Andrew Wiggins here for Miami Heat training camp? What’s his role now? | Five on the Floor

Andrew Wiggins here for Miami Heat training camp? What’s his role now? | Five on the Floor

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Use the code five fiv50 to play right away. And now today’s episode. [Music] [Applause] Mercy luxurious heat nation. Yeah. Mercy down the biscuit. Uh, five on the floor. Ride for my dogs. Here’s a thing. You can check the score. Hustle hard. Couple stars. Botan [Music] one hand and pap have the guts. We’re here to bring the heat. 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. All right, welcome back to Five on the Floor. Here’s today’s floor plan. I’m Ethan Skull. You can follow me at Ethan Joling. I got five reasons of sports. I’m actually out in Las Vegas covering Las Vegas summer league. So, make sure you’re on off the floor to get all the updates for that. I got Alex Toledo. He’s not in Las Vegas. You can follow him at Tropical Blanket. Uh, new episode with Eternal Bast went up related to Kel Wear’s sort of inconsistent lack of dasical play throughout. I can tell you, Alex, that I I pretty much went through your points that were on off the floor. Uh, so everybody should listen to that. My overall point on that before we get to today’s topic, which is going to be Andrew Wiggins, is I would not gift him a starting job, and I don’t think they will. I I I would I would have him come to camp and earn that job, even if Bam wants to play with a true five, so to speak. Um I just I just think the effort needs to be more consistent. Are you in agreement with me on that part of it before we get to Andrew? Yeah, for sure. But to me, like effort almost kind of puts everything into one box with him where it’s like the effort is a part of it because it that is that is like a a piece of everything that’s going on with him, but it’s also like knowing like I until he he shows me that he knows what he’s supposed to be doing, it’s hard for me to be like, well, he knows. He’s just not trying. It’s like, well, does he know? Because he’s over here walking into screens. he’s over here uh like not setting them very physically and trying to get to the role sometimes without like it’s one thing to sometimes like slip a screen because you think that’s the right route. It’s not it’s just a lot of times he’s not even like it’s not he’s slipping a screen. He’s just not setting them properly. Like it’s just like he’s trying to check off a box and it’s like there’s no point of that. The whole point of the screen is so that it’s hard to get around you and and you know your teammate you know uh can get an advantage. And then on the other side of pick and roll is like he’ll overcommit to the guard. It’s the same stuff I was talking about last season with him. And then I feel like some people think I’m down on him uh because of that stuff. And it’s like to a certain degree like if if other people are talking about him like this franchise pillar like that comes with a certain level of expectations like and not only in summer league like it’s not just about like putting up numbers as a secondyear player because you were a starter. It’s like are you fixing the stuff that you’re supposed to be fixing? Are you working on that stuff? And I I I continue to see the same issues. Like I already know he can he can go up there and finish a lob. I know that he can block shots, right? I don’t need to see those two things anymore. I’m with you. Nice to put up big like huge stack games. That’s obviously a good thing, right? Like you’d like to see that. The muscle stuff, right? Like putting on weight, that’s great. But putting on muscle again, it’s just it like I need to see him do the stuff that he’s supposed to be doing that are fundamental to being a big fundamental to the role that he is playing. Not like winning stuff. winning stuff and that and that’s uh you know and you know Spolster used to use a phrase well I don’t think he used it publicly but he used it with me once on the side about Hassan and I know we don’t want to go all the way there okay but he said at the time when all this stuff was going on with Hassan that uh it’s not that he doesn’t play hard it’s that he doesn’t play with and I I I’m trying to figure out where I am with where on this and we want to pivot to Wigan But I I’m trying to figure out where I am with him because I I don’t know. He just the playing with doing those things like helping your guards on screens, okay, or boxing out so somebody else can get a rebound. That’s playing with box out. Like that is like that’s playing with stuff, right? And that it doesn’t mean you’re necessarily going to get the rebound, but it helps someone else get them. And and this is the stuff with Hassan that drove like I know like Goran who would always speak his mind. It drove him nuts that Hassan could not set a proper hard screen. It was always like at the wrong angle or late or all this. I I just don’t think anybody wants to repeat that experience. So, I’m not saying that where is there. I think he I think that cares more about team than Hassan did. It is. And that’s I’m trying not to go there, but it is to a certain degree. And it’s not like you look like to to be fair by the way like Whiteside, you know, like $100 million over four