Should the Miami Heat be more like the… New York Knicks? | Five on the Floor

Should the Miami Heat be more like the… New York Knicks? | Five on the Floor

welcome to the latest episode of Five on the Floor and the Five Reason Sports Network Thanks for joining us on your favorite podcast app on Apple Apple podcast on Android or Apple You can use Spotify We’re recommending that you stream us from there from now because they’ve been a little bit quicker of late Also check out Off the Floor That’s our Discord server Link is right there in the description $2.99 per month This is where you find the most heat also the most NBA We take everything good from Twitter and we put it there We wean out all the We’re like a strainer We take out all the stuff that you don’t No need You come over to Off the Floor You can check us out 10 different channels plus the stage shows link right here in the description Again check it out It’s Off the Floor and you’ll find all of our crew there including during the NBA Finals And now today’s [Music] episode Mercy Luxurious Heat Nation Yeah Where the [ __ ] 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 seen the block Stop with one hand and paps 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 back to Five on the Floor Here’s today’s floor plan I’m Ethan Skolnick And follow me Ethan J Skull at Viviverory Sports I got Sean Rochester Follow me at S Rochester NBA We’ve really got the studios working today I’m in some dimly lit hotel room And you’re what what are you in the are you are you in an RV What What What are you What are you doing here You’re driving down the roads of Pennsylvania I’m on my way I’m on my way to an AAOU tournament in the middle of uh central PA I’m in a Sheets parking lot If you don’t know what a Sheets is it’s like a JV version of Waw Wa and uh their their their Wi-Fi service here is a JV service of anything respectable So hopefully it works No I I I I understand that Well look I I I get it I’ve had to do this many different parking lots By the way my my daughter goes to school in Davyy and uh they have not they do have not introduced Wi-Fi in Davyy yet Uh they will be getting to it shortly after the next rodeo Uh anyway speaking of uh rodeos not the first rodeo for the New York Knicks in terms of changing their head coach and that’s what we’re want to talk about today They’re taking some NBA league issues applying it locally to the Heat And we’re going to explore a question today uh which is we know that Eris Bolstra is safe He’s safe for as long as he wants to coach the Miami Heat He’s been coaching the Heat since 2008 He’s the longest tenur coach in the NBA You mentioned it before we came on There are really two teams that are operating a certain way in this regard The Heat and the Warriors with Kerr and Spoler who happen to be two of the the USA uh olymp Olympic and national team coaches And then there’s everybody else And Eric Spier has become this and this is this is one cause in the NBA like every time another coach gets fired even if he may not be the biggest fan of the coach he will back the coach and talk about how ridiculous it is that other organizations don’t support uh that coach the way that he’s been supported with the Heat And I’ve had this conversation with Spolster way back and I know he’s had it with others since which is you know that he had felt that he could have been fired three different times by the Heat very early in his tenure Uh the first was of course he got hired in 2008 Pat gave him the job out of the video room and uh he could have he could have been fired when they got LeBron um because at that time there was some question about whether Riley would uh LeBron would come to play for an inexperienced coach He could have gotten fired at nine and eight when they you know fell to that in Dallas and of course had the whole situation with Bumpgate and 55 minutes closed locker room players only meeting with Dwayne and others talking and then stuff getting leaked uh by LeBron’s camp to ESPN and all the mess that ensued after that and instead of getting fired Riley the rest organization empowered Spolstra he had very strong u press availability after the next shootout round and was the coach obviously going forward And then he he he believed he could have been fired after they lost 2011 finals as we’ve seen that sort of stuff happen So three times within basically a one-year period that he believed he could have been fired and instead now here we are 14 years after the 2011 finals and he’s still the head coach But I it does I think although I don’t think the majority of Heat fans are saying fire Eric expulsure They’d be insane to say that And even as insane as some of them are I don’t think they would But I I think that there is a feeling among some in the fan base that the Heat will just stay the course on stuff and although that has worked the majority of the time other organizations are more open to making significant changes Is is that fair And how does it apply Again with neither of us endorsing fire expulsion I don’t think you and I ever would Is that fair in terms of the way that some fans see it overall as an organizational philosophy Yeah I think you know sometimes me you Greg we get characterized as carrying water for the front office and those types of things Like Spo’s not immune to criticism Like he clearly made mistakes last year He’s made mistakes in the past Doesn’t mean