Miami Heat: Concerned about Kel’el Ware? | Five on the Floor

Miami Heat: Concerned about Kel’el Ware? | 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 Apple, Apple Podcast or Spotify. On Android, we recommend Spotify. Also check out the Five Reasons YouTube channel. Make sure you hit like, subscribe, turn the notifications on. You’ll get content from all around the South Florida sports spectrum. We also recommend that you subscribe to Off the Floor. That’s our Discord server. Two bucks per month. Link right there in the description. Bypass the Apple Upcharge. Bypass Twitter. We’ll take everything decent from there. We’ll put it here. Avoid the politics. Just talk heat. 10 different channels and stage shows. You got to be on there. It’s off the floor. Also, prize picks. Use the code five fiv. Put down your five bucks. You get $50 to play right away. Prize picks legal in the state of Florida and there’s plenty to play now. WNBA, MLB, and more. Check it out. It’s prize picks. Use the code FIV ve. And now today’s episode. [Music] Mercy luxurious heat nation. Yeah. Mercy down the [ __ ] gang. Five on the floor for my dogs. Here’s a thing. You can check the score. Hustle hard. Couple stars. Check the floor plan. Got our own van. Y’all seen the block. Stop with one hand and pap 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. All right, welcome back to five on the floor. Here’s today’s floor plan. I’m Ethan Skolnick. You can follow me, Ethan Joling at Five Reason Sports. Again, follow uh what I’m putting out there on off the floor from Las Vegas out here for summer league. As we’re recording this, I’ll be heading out after it to go to Miami Heat practice. Eric Spolster will be helping Eric Glass run a practice out here uh in Las Vegas. We saw him yesterday. Adam Simon’s out here as well. Other Heat officials. Pelli is not here. Um, just to be clear, nothing real dramatic about that. I’ve seen him out here in previous occasions, but he’s not out here uh this time. The Heat lost their summer league opener. Well, not their summer league opener, but their Las Vegas summer league opener out in uh uh yesterday at the Thomas Max Center. Uh they lost to Atlanta. They had a double- digit lead and lost. You know, it might bring back some memories of the regular season. Uh but Hakachonis, the rookie, the first round pick, had 24 points, four rebounds, four assists, and did some things. Um so that was promising. One guy who struggled though, and it was right in front of me, he had a basket on the very first possession. They fed him with the lob, he had another lob, he had a hook, and that was it. Um and we’re going to have this conversation, Eternal, and Alex and I were going to do this podcast together, but we agree. So, we wanted to bring you or someone else on who did not necessarily agree on all of this. And it’s not it’s not this isn’t about a big argument here, but again, you can follow atalbass. It’s just about putting some things into context. I think you wanted to do this with where and then but I’m going to start with what I would say are my concerns, which actually Alex put very succinctly and clearly on host updates. And having been there yesterday, I echo a lot of this. uh his concerns, my issues with Kel Wear in summer league and in general doesn’t box out, tries to grab most rebounds with his arms. I saw that over and over yesterday. Atlanta had 20 offensive rebounds. They were not all his fault, but they were like a minus 25 with him in the game. They played better uh with him off the floor yesterday, which shouldn’t happen in summer league. Walks into screens. I saw a lot of that yesterday. Doesn’t set physical screens consistently. I think we saw that in the course of his first season. That is something that players do improve over time. Although I will say that we watched one guy who used to get double doubles with blocks uh or triple doubles with blocks who used to do this all the time, not set physical screens consistently. We know who we’re talking about. Inconsistent footwork on defense. Um I’m going to I’m going to pass on the assessment of that so much because I don’t consider myself an expert in that. Um, I will say that this last part, okay, I do agree with overcommits to the guard when defending pick and rolls, gives up a bucket or offensive rebound as a result. Saw that yesterday and also a lot of jumping for blocks where there really wasn’t a chance of getting a block. Um, so I I’ll let you put this in the context and I’m going to start by saying I think Khlo Wear still has a good ch a good chance to be a good NBA player and I and I think his rookie season he was ahead of schedule. Uh, it was promising in that regard, but a lot of the things we’re talking about here are kind of they’re motor related to me. And that’s where I’m gonna throw it to you because I think you I I think you wanted to put this into some kind of context. Well, it it started yesterday because I mean to be very clear before we, you know, get into what I and coach Gio um of the network were talking