Should the Miami Heat poach a prospect? | Five on the Floor

Should the Miami Heat poach a prospect? | 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 on Spotify and on Android. We recommend Spotify. Also check out the Five Reasons YouTube channel for everything going on in South Florida sports. Also off the floor link is right here in the description. Bypass the Apple Upcharge. You’ll pay just $2.99 a month. Do it from your laptop. You get access to 10 different channels plus the stage shows. The place for the most heat anywhere, most heat information, conversation, and more. So check it out. We’re moving everything over from Twitter. It’s off the floor. We don’t have that Grock thing over here. Anyway, uh check it out again. Off the floor. Also, prize picks, use the code five, fiv. Put down your $5. You get five $50 to play right away. MLB Allstar game. WNBA All-Star game. You can play both of those at prize picks. Use the code five. Put down your five. Get your 50. And now today’s episode. [Music] Luxurious heat nation. Yeah. Mercy logo down the [ __ ] gang. Five on the floor. Ride for my dogs. Here’s a thing. You can check the score. Hustle hard. Couple stars. [Music] Got it on. Y’all seen the block. Stop with one hand and Pat trust. It’s about having 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 Skulling. You can follow me, Ethan J. Skulling at Five Reason Sports. And sitting in an equally uncomfortable chair, we got Digital Adele. We did not pick the drapes. Uh we were just trying to find a quiet place to podcast in Las Vegas and basically this was it. Um Adele and I have been out here at Summer League in Las Vegas. If you’re hearing this sometime on what is today, Monday. Uh it’s likely before the Heat play another summer league game, we apologize in advance for that because it’s been a hard watch out here in Las Vegas. Uh if you’re listening afterwards, then you may have to sort of extrapolate because things can change pretty quickly. We saw uh Hakachonis have a breakout game in game one in Las Vegas, 24 points, and then not really do a lot offensively in the next game. We saw Khalware uh anger all of his coaches including his real head coach in that first summer league game and then come out with force in game two. So we’ll be doing more on where as we go forward. But today Adele and I are going to go through what’s going on with this summer league team particularly the back end of it or sort of the middle end of it. Uh, and we can’t have a middle end, but a middle middle and then and then we’ll get into uh maybe there’s some players from other summer league teams that the Heat might take a look at because there’s not a lot of guys who are popping off this roster right now. So, let let’s set the scene to start. The Heat typically like to take two-way players from their summer league team. They’ve already signed uh Golden uh the big man to a two-way. So, he’s already on one. Now, that could be released, but right now he’s on one. He didn’t play in the last game. We are expecting him to play tonight. So, that’s one thing. Um, and then there are two two-ways open, but we’re kind of anticipating Drew Smith will ultimately sign for that as he’s as he’s recupering from an Achilles, but that’s not for sure, but it’s certainly possible. The other thing to note is that a couple guys on this summer league team already have contracts. Of course, Hakonis, first round pick, has a contract. He is signed. and Pel Larson second round pick from last year he is signed where of course is signed and then the other guy uh is Kesha Johnson who is signed to a standard but actually I want to start there and we’ll go from there first half of this episode we’ll get into what guys have looked like on this team and then we’ll go uh we’ll get into guys that they may want to take a look at um he hasn’t really popped and I talked to Kishad at practice between games one and two nicest guy in the world um says all the right things has athleticism. We know that. And I kind of think he’s the sort of player that would play better with better players, but I also wanted to see a little bit more and we haven’t seen it. Why? So, one of the things about Kashad Johnson that you loved coming out was that not only his athleticism, but he has an excellent motor as well. He plays extremely hard. And what the Heat were envisioning in my mind was they were looking for somebody that had position flexibility. they’re going to be able to guard multiple positions on the floor, impact the game in a different way without needing, you know, the ball or needing to be the focus. The thing about Kashad Johnson is from year one to year two, you haven’t really seen a lot of growth and expansion in his game. He’s pretty much the same guy. Transition, lobs, dunks, rebound a little bit for you. The problem he’s having is that when he guards on a perimeter at this level, he’s fouling a lot. he gets really handsy and really physical and he’s not going to be able to stay on the floor like that. He has the tools, the wingspan, he has the body composition to be able to size up or size down, play on the wing, switch out on the guards, but if you’re going to play with your hands, you’re not going to be able to stay on the floor. And I think to me that’s been my biggest disappointment with his game is the fact that he hasn’t shown that position flexibility to be able to guard the perimeter players without fouling. And a lot of that is again just he’s very aggressive. He has to use proper technique, keep his hands out of there, use that broad those broad shoulders and his chest and just play defense by sliding his feet. I think if he does that, he can be very impactful defensively. Offensively, that’s the a whole another