that he’s still not the best coach in the NBA or one of the best coaches in the NBA Um you know you look at Dagenol the decision to change his starting lineup He may be one of the best coaches in the NBA with the best team and he just maybe he might have made a decision that was a bad one So no one’s perfect and so criticism is okay and I I would never say that But you know I think you look at the model that Golden State and Miami has and stability is for a reason because those guys are really really really good coaches and the front offices have been pretty much stable I mean obviously there’s been some changes in Golden State but Miami there hasn’t for a reason Um you know Adam Simon and his crew they’ve been pretty consistent You keep them around for a reason If we miss two draft picks in the next two years you don’t throw Adam Simon out and get somebody new just because you want somebody new I think new is not always better And I think we had that conversation a few weeks ago about the assistant coach That’s kind of my mindset there too Like I understand infusing a new voice but also like replacing and getting rid of like what are we doing And that’s why I think we apply this out to the NBA with the Knicks and other teams Well the Knicks now have had they’re going to have uh 16 head coaches since Pat Riley left them Okay 16 head coaches By the way that’s not even the most in the NBA U but the Heat have had three in that time Um they’ve had Riley I I know Ronnie Roststein had like a short stint when Pat took some time off but I’m not even gonna count that because Ronnie was the head coach before He was the first head coach uh Ron Roststein But you’ve had Pat you’ve had Stan for that short period of time which was basically what two and a half seasons and then you’ve had and then obviously Pat came back and then you’ve had Spo since 2008 Um San Antonio is only having a different head coach obviously because of Cop’s situation his health situation he’s still in the organization But essentially it has been it has been San Antonio It has been and Golden State And it’s it’s so crazy to think that like I remember when Steve Kerr had to make the decision between the Knicks and the Warriors if you go way back Um and Kerr took over from Mark Jackson and that was controversial Maybe Kerr would have been the head coach all this time Although more likely under James Dolan probably Kerr would have been out in two years just like Darren Fischer was just like others were Okay and Curry obviously you know got in a situation where he inherited uh Curry and Clay and and Draymond and then elevated them Um but I I guess the overall point is and we got into this as you mentioned in in the assistant uh coach podcast is that I I think stability is obviously a plus Okay I think if if you can have it or not have it and sometimes success under lack of success undermines stability okay because you have to make changes because you have no choice But I prefer that organizations see things through So I think when we talk about it in this context to me it’s okay if you’re going to keep stability then you have to continually be open to challenging yourself with the current people you have to new ways to doing things And I think that’s where you and I are with the heat right now that they you know the new CBAs have changed the way that NBA teams operate They know it Okay they may not love the way the CBAs have changed but they obviously know it They understand it they’re trying to grapple with They’re not they’re not like ignorant to the changes that have occurred and the way they need to operate as an organization But we just have to acknowledge the old ways of doing things for them have they don’t work anymore Clearing the cap space and and just you know saying “Hey it’s Miami Why wouldn’t you come?” Which is kind of Pat’s philosophy about 2010 that that there’s lots of reasons not to come And a lot of them are because they can’t Uh or you have to deal with another team on the other side to make a deal whereas before it was okay we have the cap space just come into it okay And there’s and there’s no issue with it Um but I think specific to Spot and we talked about the assistant coaching part of this I I think it’s I think fans sometimes sense that well he’s not going to get fired so there’s really nothing that he can do that you know is is going to put him in any kind of jeopardy And to me I say because he’s not gonna get fired I would like to see him experiment even more than he does Is Is that fair Because he has really nothing to lose other than the fans getting irritated at him He’s not losing his job He’s not losing his contract He’s not losing any of that stuff He’s not going to lose his place in Heat history He could literally try anything and it would be acceptable Is Is that a fair way to look at this No I agree with that I mean when you have that stability like if you look at the Dolphins right now I think Mike McDaniel is on the opposite end of that right Like he’s he’s really going to have to have a good year for his job Um you know and so what can he explore I mean you’re talking like strategy you’re talking roster moves both I mean it’s I I want to Well we we we’ve we’ve talked about the offense okay And a lot of this has to do with personnel right He does not have elite offensive personnel to work with I don’t know that he’s gonna get it this off seasonason We’ve talked a lot