Miami Heat current roster: Will they shoot straight? | Five on the Floor

Miami Heat current roster: Will they shoot straight? | Five on the Floor

Welcome to the latest episode of five on the floor on the five reason sports network. Thanks for joining us at your favorite podcast app on Apple, Apple Podcast or Spotify and on Android. We ask you to use Spotify. Also check out the five reasons YouTube channel for everything in South Florida sports and subscribe to Off the Floor in our Discord. You get 10 different channels in addition to host updates. There’s stuff on Twitter the past few days. We’ve had on Off the Floor for weeks. So check it out. Again, it’s off the floor link right here in the description. can bypass the Apple upcharge and get in and you can cancel at any time. Also, prize picks, use the code 5 fiv. Put down your five bucks, get $50 to play right away. Prize Pix, the official fantasy sponsor of the Five Reason Sports Network, legal in the state of Florida. And even with some of the sports dormant right now, there’s plenty to play WNBA, MLB, and more. Check it out. It’s prizepix.com. And now today’s episode [Music] heat nation. Yeah. Mercy down the [ __ ] Five on the floor. Ride for my dogs. Where’s the thing? You can check the score. Hustle hard, couple stars wearing bubble frog [Music] plan got all y’all stop one hand and pap 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. [Music] All right, welcome back to Five on the Floor. Here’s today’s floor plan. Do we dare say rivet? Do we dare say rivet? Brady, are we at that point? No, I’m not gonna say rivet. I already said rivet. Um, Miami Heat looked like they’re bringing back most of their core roster from last year. Duncan Robinson out. Simone Fontekio is in. Davon Mitchell’s been resigned. Of course, there were changes made at mid-season, so it’s not exactly the same roster that’s going to training camp, and there could still be more changes. I know that they’re still trying to move Terry Rosier and Andrew Wiggins’s name is out there. But as of right now, the change that Pat Riley spoke about at the press conference hasn’t really materialized for a variety of reasons. And instead, there was a story written by the great Barry Jackson. I must use the words the great. um it’s kind of like he’s a knight uh of the Miami Herald and he went through the Heat’s plan, some of which we’ve kind of telegraphed here as well and where they stand with things, but there were some passes passages that jumped out to people from the story. And again, he’s not quoting anybody specifically. Um and again, you follow Brady at Brady Hawk 305. He’s with me here today. They’re not he’s not quoting anybody specifically, but he’s getting background information to give sort of an idea of direction. And there were other things about Wiggins and and other players in here, but this was one passage that got played out the most because it was similar to what some Heat fans predicted like way back in March, like almost word for word, and that it would come from a story written by Barry and by herald. Uh, the Heat believes it cannot accurately judge last season’s postbutler roster because of the chaos that Butler created, the change in roles for different players, Andrew Wiggins’s ankle injury, and other factors. I’m going to give you my reaction to that. Uh, but I want to get your reaction to it first and then what we’re going to do in this episode is start a series about what this roster actually can provide at this moment. This is not about long-term direction, which again, I’ve said go young. Um, so I don’t have a problem with that as a course of action as long as it’s followed through with. But just we was just going to talk about this current roster because that quote makes it sound like it’s not just a direction into the future thing, but it’s a we believe we can compete with what we have thing. And that’s that’s where we’re going to start to explore this over the next couple of episodes. At least compete, not contend for championship, but at least compete. What do you make of that statement? I would say it’s expected. I mean, that’s kind of what we would have predicted in general. It’s kind of what we’ve heard over the last few years. It’s uh I the only thing my main reaction to it is I thought we were going to kind of leave that narrative last year because we heard so much of that last year that last year was such a distraction that it was just there was so much going on around the team trying to figure out obviously the Jimmy situation and as much as you could say of what happened last year kind of later into the season everything you can kind of understand it you could kind of understand with what they were dealing with that the just trying to rebuild into a certain year and trying to you know fit all these pieces in on the fly. With that said, I just I’d rather kind of leave that in the past. I mean, the Jimmy thing is in the past. This is a new version of this team. We’ve kind of talked about this being a bridge uh to what’s coming to maybe a youthful