Miami Heat: Larsson, Johnson, Ware stand out in Summer League win | Five on the Floor

Miami Heat: Larsson, Johnson, Ware stand out in Summer League win | Five on the Floor

Welcome back to Five on the Floor. I am Alex Toledo and I am here with my main man Brady Hawk and we are here to discuss the Heat beating the Celtics. Y’all, everything is good in the world again. Um, anytime in any situation that the Heat beat the Celtics, um, you know, it’s a good thing. So, you take that at this point. But no, in all seriousness, the Heat finally get a win here uh in Vegas after losing the first couple of games. And you know, they didn’t blow it this time. They they gave up a nice run there, I believe, in the third quarter to the Celtics, and they they really came back there. But um they held on featuring some big shots uh down the stretch and overall was a pretty good game, pretty good product considering, you know, my expectations kind of went down a little bit when I knew that Casper wasn’t going to play just because that’s one of the main things I have wanted to see. But you what the the real positive about this is that you got to see, you know, three very nice performances, you know, from guys that you want to see them from, right? Like it’s it’s cool when you get the big performances from, you know, some of the lesserk known names, guys who may or may not have a chance at a two-way, but tonight you got like really nice performances from Kell, from Kashad, from Pella. And I want to go one by one with those uh on all three uh with you Brady. And we’re going to start off first with Pella. Um he is obviously I know we like we’ve talked a lot about him, especially you have. I shouldn’t say we because I’ve only done one of these summer league pods and then otherwise I I’ve just tried to sneak my my my thoughts much to much to the dismay of of one Ethan J. Skull like I’ll sneak my summer league thoughts into like off day pods and then he tries to like um shut me up so we can end the pod. Uh, but we’re here now and I’m just going to say that the Pella thing, it’s so obvious that they have him like, you know, on this program right now where when the Heat are featuring a guy that much, especially a guy who is not necessarily like his main role by any means is being an onball playmaker. When you give a guy this much this much usage, it’s to be expect it’s to be expected from like an older player, right? um who was already in your rotation, somebody you know who I think impressed a lot of people in the heat and and just straight up at the end of the season took Haime’s job, right? Um so some of it is to be expected, but it’s been like to the degree that it’s been where he is on the ball so much like it tells me that you know they have something in mind for him this season. I would bet money um just in general like that he is going to be in the rotation on night one. Now, of course, a lot can change between now and night one, but just like I could easily see him in that back end of the rotation the same way that he was at the end of last season. Um, he has shown like the shot, you know, still needs a little bit of work, but it’s it’s it’s decent. You know, I think he he’s shown some stuff with the shot. Again, he’s such a relentless driver, so physical on both ends. Uh, even in these summer league games, like he is going all out. He just very much feels like a heat type of guy. like they love what he’s about. Um, is there anything from tonight that you know stood out to you from what he did or was it just more of the same? Because it’s it and you know what it’s not a bad thing because he’s just been that consistent throughout the summer. That’s the key I was going to say. He’s been the same player in all of these summer league games. Like he’s done all of the similar things that you’d want to see from him. The one thing that I pointed out over and over is just the stuff you mentioned with just being a bowling ball, getting down to the basket, getting into the body of guys, being able to finish through traffic. And honestly, probably bigger than anything is his confidence. Like he looks like a really confident basketball player out there. And that isn’t really something that’s developed. That was there last year. I know there was like the moment like with Tatum that there was the back and forth there where he just like going at him in that type of game. It was like, okay, this guy’s ready for the moment. Look at him today. I mean, you see Stevenson and Walsh going at it bit back and forth and what does Pella do? Pella takes matters into his own hands where he wants the ball in his hands because he wanted to go at him and he d draws a foul as a pick up a second technical and he ends up getting ejected. That’s a heat type thing like to like put that on himself as like, okay, I’m the main guy on this team that has to kind of like figure this type of stuff out. I just think that’s a positive. He just looks like a positive offensive player right now. The shot as you mentioned is most with players like