about Durant I know there’s mixed feelings about what you give up for Durant And the market does look to be a little bit more robust for Durant at least in what we’re getting in social media and some of the reports than maybe our guest Brian Gelser or others have indicated that there there seem to be more teams that are like okay if we can’t get Giannis we’re going to try to get KD And so you’re talking about three or four teams in the West three or four teams in the East that could be factors here And so that’s I don’t know where the offensive injection is coming from this off seasonason It’s it’s hard to see it with this current roster They have really one plus offensive player as Tyler Okay I mean really that they have one plus offensive player and obviously there are limitations on the other end with him And so I just again I’m wondering you know how he’s going to get maximize this roster but I would like to see um him innovate even more than he has in recent years I I I don’t feel like and again you you’re you have a better eye for this than I do I don’t feel like there’s been as much innovation from him over the past couple of seasons offensively Yeah And I agree with you that it’s I think it’s mostly about the parts that are there there isn’t really an offense that he could install over the summer that suddenly makes some of these guys really good offensive players They’re just their talent is their talent However I think it’s it’s not thinking about fixing it It’s making it better Like there isn’t a certain style that’s going to fix this team’s offense but can you improve it Absolutely And I think just that mindset of like the actions in the NBA are relatively the same Like there’s not many teams beyond really the two teams that are left that play drastically different than others you know like Golden State and Memphis they play a little bit different in terms of what they do with their five out and their screening actions but like most teams are running the same types of actions the difference is the talent Um so I I think I I agree with you that Spoke could bring in whether it’s him going out and exploring by you know he you know historically what he went into uh Oregon and watched them you know play football with Chip Kelly’s innovative ideas like he doesn’t have to necessarily bring someone in but I think anyone that’s in any profession whether it’s coaching or otherwise you’re always constantly trying to learn and improve and and grow in your trade And I think that’s what Spo’s going to do Like he he cannot continue to run back the same things He did adjust it last year though We have we have to say that though he did adjust it He did It just didn’t work And I’ll give him a little bit of pass because while it didn’t work there was also a lot of circumstances around that things were moving around So um but things have to change I mean there’s no there’s no getting around that The offense has not been good historically for the last almost 10 years I mean it’s it’s been too long since they’ve had a good offense All right On the other side of this I I want to get to a a quote It’s actually from the New York Knicks release when they fired Tom Tivido So I want to run this by you u because it is is really antithetical again to the way that the Heat would operate in this sense Um but there are some in New York who are applauding the way that the Knicks have done this So I I I want to at least be fair to it Uh before we do speaking of fair this has been an unfair competition so far Uh we’re having a competition on prize picks Use the code five fiv So just do that right now If you do that you’re also eligible for our contest to win more in promo funds more than just the 50 bucks And all you got to do is before every game check out the tweet that I’m going to pin up to the top of the Five Reason Sports Twitter page the of course the hub of South Florida sports And on that tweet okay myself Greg Alex and Brady are all posting our plays for the night We have $20 to spend every night Now some of us turn $20 into an additional 45 like me Uh some of us turn it into an additional 15 like Greg and some of us turn it into nothing like Brady and Alex But you’re allowed to choose Brady or Alex if you want if you think they’re going to have a comeback in game two So check it out Use the code five fiv $50 to play right away And again join our contest You can win even more promo funds And that’s on the five reasons sports Twitter Alice is going to go for broke again That’s what he always does We’ll see how that works out Uh Brady that’s the biggest upset of the year actually that he got shut out on all of his cards So check that out Uh go to prize picks use the code fiv All right So when the Knicks put out the release that they were firing Tom Tibido and now it looks like this was all to try to get Jason Kidd which is interesting Former uh Knicks coach Jason Kidd who by the way was Giannis’s first coach played him at the point a lot early in his career Uh from my understanding was Giannis never really wanted Kid fired and they’re trying to get Giannis also But I want to get to a quote here because I think this is how Heat fans some of them particularly on Twitter would like the Heat to operate And I know you have specific feelings about this which is they basically said Leon Leon Rose who does not speak to the media by the way Okay So as much as I give the Heat trouble for