Miami Heat summer league: Ware, Larsson, Johnson, Jakucionis assessments | Five on the Floor

Miami Heat summer league: Ware, Larsson, Johnson, Jakucionis assessments | Five on the Floor

Welcome to the latest episode of five on the floor on the five reason sports network. Thanks for joining us on your favorite podcast app on Android. Recommend Spotify on Apple, Apple Podcast or Spotify. You can also check out the Five Reasons YouTube channel for all the latest in South Florida sports content. We got some news there. Three yards per carry, which has been podcast only in its first five years, is going to start doing video on our YouTube channel as well. That’s our Popular Dolphins podcast. Kind of the equivalent of Five on the Floor. So, make sure that you check that out. Also, check out Off the Floor. That’s our Discord server. Two bucks 999 cents per month. Link right here in the description. You can bypass the Apple Upcharge. Off the floor is the place for the most heat information and conversation plus the stage shows and more. Pretty soon, this is where everybody’s going to be uh if they want to follow heat coverage. That’s our plan. And uh we’re going to make good on it. So check it out. Get off of Twitter. We’ll put everything from Twitter that’s relevant over here. It’s off the floor. Also prize picks. Use the code 5 fiva. Getting interesting heading up towards the All-Star break. Also MLB headed towards the All-Star break. Plenty that you can play there. Use the code 5 FIV. You’ll still get your 50 bucks. And now today’s episode [Music] heat nation. Yeah. Mercy down gang. Y on the floor. Ride for my dogs. Here’s a thing. You can check the score. Hustle hard. Couple stars. [Music] Y’all seen the block stop one hand and pap. [Music] 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. I’m Ethan Scholman. You can follow me at Ean Jolman and Five Sports. got Eternal Bass. You can follow him at Eternal Bass. Check out all recent episodes, including Alex and I arguing about the Jimmy Butler trade. Um, and other episodes that we’ve done on Summer League. Brady and and uh Greg have been handling those in the postgame. But Eternal Bass is here with me and you can follow him at Eternal Bass. You can follow me at Ethan Jol and Five Reason Sports. We’re going to look at the totality of summer league so far as a pivot to Vegas. We’re going to cover four players in particular. Not all of them have played in every game. Some have played well, some have played not so well. The two we’re going to start with are two who were named to the California Classic starting five afterwards. And by the way, there’s a third guy who played for the Heat uh not this time around. Cole Swider actually made that uh that five. That’s not a player I think the Heat are going to bring back anytime soon. Uh Pella Larson, of course, second round pick last year. And Kishad Johnson, who we had on the podcast in media day, we had them together last year. Uh, and Keshad uh, was undrafted last year, but was kind of the primary target for the Heat as an undrafted player. And of course, they played together at Arizona. Here’s the other thing about both of them. They have standard contracts for this season. They are on the roster heading into training camp. Larson got some chance to play last year, mixed results, but did some good things, particularly defensively. Shot needs work. Uh, or at least that’s what was shown during last season. Kishad Johnson really didn’t get an opportunity. I thought he’d get more, but they did elevate him from a two-way to a standard. They like him. I know that. Uh, but there just wasn’t a chance. And he was kind of playing, I would say, mostly behind Haywood, even though they’re slightly different players. Attorney, let’s start with Larson and what we’ve seen so far and what needs to improve for him to become a rotation staple this season. I think the the first thing, you know, you want to see more consistency in his three-point shot. Um, I think one of the main things that we saw, we’ve seen him put his head down, get to the basket. We’ve seen the intensity of the of his defense, the hustle and everything like that. Um, the shooting percentage hasn’t been like super super efficient and he’s getting the shots up. Um, you know, I think he may lead the team in shot attempts, but um, I think what we’ve seen so far from Pella has been encouraging, but if you look at especially with the Heath plan to lean young in a way, I think what you have seen from Pella through these three games, albeit with more games to come in Vegas, I I think it’s a step in the right direction, right? especially building off of what you saw from Remember last summer league and during the season. Um it’s just seems like a steady progression. We’re going to hold most of this for a future podcast, but I feel like we’re setting up for a competition in camp between Larson and Jaime Hakez Jr. And the reason I think that is barring further changes and Wiggins