floor on the Five Reason Sports Network. Thanks for joining us on your favorite podcast app on Apple, Apple Podcast on Android, Spotify or the Five Reasons YouTube channel. We are recommending use both actually use Apple Podcast and Spotify because lately Spotify has been a little quicker and that one’s on both platforms. Also, check out Off the Floor. That’s our Discord server. I’m finding it, Greg. Don’t worry. There you go. You got it first. Uh Off the Floor is our Discord server. Link right here in the description. $2.99 per month. We’re going to start doing something different. We just decided three minutes ago, uh, we’re going to start doing, if anybody watches, and I don’t want to get into your political leanings or anything like that, but if anybody watches, say Bill Maher or John Stewart, they do overtime, right? So, they have a real show and then the overtime they move some somewhere else. 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Have a good one. Today’s [Music] [Applause] episode heat nation. Yeah. Mercy go down the [ __ ] on the floor ride for my dogs. Here’s a thing. You can check the score. Hustle hard. Couple stars. Bubble frog. Kept a plan. Got it all. Y’all seen the block with one hand and we trust 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. Hi, welcome to Off the Floor. No, this isn’t off the floor. Today’s floor plan, I’m sorry, went a little long on the intro, so I apologize for that. Uh, today’s floor plan, I’m Ethan Skolnick. You can follow me at Ethan J Skolick on Five Sports. We’ve got Greg Sander. You can follow me at Greg Sander. Check out all the recent episodes. Been putting out a lot of them, and I feel like some of you are missing some. Just a hunch. So, go back. There’s a lot of stuff that’s timeless in there. It’s going to be helpful for you as you prepare for the Heat’s draft and also for free agency and also for what the Heat are going to do with their own rosters. So, go back, check our library. It’s all there. Spotify or Apple podcast. Uh I feel like I need to go to the refrigerator or something or or maybe under the sink and get get a pale because uh we’re going to be accused of carrying water here. We are. I know this is coming. Right. They’re right. We’re going to have Truly putting us in Photoshops uh and all the rest of this and in uh you know as as members of the Heatfront office. Uh we’re just gonna try to provide facts. Yes. like that’s this is going to be a data driven podcast. People aren’t going to like it, but it’s going to be data driven uh in part and thank you to uh the account on uh Twitter, NBA University. They put that out. I want to give them the shout out here. Very good account. Very, by the way, very good account. Um they deal in facts. I know we’re not a fact-based society anymore. Uh but this is facts, not faith. Okay? Facts, not faith. And we’re going to take a look at this chart. that they went through which is tax bills and team performance since 2012. Now I I’m not exactly sure Greg why 2012 was picked. I the new CBA wasn’t it then because the Heat lost in 2011. They came back in a shortened season and played on Christmas in Dallas. So that was because of a new CBA. So, I feel like 2012 is like what we should consider the luxury tax era, I guess, is what they’re going for. But again, I’m I’m kind of connecting dots. Obviously, I didn’t create the chart, but I I I think I I think that’s correct, actually. So, 2012, why do they pick that? That’s that’s probably the reason. Okay. So, what the chart includes here, and um we put this on off the floor, by the way, but I’ll attach it when we promote the podcast on Twitter as well. Win percentage. This is for every team in the NBA. That’s regular season win percentage. Playoff wins, championships, tax years, highest tax year. That’s not really that relevant, but well, we could discuss it. It’s not really that. And total tax paid. Okay. Now, you’ve pulled an Ethan special. You You have an envelope uh which you’ve written on the back of it. Envelopes can be used for anything. You don’t need to use your phone. Just seriously, after you don’t send in your monthly payment for something, just rip up the envelope and and write some NBA statistics on it. Okay. So, win percentage, playoff wins, championships, tax years, highest tax year, total tax paid. Okay. Um I I am How should we do this? Should we go through How do you want to do this? Should we go through the teams that were highest in tax since then and look at how they’ve done or do we want to go do it the other direction? In other words, go through playoff wins and see how much they taxed um were taxed. I would say let’s start with Well, first let’s do some housekeeping. because everybody doesn’t have this chart in front of them. So, right, let’s eliminate the teams that have never paid tax at all and then maybe we look at the highest taxpaying teams. And I do want to go category