issue. Uh the shot hasn’t come around. The ball handling decision making’s been been pretty poor as well where to go with moving the ball. Well, and I asked him about uh the spot up three-point shooting and he’s acknowledged that that was the big issue coming out and the reason that he slipped out of the draft, but he’s talking about he’s working on it every day. I don’t think there’s any question with him that he works. That’s not an issue. It’s just is it translating to the floor and he has been given a standard and this is this is a topic of conversation now because we don’t know that they’re going to go after Dame Lillard or if they’re going to make that move. But especially if you’re looking to make more moves before camp, they say they’re holding on to Wiggins, but if you’re going to make more moves before camp, like you need roster spots, and they haven’t waved and stretched Fonteio, so it appears that he’s going to be on the roster. Keshan Johnson’s going to be on the roster. And you’re going to need to feel comfortable getting production, I think, from pretty much everyone up and down the roster this year. And again, Tesh Johnson, I think there’s a chance like for limited minutes like that he can give you something playing off of better players. But you’re right, the development has not seemed to have been there, at least so far. He’s not he’s not doing what he should be doing considering he’s been in this situation uh before. I I want to briefly get into uh Larson real quick and I hope to get the chance to talk to him a little bit uh today. He’s actually going to play for the Swedish national team that he’d all of a sudden in a United Nations outfit, which is remarkable considering the fact they avoided uh foreign players for three decades. Uh, but I just your quick take on Larson who is going to be on the roster and I think right now the way Spolster’s talked about him has an inside track for the rotation. Absolutely. I mean, I loved what I’ve seen from Pella Larson. Uh, he’s super aggressive on ball in summer league and I think that’s been a point of emphasis, something they wanted to see if he could have any, you know, selfcreation ability. And whenever this Heat team gets bogged down with poor spacing and poor ball movement, he just takes the ball, puts his head down, gets to the rim, and gets to the foul line and falls on the floor. And falls on the floor a lot. Yeah. But, uh, you like that type of aggressiveness, and that’s what I love from him. The defenses there just like it was in year one. He’s, uh, you know, getting in the guy’s chest. Tim and Yakonis, um, they’ve been really impressive defensively. They’ve been two standouts for me, um, on a defensive end. So, I really like what I’ve seen from Pel Larson. The three ball, too. We saw some self-creation the last game as well where he did a little in-n-out hesy pull up three in a guy’s face. If you’re going to get that from Pella Larson, I think he’s absolutely set for rotation minutes. Yeah, and and we’ll see how he fits. That’s the thing. You can pretty much plug and play him anywhere. I I think we’re waiting to see what Hawkins looks like in another training camp, but I think right now I would say Larson has has the edge, at least how the roster is constructed. All right, this is going to be the harder part here. We’re not going to do where right now much. Maybe we do another episode on that. U and obviously Hakonis we’ve talked a lot about. But the rest of this summer league team, like they’ve been using Kira Lewis as an occasional starter. They use Stevenson the shooter. Like they’re trying to make him into a Max Strus type. Uh you and I have both talked about liking Javvante Cook some, but he didn’t really get a lot of action in this last game. He was more prominent in the previous game. So if I was to say to you right now, and then on the other side, we’ll get into other options. There’s one guy here. Oh, and Golden. We should mention Golden because he’s got a two-way. Oh, first, let’s start there. In your view, have you seen enough from Golden to say that he deserves the two-way that they’ve already guaranteed? Well, to a certain degree, guaranteed him to bring him to camp. Well, one thing about Vlad Golden that I really love is that he runs the floor really hard and he plays extremely hard. Now, he’s going to have some limitations with that foot speed. There’s going to be a little bit of a curve, but as far as the mind, he they need a backup bid. Yeah. And if you can bring him up on occasions and allow him to be able to get minutes and you know where you need a bigger lineup, I think he can really help you. Um there’s going to be growing pains with him, but I like what I’ve seen in terms of his early development and I like the fact that he’s a competitor and he’s going to compete. Now, he doesn’t block shots well. I think he’s going to have to transition to a more positional defender like Kevin Love was. Yeah. Where he’s going to take charges and be in the right spots and do that sort of thing instead of going after blocks. If he does that, I think he could really have an impact. Uh because he does fight for rebounds. He boxes out, does a lot of little things, play, like I said, plays extremely hard and he’ll get on the offensive glass. You’ve seen several times where he follows up a teammate shot with a putback dunk. So, I like Vlad going. I think his roster, his two-way spot is justified. Okay. Does anybody else on this roster deserve a two-way? I think they’re their last two-way spots outside the roster. Okay. Uh Cook we’ve talked about. Why are you hesitant on that one? So Cook, he does a lot of good things. Nothing really great that stands out. And whenever he plays against better competition, it’s