team that we could hope for them if they can make, you know, get some of these older guys, you know, turn them into younger pieces. Uh they fully lean into this. But I I say that meaning you just don’t want to hear that part of it. I think this year I think it’s this is kind of the year where uh the thing is the team knows I think where they are. like this isn’t one of those things where like you kind of like the the team is always going to try to prep up the team and try to like push them up in a direction uh because you want to build confidence in the team. You still want them to have a direction of competing. That’s always going to be the level of this team. But I do think this team kind of knows where they are. I think they know that they’re leaning into this direction of youth that they’re going to have to play. Uh like you said, this isn’t a contending team going into next year. This isn’t a roster that you’re saying is going to go win the East. Uh, but the reason why this the the comment makes even more sense is because I think we’ve seen them say this stuff when the East was better, much better than it is coming in to next season and they’ve made that case with with certain rosters. But, uh, this is kind of a different situation because it’s a different kind of team. But yes, the East is wide open, but I do still think if you’re if you are trying to lean into the now and you have that mindset, there are certain moves to make to improve the roster. So, I know this episode specifically, we were going to talk about one piece of this that
uh dramatically needs to improve if they do want to compete at least at all. I mean, get out of the playing range because it does feel like even even as like, you know, I know a lot of people are talking about how bad, you know, the Heat may be with this roster. I we keep making it clear like there’s their bottom like their floor is very high still based on the Eastern Conference and where it sits. So, like their floor is still where they’ve been the last few years, even with Jimmy. Like, they’ve fallen into that playin range, and that’s kind of where their floor is going to be this season as well, and that’s not a good thing. That’s that’s why they keep ending up in the situation of being in the middle in these drafts and in the standings.
Yeah. And the top end of the East is uh I mean, they’ve all taken a hit. Boston, Indiana, um New York has not, but they’re going to be breaking in a new coach. We’ll see what else uh happens there. Well, not a new coach. Mike Brown’s been around, but a new coach for them. And you know, Milwaukee obviously in transition here. Dame’s gone. Uh we knew he wasn’t going to play next season anyway. Hallebertton out for Indiana. So yeah, the East, the top of it has come back down. Detroit and Orlando are teams that look like they may be on the rise and are making moves to try to to get up higher. Um I I don’t think some of the teams at the bottom are going to be as bad as they were. I think Washington at least has a direction now. Charlotte, I never trust them. there’s talent on that roster, but I feel like they need to move LaMelo before they ever actually realize any of it. Um, so I and Atlanta, I think, has pretty clearly passed Miami, unless Miami’s uh young players really pop this year. But let me just comment on this statement and then we’ll get to this and we’re going to do more of these episodes. We’re actually have Brendan Tobin on. We’re going to have we’re going to do like a bunch of State of the Heat episodes starting next week. But this particular paragraph, I I understand why it irritated fans. I get it. Okay, because Again, the rest of the stuff about leaning young, if Sper is going to play the young guys, clearing out progress stoppers, I I’ve said all that. Okay, I and I get it. Like this direction of, you know, kind of building the best possible roster you can, not going outside of your value spaces, not getting rid of all of your vehicles financially because of aprons and all that. I’ I’ve defended them on that. And then it’s okay, wait for a star all to get pounce on a star. And of course, you know, now the 2026 class is drying up, which by the way, Alex H on our pod predicted a long time ago. And so it’s it’s it’s hard to get stars right now. It just is. Okay. It’s just it’s not the same as before. Clear cap space and just make it happen. But this particular paragraph, I I think because I think to fans it comes off as a bit of a copout and a little bit delusional because we watched this team at the end of last year and nobody criticized Jimmy more than I did for, you know, in any of the these spaces for the way he behaved and the way it affected the team and everything that Spolster, Bam, everybody else had to deal with. But we also saw this team against Cleveland lose by 92 points in the last two games. And that’s why it’s kind of like, okay, if if you see that and just think, well, Wiggins is ankle being healthy, changing roles. The problem is like you haven’t gotten the star to allow players to fit into their natural