by category and let everyone know where the Heat ranks because I think that’s what people will be, I think, surprised by, but also pissed off at us for identifying. But just so everyone’s clear, the Indiana Pacers, Atlanta Hawks, Orlando Magic, Sacramento Kings, Charlotte Hornets, Detroit Pistons have never paid the luxuries tax. So that’s very interesting. There’s only really Indiana with 51 playoff wins um that has anything to show for it. Uh so I just I think it’s important to distinguish those teams that never pay the tax. They always want the the distribution that comes with not paying the tax because basically the tax dollars are then evenly distributed back to the non- tax paying teams. They rely upon that. I know like in Indiana that’s like a line item that they rely upon that distribution back to them every single year. So um that’s first. If we look at the teams that have paid the most tax actually Greg before you get to that just want let’s let’s stay on the not paying much tax line now that we’re here. You me you mentioned Indiana and by the way there is an indication that they’re willing to pay tax going forward but they never have. They they may need to to retain Miles Turner. U so not only have they gotten 51 playoff wins and have a 53.4% winning percentage. So they’ve been above average on the court and now they have a chance to go to the finals tonight without paying tax. But they’re also going to get money back from the league. Okay. Just just to be clear on that. The only other team that has any significant playoff wins without paying any tax at all is I guess the Hawks would be second best. They’ve got 34 playoff wins. But I want to include a couple of other teams here because there are also some that have paid very little tax. That’s a good point. Two others that have paid very little tax are Memphis, which has paid 219,000, which is a rounding era. They’ve they right and they have 31 playoff wins and at 55%. So they’ve managed things pretty well all things considered. Uh, and the other one would be the Pelicans who’ve not managed things quite so well. They’re under a million in total tax. They have seven playoff wins and they have a 41% winning percentage. So, of the teams that have paid under a million in tax, there are three teams that are plus 500. The Hawks are because they’re the Hawks, they’re literally at 50%. 50.1%. Okay? And then the Pacers at 53.4 and the Grizzlies at 55.3. So, if you’re trying to draw a conclusion saying paying no tax, you’re definitely going to suck. Well, that’s not been true for those three teams. But also, there are some bad teams in there. The Kings are under 40% winning percentage. The Magic have been under 40% winning percentage, although better lately. The Pistons are under 40% winning percentage, although better lately. The Pelicans are 41%. So, there is seems to be some correlation between not playing tax and not being very good. But there also are franchises in in Indiana and Memphis who have shown you can be competitive and not pay the tax. Okay. So th and those so we we’ve covered those. Now go to the top end ones. And when you say competitive I just want everyone to understand that if the Indiana Pacers punch their ticket to the NBA finals tonight as we’re recording this will be 25 years since they last played in the finals. So just when we talk about them right not paying the tax and being relatively successful. Let’s also keep that in perspective as well. Now uh we pivot to the top taxpayers. Is that which what you want to do next? Yeah. Look at the top taxpayers and how they’ve done. So this is um my god. Golden State. My god. Golden State. So this and this is where I I’ll actually integrate some of the rankings here. Golden State’s paid almost $750 million in tax. They’re the one team that when you look at win percentage, they’re at 61.4. That’s the highest winning percentage since 2012. Playoff wins 113. High most playoff wins. They have the most titles, most tax years at eight and 750 million is what it cost them above their reg their overall payroll, mind you. But for them, you have to say it’s paid off. It has paid off. And that’s very, very fair. And they’re going to do it again, by the way, with Jimmy’s contract and Steph and Draymond. But you also can say that some of this is a result of the success because what happens is you you’re paying players to have success, but then you’re keeping players because you’ve had success, right? So, it’s a little bit of both, but it is hard to argue. Like I think if you went to most owners and to most fans and you said, “Listen, you’re going to pay $750 million in tax, but you’re going to win the most championships since 2012, which is four. You’re going to have 113 playoff wins, which by the way is 15 more than anyone else. The Celtics would be second, right?” Yeah. And no, and then I guess huge drop after the Miami Heat. Okay. And that’s what