you know we only get Riley once and don’t hear from anybody else publicly um other than Spo Leon Rose has not spoken to the media in 5 years Okay So he’s not going to be accountable for this anyway but filing out a press release But most heat most Knicks fans are fine with Leon Rose because the the organization’s been such a bleep show for so long and he’s obviously turned it into a competitive organization now Okay so they don’t really care if he talks to the media but of course the media does So Leon put out this statement essentially that we we will stop at nothing or something along those lines okay to you know we we will leave no stone unturned to try to win a championship here And in their in their view that was firing a coach who was very successful over the past five years and whatever issues you may have with Tibs playing guys too much or rotations or anything like that You can’t argue with the fact that the the Knicks were were a mess before he got there and they’ve been they made the playoffs four the last five years and they made the conference finals this past season I feel like there’s a lot of Heat fans Sean that would like the Heat to sort of operate this way Leave no stone unturned Doesn’t matter you know who you fire what you do but just keep searching Just keep searching And I think that a some of these Heat fans feel like the Heat have been somewhat inert that stability has led to inertia Is that is that fair Famously your friend George Sedano said “I’d rather be the Sixers.” Right Yes Yeah Yes It would be one of the wildest things to ever say as a Heat fan that you would rather operate like the New York Knicks Like that in the existence of the Miami Heat over the past almost 50 years now like when would you ever say that Never Like they are a absolute disaster It it doesn’t make any sense So when we say things like that yes they had a better season than us this year Yes they had one better than us last year But other than that like come on the finals like we’ve we’ve been to the Eastern Conference Finals multiple times That was their best season in what 25 years We’ve did that how many times in the past five years And it’s the same type of season that these same fans would complain that they weren’t enough They didn’t do enough Okay I I just say that like the Knicks are going to I I agree with you about the whole connections between like the Jason Kid How are they going to get him Is Dallas going to let him walk Are they going to have to trade That hasn’t happened I think Doc they don’t really have the draft pick compensation to make that work But then there’s going to be connections It’s not going to me it’s not going to be like Johnny Bryant is the new Knicks coach and that’s who replaces him Mike Malone doesn’t really make sense because it’s like the Spider-Man meme It’s the same the same type except Malone has actually has a ring I I just you know and I know it’s funny like people talking about trading for Spo like that would be a if you really need an episode that could be something you could throw out there People would enjoy that Like you you just froze on that one They froze if they traded him to the Nick and they do it via the fact machine I said trade spo to the Knicks But look it’s it’s just one of those weird situations where I don’t think any of these connections are going to happen how it relates to Miami Yeah And we lost you for a little bit there the uh the the uh the the Teimu Teimu Wawa uh parking lot got you there with the uh with the wireless But no I I I got I got what you were saying and and look they’re not trading I mean every Nick fan was out there It’s so funny because Heath fans complain about Spo and then every Nick fan was out there This would be the dream to get Eric Spolster up there Uh there’s no way that’s happening And the prospect of Eric Sper going to work for James Dolan just cracks me up actually beyond uh the rest of it But I I I I totally get what you’re saying Okay And obviously look as someone who grew up a Knicks fan which I did okay lost my allegiances when I moved to South Florida you know I was there in grad school when Riley was coaching the Knicks uh to the finals against Houston So I familiar with their history right I I think what again the t the place where where Heat fans are is I think they want to see a little more Knicks in the Heat now I don’t think it’s that they want to become the Knicks I think they want to see a little bit more of okay like we’re not going to be that patient And yet then I look at it and I’m like well do you would you have wanted to trade five first round picks for Muel Bridges if the Heat even had those picks Which they didn’t So then Heat fans will say well if you manage your assets better then you’d have those first round picks and then you it wouldn’t matter if you did And I’m saying it still would matter Like it matters now to the Knicks Like not having those five first round picks which they traded for basically a good player He’s not he’s not a superstar He’s a good player on a on a good team He is kind of what you saw He’s like a third or fourth best guy That’s what he was in Phoenix when they won 60 plus games But to trade five first round picks for that guy and then now you’re looking okay do they still have the ammunition This is not the NFL where you can just keep extending contracts out changing contracts restructuring them to continue to have money That in