roles. So, I don’t know that the role like we’re going to have any more role definition this season necessarily because this is a season to me that you’re experimenting with young players and putting them in different positions. Although I keep saying Yovic, I want him to get in a consistent position. So I I just I guess the way the paragraph was written, I get why and it’s not Barry’s just giving background that he’s getting, but that I think that’s why it rubbed people the wrong way because it just I mean we watched it with our own eyes. It doesn’t mean that the players can’t get better. It doesn’t mean that, you know, direction-wise this doesn’t make sense. But this roster is constituted. This is I mean this is not a top eight team in the East. And this is a weak conference. And the single biggest reason it’s not a top eight team in the East is because of what we’re going to talk about on the other side of this. So let let’s get to it. But I wanted to introduce at least this particular paragraph. There are other parts of Barry’s story that I I totally understand, agree with, get this particular paragraph. I again I get why it was a little bit controversial in the social media space. All right, before we get there, this is not controversial. If you’re looking to buy or sell a house, it’s Real Estate Shop. Check them out. Real estate shop uh fl.com. That’s two P’s and an E. Real Estate Shopfl.com. The Fort Lola Realtor on Instagram. Amanda Javier. They’ll do a great job telling you exactly what your house is worth. If you’re selling, making sure that people get there for the open houses. They’re all over South Florida. Or if you’re looking to buy a house for your family, they’ve got a family themselves. They live here in South Florida. They know the market and they’ll help you through the entire process. So check them out. It’s real estate shopfl.com or the Fort Leo realtor on Instagram. Okay. the single biggest problem with this current roster because this is worse than it was when the season ended last year because at least when the season ended last year they had two specialists on the team in Duncan Robinson arguably the best shooting specialist they’ve ever had and Alec Burks who they started late in the season right because I mean out of out of necessity to a certain degree but he was he was playing as a starter um they don’t have either of those guys now and it doesn’t appear that they’re going to be able to bring Burks back at least with the way things are set up right now. Is this going to be a horrible shooting team? Because other than Tyler Herro, I don’t see a guy who on high volume is going to hit a lot of shots from deep. I mean, yeah, I highmith Yoic, yes, they’re capable, but these are not guys that that teams are going to worry about once they get the ball behind the arc. Yeah, it’s a it’s another conversation we’re having offensively about this team where it’s more pressure on Tyler instead of helping him offensively. Uh the one thing that could help him is if they play Casper a, you know, a lot more and they have a playmaking point guard and he works out this year and and you know, it’s not like he’s going to pop on the scene to a degree, you know, in his rookie season. But at least just handling the ball, maybe letting Tyler play the offball role that we talked about, like that’s great. But I’m not account when I talk about the needing shooting on this team, I’m not accounting for Tyler. Tyler’s going to be Tyler. Tyler’s going to get shoot a high percentage. He’s going to get a lot of shots up. That’s a given at this point. It’s everything else. It’s yeah, is DaVon Mitchell gonna shoot 47% from three, you know, like over a decent uh stretch of the season? Probably not. Like that’s probably not going to happen. Is I think Bam was shooting above 40, you know, 43% post all-star break from three. We’ll see what that becomes. But obviously, if the front court begins to shoot a little better, that could help as well. But that it’s a lot of ifs I’m throwing around right now. Uh Jaime Hakez, we could see what his shoot shots going to become. I know that’s been the focus this whole offseason is if he could shoot better. uh Nicole Yoic. We’ll see what that looks like. I think
my opinion when we talk about defining roles on this team. My number one thing is I think Nicole Yoic needs to have the ball in his hands. He needs to be utilized more as an onball player. If you’re leaning young, you have to lean into their play styles. That’s the way to do it with him. It’s not putting him in the corner and letting him spot him shoot. But if he could shoot at a decent clip, that helps as well. But like I said, I’m throwing a lot of ifs around. And here’s my biggest thing because I’ve been saying all offseason
that this team needs shooting. And they did just go and get a shooter for Duncan Robinson. They they got Fonteo. They have somebody in the fold that they could throw in there. And he’s a he is a good spot of shooter. I mean, a year ago
31 31% overall, though. That’s the thing, right? From three.
