Miami Heat: Jakučionis shines despite loss to Hawks | Five on the Floor

Miami Heat: Jakučionis shines despite loss to Hawks | Five on the Floor

Welcome back to Five on the Floor. I’m your host, Greg Sander. Today’s floor plan with me, Brady Hawk. We are going to recap Miamiy’s first game in Vegas uh as we get into summer league action. uh they finished up the California Classic, have now uh gotten settled in Las Vegas and lose to the Atlanta Hawks 10598. The score doesn’t really matter as much. We’re going to get into what we saw from some of the Heat’s young players. Talk about um some opportunities, things like that. Before we do, want to shout out off the floor. That’s our Discord server. $299 a month. 3.99 is the Apple Upcharge, but if you use it from your desktop, $2.99 a month. This is where you can get the most heat anywhere. 10 channels. You could talk transactions, you can talk draft picks, you can talk team building, uh, trans like trades, and there’s we provide updates. It’s basically a one-stop shop for everything mining heat, and it’s $2.99 a month. So, go to the link directly in the description of this episode. Check out off the floor for the most heat anywhere. All right, Brady. So, we are um into Vegas summer league, which always feels like the most legit version of summer league. I don’t know why I associate it that way. And um something good happened today that and it’s funny. We’re going to give everyone a little bit of backstory here about um the way that sometimes these topics come and come to life and evolve. Ethan text us during the game and said uh we really need to talk about KL Wear and the way he’s looked in the summer league. I think you guys should lead with that. And Brady and I immediately but Brady mo most adamantly but I was right with him were like no way. We are starting the episode talking about Casper Yakonis because he had such a rough California three-game set. he had lost confidence and he came out today, Brady, and was um efficient. He was confident. He was getting to his spots. He even took a couple shots that some people would have maybe categorized as not the best shots and he still hit him. Um and I think that that might be part of his offensive game. Only two turnovers, four assists, 24 points in 28 minutes of action. Um, this is we wanted to start here because Heat fans needed to one see that this kid has some promising stuff when I talked about seeing the wow factor from him. Did I lose you? Apologies for uh some slight technical difficulties, but we are back. Uh Yakonis needed a game like today. Brady, what were your thoughts on uh Casperis as he finally got uh to show flashes of um some wow plays that I’ve been asking for? Uh your thoughts on his game? Yeah, the easy thing we could say is they put the ball in his hands more because we’ve been asking for that. And I mean that’s what we saw in the first half. Uh but he just looked more confident when he did have the ball in his hands. He looked more decisive. He looked like he knew where he wanted to go with the basketball. It all started early on in the game where he just kind of came down the floor, drove, attacked one-on-one, had spin move inside and banked it off glass. And it was like if he’s coming with that type of energy out the gate, it feels like he just looks more confident in general. And then from there, we just saw the three-point shot falling. We just saw him. And if you going back and look at those threes he was shooting because I’m gonna post a thread in a little bit on kind of some of the the ins and outs of it. None of those were easy catches. Like he he caught one on the left side of body just somehow shoot it. The next one was on the right side of his body where he’s leaning right at the end of the shot clock. Uh he had the transition pullup which is never an easy shot in general when you’re trying to slow your body down and flow into that shot. Uh just not easy shots. It wasn’t wide open spot-ups. And the reason I bring that up is because I almost feel like that helped him because I think back California Classic where every shot was wide open in the corner, wide open on the wing and he’s sitting there overthinking it and letting the shot fly. Okay, I’m 0 of eight from three. I’m nine from three and he’s like I’m still need to get my first three to fall. And this game didn’t really have time to think like it was like catch and I’m just going to let my usual just flow my my jumper just do the do the job and he was just kind of just flowing from there. Uh and the issue is with he’s a primary playmaker. We know that. that’s like what he’s going to be in this league. The only way he can be a highlevel playmaker is if defenses respect his scoring enough to open up the rest of the guys and we didn’t see that in the California Classic. So it was kind of hurting his playmaking and what we saw in this game was like once the defense started respecting him as a scorer that’s when the playmaking started to show one possession in the first half