could be traded which could open up a starting spot for Hakez potentially which I think changes his role. Don’t know that he would necessarily be the guy but he’d be in contention. We we’ve seen an upside from from Hakez in terms of some of the strong games that he had almost exclusively as a rookie. Second year hit the wall a little bit. We talked about injuries, stomach problems, scouting, all kinds of different things, but I mean, there’s no way to argue it. He did not have a good second season. All right. Larson is a plug-and-play type player. It strikes me. It has from the beginning. He’s just you put him in with any any kind of group and he’s just going to make plays fit, get on the floor. Um, and again, defend it at a, you know, at a very competitive level. Like you said, he likes contact, but he’s still going to be left open in a lot of situations. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If if if this was we’re just going we’re just going to tease this because I want to move on to Khan Johnson. We’re teasing this. Okay. If they were set up with a competition for say a ninth spot in the rotation, ninth and final spot. Who do you think Spoler would lean on? The guy in Hz who we’ve seen maybe has a little bit higher scoring potential. He showed that as a rookie or the guy in Larson who again you can kind of stick in any lineup and he’s sort of not gonna get in the way but he’s gonna get some floor burns and and defend. Is this the current roster or I’m talking about ninth man of the rotation. They’re both on the roster. No, I’m saying like is this I’m saying is this pre or post Wiggins trade is what I’m saying. So I I I let’s say Wiggins is still here. Let’s say they don’t make dramatic changes that maybe Rosier’s traded, but there’s nothing major that’s done here. Or maybe they get Lillard, but Lillard’s not playing this season most likely. So, let’s say in that scenario, because I think in in that context, what they provide is a little different, right? I think Hakeez provides a little bit more playmaking um than Pella does. and how they play defense is different between the two, right? And obviously you talked about the scoring and everything like that. So I I think it really just depends on what the roster look like, but I’m not going to give you a Alex answer. Uh, so question if I’m going to give you like a definitive answer as of today, I probably think just [Music] versatility purposes, he probably leans Hame a little bit more, but it really would just be game dependent on what the matchup is because I could also see him leaning Pella. See, I I think it would be Larson, but but I think it would be Larson, but then I could see scenarios where, let’s say, Wiggins is out for a night, Hakez starts, right? And and gets more touches on the ball. I I feel like if you’re if you’re talking about s f s f s f s f s f s f s f s f s f s f sitting in a ninth guy and I some it does depend on lineup too because let’s say Powell is starting and you’re bringing DaVon off the bench with Yovic then could see Hakez maybe in there to give you a little bit more scoring. But if you’re bringing Norm off the bench, which I still think is possible, I think people are downplaying this too much. The man was six man of the year, not six man of the year, but fourth and sixth man of the year voting two straight years. And that’s not that long ago. That’s the season before this one and the season before that. If that and I think it’s more Lson in that lineup because I don’t think you need potentially what Hakez could offer as a scorer again if he figures it out. But I I think we are setting up for this discussion. Uh which we’ll have a little bit more as camp starts again if the if the roster stays somewhat the same. Let’s go to another guy though. Kesha Johnson has hops. We know that. Okay. Plays with tremendous energy. He’s got athleticism. Mhm. Uh we liked a lot of what we saw of him last year and then we didn’t see him much. Do you think this is the year that he play if Haywood is still here that he plays ahead of Haywood? Yes, I could see it because u we saw moments last year, stretches really where Haywood got a lot of DMPS, you know, um for weeks and we talked about that as far as, you know, how he was kind of get blown by by guys whether they were, you know, getting picked on in certain situations. And also too, you you kind of seen what you have in Haywood. Kashad provides a look different. Um, one of the biggest things for Kashad is his shot, right? Like if he could fix his shot similar to what Haywood did. And from what we’ve seen so far in summer league, his shot looks a lot smoother, right? It doesn’t look so much like he’s shooting with a a backpack on, you know? It doesn’t look like, you know, a football player playing basketball and pickups. So, his shot looks a lot smoother. He looks confident in his shot. I still haven’t seen a lot from him on the ball, you know, as far as putting the ball on the floor