Yes. He just didn’t have a he didn’t get a lot of reps last season, he didn’t have a good season. I mean, that if he’s not getting a lot of playing time on Detroit, you know, that makes you think what that what situation could be here. But Miami’s always been able to kind of put guys in the right role. And if it’s just go shoot the ball, he can find a role here. With that said, with the direction of this team that we know it as being, I don’t want to see him playing over the young guys. I don’t want to see him like I I I Nicole Yoic and Klo where I want those guys finishing games, closing games if this is the year it’s going to be. Haimea Hawkins, if he’s still on the roster, he needs to be playing like he needs to be getting a decent amount of minutes to see what you have with him. Sitting him for Fonteo for a good portion of the regular season, you’re not getting anywhere. You’re not figuring anything out. That’s not fixing anything. Fontio is probably not going to be here in a year. Like that. that’s just the way this is going to be. So, you have to lean into this. So, as much as I say that they needed shooting and I’m all for adding that type of depth, especially losing Burks. It’s not a bad piece to add to the roster. But my first thought when I saw that was like
I don’t want this to be a situation where they start playing them, you know, these type of guys, these older guys over the young pieces. I want the rookie to play. I honestly another player that I think about I want Pella to play like Yeah. I want Pella to play over a vet like a guy like Pontekio. You just want your if you’re you keep saying leaning young becoming like the phrase of the offseason. We have a lot of I feel like every offseason there’s the
we’re leaning offense was like the big thing you know a few offseasons in a row. Now it’s they’re leaning young.
But the my thing on saying they’re leaning young when I say it. I just mean
like spoing staff and the rotation needs to lean young. Like I just want to see the young guys out on the court. Forget leaning as a full-on roster, you know, cap space, all of that stuff. Uh, and look, if Wiggins on the roster, he’s going to play. Like, Wiggins is still a player that could be in the mix. There’s certain guys that I’m fine with if you’re they’re a veteran and playing in the mix, but it’s more so the guys on the back end of the rotation. Yeah.
And and like I said, I I just think,
yes, winning games matters. They’re always going to lean defense. DaVon’s going to play a ton, but with all that said,
I want to see Kell and Nico and a lot of these guys figure it out. Like, just go play them at the end of the game. Let’s see what they have. Let them get those reps in. Like, this is kind of the time for it. So, I just want to see that portion of it. But I know I didn’t mention the shooting a lot there because I was talking about the youth, but it it’s because they need young guys figured out shooting
wise. But Brady, it is about the shooting to this degree because if we’re going to lean into the young guys, a they need space around them to be able to operate. And I just think that’s going to be really challenging this offense. But also, it kind of speaks to the fact that they have young guys, but they don’t have a guy who’s a premium shooter in their core of young players that they’re developing, right? So, I I like a lot of what they’ve got. I I you know, wear as a vert vertical spacer, um the athleticism, the shot blocking and all that, right? Uh Larson, I like his his his grit, his toughness, his ability to draw contact, but we knew this thing he had to work on when he came in was the shot. His you don’t want him standing in the corner shooting threes because he’s going to be left open. And last year, he missed a lot of them. And, you know, this is again where his growth has to come, but it’s beyond that. he’s got to figure out other ways to to create uh and finish when teams are taking away what he did for most of his rookie season. So, we’re talking about all these guys, but they don’t have there’s no Duncan here, right? Like, I know it’s hard to replicate a Duncan. We just call him the second best undirected player in their history, but there’s no guy in this mix that I mean, of all of these young players, Yovic is probably the best shooter, right? But you don’t. But neither you nor I want him in a role where that’s going to be what they try to maximize. Like he’s not a shooting specialist. You’re not running him around screens. He’s done the spot up stuff in certain lineup and he’s been pretty decent at it.