I was going to say. The team right after the Celtics is the Heat at 92. We’ll get into their tax situation in a minute, but I think most people would look at it and say, “Okay, if you’re going to have a 61.4% winning percentage, you’re going to win 113 playoff games and four championships, then you’ll take the eight tax years and the $748 million. If you have an owner who can handle that, like that’s and and obviously fans are going to be in favor of that, but most organizations would probably take it because the value of the franchise. Plus, by the way, during that time, they got a big beautiful building built in San Francisco. So, which is increases franchise value. So, there there’s a whole bunch of things that go into this, but the Warriors have made the deal with the Devil and it has paid off. There’s no other way to look at now. There may be a crash and burn after Steph retires, but they have tried to maximize Steph Curry’s career. I’m not going to make any argument about that. They’re the polar opposite of the Pacers, but yet the Pacers are still playing right now and the Warriors are not. So, in this particular year, it has it did not pay off. All right. So, where do you want to go next? Well, let’s look at the team that’s second here. Okay. And then we’re going to look at the team that’s third. So, the team that’s second, I don’t even What is that logo? Am I losing my mind here? That’s the Clippers. They’ve paid million dollars. So, this is an interesting one. Um, the Clippers. They have also in this time since 2012, they’ve paid the second most luxury tax. They have the second highest win percentage at 60% which I that one surprised me. But this is this is where it gets ugly for them. No titles. We know that they only have 49 playoff wins to show for all that spend 400 million in luxury tax. Uh, so that I think is how they spent the money um more than that they actually went out and spent that money because to only have that many playoff wins and not to get a title out of it, that’s tough. But again, they have the richest owner in the sport, I believe. He’s certainly up there. Um, Balmer, he bought it during this process. They also got a new arena built, so paid off there. They’re not no longer sharing what used to be Staple Center with the Lakers. Here’s the thing about that, too. Not only do they only have 49 wins to show for it, they’ve basically handed OKC a dynasty. They traded OKC the eventual MVP, and the second best player on the team was drafted with one of the picks that the Clippers gave him and Jaylen Williams, and it’s still going. So, I think if you were to look at it and say, “Okay, it’s not my money, it’s Steve Balmer’s money.” Most fans will be like, “All right, well, you won 60% of your games, but you you’ve not got return on investment.” No. And you’ve already traded Paul. Yeah. They haven’t even been in the finals. Like, it’s not even that they haven’t won a championship. They haven’t even been the finals. But here it gets worse. You ready? And this is why again I’m saying correlation is not causation. I know all this stuff, but like just spending is not enough. The Brooklyn Nets has spent $349 million. Mhm. They’ve won eight, was it 18 playoff games and they have a 44% winning percentage. Yeah. None of that ranks high at all, just in case anyone was wondering. Well, Greg, I mean, again, they’ve been worse than the Hawks. It’s unbelievable. Like, I actually in looking at this and how much they’ve spent over their overall payroll, the fact that they haven’t ch I mean, has leadership changed there? Yes, it it had to have changed. Sean Marks is still in charge though. Well, the team was sold. Was it a broker off at the beginning of this and then it’s but they’ve consistently spent. They’re in a big market, but they I mean like this is ugly because this means that this encapsulates when they um put that Paul Pierce, Kevin Durant team together. Then it also um Oh, no. That was Garnett. So Pierce Garnett and then it also encapsulates Durant Kyrie the other the other the other Kevin Durant but they no Durant but then the the Durant James Harden era too. So they’ve they’ve kind of gone all in a few times and they have absolutely nothing to show for it. They are the biggest example of of basically completely overspending and having nothing to show for it in the entire league. Again, the Pacers are an anomaly. Kevin Pritchard does such a good job there. But but but let’s look at the Hawks, though. Like we mentioned them earlier, like the Hawks are known as this mediocre franchise. They’ve never paid tax, but they’ve won 50% of their games and won 34 playoff games. This the Nets have spent 350 million in tax, and they’ve won 44% of their games and won 18 playoff games. How about this? The Hawks have won 34 playoff games and have a 50% winning percentage with no luxury tax paid ever. Phoenix has only 27 playoff wins. That’s less playoff