that was his best play of the entire game was where he kind of broke his defender across got inside kick to the corner for spot three. Uh that’s just a you want to see from him. Yeah, it’s definitely a good sign to see him start this tournament in a different mindset being much more aggressive. Uh the other guy that has been been playing really well um is Pelle Larson and he’s like um I think like I was hoping Khloe Wear was going to come into this process in summer league and look the way that Larson has looked in terms of just physically overpowering guys getting to your spots and feeling like uh confident and moving with intent I don’t think have been some of Kar’s strengths whereas I think Larson you’ve seen him do that. So, this is another game. And Larson finished with 16 points. He was still a primary offensive option. They had him bringing up the ball a lot, which is, you know, they’re they’re trying some different stuff with him. And and where obviously does need to be set up to some degree, but just dispositionwise, I’ve lo I’ve loved what I’ve seen from Larson from um the jump here, particularly today. uh your thoughts on this dynamic of kind of where’s underperformance and uh Pelle’s looked really good before we go to break. Yeah, so when you have a guy coming back for his sophomore season of summer league, you want him to look like he’s kind of heads and shoulders above some of the other guys like Pella Larson looks right now, like he he looks like he could control the game and he just looks like he could take over when he chooses to and he’s kind of dialing it. It’s hard to see Pel Larson dial it back because I always feel like he’s going 125%. Uh but it does feel like he is just at a level right now where he can get to the basket whenever he wants. He could draw a foul if he just goes to the body of certain guys. He’s been good defensively. He’s controlled the the game on the ball as you said. Uh and we just haven’t seen that from where I just feel like where I said this early on in the California Classic and I thought maybe Vegas would bring it out of him. He just looks like going through the motions to me. It just looks like a guy that’s like almost like I’m a starter of the NBA. Like this is kind of below me. Uh but he just hasn’t controlled things offensively or dominated. I know Udianis Hasslam used that word today earlier where he’s like Kell needs to dominate because this is kind of the the he should be dominating in this type of environment and he just hasn’t had that energy offensively. He hasn’t really had that energy in general. Like I haven’t seen that uh Pella type going 110% energy that that we’re used to. So, uh, it’s tough to say. I mean, I’ if he doesn’t want to play in summer league, I mean, they could, it feels like he’s going to be limited anyway. I mean, a lot of times when guys come back, they play one or two games of summer league. Uh, so if he’s going to play limited games, it feels like I’d rather him go full tilt a little bit in those games and be done the rest of the way. Agree. Uh, so, but we just haven’t seen that yet. It’s hard to really get a pulse of what Kell’s jump is going to be, what he can be, what his full potential can hit offensively. Like what you want to see almost is Kell take a bunch of threes, take fadeaway mid-ranges, take this stuff that this is the point of the time where you want to see what you have to work on, what you can get to and all that stuff. And it almost just feels like he’s screening, rolling to the basket. If the lob’s there, he gets it. If not, if it’s deflected, it’s oh well, ball’s going the other way. Like that stuff we know is there. We don’t care about that. Like that’s going to be there regardless. I want to see the breakout offensive stuff. And we just we just haven’t seen that level uh from him in summerly yet. Yeah. It’s like he’s playing his role that he would play with the regular starters, but with this group, we need him to kind of uh look above and beyond those guys. So, I think that that’s something we’ll watch for going forward. If he plays, that’ll be the other question going forward. Uh how much run they give him in Vegas. I want to shout out Prize Pix. That is our daily fantasy sponsor. Use the code five fiv. That’ll get you $50 instantly when you play your first $5. Prize Pix is Daily Fantasy simplified. It’s made easy. You choose your favorite players from your favorite sports. Choose the stats that make sense to you. And basically, you choose more or less on each statistic. You can do flex plays, power plays. You can win up to 10 times your money, but you got to use the code five. FIVE. That’ll get your initial deposit matched up to um $50 when you play your first $5. So, you’ll get $50 instantly. You just got to use that code fivepick.com. Daily fantasy simplified. All right. Um, batting cleanup, looking at the rest of the roster, anybody else you think is worth a shout out? Uh, I think that Vlad Golden is continuing to flash offensive things, finishing