Miami’s Heat Sneaky Addition is WAY Better Than You Think | Simone Fontecchio Spotlight

Miami’s Heat Sneaky Addition is WAY Better Than You Think | Simone Fontecchio Spotlight

Simone Fonteo is the Miami Heat secret weapon that nobody’s talking about. [Music] Told you I’m shining. So, a couple of days ago, I posted a Norman Powell film analysis video. And in that video, I made a little joke saying that finally the Miami Heat got someone new because Fonteio doesn’t count. And I had a couple people in my comments telling me that I was sleeping on Simone and I need to put some respect on his name. And you know what? They are absolutely right. Especially as an Italian myself. My my grandparents immigrated to Ellis Island from Italy. So I’m only two generations removed from direct Italian ancestry. So I need to show some support to my Italian brethren. Especially when you consider that right now only him and Paulo Bonero are the only current Italian players in the entire NBA. So maybe Simone can do some early recruiting. #Bonero to Miami 2030. I I don’t know. Cuz what y’all don’t realize is Pat Riley is actually playing chess. Because there was also a recent interview that just came out where Simone revealed that Kevin Durant of all people had a lot of admiration for him. Simone said that Durant came up to him during a break in a in a game where the Suns played the Pistons last year and Durant said, “We tried everything we could to get you here, but we couldn’t do it.” So, as Simone says, that was a great sign of respect from a champion of the game, and it made him realize how much Kevin Durant thought of him. So, what a what a random ass quote between two people, especially when you consider the the connections that Durant and Miami have had over the years. So, maybe now with with the the new addition of Simone, maybe we get a Kevin Durant to Miami Heat saga part 4. No, I I I hope not. Uh, I definitely don’t want that because who needs Kevin Durant when you have Simone Fonteio, a guy that in all seriousness, I have actually always liked him a lot. Uh, he’s always played extremely well against the Miami Heat. His second and fifth highest scoring games of his career were actually against the Miami Heat. He scored 27 once versus Dallas. That’s his careerh high. But then he scored a 24 a couple of times, one of them being against Miami and then 23 a couple of times and one of those games was also against Miami. Uh, and I think in that 24-point game versus Miami when he was on the Jazz, I think he actually had 20 of those points in the first half. And I remember thinking, damn, this guy’s on his way to being a random scrub. He’d kill a Hall of Famer. And maybe he could have been, but not not anymore now that he’s on the Miami Heat. Of course, as a Heat fan, I know that he has the ability to get hots and it makes him kind of an exciting player. So, in today’s video, I do want to break down his game a little bit. I want to talk about his background. We’ll get into some stats. Uh, and then maybe in a future video, we’ll actually do some game film. Now, before I proceed, I want to address the pronunciation of his name because I know people are already commenting that I’m pronouncing it wrong, but because that’s what that’s what a lot of people like to do. For example, no matter how I say our rookie’s name, some people said, “Oh, it’s pronounced Casperis.” Other people say, “Oh, it’s pronounced Kasparus.” I’ve heard himself say it’s pronounced Casperis. So, that’s how I’m going to say it. And if anything, it’s better than how I pronounced it in my live reaction where I think I called him like Casperis Jacusion. That was bad. If I ever butcher anything that bad, you can let me know. But for Simone, I’m actually going to refer to the official NBA pronunciation guide where in 2023 2024, their guide for that season, they had the phonetic spelling, which you could see it’s pronounced simmon a. So you do pronounce that a at the end. And then actually in the 2024 2025 guide from last season, they provided an audio clip in which he pronounces his name like this, Simony Fontio. So from now on, I’m going to call him Simone. at least what I remember because just by looking at it, I don’t see an accent on the E. I don’t think there is an accent. So, it looks like Simone, but it is pronounced Simone. Also, according to the NBA, Simone is listed at 67 209 lbs. It really doesn’t look that small. I mean, that’s not really small. The only reason that now I’m kind of thinking that way is because he’s actually has smaller measurables than Duncan Robinson. Duncan Robinson, according to the NBA, was listed at 67 215. So basically the same height. Simone is just about six lbs less. This is weird. I don’t know. I feel like you watch Duncan Robinson out there and he looks skinny. But Simone is technically a little bit smaller, but I do think he has a nice frame out there. I don’t think size should be an issue of his. Uh he actually started playing pro ball at the age of 17 years old in Italy. There was some talks back then of him maybe coming over to the United States, playing high school ball here, maybe playing college ball. That’s the route that Casperis ended up taking, of course, when he went