him. It really is all confidence to me. Like that’s what we talk about. Haime’s shot. I never thought Haime shot was broken. He had look he had moments in summer league where it looked really good where he actually developed it early on in the season but his confidence was shot and then when the confidence was shot the jumper looked shot and it just like kind of trickles from there. So the confidence is a major factor heading into next season. if you have this version of him kind of flowing into training camp, 100% I see this guy as a rotation player. Um, I’ll say one of the things I haven’t mentioned a lot of with him is his defense because that’s kind of one of the main things that we saw from him last year was how just physical he was defensively. Now, the reason I say physical is because one of the issues was he was somebody that would pick up a bunch of fouls. You’re still seeing that here, but I think in the back of his mind, he’s playing in a league game where he knows he has about 15 of them, so he’s going to use them. Uh, but he’s been better with it. Like it really like he I’ve seen moments where like he gets stays very vertical at the rim. Like he almost makes it like he’s trying to make a point of how vertical he is because he’s kind of developed that where he goes jumps off his feet really high but stays up in the air with his hands straight up. And it’s like I like to see that type of development. I like to see the kind of those in between things that are going to be needed heading into next season. They’re going to need that that kind of perimeter defense. And the reality is, I mean, I look at this roster and I say there’s not a ton of guys on this Heat roster that have the defense, like the perimeter defensive attributes of Pel Larson with also the offensive upside that we’re seeing. Uh, so I’ve just been very encouraged by the stuff we’ve seen from him. Uh, offensively, I kind of look at it where I think we’re going to talk about this later, but I just really trying I’m trying to figure out like what his role is going to be next season. And that’s what I’ve been trying to figure out. I feel like from California Classic to now. And I can’t really put my finger on it honestly. And I know I feel like that might be a good thing because if you don’t want to put a guy like him in a box, but I can’t really figure out he’s not okay. He’s getting a bunch of usage as you mentioned. I don’t think that’s going to be the case next season where he’s going to get a ton of usage, but I want to see him get more usage than he got last year. I want to see him kind of get the ability to kind of just try to make plays in those in between areas, get down the slots, just find different ways like not having to be a strict offball cutter, baseline guy because it seems like he is more than that. So, uh just a lot of good stuff from him and he’s a transition player and we we’ve seen it a bit in this summer league, but that was something we saw a lot last year. He’s a spark. He’s somebody that can like really energize you if he kind of, you know, the pick sixes just getting out in the open floor. really good at and ones around the rim. Like he’s just he’s a natural when he takes contact around that that area. So, we’ve just seen some really good things for him. This is obviously the last game as to why we were kind of wanted to touch on him because he’s going to play for his national team. Uh and I’m kind of think that’s kind of even better for him kind of get those reps with with those type of players because that’s a kind of different type of development because as much as he was high usage with the summer league team, he’s not going to be that same role for Sweden. He’s going to be a major part of Sweden, but they’re going to put him in different spots as well. So, I kind of think the versatility of kind of moving him around a little bit offensively will be good for him next season. For sure. And and you mentioned a lot a lot of great points there. And it’s almost like sometimes you don’t even like feel the need to mention the defense because it’s been like that’s the known quantity with him, right? Where like you mentioned the physicality that he showed all of last season. I think it’s it it got to the point where that’s why he got that spot at the end of the of the rotation there, you know, in the second half of the season is because of that like physicality on defense and you know he had the stretch where he was starting I don’t remember exactly what the numbers were he was averaging like 14 15 points like he like the offensive upside stuff obviously it’s to a certain extent but there is a certain level of upside in the sense that like you mentioned he was already a really really low usage player last year where like everything was um off ball. He’s a great cutter, but on a team that um lacks great spacing. So, I would be interested to see him, and I’ll get more into this in the second half of the show, but um you know, with specifically like some of those lineups with Hero and Pal, I think