about. It came up in a different group chat from someone who is a doctor of the similar field of pretty much gaining weight for performance related things, right? And so, uh I will say very clearly just like I’ve had this conversation with Adil as we talked about on playback. Yes. what we’ve seen so far from Kel where compared to what we’ve seen to even his summer league performance last year and his performance against highlevel NBA players this year against Wimby against some other guys even a guy in his draft class in Yei who many thought had the best motor in the class outplayed him. What we have seen so far this year, I mean, not this year, I’m sorry, in the summer league has not been acceptable. I don’t think anybody is trying to sell you different, right? What you’re seeing on the court is not acceptable. what you saw and even what I talked about with you um on one of the pods earlier this week, what we saw last Saturday of him in San Francisco that first game, you could see the techniques that he had worked on. You can see him being a lot more solid in his trunks, in his core, seeking box outs, eating up space uh on defense, playing the level like playing angles and things of that nature or whatever. and then you didn’t see that the next game, right? And so he didn’t play the last game. Um he didn’t play one of those games and then we see him again yesterday and it’s the same [ __ ] I get it. It’s fr It’s frustrating for me to watch, right? But I I one of the things that we talked about and even Spo as he was on yesterday, I don’t think you were able to hear this. I heard some of it. Yeah, he talked about Cass Casper. He talked about uh Norm and then he talked about Kh, right? And he talked about the whole purpose of him being there uh was the game experience. He talked about him being ahead of schedule just like you you talked about him starting 36 games, how he played yada yada yada and what this was for. was for to build the leadership and build uh to gain experience and you know to gain further experience and everything like that. And as he’s saying that, there’s some stuff that you’re mentioning that I’m sure Spo is watching just like UD who was there, just like Malik Allen who was there and just like Alonzo there probably have a conversation that was prepared to have with Kho after the game, right? Mhm. But in all the criticism, one of the things that Gio and Doc borrowed up is when you put on weight, right? Any kind of weight, any kind, anytime you put on either whether it be uh fat or muscle mass and you’re doing activity that requires a lot of cardiovascular endurance. how you were the before and how you are at that current moment in time is not the same regardless of either way, right? And even if you are a professional athlete, depending on however that training is going, especially because you know Zo talked about him being in the gym immediately right after the season, getting to work and all of those things or whatever. We don’t know because we didn’t see it, right? We can all go by his uh spoke talked about him putting on which lines up the question I asked him last year. He put on weight going into training camp in preseason everything like that. He put on 8 to 10 pounds. Uh put on some more weight during the season which hard to maintain because you’re doing so much. And then out of the season up to this point he put on another 8 to 10 pounds. Right. Your body has to adjust to moving at the weight. And it’s really hard. We hear it all the time, Ethan. It’s hard to replicate game play, right? They didn’t start practicing until like last week, the week before they started their first summer game, their their summer league game. So, I’ve said all that to say, I know I’ve been very long-winded in this, is that there could possibly, I’m not saying as the main reason contextually, there could possibly be some physical inhibitors to this, right? When you’re running and have to do a lot of stuff, that can affect your technique. That can affect like you looking like you’re not trying, right? At the same time, we know what the issues were, the things that he needed to work on, and it very well looks like that. I will give you guys that. I just wanted to put some context into what the and and and it’s appreciated. On the other side, I I will go through these points with you because I I do think the context is important and I’m actually curious to see what he looks like tomorrow because he should play tomorrow and I’m speaking on uh what are we on Saturday? he should play tomorrow on Sunday because this is not like Hakez last year and I know what happened with Hakez this season it didn’t turn out but Haime came out balled out for two games you’re like okay I’ve seen enough now it turned out that again the season didn’t play out that way uh but in this case we haven’t seen where look good enough I think that you can say shut it down and I don’t agree with those and I’ll let you handle this on the other side of this I don’t agree with those who think he should have been above this