wins than Atlanta. They are pretty high up the luxury tax list at 273 million. That puts them at fifth overall. They’re tied with the Lakers. They’re tied with the Lakers who by who, by the way, Greg, haven’t fared a whole lot better. Although they do have the one title to show for it. That’s all that separates the Lakers from the Suns is the one title. But otherwise, since 2012, they’re both in the top five in luxury tax spending. The the Lakers have won 47% of their games. The Suns have won 45%. The Lakers have won just 33 playoff games. I’m I don’t want to bring the Heat into this yet because the whole second half of this episode’s going to be the Heat. The Heat have won three times as many playoff games as the Lakers. Roughly three times. nearly four times as many as the Suns. Okay. Why did Damon Goran have to get hurt in 2020? Damn it. Right. And the Heat have won 92 playoff games, which is more than the Suns, the Lakers, and the Nets combined. They’ve combined to win 78. Okay. And those three teams have spent, this is top of my head, 550 roughly 900 million in luxury tax to win fewer playoff games than the Heat of one spending 74 million. I think that’s a good place for us to break and get into the heat. Again, you’re going to say we’re carrying water here. We’re really reading stats. I’m not saying that you don’t pay tax when you need to, when you have the right team. Okay? it makes sense to avoid the second aprons and everything else that’s been introduced, which by the way was not in there in 2012. The new CBAs have made it progressively harder to put teams together, but okay, they’ve limited the vehicles that teams use because look, the reality is GMs would do whatever they could if if this wasn’t put in place, okay, in most teams. So that’s why this is put in place. I’m just trying to make the case that just spending does not guarantee anything. It guaranteed it. it that guaranteed it, but it facilitated it for the Warriors because they also had a generational player and they built smartly around him most of the time. And yet, you know what Warriors fans do on Twitter all day long and I follow a ton of them because of the whole Jimmy thing. Complain. All they do is complain. They complain about Kerr. They complain about Lakeup. They complain more than Heat fans. I did not think that was possible. Warriors fans are more spoiled than Heat fans. And half of them became Warriors fans a few years ago when they used to be Laker fans. Okay. But it is it’s unbelievable to see them complain when you see the amount of money that they spend and the fact that they actually got return on investment whereas the Lakers have not, the Suns have not, uh the Clippers have not, and the Nets certainly have not. And the next team there before we get to the the this the next teams in terms of luxury tax spending are the Bucks who do have a title to show for it 49 playoff wins, the Celtics who do have a title to show for it and 98 playoff wins which is slightly more than the Heats for second. And the Cavs who have one title to show for it because of LeBron and 66 playoff wins but they’re only 47% because they have years, right? So I I guess what we’re looking at is some some of these just spending is not enough. Your your front office needs to know what the f they’re doing. And that’s the Warriors front office typically under Bob Meyers and now under Dun Levy has done enough and yet all I see is Warriors fans complain about them. All that’s all I see. Anyway, uh let’s get to our sponsor. You want to throw it up there? Water cleanup of Florida. You can find it at wcufl.com, your onetop water and mold cleanup shop. Water Cleanup of Florida is your place to go if you got a leak in your home, in your business. Get to them right away. Michael, Robert, their entire team. Also, we want to thank them for being a sponsor for so long. We appreciate them. Really, really, really good people. Um, definitely go to them. They’ve got they got more than 200 fivestar reviews on Google. Again, they’re based in Bokeh, but they go all the way down to Monroe County. You’ll see them in Fort Myers. They’re in Orlando. Check out the Instagram account as well. Uh, again, they’re based based in Bokeh, but you call them, they’ll they’ll find a way to get out to you because check it out. Damage assessment, they’ll work with it. uh insurance agents as well. So check them out. Water cleanup of Florida. It’s wcuffl.com. If you got the schmutz, they got the guts. All right. So without going into the middle packet of all this stuff. All right. Let’s just get into where the Heat rank in all of these categories. Yeah. So this is interesting. Uh and shout out to NBA University. I would recommend everybody go to their account and check out this chart. See it for yourself. Digest it. If you’re on off the floor, you’ll find it in host updates. Let’s just look. I’m going to go left to right here and we’ll go