years was his market, right? He was an effective player. I just think like you say that name and it almost like all everybody remembers is what because all anybody remembers is what happened after the money and and and that’s now where has where hasn’t gotten paid yet, but they have held him out. Like it’s not dooming his career. It’s just objective to say like, “Hey, look, they’re they’re exhibiting some of the same issues.” Now, he has a lot of time to fix it, but like you wish and I get it, it’s some really like to to a certain extent it’s human nature. He was literally a starter on, you know, like technically a playoff team. Uh, but just in general, he was a starter, right? Like some people it might be human nature to just feel like, you know, you’re kind of graduated past this process, whereas a guy like Kell Larson is out there busting his ass every game. I know. Well, Spo pulled him off the court too in that playoff series and there was a reason for that. And so I’m saying do it do it right, do it hard, right? And that’s he’s got a pretty good mentor who he wants to play next to in the front court. Okay, who from the minute he came in, Bam attempted to do it right, do it hard. Okay, and that’s that you just want to see that all the time. All right, let’s pivot quickly here, though, because I got a little bit of information last night. There’s been these rumors that are out there about Andrew Wiggins. uh mostly been started by I would say the rumors the reports by Anthony Irwin who covers the Lakers. He’s been kind of on top of this from the beginning about these apparent negotiations, discussions between the Heat and the Lakers about Wiggins and whether it would be what Hatchimura and you know filler and then like what we’ve talked about either a pick or connect that the Heat might want both. By the way, I’ve never really gotten anything out of the Heat side about that specifically. This seems to all be coming from Laker reporters. Now, the Lakers have their own situation to deal with here, which is that, you know, franchise icon of the league, okay, doesn’t seem to want to be there anymore and they don’t seem to want him there. And I think that would come before any of this Andrew Wiggins stuff. But with all this swirling, I can tell you that the Heat have been pretty aggressive saying they’re not trying to trade Andrew Wiggins right now and they expect him to be in training camp. So, what do you make of that? Because we we’ve talked about them continuing to refresh the roster. Wiggins is going to be 31 this year. He’s making what $60 million over the next two seasons. He had a lot of moments with the Heat. The 42-point game, the 30-point game. He injured the ankle. He we talk about sort of looking lacadasical like where has Wiggins looked like that throughout the entire playoff series. I know some of that’s personality, but he didn’t really look engaged. Um, but he’s also helped a team win a championship as its second or third best player. So, I Where are you with Andrew? Will you be disappointed if he’s brought to training camp? Let me just leave it that way. No. Um, look, like I think he’s a good player. Um, I don’t think he’s somebody that you just have to like move with the urgency of like, hey, there’s no way he should be on your roster next season. And I think that’s kind of the way that the Heat are treating it. It’s like, we will move him for a good offer. and the fact that you keep hearing the first round pick stuff. Again, it’s coming out of like Lakers people, but I think it tracks like I think that’s more or less where his values at. I think Wiggins is not a piece that they acquired um you know in the Jimmy trade to be like, “Hey, this guy is going to be here for the next seven years or five years, whatever.” I mean, he’s like 30, so obviously not he’s not going to be here for eight years or anything like that. But just in general, um like I just think this is the type of piece that could always be moved, right? And I think they are holding off on just moving it for whatever the best offer is now if they don’t feel that offer is good. But like they they think that having him not only as like a a decent pretty good player by the way. I I I almost forget sometimes because I was pleasantly surprised with him right like during the regular season and not that this is a star you build around or anything like that but I’m like okay you know like the he really is capable of giving you like he averaged like 19 or whatever for the for the Heat during the regular season when he did play. stats were better. His stats were actually better than they’ve been in most of his previous seasons. He just also he also missed a lot of time. Like we had the availability issue with Jimmy and then he he didn’t play a lot. That was the other part of it. So I I get it. Like I believed him to a certain extent, but it’s also a very convenient answer, right? It’s like uh like I believe that you want to see what it’s like especially now like with Hero and Powell being like the main scoring threats. Maybe Wiggins comes down uh you know as far as how much you need to rely on him and maybe he looks a little cleaner, right? Maybe he looks more like Golden State Wiggins as opposed to Minnesota Wiggins like we were they were kind of forcing him to last year