really difficult for him to get to the basket. Defensively, he gets rooted out of there. Man, there are several times he has long arms and the defensive chops and willingness are there, but he will just get rooted out of there with a shoulder. He’s just he’s not strong enough and sturdy enough to be uh a point of attack defender in in the NBA in my opinion. Okay. So, we’ll talk on the other side about others. Oh, Stevenson, I’m sorry. Stevenson is the shooter. There’s a little Max in there, but there’s not a lot of Max in there. I don’t I don’t see the athletic like upside that Max had that I don’t think that he really got credit for. Um I don’t know. I don’t see an NBA player there. Am I wrong? Well, the other thing with Stevenson, not just the athleticism, because I did see him, I mean, he did a a off the-bounce windmill dunk in warm-ups, like he’s athletic. The issue that I have with Stevenson, he’s a ball stopper. He doesn’t move the ball, the ball goes to him, it’s going up, or he’s going to dribble a hundred times, turn the ball over, things like that. Um, I don’t really see a fit for him because he’s one of those a lot of players when they’re trying to make NBA rosters, they can be scorers. He has a great shooting touch. Yeah. But if they’re not going to be willing to play a role on the back end of the roster, you’re not going to be able to to make it. And that’s what they really need from him is to be able to move the ball, take open shots and open threes whenever they come, and then attack closeouts as you need to. But if you’re going to stop ball movement, you’re not going to be a good defender. It’s not going to work out. Yeah. I think with Max, we kind of saw right away like, “Oh, wait. I I get I get what they like.” High Smith was the same way. Yes. Different kind of player. All right. And on the other side of this, I’m going to have Adele give me three players real quick that he thinks that he could look at to poach as he’s been watching summer league. Before we do, make sure you get your homeowners insurance, your life insurance, your car insurance, your rent insurance from Lynette. 9545818800. One of our biggest fans. We apologize to her for that because I know she doesn’t want to be associated with that. I understand. Insuranceby.com. Aaggressive Insurance 9545818800. That’s 9545818800. based in Lauder Hill who can service the entire tri county area. And if you have bad driver record, she’s definitely the person to go to. So check it out. insurancebylanette.com. Two N’s and two T’s. Insuranceby.com. All right. So quickly here, give me three players that you think if they’re going to be available, right now none of them are signed, I would assume, um that the Heat should take a look at. Yeah, Chucky Hutburn. Uh he’s one of the guys that I think is one of the best on ball defenders that are unsigned that are currently out there. He has some good size to him. His hands are really quick, man. I mean, really quick hands. He’s a thief. And he’s a good facilitator. He can shoot. He knows when to go, when to slow, control pace. I like Chuck Chucky Herburn a lot. And he’s with who? Toronto. He’s with Toronto. Okay. Okay. Just in case people want to watch. Okay. Who’s the second one? The second one’s going to be Jaylen Bridges. He got let go by Phoenix. Watching yesterday. Yeah. He got picked up by Boston Celtics. I like what he does. He’s one of those guys. It’s exactly what you want Stevenson to be where he just fills in his role, is willing to play his role, good defender, block shots, he’ll rebound for you, can’t really put the ball on the floor, but he shoots 41% from deep. Okay. And the third, by the way, you and I were watching that Boston New York game. Tyler Kick want to stop shooting now. One of 14. Oh my gosh. And there are Knicks fans who want him to play. I don’t think he’s ready to play right now. Okay. Number three. Number three would be Grant Nelson. I can’t remember what team he’s on. I believe it’s the Orlando Magic, but or people know him from college. They’re pretty familiar with him. It’s either the Brooklyn Nets or Orlando Magic, but yeah, from college. Yep. He’s 610. He’s super versatile. He’s just not super consistent with his scoring. He has the ability to space the floor. He has the ability to get to the rim, put rim pressure, and he’s got ability to be switchable uh defensively as well. He’s just not super strong. Needs to put some weight on. But if anybody in terms of the the versatile bigs that are out there unsigned, I think Grant Nelson would be a guy you should really take a hard look at. Yeah. And again, a player who scored a lot of points uh in college and they need bigs. There’s that’s there’s no question about like where the deficit is on the roster right now. They do not have a backup five. I mean, unless you’re counting Yoic, and I’m not sure that we want to do that because I think he should kind of be the starting four, but that’s another conversation. Uh we’ll talk about the current starting five on another episode. So, KL Wear obviously coming off the big game yesterday. We should acknowledge it. Uh he he showed a lot of the aggression that we wanted to see, but again, we’ll save that for the next app. All right. Follow uh Digital Adele at Digital Dell. Make that easy for you. We’ll also have more content from out here in Las Vegas uh over the next day or so. And again, subscribe to Off the Floor. Have a good one, everybody.

The Miami Heat haven’t seemed to have found an unpolished gem on their own roster so far in summer league. So should they look on another roster to fill two-way spots? Also, what’s up with Keshad Johnson? Digital Adel speaks with Ethan Skolnick.

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