through some of these categories. Win percentage. Golden State’s first overall at 61. The Clippers we’ve talked about already at 60. OKC’s third at 59.6. San Antonio 59.8. The Miami Heat fifth overall in win percentage at 58.5. So in all of this they’ve paid what did we say they were in luxury tax spending overall? Um they were I think you had were they ninth 10th they are 12th in total tax paid. Okay. And they’re fifth in win percentage. Okay. Well that’s return on investment also. Let me do Okay. Go ahead. Well, before before you do, I want to mention one thing because people are going to forget this. Remember, they actually Oh, there you go. Did I hit that? Um, they’re actually won a a title. Again, this is before the tax stuff was thrown in, but they won a title in 11. So, this doesn’t even include that championship. We’re just going from 200 uh No, they didn’t win a title. I’m 11 12 year, right? Yeah. Yeah, that’s right. Okay. I was thinking beginning of the season. Okay. So, they they won in the in the 12 seasons. This would be the first title there. So, go ahead. I’m sorry. So, the next thing to look at, so win percentage, Miami’s fifth. We’ve established that. And it was me who uh pushed the buttons wrong here for anybody who’s watching on YouTube. Uh playoff wins. We talked about Golden State return on investment 113. Boston’s at 98. Miamiy’s at third overall, 92 playoff wins. And you can’t say that’s all because of LeBron because they’ve had some pretty damn long runs uh pretty recently. And then this is what what jumps out at me about this before we can kind of talk about this or move on to the next category. The next highest is Cleveland with 66. And we know that most of that’s tied to LeBron. Um they’re just starting to rack up non LeBron playoff statistics. It’s taken them a long time to get to that place. They’re finally there. But I just the stark contrast from 92 to that next tier of playoff wins. Cleveland leading it at 66. There’s a big difference between there. So Miami is definitely not at 113, but they’re in that next tier with Boston um in terms of playoff wins. And what more I know Heat fans are asking for more, but truthfully, that is the ultimate sign of being competitive over a 13-year stretch. And let’s take a look at the Dallas Mavericks. I I want to do a comp here because the Heat and the Mavericks have basically spent the same uh in luxury tax since 2012. Okay. So 74,189,772 for the Heat. 73,120 73,120,833 for the Mavericks. So essentially, it’s a push. It’s wash. It’s a wash. Okay. All right. So since that time and Dallas is considered to be Luca Trade aside recently one of the better franchises in the sport. Cuban ran the franchise for a long time. Now they’re basically be run by somebody who’s looking to probably move them uh and gut them and everything else. Okay. So, but that’s that’s where that is. All right. But obviously Cuban was considered to be a good steward of the franchise. He brought that franchise back from nothing. Uh whatever you think of his constant complaints about 2006. Okay. The Heat since then, as you mentioned, have won 58.5% of their games. The Mavericks have won 51.9%. The Heat have won 92 playoff games. The Mavericks have won 32. The Heat have won two championships. The Mavericks have not won one, although they did get to the finals with Luca, but of course the Heat did get to the finals two times with Jimmy. Um, so, you know, the finals appearances are still in the Heat’s favor. And then, and if you look at the tax years, the Heat have actually been in t taxed more years, six compared to Dallas’s three, but the tax number has been the same. I’m really having a hard time. And then I’m going to drop down to one more. Okay. The Knicks, who obviously have turned things around under Leon Rose, right? But with Dolan as an owner, the Knicks have spent more in salah in tax than the Heat. 91 compared to almost $20 million more. Right. Their win percentage is 44.5. The Heats is 58.5. The Heat have won 92 playoff games. Again, the Knicks have won 30. The Knicks have not been to the finals. And it doesn’t appear they’re going this year. We’ll see. They still have an opportunity as we’re recording this. I know. Okay, four tax years. So they and the Heat have had six tax years. So the Heat’s tax years have been more minimized. They’ve kept it down. I think a lot of that is Andy’s magic, honestly. But they’ve they’ve figured out a way to kind of keep it down in those particular years. They just don’t know. And and again, in the last five minutes of this, all right, because we’re going to get accused of carrying water. I I just don’t know how and I’m not Let me preface it by this. I don’t agree with all the decisions been made in the past few years. People know that. they listen to this podcast, there are things there and there are decisions I agreed with that haven’t worked out like trading a first round pick