and making, you know, those type of plays. But I think what you see from him defensively, his hustle, his energy, if there’s a turnover, you best believe you to watch out for him on a chase down block or just a contest, right? And that those type of things make a difference. Um, and yeah, so I I I think you absolutely could see him get some minutes, especially because of where they are right now. Right. We talk about the current roster. You still have Andrew, you got Norm, you got Tyler, you got DaVon, um, Hame Pella, all that. Where they’re weak at is in the front court. Yeah. So if you’re playing him as a small ball four and in some cases if you don’t make any changes or whatever as a small ball five you’re going to you’re going to lean on him more than you would Heywood just because you have this a well I I I think I think it’s a familiarity thing and I think again with Haywood and no disrespect to Haywood but we we do know what he is. I I I I and I and I I give him credit for that because what he is is more than we thought he would be, right? But which again, particularly the shooting part of it, okay, which he’s he’s gotten much better there. Now, Keshan, when he came out, that was the issue. Could he make if he could make the spot up threes from the corner in particular, that changes the equation for him. We say that about a lot of guys, but we talk about like with Hakez, it’s not what I want Hawkeyes doing. Hawkins has to figure out a way to score on his attacks the way that he did as a rookie. With Johnson, I to me it’s if he makes that shot, it’s going to open up everything for him uh in terms of the other things that he provides. Uh and I I do think it’s something they’re going to lean into. Look, they gave him a standard last year for a reason. They’ve been struggling for roster spots. We know that they didn’t even have a roster spot open until they made the Powell trade. So, they gave a roster spot to Keshot. They guaranteed him again and they’re not going to play him this year. I don’t think so. Especially with Haywood in the last year of his contract. I feel like Johnson’s going to play. All right. On the other side, we’ll talk about two guys who were drafted in the first round the past two seasons. How they’ve looked at summer league so far and where that goes as they head to Vegas. Before we do, tell you about a great sponsor of the Five Reason Sports Network, our friend Lynette. Car insurance, renters insurance, homeowners insurance, all of that. She can help you with it. Based in Lauder Hill, Broward County, but also if you’re in Dade, Palm Beach, she can help you as well. A Aggressive Insurance Agency, the insurance agency that works for you. You can find her at 954-581-8800. That’s 954-5818800. Again, it’s insurance by Lynette. Two N’s and two T’s.com. All right. So, let’s pivot to the others. Let’s start with Wear. Actually, we’ll finish with Hakachonas. Uh Kell didn’t play in the third game in California. Played the first two. did not jump off the screen. But I know for bigs it’s different in summer league. Although I was in I remember being in Orlando when they used to do Orlando summer league and I wish they still did that. It was a nice easy drive and uh I remember watching Andre Drummond in his second season and he came back as a secondyear player and this was a player who was a first- round pick of Detroit and just destroyed people, wiped them off the floor. Mhm. And I so I think there’s some expectation that if you have a big who’s a top 15 guy who was borderline first team all rookie that you’re going to see like he just dominates. That didn’t really happen, but I don’t think he played badly. Um what do you think of what you’ve seen so far? So I think when we talk about what exactly Miamiy’s plan was for Ko going into summer league, Eric Glass said they wanted to see leadership and there were some other things that they wanted to see that he didn’t really kind of, you know, spill the beans on. But I think reasonably for some of some of us as fanalists whatever and some fans you want to see Khlo be dominant and you want to see for me specifically I wanted to see the leadership part of Kho because I’ve said going into summer league especially him playing with Bam and without BAM how could he organize the defense right and I’m not expecting a lot from a 21-year-old going into his second here, but is there reasonable and steady progression as far as calling out what your defensive responsibilities should be, right? Especially as he’s anchoring the defense and everything like that. And so, how is he doing that? How is he switching? How is his techniques? Is he boxing out? Are you seeing more of the technical stuff from him that you that you didn’t see in the first season? And from that first game, he didn’t look dominant right on both ends. He did look more technically sound as far as boxing out, having his hips a little bit lower than they were, playing with his length, um, using angles