that could be a really interesting look for him, you know, since people talk about like DaVon being too small for that lineup. And I’m not saying like start with that or anything like that. Just to like see that unit, you know, um where Pelican can guard on the other side and then on offense he can play off of the gravity created by um Hero and Pow. Like I just think it’s a you know there there’s there’s some stuff that can that can be done there. But in general like I love his ability to close out um I mean uh to drive the close out, I’m sorry. And and then just make the right plays. Like he is a willing passer. He’s a high field player. now he has limits on his handle and I think we saw that tonight we’re like he wants to make the right play but the handle is just not like you know he’s never been that guy so he just he he doesn’t have that skill set necessarily and you’re not worried about that but um he had the the turnovers and most of it was like Baylor Shyman um you know stealing the ball from like the back like doing those little back taps right like that stuff that you know a point guard wouldn’t let happen but he’s not that guy right like he’s always been he’s mostly been an offball wing for the last couple of years, past few years in his career. So, um I’m looking forward to see what Pella does, but I forgot to mention this at the top and I’m going to do it now before we get to the rest of these guys and I’m going to try to make it quicker so we get through this show. Um shout out to our Discord server here off the floor. You guys should check it out. I know um a lot of the stuff that’s already taking place in the offseason might feel like, you know, most of it’s like like the offseason’s already almost over, right? like transaction wise. But I don’t know, man. Like there with everything going on with like the LeBron whispers, I’m sure we’re going to do some LeBron content there. Uh with everything going on with the Heat summer league team, you know, the recent Norm Powell trade, the um the ambiguity surrounding the Heat’s current direction, the best place to stay tapped into what’s going on is our Discord. So check out the link in the description. That is where we’re keeping everybody, you know, in the loop. That is where all our host updates go. Ethan and Leif are putting their information information there first. Stuff they’re not that, you know, they’re not putting everywhere. We’re giving our analysis there. People are are, you know, speaking in those chats all day long. You can talk about heat with real deal like heat dieards in there all day long, right? you can satisfy all your heat needs there because honestly it’s just not the same in other places. So, of course, uh link is going to be in the description. Thank you very much. Okay, so I’m going to try to uh uh put these two guys together just so we can kind of move through this a little bit quicker. And that’s just to protect myself, right? Because I know how I am. So, I’m gonna uh group Kashad and Khal here because I don’t want to we don’t need to spend a whole bunch of time on Kalo because a lot of the podcasts we’ve done recently have been on Khal, but both of them played well tonight, right? And I think both of them have share some similarities in the sense that they are limited offensive players who are going to be and of course Kashad is not somebody who saw a lot of time last year but in the sense of the their offensive role consists of being play finishers more often than not. guys who are going to screen and then when they get an off offensive opportunity, it’s going to be, you know, the opportunity to finish a play, right? Whether it’s, you know, in in a in a rolling situation, a putback situation, right? And I I think even in a situation where the Heat were missing a point guard out there, like their their point guard prospect, you know, those two guys were still able to shine and and show impact otherwise. What did you think about what you saw from those two guys? uh maybe with a little bit more of a lean towards Kashad since he hasn’t I mean since we haven’t talked about him quite as much. So I’ll start with Kell just as you mentioned we want to get through this one a little bit quicker. I thought this was by far his best summer league game just as a whole as the in between stuff like last game he filled up the statue offensively because of the effort stuff and he kind of just went out there wanted to put up some points. This was the game where he played like a dominant summer league game where he kind of impacted the game. Defensively, I thought he was really active, getting deflections, just kind of hanging around. Uh just being active in general. The boards, he ends up with 15 rebounds in this game. I thought he was just much better just just getting down low in around the basket and just like making sure of that uh and not like trickling out on the fast break. Like he was just kind of better in that range as well. And offensively, he did pretty much what he did last game. He ends up with 21 