for Terry and Lowry’s contract for Terry Rosier. I like that deal. You liked it at the time. It’s a disaster. Okay. Um, do I think there were other things they could have done to maximize Jimmy? Yes. Do I think sometimes they need to move off their value in a trade? Yes. Okay. I I’m not going to argue with fans about some of that stuff, but I do not know how there’s a group of fans that is so myopic that they could look at a chart like this, although they won’t read it, honestly. We’re probably talking to the wrong crew here. Um I and think that this organization’s been mismanaged or has been cheap because you you can’t make a case for either. No, they haven’t spent like the Warriors. I No, they have not. Okay. They spent onetenth in luxury taxes, the Warriors, basically. But they have spent more than as you said 18 other teams, right? Yeah. 12th in total tax paid. And when you look at tax years, Golden State, the Clippers, and the Lakers are at eight years in the tax. Mhm. Then there’s Boston and Miami at six. Oh, Brooklyn is also at six. And then at Milwaukeee’s in five years, which has been kind of this most recent era. So, right, if you look at kind of like those groupings, you’ve got three teams that have been in the tax eight of these 13 season, 13 years. We’re talking about Boston and Miami have been in the tax for six of the 13. Right. So, okay, there’s two cases you cannot make here. Not not if you’re being intellectually honest. Okay. The first case is that they’re cheap. This doesn’t indicate that. It doesn’t indicate that they’re the biggest spenders. So, I’m not going to argue that, but it does not indicate that they’re cheap. They’ve spent when appropriate. Okay? Sometimes they’ve tried to overspend. Like giving Caleb Martin that money last year would have been a disaster in retrospect, right? Okay. So they they’ve spent to the upper third of the league or close to it 12th. Right. Okay. And then and this and and then but and again the luxury tax rules have changed over the time. So it’s not exactly clear total salary, right? Like we can’t really say that because the the rules would the percentages and all that has changed over time. But you can’t make that case. But the case you cannot make, okay? And if if if someone is making this case, I can’t respect their opinion. I’m sorry. Is that they’ve been consistently mismanaged. Like you make the case they should spend more. I if you want to do that that’s fine. Okay. Or how they spent. If that’s the other case you want to make like paying Kyle Lowry when Jimmy asked for him. Maybe you should have said no we’re going in a different direction. He’s not a a fit from an attitude perspective or spending on Duncan Robinson or whatever people may want to bring up about the way that they’ve spent their money. All things we can hash out and we have hashed out, right? But you can’t say that they’re like basically um a team that sticks their head in the sand and doesn’t manage the, you know, efficiently and doesn’t get the most out of basically every vehicle that’s that’s um available to them at this point. There was a point where we used to say they didn’t care about the draft, but we can’t even say that anymore because they hit on a lot of picks. So, I just think it’s good. People are going to say, “You’re right. we carry water and I’m screaming at him get to get off uh Pat’s lawn and leave him alone. But for the most part, I just think that it’s important to look at this and understand that what the data suggests is that the heat um are in the upper echelon of the way that they’re managed. And so I think that they should get a little more grace about the way that they’re going to figure this out going forward. And trust me, we’re going to be hard on them if they don’t figure it out. But I just think that they have exemplified what most I mean think of all the teams and we’re not gonna go through them now, right? That would just they would die to switch positions with Miami in the way that this is going. Honestly, honestly, Greg, if I if I were in ownership, okay, never going to happen. But if I were in ownership and I was making a decision on my front office and my general manager and the people running things, I would literally just produce this chart because you can tell who’s good at their jobs and who’s not based on this. Like for instance, the Raptors, okay, have spent only 25 million in luxury tax, but they’ve won 54% of their games, 46 playoff games, and a championship. The Spurs, okay, have spent only 9 million in luxury tax, but they’ve won 59.8% of their games, 62 uh playoff wins, and a championship. I know they got some luck with third and win percentage, and they also have uh 63 playoff wins. Right. And and that’s an owner who that didn’t spend to keep Harden or else it would have gone even five tax years for them just in case anybody’s wondering. And they’re going to have to pay it now. There’s