the NFL like it’s all make believe In the NBA it’s real Like if you if you don’t have picks if you don’t if you’ve if you’ve maxed out the wrong guys and again we’ve talked about Bam and Tyler in this context If you maxed out the wrong guys then you’re in trouble because you can’t make moves going forward And so I think where this is is there’s a balance I think if the Heat came like 20% of the way to the Knicks I could be talked into it like a little bit more aggressive in some of these situations I could be talked into it but I can’t be talked into more That’s the thing Because I I think ultimately the Knicks are creating a situation and they got lucky but Brunson’s taking less money Okay that’s helped them in some regard Uh I tell them a lot but I think the Knicks are heading essentially towards a train coming at them on the on on the other side of this Like this is I don’t think this is going to end with a championship for them and I don’t think it’s going to end particularly well And I think it’s going to send them back into the dark ages in a few years I mean is that is that fair or is that bias talking No I agree And and I’ll be short because I know my my W Wi-Fi connection isn’t great but like it’s a sense of urgency New York has had a sense of urgency and and really in the last few years their front office has been very good Their decisions have been very solid However if you apply that to the Heat to me the move that you would look at that would connect to that you trade for KD Like you would send the pieces out to go get KD A lot of people are against that So like it to me I I can’t think like the Knicks didn’t like strip it down and just like purposefully tank like some want it to happen and like trade out I don’t they didn’t really have a BAM or a Tyler like those types of things didn’t happen So while you want I I think it’s like you said I think you said it very well You want a little bit more of the urgency that New York is operating with trying to find ways to acquire talent but I don’t want to have the same I don’t want to be them by any means Well they traded Randall right to get Towns And now there’s there’s the whole issue of Towns and his defense which was known before they got him and they got towns to play for Tibs and now Tibs is gone and one of the reasons was because there there seem to be a fraying of that connection I mean there’s many stories out there about what exactly has happened here but that that’s where we’re at And it is this constant churn and you kind of get yourself in a mess But then you see look I see I think the balance is you look at a team like Cleveland right Like they had a a historic well not historic but a really really really really good regular season right which we which kind of ended how we thought it would end although we didn’t think it would end against Indiana We thought it would end against Boston And now they’re open to trading Garland and perhaps to trading Jared Allen now And and I think that so in other words there’s a willingness to flip the roster to get to the next step And and I think that is where I think the majority of Sane Heat fans would fall here Like you’re good but you’re not good enough So we’re going to try to maximize during our window And that’s where there was their issue with what happened during Jimmy’s time Right I was going to say that applies better two years ago Like now we’re in a different situation Okay Correct And that’s what I’m getting at is I I think that’s that’s a philosophy like what Cleveland is trying to do now like with Kobe like that I I endorse like okay you you you have Donovan Mitchell he’s in his prime like we are going to try to figure out a way to make this work better Garland is a civ defensively there’s duplication in terms of their skill sets on offense So we’re going to try to reshuffle the roster which they tried actually to do last year and they didn’t and then it ended up with a really really good regular season but we again saw it flame out in the playoffs Part of that was injury related but part of it was I think fit Okay So that part I but to go full nicks here that I don’t I I I can’t endorse that because I just don’t think even though Leon is much better at his job than predecessors were there I just don’t think that’s going to end well And eventually you just run out of things to trade You run out of picks You run out of players Uh and even if you’ve gotten gifts like Brunson taking less So anyway we wanted to get into this because and I’ll probably retitle this episode like should the Heat become the Knicks which is a little bit more inflammatory Um and I can just tell you as someone who grew up watching the Knicks the answer to that is no It’s just no I I go back to the Trent Tucker Louis or days though That’s how old I am So that’s uh that’s what the Knicks were the Dolphins for 50 years right And and I’ll just say this nobody wants to be the Dolphins Uh Sean appreciate if I’m at S Rochester NBA and at teamuawa’s all over all over the greater Pennsylvania area Uh have a good one everybody

The Miami Heat remain one of the more stable organizations in the NBA, but is that always a good thing? Ethan Skolnick is joined by Sean Rochester to compare the way the Heat have handled things — related to coaching and personnel and more — with other teams, specifically the go-for-broke New York Knicks.

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