and shouldn’t have played this year because to me in summer league to me this is proving why he should have especially if you’re if we’re talking about him having to adjust to the new weight. I I do think him playing the second year and I’m going to bring up some other bigs I’ve seen in their second years who showed out and what I wanted to see from him and I did not see yesterday. But we’ll we’ll talk about on the other side. Before we do mention great sponsor on the five reason sports network, our friends over at Real Estate Shop, Javier Amanda based in Broward County service the entire area. Though we know it’s complicated time to buy a house. There’s a lot of inventory right now. You got to make sure that you find the right one if you’re trying to sell a house. got to navigate all this with interest rates. People may be reluctant to buy at the moment, but you got to be working with the right agents uh so that you get the deal done and get it done the way that you want it. Also, work with a family business here. They understand your family. Javier and Amanda, they’ve been doing this a long time. Honest people, trustworthy people. Real estate shop is the place that we tell you to go. Real estate shopl.com, that’s two pes or the Fort Lauderdale Realtor on Instagram. Make sure you follow them there because then you’ll find all the open houses that they’re doing on a given weekend. Okay, so I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s not just this. I I remember going uh second year uh for Andre Drummond in Orlando and like he was man amongst boys and we’ve seen I I know it’s difficult for Bigs in summer league because the point guard play is so inconsistent and you haven’t played with these teams and bigs are more reliant on guards because they need guards to get them the ball, right? So, that part of it, I get it. Like, not every big is going to look great, but I’m just thinking back to Drummond and other bigs that I’ve seen over the years. And I know Drummond didn’t turn out to be a superstar, but he was a good player in the league for a long time. He’s still in the league. And he just physically took over physically, like went to the glass, got the rebounds himself, did all that kind of stuff. I I watched Kell yesterday and I maybe he’s carrying a little more weight. I suppose says he is. again, you speak to the effects of that, but it’s just I don’t know. It gave me Whiteside vibes. I hate to say it. Like, it’s just And even Hassan, I think, would have aggressively tried to take over these games in the way that Kell did not. And I know he has a very kind of laid-back attitude about everything. This is something we’ve talked about with Wiggins, too. And I think that sometimes it comes off as not caring. It’s just personality. Okay? I again, I’m going to try to provide context for that, too. But I saw Kell light up after the game when he was being asked some silly questions by some media person in the back. Okay. He showed more life during that than I saw during warm-ups, during even any of his stints on the court. Even warm-ups. I took some video of it yesterday. Okay. when Bam goes out to the floor and you noticed this from day one with Bam when he was drafted and this this was such a difference from Whiteside and I I’ve told you before and told others that when they drafted Bam someone who’s been a longtime member of the organization said we did more research on this guy than we’ve done on anybody else and he is the anti-Isan okay like that that’s how they were framing it like BAM just cared about everything okay and we could talk about Bam not being the biggest alpha offensively in certain situations but Bam cares about the game you watch the way he plays, okay? And and and especially on the defensive end, of course, okay, and all doing all those little things to help a team win. And you also would watch I’d watch I’ve watched it hundreds of times, his pregame work where he does the mic and drill and all the rest of this stuff and just the the purpose with it. Again, I know it’s summer league, okay? But I kept waiting for KL to start his pregame yesterday. Like I’m standing up by the court. It’s kind of like it didn’t look like he really was into it. It’s kind of a sort of soft push shot do it’s not with for you watch again I know these are but I watch Jokic do it I watch others do it and it’s it’s like there like you’re not beating the allegations this week no you’re not you know what I’m saying like that’s that’s the thing like I watched I watched Casper okay do this okay I don’t know what we’re calling him these days Cass I guess is what the organization’s calling him and I watched him there’s purpose with it Tyler’s workouts pregame There is purpose with it. Okay. He gets to certain spots, he goes to it. You know what he’s going to do. Duncan, I watched this for years. Man, I I just I want to see because I I want everybody be wrong about this cuz they need him to to become what they have projected him to become. And also, and I’ll let I’ll go to you on this, they kept him