But like you said, that’s not where he’s best. So I’m just wondering which of these guys is going to be a plus shooter. I mean I mean we’re talking Larson Hawkins. I mean Haywood’s done a great job just getting back getting to a a par level as a three-point shooter, right? because I don’t think any of us expected him to be that. Uh and I don’t even consider him part of the young core anymore. He’s kind of like a a mid-career veteran at this stage and in the last year of his contract also, so he may not be here, but uh beyond this season. But that that’s my that’s my thing is I want them to lean young, but they may end up being one of the five worst shooting teams in the entire league doing it. So, we got to prepare for that, right? or or they got to like this is why the the Wiggins for Dalton Neck conversation which has been a media thing that’s been out there mostly from the LA side like I kind of get why that would make sense from the Heat side and maybe why you would want to keep Dalton connect because he showed some things as a shooter as a rookie of course he was traded once sent back but that would give you a young player who one of his primary skills is shooting okay and they don’t they don’t have that right now so like that I’m like okay if you can get that piece like, all right, like that’s a guy who could probably be a core rotation player for you going forward and do some of the things, not all the things that Duncan did. I mean, that that’s where I’m at with it. Lean Young, but I think we have to be prepared for the fact that this team is going to have some they’re going to have some 11 for 39 nights from three, a lot of them, I think.
And with that said, the question becomes another part of this is if that is the case and you see that coming into the season, maybe the goal is to lean a little bit more OKC than Boston. Maybe it’s you lean into the inside game, you lean into the mid-range game, you lean into that stuff instead of getting up 45 threes and you’re not making many of them. Maybe you quickly adjust that. Just have that in your back pocket that you have the ability to kind of let these guys loose. We’ll see which way they lean there. I know I I don’t have a lot of confidence in that happening at least early in the season. I still think they’re going to get them up. The goal is number one, you see the growth that we’re talking about. And number two, you have guys like maybe it’s not DaVon, maybe it’s somebody else, but you have somebody just shoot above their head. It happens all the time. Like if a guy gets hot and they just kind of shoot at a high level early in the season, they get a little confidence, they’re in a rhythm, that helps as well. But the reason why you mentioned like I’m thinking about it like Yoic, we talked about on the ball, Casperis, we talked about on the ball, you have the bigs who are kind of going to be playing next to each other a ton. It’s like the the roles that we like if we were defining each individual player’s role that we want them in.
The best possible thing is to have shooters around those individual things, if that makes sense. And and they just don’t have that. So it makes it even tougher for these guys to put them in those roles when you don’t have that and you’re not as much as we’re gonna say Tyler off the ball that’s only gonna last a certain amount of time like it you’re
because they don’t have enough other guys to be they don’t have enough other guys to be on it
happened I mean every game default to him
and if it happened every game if they put him off the ball early in the game by the third quarter fourth quarter he was not getting any open spot up looks and that’s what they’re going to do even quicker this season especially if it’s the same roster is I think there’s just quicker adjustments to that and Tyler has to be forced to kind play the pick and roll thing, lean into the floater, the getting to the rim stuff, getting to the free throw line. He’s still going to get a bunch of threes up, but that’s not what’s going to open up the game. Like, you have to have somebody at least that number one team’s help off of and you make them pay. But also, like Duncan just he he forced a lot. Yeah. Look, there there was points later in the season where he wasn’t getting a ton of minutes. Like he was the guy off the bench that was forcing some things, but he wasn’t like,
you know, he wasn’t closing games or doing anything like that. But there was portions of the game when Tyler was out of the game where he’s moving a defense. And the question is, do you have a guy on the roster when Tyler hits the bench this season that can move a defense? And it doesn’t have to be from the three. It could be from anywhere. You have to have somebody that’s either every time they touch the ball is either drawing a double on that baseline. We’ll see. I think Bam is going to see that by default. Like once again, by default, that’s what’s going to see. Bam’s gonna see a ton of attention in that range. Uh but yeah, that that’s just my overall question on shooting. And I’ll say this as well because you’re talking about how Duncan came up, how Max came up. They didn’t come up based on draft picks. they came up based on the two-way system.