properly and everything like that on the defensive end. Um, even though the numbers didn’t reflect it as far as like 20 rebounds or whatever, he finished the game with 14.7 rebounds. Uh Brady talked about his jump shot not being as flat. Um so there were there were some things that you can pick out as far as like okay I can tell that you worked on that. The second day was very very disappointing because all the things that you saw that were positives in the first day you didn’t see at all. It was like night and day in the second day and it it looked like those very things that people were very critical of him pre-draft and some things you saw kind of poke their head the ugly head up during the season where he just looked like he was going with the motion right and it was very very disappointing because even though he’s 21 and I always talk about this with you know players of different sports they may be very highly talented but they are still young 20 year olds in in a real world setting, you wouldn’t have that much expectations of a young 20-year-old, but this is a little different. But for him, you wanted him to be the light of example. Right now, when we talk about Pella and Kashad earlier, both of them are 24 and older or 23 and older, you know, so they they have a little bit more age and experience. And Hawkins looked like that last year in summer league in the second year, too. So, I that’s that tends to be the case there. Yeah. But I I think from what you saw, just to wrap all that up with a bow, I think what you saw from KHL is a mixed bag, right? I don’t know. They set him out um on Tuesday. I don’t know if he’s playing the next game or more games in summer league. I would expect him to just because of what he’s already showed. And I’m sure he got a nice little text from Alonzo and UD and Bam on what they saw. So I I want I I want to see him in Vegas now, Eternal. Like that’s the thing. Like I think now that he’s taken the I don’t think this is just two games and out. I want to see him in Vegas. I I think you play him a game or two and I think you want to see a game where well here’s the other thing to to consider too with the big as fairness and we’re going to get to hakachonis now okay is that you’re not bigs need guys who can get them the ball in in in this and in this kind of setting if you have a guy and I think that’s part of why they were leaning into maybe uh you know the other what uh what’s his name uh the other guard that they’ve been playing um Ky Lewis thank you Ky Lewis uh you know somebody with a little more experience who can do that and that does matter. When you have a point guard who’s struggling and then you’re kind of putting him in the corner, it’s a little bit hard to kind of develop the connection between the two of them and harder for a big. So, I I want to see wear play a little bit more in the summer. Um, and maybe get in a couple games. But, let’s get to the other guy that everybody wants to talk about. And I know Brady and Greg have done deep dives on this, but let’s do five minutes on it just to get to it. Let me give you the numbers, okay? because I know people are posting the numbers and hopefully someday we’ll look back at these numbers and laugh at them and we might because Trey Young’s first game in summer league I was there I and it was awful. Jaylen Brun was awful awful. Okay, I I Porzingis I covered his first summer league game and I wrote a column for Blle Report that I don’t look back on fondly that was so scathing that I got a call from his agent the next morning. Okay. because I I said he got pushed over like a leaf. Um and you know again Porzingis has had a pretty good NBA career and I believe made an all-star team. So I I think again we can’t jump to too many conclusions particularly with a 19-year-old. But here are the numbers right? Three games 65 minutes one of 15 from the floor’s 0 of 11 from three 12 turnovers and 12 fouls. So again, I was at Michael Beasley’s first summer league game in Orlando where it’s actually Chomemers who jumped off the page at me because Beasley committed 12 fouls in one game. They allowed you to play through the fouls. This was on the little court, little side court in the old Orlando building. And he committed 12 fouls, all of them on Shawn Williams, not the one S h, but SAN who played for the Nets for a little while who dominated him. Okay. and Michael Beasley, you know, he’s still dominating the big three. He had a pretty good NBA career, although not what people expected. So, again, I I I downplay that the numbers somewhat, but the numbers are atrocious. So, they’re really bad. Okay. So, I mean, let’s just do let’s just do it here because we’re gonna do more episodes on it, right? But your level of concern here, uh, one through 10, with 10 being a full-fledged fire alarm that kicks me out of my building, what what where where is it? Because he’s been like the worst player on the floor offensively, not defensively. I think