no way to avoid it with the roster that they’re putting together. They’re going to pay tax. They may be able to stay on the second apron if they don’t break up the team. I saw this. They may pay be over the second apron like one year. But but again that the overall point on this is if you’re looking at like like I know Messiah’s good at his job. Like I that’s the thing in Toronto now. Do I agree with every decision that he’s made? No. their frustration with him at times, but if I’m looking at this, I’m going to say I trust that guy. Okay. Whereas like Mory, like I don’t understand where all the affection for him comes from because if you look at what Philadelphia has done, oh, it’s awful. Uh, right. I mean, they’ve spent and he hasn’t been there the whole time, obviously. But he he contributed to Houston, too. And, you know, looking at 38.9 million, 41 playoff wins, 45.7%. That’s not return on investment. Again, I know it wasn’t all him. It was it was Kangelo. It was Alton Bran. was hanky before him. But I’m just saying like I don’t just to be clear on this both of us because I think we agree on this part of it. We’re not excusing everything that they’ve done. I don’t like necessarily um their position right now as much as I’ve liked their position in the past. I we’re going to do a podcast about what Zach Lo said about how he has them at eighth in terms of their future in the East. And he of course and it was asked the one I respect most in NBA media, but he basically said he acknowledged that he said they had the bleakest future in the NBA once before and then they ended up in the final. He’s not he doesn’t want to get caught in that same spot again. No. So, so he’s like I’m not going to distrust them. But I I think there’s a difference here. Okay. Between glazing them or giving them too much credit, but then but doing what you said, which is giving them a little grace and trust. I I think there is a distinction. Like I I don’t think we have to praise everything that’s gone on lately. Hell no. No. But I do think when they make a decision not to extend Jimmy Butler and then we see what happened in Golden State and you’re seeing he can’t carry anymore. Do you understand? I know people say they should have trade him before. I know a lot of the backstory of all that. I just can tell you a lot of that people are wrong. Um, but the the idea that they don’t know what they’re doing and that they’re cheap as hell, which are the two things that we’re hearing the most this offseason, the cheap as hell thing is not true. Again, you can say that you want them to spend more. I understand that you want them to be top five. Okay, I you know, that’s it’s not my money. It’s just somebody else could talk about what money they should spend. But the the idea that they’re they’re they’ve like lost their minds and they don’t have like this does not suggest that. It doesn’t suggest that. I’m sorry. Like I got another pale here. Like I that’s why I’m saying like okay, you know, give them some trust. Are they managing things as well as Bill Zo is managing the Panthers right now? No. Because nobody in all of sports is. He’s on a heater though. Oh my god. Is he on a heater? But here’s the funny thing about that. Everybody around the NHL is like, “He’s only doing it because they got no state tax in Florida. That’s the new thing.” Okay. Well, I mean, there’s no state tax for the Dolphins either, and they’re perennial uh embarrassment. So, like, it’s it it is it’s about how you manage your situation, your assets, your money, the vehicles that you have, the people you put in charge. And I do have a modicum of trust in this group to figure it out because they’ve done this. And by the way, that doesn’t even include the championship in 2006, the the the should have been finals in 2005 and getting to the finals in 2011 before this these these CBAs came into effect or the fact that they made the playoffs for two years with Dwayne and nothing else before they brought everything in. So again, you guys can look at this. This is we’re going to put this on off the floor. We’re going to put it on Twitter. Make your arguments. Make we’ll probably do a post pod on this over the next couple days. make your arguments for why they’ve been cheap and why they are total buffoons now that don’t know what they’re doing because I I do think we have counters for those. And with that being said, if they f up this off season, we will hold their feet to the eff and fire. Thank you. Have a good day. 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.

Thanks to a comprehensive chart from @NBA_University, Ethan Skolnick and Greg Sylvander sort through the luxury tax spending of the Miami Heat and every other NBA team since 2012, and how it has correlated to on-court success. Are the Heat really cheap? Have they mismanaged? Or are the narratives wrong?

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