And I’m looking at the kind of the lower end of this roster and I just there’s not really that specialist guy that they have down there right now. And I’m even looking at the summer league roster. I don’t really see a specialist guy that that could kind of break out here. There could be a guy that breaks out shooting, but I just don’t see it as like a shooting specialist. That part of me wonders like if you had to give like one hot take, I kind of see the last two-way going outside of this current roster that we’re looking at right now. I think it’s gonna come from somewhere else where
they’ve done it before. I mean, maybe it’s I mean I they did it with Cole Swider. I mean, but I think it’s going to come where
they do a little scouting from other teams in summer league or maybe there’s somebody that that that just from outside the system that they see, but I think it’s going to be a priority. They kind of have to that’s what they’ve had such success with. They could find specialists that that way without having to kind of use a draft pick on it. So, I’m just curious to see if maybe they can find a gem that way because the scouting department’s been so successful at it.
Yeah. And you take a look at the undrafteds that they brought in and we talked about them. Um and Adele and I did a podcast on them that are in their on their summer league team. The three guys that they brought in and like one of them on a two-way. You’re talking about, you know, one traditional big uh one big and settle third who can shoot, you know, and then there was more of a wing type, right? So like there’s no there there is none of there is no guy like that that in like you said in the pipeline and I I think they need to find one. I they they do or or some at least someone early in their career like that’s why the the connect thing is interesting to me for that reason because I this group needs you know a a shooting someone who that’s just what they do
shooting wings shooting wings specifically like that’s the position like we keep saying they have the big room kind of figured out right now like they’ve gotten some guys down the line the point guard situation is much better
it’s just the wings they have a lot of wings honestly too I mean you look down the line we talk about Wiggins Pella Haywood they have guys but they’re not defining guys that fit hit the roster where a couple of those guys aren’t going to be in the rotation. There just there’s just there’s a need for a consolidation in the wing room to be honest and they need it to turn into a shoot.
I I’m with you. I think that’s a good place to close it. I mean, we’ll do more of these episodes as we go forward taking a look at what they look like defensively. We’re not saying that the roster is complete before training camp because I I do think they’re still looking uh you know to move a couple of these guys and sort of reshuffle some pieces while still trying to avoid the repeater and all the other things that play into it. Uh but they’re going to need something to break with somebody with another team for that to happen. And as of now, we don’t have it. So we’re looking at a roster that again looks reasonably the same uh with Fonteo replacing Duncan. And look, if Fonteo shoots against the Heat like he it shoots against everybody else the way he shot against the Heat, then sure. I remember I think we were on press row one of the games he played against them and I I I think I said to you or to Alex, I said, “Oh, he’ll be on the Heat next year because this is what they do. They go sign the guy who kills them.” And I understand again why they did this because if you’re going to part ways with Duncan, you’ve got a smaller salary here and if you either keep Fonteio or you you wave and stretch him again, you’re getting a little bit additional flexibility there. So, I get it. um he’s a little bit younger than Duncan and it does seem like things had run their course with Duncan. So all all of that is understood, but I’m with you in this regard. If Fontekio and Kyle Anderson are playing a lot of minutes this year, don’t even get me started on Rosier, but like if those two guys are playing a lot of minutes this year, even though they’re they’re good players in their own right, that’s not advancing the cause. But advancing the cause also means we’re going to have some nights that are really hard to watch where it’s going to be a lot of clanking. And I just they they got they got to find a shooter in this group somewhere to add to this group. I think that’s absolutely key. Um even if you want to lean in the mid-range, we know how the game is played these days. All right. Uh Brady, appreciate it. We’ll do more of these episodes going forward. I mentioned Brendon Tobin’s going to join us next week. I got a couple of other special guests planned. Summer League coverage beginning this weekend. Guys are going to be on Playback watching some of these games. playback.tvsn. I’m actually going to be out at summer league uh from the 11th through the 15th. My first time in Vegas in six years. Four nights. That’s all I can take out there. All right, Brady. Appreciate it. Um, and we’ll do more episodes over the weekend. Have a good one, everybody.

If the Miami Heat are largely running back last season’s end-of-season roster, as it appears for now, we have some questions. Such as, how will they shoot from deep? Ethan Skolnick and Brady Hawk look at a group that is lacking shooting specialists.

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