somewhat. Yeah, somewhat like more, you know, closer to that, right? And I think uh maybe he plays more games like I don’t think I don’t think those things are like crazy for the Heat to think that like let’s but I don’t think it’s because they are like hey this you know this is this is the team that we’re focusing on like this five right here is our five like I I think it’s very much like a convenient answer but it’s also like well we don’t really love the offers that are out there right now right like I think like if the Lakers are not willing to give up a first their best offer might surround like you know Ruie connect in like two seconds and another salary filler. I don’t know if the Heat want to do that. Like I I like for as much as I like the Alton Connect pre-draft, you know, is are you giving up the Wiggins piece which could be used in a variety of different ways and different moves, right? Not to mention like the on the court stuff, you know, another team might want him at the deadline. Like are you going to cash that in for Dalton Connect who is not by any means like, you know, this this gem of a prospect, right? He’s not a foundational piece. He could be part of a collective of young players that you have and somebody they don’t have and also they don’t really have a young shooter on in this group like we’ve talked about this group and connect would kind of serve that purpose. He’s kind of athletic man like he doesn’t always he’s not a bad player. He just he’s not a great defender. And I think that just in general, I would rather I would much rather have the first round pick, especially considering the Heat strategy of like, hey, the next time that somebody’s out there that we feel is worth going all in for, we want to go all in. That requires more first to compete with other teams. So, I, you know, I absolut. And I I get why they like there’s other teams that could convince themselves. Again, like I brought up the Grizzlies the other day. Nobody like that’s not like a rumor or anything like that, but like you know, they just acquired KCP who who wasn’t great for the Magic like was expected to be. They have they got a bunch of picks for Bane and have their own picks. Like what if they cashed in one of those picks and KCP for Wiggins? The Bucks have been rumored for Wiggins for, you know, an obvious obvious reason to hold on to that. Alice, here’s the other part of it. We talk about the seconds. The seconds could have value if say you’re trying to move Rosier for something else like let’s say again purely speculative but there’s still talk about the Bulls trying to move Vousvich right so this team clearly needs a big like Lousich would help especially with what we’re talking about with where right um and could I mean could you get a second a couple of seconds that you flip to Chicago along with Rosier giving them the expiring take Vousvich they get a little more draft capital like I’m this is again the These are all minations that could happen. But on the other side of this, I want to get into So, I don’t think it’s done either. I’ll just leave it at that. I I do I I would expect him to be in training camp now based on what I heard yesterday. But could something happen, especially look, especially with the Lakers. The Lakers situation is so in flux that it may come down to them trying to make a move to patch, who knows? Okay. Um and take a little pressure off LeBron defensively or whatever it is they want to do. And Wiggins, his metrics defensively were still very good last year. I we just didn’t see it. I don’t know. It didn’t seem to come across with Miami. Maybe I test more so than anything else. But I want to get on the other side of this uh to what it looks like on the floor. Something you mentioned with Powell because I how this changes the equation and what their their lineup could look like. Uh before we do, want to mention a great sponsor of the Five Reason Sports Network, our friend Lynette. You can find her at insurancebylanette.com. Car insurance, homeowners insurance, renters insurance, all of that. She handles all of it from her office in Lauder Hill, but can service the entire tri county area. Lord Hills in uh Northwest Broward. But again, Broward Dave, Palm Beach, give her a call. 954-5818800. That’s 954-5818800. One of our our biggest fans here, biggest heat fan you you’ll find. Also, great person. And again, she’ll deal with whatever it is that you have and she’ll find the right insurance for you. So, check her out. It’s insurancebylanette.com 954-5818800. All right. you mentioned this now and and we’re talking about starting lineups and directions that they could go. Um gonna hopefully get a chance to start their exposure more today. This podcast might actually post after we’ve done that. But he spoke pretty highly of Larson um on his NBA TV interview that he did. And it does seem like they’re grooming Larson for rotation spot this year. We know HZ is still kind of in the mix. We’ll see what he comes back as. And you’ve got Yoic who again the extension possibility and I mentioned I I don’t think it’s a bad idea to pit him against wear for a starting spot uh and see how that plays out. He did start the season next to Bam last year and I don’t think he was the huge problem. I think Rosier was the huge problem but then