to Illinois, but eventually Simone did decide that he wanted to stay back home in Italy. He became automatically draft eligible in 2017 because of his age, but he did go undrafted. So, after that, he bounced around in Europe a little bit before signing a 2-year deal with the Utah Jazz in 2022, where less than a month into his rookie season, he did this. That would be right away. So, you ask him. Oh, pulls down and hits inside. Yes. So, pretty cool moment for the young kid who I’m also now realizing really wasn’t a kid. He was a 27year-old rookie, which is pretty old. I mean, I’m 27 and I feel old. So, he came into the league a little bit late, but I do think he had a pretty nice stint with the Utah Jazz there. Only played a year and a half, but he was much better than they probably could have expected. And then of course he was traded to Pistons where he spent the last year and a half. The numbers really won’t jump out at you. Uh last season he had a bit of a down year. I mean he had a decrease in minutes too. We should note that cuz he was on a pretty decent Pistons team. So he only played 16 minutes a night, but he did play in 75 games. So he’s pretty healthy. And he averaged six points, three rebounds on 40% from the field and 33% from three on three attempts a night. So those percentages are not great, but he’ll be the one to tell you that because actually in his media availability with the Miami Heat just within the last week, he they were talking a little bit about his role on this team and he said that he thinks he can play a similar role to Duncan Robinson because of his ability to shoot the ball, but then he admitted although I did not shoot good last year. So, I do appreciate the the confidence from Simone, but also the accountability, you know, the the recognition that, yeah, he wasn’t great last year shooting the ball, so he needs to be better. And I believe he can because the season before that, he shot 40% overall from three. And that’s on five attempts a night. That was across 66 games with the Jazz and Pistons. So, that’s a pretty good sample size. Then even if you want to narrow it down, uh after he was traded to the Pistons, that was 16 games he played there and he shot 43% from three and that’s on six attempts. So a lot of volume there shooting a really good percentage. If he can get anywhere close to that for the Heat, I think that’s where he provides his real value to us. I would say that’s probably his biggest strength is his shooting potential. I think he has very solid form. I think he has a really quick release. And I also think there’s a lot of versatility in his shot. We see him flying off screens like Duncan Robinson does, but I also saw him do a lot of pull-ups, even some step backs, even some mid-range work, which you really didn’t see from Duncan. Duncan had a little floater on him, but most of the time it was threes and then occasionally get to the rim. I saw a little bit of mid-range game with Fonte. So, I think there’s a good amount of shooting versatility there. That’s probably his biggest strength. Another strength of his that I would say is his IQ and his overall court awareness. I think he moves very well without the ball and gets a lot of easy cuts and that is a very underrated skill to have for a role player cuz that’s how a lot of times how you’re going to get your buckets as as a role player is cutting to the rim. Uh being you know just finding the open space and I do think that Simone has the high IQ to do that. And then the last strength that I really want to highlight is his defensive intensity. He actually took offense to I think it was Ira Winderman’s question at his heat presser. Ira had said something about his defense. Uh and Simone was quickly to say, “Hey, no, like I can defend.” Actually, when I was back in Utah, I was guarding the best players every night. Do not get it twisted. And honestly, I believe Simone because I found a lot of clips and quotes from his time over there in Utah where he got a lot of praise for his defensive ability. There’s this one specific quote from his coach at the time, Will Hardy, in which Will said, “He’s a warrior. He probably got hit in the face five times tonight. I think his kind of effort rubs off on everybody. He’s flying around out there. I’m really happy for him. I don’t think coming into this season, he saw himself as somebody that would guard a Brandon Ingram, but he’s showing us every day that he’s capable of giving us more.” Then it’s actually kind of funny because when they told Fonteio about this quote from his coach, Fonteio said that, “Oh, maybe not him. Maybe Will didn’t, you know, believe he could guard Brandon Ingram.” Uh, but then he quickly smiled and said, “Just kidding.” with a chuckle. So, that just shows his confidence. You know, Will Hardy says he’s doing he’s guarding Brandon Ingram really well. He didn’t think he could. And Fronteio’s like, “Hey, I knew I could guard Brandon Ingram. You’re the one who’s surprised here.” And I love that kind of confidence from the guy and the fact that he bust his ass on the defensive end because that is heat culture right there. I also found another video uh of Fonteo where he was talking about his battle scars. Many