out of trade talks this summer. We know that. Okay. And that is going to be hanging over his head. And I know he’s young. He doesn’t have to become an all-star this year. He was he could have been first team all rookie this past year. I’m not taking away from what he’s accomplished. I like his talent. He seems like a nice kid, but I just it’s just like I want to see purpose. I want to see force and I want to see it before the game. I want to see it during the game and just go get the ball, demand the ball, but you’re not just there to be a lob threat. Like that’s not going to be s and then you know then sort of he didn’t do this yesterday but kind of sort of you know lolly gag back in this and freeze. I want to see him. I like he had one hook. He had purpose. Took Malt went went right up with a hook. He’s got good form on it. Okay. So, so do it. I understand the opportunities are limited in summer league for big, but I I just I saw a guy who just looked like he didn’t really want to be there yesterday and I’m sorry you’re not far enough along in this process to have that attitude. Have the attitude that Haime had last year. That’s where I’m at. So I think I think for people who ha who aren’t privileged to be around the team to be able to see these players in the lights that you Alex Brady or I and other people like to get to cover them. You get to see them in the background and like you talked about Khil Wiggins some of those guys they’re like super laidback. They’re just super laidback and that’s just that’s just how they are. Right now, I will point to something with you and I’m guarantee you it’s going to click for you. You know when you saw the most energy from Khalil yesterday and we talked about this last year uh on the summer league team and during the season. You ever watch him on the bench? Yes. Yes. He had a good time on the bench. Yes. He’s animated. He is so animated for his teammates. It’s good. I like that. I I like that. So, be animated for yourself. Like that’s what I’m saying. Like it’s not it’s not like I don’t I don’t I don’t think he’s an anti-team guy. Like I I don’t this is not his and I don’t think he’s he’s and I I hate to use this term, but we know what the issues were with bees, right? Like these are the comparisons that are made the most and and with we know and I don’t think it’s that either. I just think he’s just kind of casual and I I don’t like if he’s going to reach his potential, he’s got to be more than casual. That’s that’s in every setting. that that’s why weight or no weight and and it gets back to this because I I want to I want to let we’re going to close with this because I want to circle back to this. We’re going to do more episodes about it. I look at I know you’re a fan of Nikico’s. Okay. As I watched where yesterday I’m thinking you can’t gift where a starting job this year. You absolutely cannot. I know BAM wants to play with a true five. I get it. Okay. But you look at the current roster, it makes more sense unless they add a big, which they haven’t done yet. I mean, I guess Golden has an opportunity, but I mean, I to me I he’s he’s got kind of slow feet, but he he plays hard and I I think there’s a future for him is like a fourth big in the NBA, but he’s not ready to be the first big off the bench. Okay. So, like I look at it, I’m like the way the roster works right now, my starting lineup would be Bam, Yoic, Wiggins, we’ll talk more about him in future episodes. Uh Norm, and and Tyler. and you bring in DaVon and wear off the bench for defense along with either Highmith, Larson or Hakez. And I actually think Larson’s in the lead right now. But like that to me that’s where I think this is headed because you can’t gift if a guy is casual, you can’t gift him a starting job like because Nico is not casual. He’s not casual like right he doesn’t present that type. He just can’t stay healthy and find the right role for himself. But like when Nico plays, you feel he’s playing sometimes too much. You feel he cares too much. If you ever watch with Nico, whenever he whenever he would [ __ ] up or something like that, he immediately, you know, he’s smacking his hand together. He’s mad at himself. You know, he’s very he’s competitive in a in a very different way. He has a fire in a very different way. I feel like with Kh and we talked about this and I talked about this before the draft. I said if he got drafted to the to the right situation, one of the situations being Miami, that they would pull the most out of him uh versus any other team. And we saw that, right? Like he very well could have finished in the top three if not one rookie of the year, which is a testament not only to him but also the organization. like he led. Like if y’all I I understand how y’all feel about him right now. I get it. I get it. What you’re seeing right now is not acceptable. Go look at his goddamn stats again, right? Like what you No, but but I I I I get I get it. But see, to me, here’s the thing with stats, and this this is where I’m at with it. He can walk into a double