it was Yoic that was pulled out of the starting lineup because the starting lineup wasn’t working. Um and of course the Jimmy stuff that was going on. But as you look at Wiggins is let’s be clear if Wiggins is here he’s starting. He’s going to start at the three. Okay. I don’t think there’s any question he’s going to start at at a Hakez or or any or Larson or any of the others. I mean, he offer an alternative solution that nobody wants to hear, but that is technically possibility putting him at the four. Putting him at the four and Haywood Highmith starts at the three or Well, who’s the four? Who’s the three? Really size down. Well, I I think there’s a PO. Look, I I said when Norm was acquired, I thought that they could continue to start uh DaVon. Don’t start Norm at the three. You’re too small. Uh and then Norm comes off the bench, plays 35 minutes off the bench. He he was fourth and six man of the year voting two two of the past three seasons, not this past one where he started obviously, but uh I don’t think that’s the worst solution, but I don’t think it’s what they’re going to do. I think I think that they’re going to start Norm with Tyler and they’re going to lean into this and and see where it goes. Like they leaned into Rosier, although they’ve got a better player now to lean into it with than they did last year. Imagine like them going like starting to lo like everybody wanted it just go back to not only small ball like and we’re not just we’re not going Wiggins and Haywood we’re going Wiggins and DaVon with Tyler Impala. We’re going extra small. I I that would be hilarious. That one I don’t think they’ll do it. Let’s say they say somewhat traditional. Let’s say Wiggins plays the three. Okay. Yeah. and and let and let’s say that you get your two best scorers on the floor at the same time and you play hero with Powell. You try to have them play off of each other, okay? And Tyler’s gonna have a ball in his hands a lot. In that case, my personal preference, Yoic starts at the four, you let him handle some, and you get Tyler off the ball some, you get both Tyler and Powell off the ball some, and you split the ball handling duties a little bit that way. I don’t want Wiggins handling a lot. I didn’t like the way that looked last year. Get him on secondary actions. Get him on cuts. get him get him to that mid-range. Uh he has comfort in that area. He’ll get to the line some, but that’s what I prefer they do and start Yoic at the four. Do you see that as viable? And and it does seem like Wigan serves a purpose here because like ne you don’t want either Norm nor Tyler because Norm has not had great defensive metrics the past couple of years. You don’t want I think he’ll be better in Miami, but you don’t want either him or Tyler handling the best perimeter or best wing, right? So, that’s going to be Wiggins’s job if he’s here, right? So, you start him and then you hope Yoic can hold up defensively on the perimeter if he’s got to go out there some if he’s the four or again, you’ll have or you’ll have where to help clean things up and jump too soon and not protect the defensive rebounding. But what what do you think? Where do you think they would go with it? What what fits best with Wiggins? Honestly, uh since I have to say it, it’s it really is a tough question because I’m just not sure. Like I’m not sure what the right idea is to do with him uh with this team specifically. Like I think Tyler and Norm should be starters for as much as I like get the the six-man uh resume that Norm has. I think he’s like I said on that show, he’s he’s I think he’s gotten past that. I think the Heat need his offense like badly and I think they have to find a way to incorporate that even if obviously you still get it with him coming off the bench like he can still uh impact your offense in a big way but I do think like they have to try it out with their starters. I I am very interested to see specifically how Tyler Pow and Bam work off of each other. I can I can easily picture like Bam working some like somewhere around uh you know like the high post setting a screen. I mean um like with Pow and Hero running off of screens and stuff like I I can see the offball movement there. I see the you know the idea the vision for it. Where I don’t see is how Wiggins fits into that sometimes. It’s like, yeah, like he can fit in as like this player who can help plug in the gaps, but if you’re trying to use him like how he did last season, then I don’t really see it as much because those were straight up like, you know, get Wiggins into his spots and then one-on-one ball, right? And then sometimes they even had him running pick and roll. I definitely don’t want to see that with the starting unit. So, I just think it depends on how they want to use him, right? And I think that’s where sometimes it’s like if he becomes a guy who gets a lot less usage and a lot less of those sets one-on-one and maybe he’s scoring less because the the focus is on hero and Powell, I’d be a little bit harder to trade in maybe. But I think Wiggins has enough of like a hey look at how many seasons in a row he’s averaged this many points. Like I think you kind of know where like the type of player that he is that maybe it still doesn’t affect it too much. But yeah, like I could I I wouldn’t be surprised