defensively he’s competed, but offensively through the first three games that he’s played in. I would say a four. Um, some of this you could kind of see during his college games that the handle wasn’t as tight. And so if you put better athletes, better defenders in front of him, you could see and obviously more pro coaches that could take advantage of that, right? They could poke at that. Um, and I think the biggest thing which he’s talked about, right? Like we can we can read the quote if you want to take the time while I’m talking to pull it up. It’s in our host updates. Uh, but we can read a quote of his own introspective analysis of his play through these three games in the California Classics. He needs to work on his his handles. It’s not tight enough. Um, he’s not blazing on foot to blast past somebody right in a straight line off of two dribbles or whatever. he has to show more of that craftiness that we saw in his college game um to get by guys, right? But at the same time, like we knew what his jump shot was, right? We knew what it was before the forearm injury. We saw what it was afterwards, but like Adele has talked about um on our platform and his is the they’re going to tweak his jump shot. They do. They Yeah, they’ve done it for KL. They’ve done it for Pella. They done it for Nico. They’ve done it. Yeah, all of them, right? They’re going to tweak the things um and make it better. So, I’m not really surprised by his shooting. Um I wasn’t that big of a fan of his actual technique and shooting. Um the pass and we’ve seen glimpses of we saw more glimpses of it in the last game, but he just looks at times he looks like he’s pressing, right? He looks um he doesn’t look like out of control, right? There’s a difference of that, right? When the guy just playing out of control, you they don’t know. No, he he he he looks tentative and it looks like they knew he was going to be and that’s one of the reasons they didn’t put the ball in his hands as much in the first two games. But if you read here, here’s the quote. We’ll just play off the quote and close it. I I think I need to settle in more, play at my own pace, don’t get sped up so much as I was in these three games. I didn’t feel myself in those games, but I think that’s normal. It’s a process. I’m just happy to be here, be able to learn from coaches, from other guys by working out and then then so on. Um, I I I here’s where I am with it. I I would not be especially concerned with it for the long term. I will say this though, for those who are going to start jumping on Spolster for not jamming him into the rotation at the very start of the season there, you know, after he was drafted, it was if he doesn’t start game one, that’s not happening. Okay, he’s a ways away from that. There’s likely going to be some G-League stints here. There’s going to be some time in Sou Falls. Um I don’t, you know, there’s an Applebee’s in Sou Falls. I believe it is the number one restaurant there. That’s what Mike Miller, who grew up there, told me he’s going to get used to Applebees. Okay. Um and those and those flights out to Sou Falls. I I just think that’s where we’re headed for the first half of the season. And it doesn’t mean it’s a done project because like even I I remember Josh Richardson as a rookie who was much older rookie, okay? second round pick, 40th overall. But Jay Rich, like they sent him to Sou Falls and he wasn’t a natural point guard. We know that they sent him there to run 500 pick and rolls a day, okay? And basically to learn how to do that kind of stuff. He came back up and he shot like 51% from three in March and got a place in the rotation going into the playoffs on a on a team that made the second round. I I I can see Hakachonis developing reasonably quickly. I don’t think Eternal, and I’ll let you finish. I don’t think it’s going to happen at the pro level in the calendar year 2025. I I think we’re this I think this is a 2026 and on project. And I would just ask everybody now that they’ve resigned DaVon. Okay. Who who’s gone through struggles himself, by the way, right? Yeah. Yeah. Two different places. Two different places and was graded the worst offensive player in the league in his second season. League. Okay. By the metrics. Um, and we saw last year him be a competent offensive player for Miami and obviously his other skills shown through. It’s going to be it’s going to take some time. So, I’m just I’m I’m just telling E fans I almost think this is good that they saw this because I think it’s going to temper it a little bit uh early in the season. And if he comes up and gives him something in the second half of the year, I think that’s a positive. And I think there’s enough trust in Adam Simon that people will say, “Okay, he’s going to be good eventually.” and they’re like, “Oh, they busted the pick.” I I don’t think Heat fans are going to go there uh in the first season. I just don’t think we’re going to see a ton of contribution at the at the top level yet. Is that is that fair? No, I think based off of exactly everything you have seen because you can all only go off of the information that you have saw. I think everything you’ve seen so far is very reasonable for you and others of that to say that, right? like, oh, he’s going to be a project. This is probably going to be a red shirt year for him. They’re going to have to drill a lot of things into him, out of him, all of that, right? Based off of what you’ve seen. We all know how humans are. If he goes and lights up Vegas, Oh, Vegas. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. If he lights up Vegas, I’ll have a different conversation. But I don’t think he’s going to light up Vegas. I I I don’t I’m just saying like because it it can it can change. I I I I get it. But I also I I saw I saw Emanuel Moodier light up Vegas right in front of me never became a great NBA player. I don’t think it’s necessarily correlation. You’re playing with different players. But I will say this, okay, one of the better summer league teams I’ve seen that he put out and this past year, the year last year obviously they won the championship, but was the team that had none and hero as rookies playing with Duncan. And you know, Tyler looked NBA ready in that and as did Nun, by the way, who was an older rookie. Nun was probably the best player on that team uh in in the summer league and then he he came out of the gate like it as a rookie and then we know what’s happened since. Uh, well, he’s lighting up Europe, but I don’t think he’d be lighting up the NBA again. So, but with Tyler, you saw he was more ready than Hakonis is, but that shouldn’t be a surprise. Tyler did the first half. Firstly, he was a little older than Hakos, not a lot, I think, like a couple months. But the other thing is like, you know, Tyler Kentucky leaned into him as a primary scorer in the second half of that season. And at Kentucky, I know Hakonas was in Illinois, big school, whatever, but it ain’t Kentucky. and and Tyler had had become kind of their standard bearer as that season went on and it carried over, but he also was playing with a really good summer league team, playing with none. He got really comfortable with him in the back court. That carried over. That’s not what this is. I I I just think I I just think we’re we got to wait and see, but I’ll let you finish here. To be very very very transparent, the talent of the summer league, because I’ll never speak down on on guys. the talent of this year’s summer league versus last year’s summer league. And I won’t necessarily won’t say the talent, I’ll say the play, right? The play of this summer league versus last year. Last year team was terrible that first game. Yeah. And they they weren’t terrible again. No, they were they were they were. And I think a lot of it had to do with you had a like a older uh Josh Christopher, older Cola Swider, uh Isaiah Stevens came out a little older out of college, a little bit more polished, experienced and all of that stuff. I would say this for Heat fans, the biggest thing you can take away from Yakonas, right, is the thing that you were most concerned about from him out of the draft, defense. Defense. The thing that you’re not concerned about right now is defense, right? So, and we No, I’m with you on that. I’m with you on that. And and if and if he defends, he’ll get opportunities. Oh, absolutely. But also, but also also if he defends, but he turns the ball over a lot, he’s not. Oh, no. So, so this So, so this is what this is about. You get a baseline of defense, okay? He end He starts the season making some trips to Sou Falls, right? and they put the ball in his hands and say, “Tighten the handle, but go be you and make plays and then we see.” But I just I I think this has been instructive. We’re not stop throwing him in the starting lineup from the start of the season. It ain’t happening. 19year-old rookies, dude, unless you’re 6’9 and drafted out of Michigan State uh to play for the Lakers, there ain’t a lot of those, okay, who start from the very beginning, okay, and can see the floor. or this guy ain’t 6’8 and he ain’t going to be but I think I think he’s got a chance to be a good player. They just it it’s going to take a little bit of time and we’re I will say this quickly very quickly. I think he is going to get the best sharpening of his life against the players that he’s going to face not only in this summer league but in training camp. Yeah, training camp and next summer league because he’s going to be there too. Uh Eternal appreciate it. Uh, check out the sponsors. It’s insurancebylanette.com. Prize picks, use the code five. Uh, my daughter is uh is nudging me to go watch Squid Games with with her, which makes me a really really bad father. Have a good one.

As the Miami Heat summer league team heads to Las Vegas, Ethan Skolnick and Eternal Bast evaluate four of the Heat’s core young players.

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