double. Oh, absolutely. Okay. and with the way that they and also a lot of these rebounds and this is where that this is the part that drives me the most nuts, okay, that I’m most with Alex on it’s the rebounding because he’s going to put up rebounding numbers because Bam is doing all the dirty stuff, okay? And and so Kell is going to get rebounds just by being tall. But I watched yesterday and it’s like the jump is late. Ball’s over his head before he’s going anywhere. the box outs are not are not they’re not there’s no force to them and he’s put on weight so this is part of the reason for putting on weight so yes I understand adjusting to the weight I get it I think he’s going to be a good player I think he’s in the perfect place I would not guarantee him a starting role that’s where I’m at with this I I I would I would say it’s it’s him and Nico and let them compete for it and if Bam wants a true five next to him I I I I get it but the true five has got to be physical or else it doesn’t do any good for you. Anyway, listen, I agree. My whole point in that was was the people who are already jumping off the boat and like, “Oh, they should have trade him. Nobody should be untouchable.” I’m talking about I’m not there. I’m not there. I’m talking about the irrational people. I’m saying in this moment, you can be very fair in your criticism of him, right? And like some guy, we’ve been covering the NBA, Ethan, for damn near as long as I’ve been. as long as I’ve been alive. It’s all right. It’s okay. You know, I love you. It’s all right. My do my daughter says, “I met Alexander Hamilton.” It’s okay. So, but there are guys, Ethan, who only have that oomph when they’re playing an actual game, like a actual meaningful I get it. I I get it. I I get it. There’s also Can I Can I give Can I give you an Eric Spolster quote? Can I give you an Eric Sper quote? We’ll close it here. Okay. because he gave me this quote in training camp last year and I I was I we actually put on a podcast when he was talking about LeBron and Durant. Okay, this is what he said. He said he said the way he says I’ve always said the way you do one thing is the way you do everything. I agree. I agree. They they cannot be happy. Look, when Eric Glass was asked about the rebounding and so Ira positioned it towards where because Golden looked like he was trying to rebound. Okay. Eric Glass pulled the Eric Spolster. He’s he’s he’s like Eric. He’s he’s like he’s like a spoke clone about this stuff. Okay. And quickly said, “Well, it’s all of us.” Okay. It Yes, it was all of them. Okay. Oh, all of them were terrible. the all it was all of them but there’s one guy who was drafted 15th who they’ve banked a lot of their future on and that’s the guy that they’re going to be focusing on not guys who aren’t going to be here in three weeks. Okay. So I that that’s where I’m at with it. Before we get out of here I will say this. My whole point was you have the right people around him. Now it’s on him, right? But like again we’re talking about a 21 year old just to remind everybody. He plays a sport gets paid a lot of money. But if any of you have ever mentored or been around young 20 year olds with talent, whatever the [ __ ] field is, you’re gonna have to do something to pull something out of them. It’s not it’s not the case for everybody. Everybody’s not built the same. But with him, you see the mentoring with Bam. You see the mentoring with UD like he has he has a support system to pull the [ __ ] out of him. So make him earn the So and the first way to do it is make him earn the starting job. Don’t give anybody a starting job. Two guy two guys two two guys on this team who I think are guaranteed starting jobs and that’s Bam and Tyler. Wiggins obviously has the inside track for it. If he’s here surely he’s going to start and Norm I think it comes down to kind of what they are looking for. Could start DaVon and Norm plays 35 minutes off the bench. But that other spot I’m I’m not penciling in anybody at this stage. I I I I want to see I want to see what some of these guys look like and I think they do too. They better address their Well, I get it. But plus, you also got an extension decision to make on Nico, too, which means it means maybe getting him the time now makes sense. You got you got obviously more reason to trade Wiggins, which I’m sure you’re going to talk about, but we’ll talk about that on other podcasts. All right. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Uh I’ll be I have more coverage from here out here. Just to clarify, I think Khloe is going to be a very good player, but how you do one thing is how you do everything. And how we did this one podcast hopefully is not how we do everything. Take care everybody.

After a strong rookie season, Kel’el Ware has played in three summer league games…. and hasn’t impressed all that much. Ethan Skolnick, who saw the struggles up close in Las Vegas on Friday, is joined by Eternal Bast to debate how much to worry about Ware’s effort level.

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