if they did start here on POW that Wiggins’s um numbers went down. And as far as the Nico angle of it, I I’m with you that I would like it if it was like if he is really the guy, the facilitator, right? Like the guy the floor general setting people up because if not, I just could easily picture him being relegated to being a stretch four and then we’re talking about Nico like we don’t know what his role is again. So I very much prefer Nico playing the role that he did before he got hurt last season where he was their their bench guy making stuff happen. I like that role for Nico a lot. He’s still going to play a lot. Um, and I think that’s the best role for him at this point, especially because I don’t think Casper is going to be involved in that rotation. So, like, you know, um, I think I think Nico is the guy who should, you know, take that spot there. I, uh, I’m I’m torn on it. Um, I’ve been out there saying that I think Yovic is the X factor for this season, and I think a lot of it is how they use him. I can see it working in that starting lineup again if they put the ball in his hands more. But I I’m concerned about that too. Not that he won’t be a good spot up shooter. I just don’t think it’s the best use of him. Uh but I they have to get away from the idea of putting the ball in Wiggins’s hands and letting him run pick and rolls. I I don’t that was not effective by any measure last year. There’s too many turnovers. He’s too loose with his handle. Get him involved in the secondary actions. I I I think Hero and Powell are going to have a really nice flow. I I feel that we’ve talked about it. I did the episodes with Brady, too. I I think that is gonna look pretty good. Um, and I think Wiggins can play off of that. And I I do think they have fairly low downside risk for of Wig. I think Wiggins’s numbers do go down, but I don’t I think there’s very little downside risk of it hurting his value. I I because because like you said, people have seen him do the other role or this role in a championship capacity and I don’t think age has hurt him that much in that regard. I’m with you there and I think it would hurt if like you said he’s put into this role where he is the main guy guarding perimeter players because you don’t want Hero or Powell to do it and he doesn’t do well struggles. Yeah. I think that that might make a team a little bit more and and that and that that but that also on the Heat side might if Haywood’s still here might force that that move into the starting lineup and then Haywood had a down year himself last year on the defensive end like for his standards. So, it’s like, yeah, you know, the DVON thing, obviously, he’s like this, you know, he he fits right there for what you’re asking for on that role on defense. But look, I’m going to caution people now because I can already see the topics. And look, we’re going to do them anyways. Like, this is what we’re about. We’re going to every we’re hitting every single topic you can think of. And if you have any more, you can always send them to us because we always need the extra topics. But it’s going to be a topic at some point. were like Norman Pow at the three and like I I just he played a lot of three technically last year like I just especially like the 611 wingspan and of course the Clippers are different, right? It’s a different type of roster. Ardan was their point and he’s whatever 66, right? Right. So it’s a different type of build. Um, I’m not advocating for Norm fulltime at the three, but I do think because of the way the Heat are built and like the amount of guys that they have in their back court that they’re gonna be Oh, that lineup is going to No, Alex, that lineup that lineup is going to play together. There’s no question that the DaVon Tyler Norm lineup is going to play together. Uh, look, he played he used to play Gabe, Kyle, and and not Anderson, Lowry. He used to play Gabe, Kyle, and Tyler together. So when McGrder Yeah. No, he he’s gonna play that together. There’s no question about it. I I don’t think it starts. Uh I think Wigan starts, but there’s absolutely no question that Li’s going to play together. All right. We’ll uh we’ll get into more of this as we go forward. I actually got to get ready to go to practice. Uh we’ll have more episodes as we go. I’m going to try to get some interviews done while I’m out here as well. Also planning, we’ve been doing these cross well crossover kind of. We did an episode with Alf. Uh did one with uh with Brendan Tobin. And I’m going to do one with Wes Goldberg from Lockdown while we’re out here, too. So, it’s just kind of it’s like that scene from Anchor Man, right? We’re just all going to assemble uh on the side here. So, I Wes and I will do one probably going to put it on both feeds, actually. Uh so, we we’ll have that up in the next couple of days. All right. Thanks, everybody. Thank you for listening to the five on the floor on the five reason sports network. After all, someone needs to listen to my

While there have been trade rumors and reports regarding Andrew Wiggins, the Miami Heat seem inclined to keep the veteran until at least training camp. Now that Norm Powell has been acquired, Ethan Skolnick and Alex Toledo discuss what Wiggins might be asked to do most.

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