around the rim, stuff that can probably help this team at some point. Uh, I’m getting annoyed at Eric Stevenson and some of his play. Uh that’s just a personal thing on my part, but there was one guy that showed out today in 22 minutes that you’ve been wanting to talk about and that is Javvante Cook. Uh your thoughts on him before we close? Yeah, he just looks really strong. He looks really he just looks like an all-around prospect. He just he kind of attacks the game at a lot of different spots. Uh specifically, let me start by saying I really liked what we’ve seen from him defensively. like the defensive stuff jumps out. Which by the way, Casper, shout out to him on the defensive end. I didn’t mention that enough earlier. I I liked even in California, I thought he was just really strong defensively with just his activity. Uh same goes for Jamonte Cook. I just feel like he’s just his wingspan, his athleticism, the blocks, the keeping guys in front of him and containing the steals, like he’s just his effort is always there defensively, but it’s he’s just an all-around guy because he runs the floor and plays in transition. He’s a good finisher. Uh the shot was falling today off some open spot ups. The shot is clean. It’s not like one of those shots we talk about you have to work on. Um he just seems like a really complete player and I just like his overall game. It seems like he has some scoring and offensive upside compared to guys we’ve talked about in the past in in summer league. The reason I pushed back I’ve been a big fan of him since before summer league started. But the reason I pushed back a little bit is because we’ve seen this player build and it not we keep talking about this on all these episodes but not end up getting the shine on the real roster. Like that’s just always what’s happening here. And that’s why I’m making the push that I do feel like they’re going to look at some spot of shooters maybe not on the Heat’s summer league roster to maybe fill that last two-way spot. But I will say as I keep watching these games, I’m getting closer and closer to saying that Cook could end up being their two-way. I would 100% think he’s going to be their exhibit 10. I I mean he he has to be there for training camp, but the two-way spot as they’re trying to figure that out. I mean, the way he gets after it, I he seems like a guy if like in the regular season if they do have to throw somebody in there and Spo has to trust somebody to at least go after it defensively and play at the top of the press and then and fill in a spot in the zone to just be pesky and use his length to his advantage and he rebounds. Like he’s just a good player. I’m intrigued by him. I’m just interested to see a little bit more of him. And honestly, you mentioned some guys like uh Stevenson or even Kyra Lewis. we talked about before, like I want a lot of these reps to go to guys like Cook, guys like Wear. Uh like I I I wish they could I understand the shot diet has to be spread around because it’s summer league, everybody’s getting their chance. It’s about trying to let everybody show out, but I’d almost like to decrease some of the shots from some guys and put them in spots with the guys that we want to see, and Cook has just been one of them. Yeah. No, I’m I’m with you on that. And uh Kyra Lewis Jr., shout out to you because you did have seven assists and only what one turnover if I’m looking at this correctly. Um, five rebounds, four points in 25 minutes. So, I mean, he’s he’s doing good things, but I’m with you. He’s not necessarily who I want to see shine. I was really ha happy to see Casper Yakonis show up today. Um, we’ll continue to monitor this team. Kashad Johnson is on a standard contract and as much as I like him, uh I there were probably in this game moments where I wish he would have been more efficient as well. So, he’s a player to watch because he’s on a standard deal. So, he’s going to be expected to be able to play at some point, but I also think that this group that he’s playing with may not be the optimum type of players that could maximize the things that he does well uh just in terms of having playmaking around him. So, all in all, the Heat do lose this game 10598. We’ll have you covered for the rest of Vegas summer league and plugged in with all of the prospects uh on this Heat roster. But uh the takeaway for today is Casper Yakonis has finally had some wow moments in a Miami Heat uniform, and I’m sure he feels good about that. We sure do. Uh we’ll have you covered for the rest of the summer league. Peace.

Kasparas Jakučionis finally had his breakout game for Miami despite a 105-98 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Friday in Vegas Summer League. Kel’el Ware and Pelle Larsson both played but had far different impacts as second year players in summer league. Javonte Cooke also made his case for two way contact consideration. Brady Hawk & Greg Sylvander recap all the action from Vegas.

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