times here, here I was on the floor like all game long, but you know, I was just trying to play hard like always and I think I guess that’s the result. And this clip really reminds me of just something Goran Dragic would say. Like y’all remember Gor’s postgame interviews? Every other game he was missing a tooth or he had a black eye and and he loved it. Like he lived for that type of stuff. Uh and it really sounds like Fonte does too. Uh kind of sounds like a hockey player in that regard. Like like Kachchuck on the Panthers or something. And I love that kind of intensity. Uh cuz that’s what the Heat need more of as they try to revert the Heat culture back to a real thing instead of the stupid marketing scheme that it is now. And I do think the Heat are working towards that with guys like DaVon Mitchell, Pella Larson, even Kasparus, Yakonis. Dude can’t hit a shot in summer league, but he’s diving on the floor for loose balls, hustling back on defense. He’s a heat culture guy and the Heat are starting to add more of those type of players like Simone Fonteio. Not that Duncan Robinson wasn’t. I mean, Dunkyard dog was a dog. So, I know it sucks losing him, but I think Feio can bring a lot of that same toughness. As far as his weaknesses, I probably would just say the the shooting consistency. How real is the shot? Last year he didn’t shoot well. So, was last year just a down year? Was it a slump? Or was it the year before where he shot great? Was that a fluke? We don’t know. In terms of his entire NBA career, it’s a bit of a small sample size. So, we have to still see which year is real, the 40% shooting or the 33% shooting. Hopefully, that’s what we find out pretty soon. Uh, I guess his last weakness I I should really highlight is just his overall athleticism. He’s not going to be a dunk on your head type of guy, and maybe he might have trouble guarding the faster players in the league, the guards and such, but as far as guarding threes, maybe some fours, I think his overall uh effort could make up a lot of for a lot of the deficiencies in the athleticism area. So, as far as his fit on the Miami Heat, Spolster will definitely find a lot of ways to use him, although he may not be a consistent rotation player because as far as wings off the bench, you know, assuming that Wiggins gets the starts. As far as wings off the bench, I don’t think Simone would play above Pella. Not the way that Pella’s hooping right now in the summer league. He’s not playing above Haywood because Haywood’s shown that he can be a very good shooter for a few years now. He’s probably not playing above Hime just because I know Jame was not great last year, but he was a sophomore. you got to give him some more chance to grow. And I don’t even know if if Simone would play above Kashad because Kashad’s having a great summer league right now, too. And I just think he has more potential because of the athleticism. The only difference is Kashad’s not a great shooter at this point. I think he’s very capable. I think he has a lot of potential there, but I’m not sure that Kashad works great with every lineup. I’m not sure he’d play very well next to a Bam and wear uh who are not super great floor spacers yet. I mean, Bam might be. I I wonder how many threes Bam is going to be taking this year. And I guess Khalil Wear is taking 360 step back threes in summer league. So maybe those guys will be floor spacious. I don’t know. But I’m not quite sure Kashad could play with every lineup the way that Simone Fonteio can because Simone can shoot, he can defend, and he could play well off ball. Uh so for those reasons, I think Simone could really work with any lineup and that’s going to be where he finds his role on this Miami Heat team. But for now, Heat fans will actually get a chance to see him sooner rather than later because he is confirmed to play in Euro Basket for Italy. Eurob Basket actually begins the end of August. Uh so a little over a month away. We’ll get to see him play, of course, along with Pella Larson for Sweden and Nicole Yoic for Serbia. So it will definitely be a fun watch for Heat fans. I’ll be tuned in. As far as this video, that’s all I got to say. So make sure y’all leave your thoughts down below. Very curious to hear what y’all think. Maybe even comment a couple of emojis to help the algorithm. At the end of the day, you know, anything else you can like the video, too. Subscribe. I’m on the ground. Hit 9K subs. Whatever you do, I do appreciate the support and I’ll see you on the next video. Peace out, everyone. Pull up in your city trying to get that dead face. Do it on my own. I don’t need no dead weight. Had to kill them off. Yeah, I need a head space. You know this homegrown don’t fan me.

Discussing Simone Fontecchio and what he brings to the Miami Heat. NBA and Miami Heat News featuring Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Andrew Wiggins, Kel’el Ware, Kasparas Jakucionis, Terry Rozier, Nikola Jovic, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Duncan Robinson, Kevin Love, Haywood Highsmith, Pelle Larsson, Keshad Johnson, Erik Spoelstra and more. Subscribe for more Miami Heat, Miami Dolphins, NBA and NFL news.

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