points, eight of 15 shooting. A lot of the stuff that I was talking about in the last podcast he did again to the in this game with the the three-point shooting ends up going three for three from three. Uh I’m gonna keep saying it, but I just think uh he’s just a much better shooter when he’s just quick release. Like all of his threes, all three of his threes in this game were just catching and firing. It’s just like I just want that version of him. And the last thing I’ll say is he was kind of being used with Golden where he was kind of in these two big lineups. And the reason I bring that up, but I know we’re going to talk about that a little bit later, but I like the idea of wear being used as the perimeter player compared to the inside roller. And the reason I say that is because this is important because I mean this is what we’re going to be talking about a lot with Kell and Bay. And I think what I’m seeing here is like they’re going to kind of rely on because look, we talked about this last episode as well. Bam’s a better screener. Bam is kind of more active in that short role where he can get to that elbow jumper. I think they’re going to prepare themselves if Kell is the day one starter, which I do think he still is going to be. I think that’s kind of this is kind of the ideal role for him. is like not to sit on the three-point line and take a bunch of threes because you still want him being the sevenfooter on the role that’s kind of, you know, doing that type of stuff, but I want him being the secondary roller. I want him being the secondary attack guy instead of the first one because he’s almost like we talked about his his ideas as a screener where it’s like he’s almost always going to slip it. Like he’s just going to just rub screen and dart. The issue is most of the times the ball handler is not going to make that pass because it’s like you’re not playing with the super elite playmaking point guard and the slip isn’t always the right read. It’s not always the right read and if he does he’s going to get trapped in the middle of the floor. So it’s like there’s different reasons to it but just I we’re going to get to it eventually down the line because it’s probably more of a training camp conversation but I just keep an eye on some of the stuff we saw today and I see that as kind of the role for Ko moving forward. As for Keshan, I was talking about Keshan yesterday where I, you know, he was two for 10, 0 for five from three, and I was kind of saying I like his defense. I like a lot of the things he’s been providing, but I still have question marks of what he is offensively. Like, if they throw him in the game this upcoming season, what is going to be his offensive role? Are teams going defense is going to respect him at all if he’s standing in the corner? Are they going to be worried about him in that that regard? This is the type of game you want to see from him. I mean, eight of 10 shooting, two or four from three. was clearly active on the defensive end and just the in between stuff. Uh ends up with 22 points, but it’s like he just played a really good all-around game offensively. He looked I I keep saying this word, but the confidence I mean Pella, Keshot, and Khell looked like players today that shouldn’t be in summer league. And that is what you wanted to see. You wanted to see them look like they’re they’re shoulders above a lot of some of these other guys. So, uh I just liked what I saw from Kesha. I think the idea of him if he could just be some type of knockdown not I won’t say knockdown shooter but be a capable outside shooter on open threes like we saw in this game. Uh he’s not somebody I see taking a bunch of contested ones just because he kind of I I just look at his shot and it’s one of those kind of hanging shots where he’s not a contested shooter. He’s he’s an open type shooter. But if they will they will he’s going to be open in those corners. And if he can just somewhat make them pay in in the reps that he gets, that changes everything because look, if it gets to this is why it’s so important is because if it does get to down the line where he is like a respected three-point shooter and that’s down the line and I’m not even saying like heavily respected. It’s just like okay, we’re not going to stand in the paint when he’s in the corner. He’s so athletic that if they step up on him in a hard close out, he can dart by you on that baseline. And that’s some of the stuff we see seeing in this game. the pure athleticism, the first step, all that stuff, the size when he gets around that that point at the rim. Uh he’s an interesting player. He really is. But it all kind of stems from what we’re going to see from the three-point line and where it’ll come from there. Uh so I’m interested. I This is the kind of intriguing factor I wanted to see. As we said in the last one, too, he’s not a ball handler. He’s not somebody there. I do want to see some more reps of him on the short roll. I want to see more reps with, you know, Pella not being with the squad moving forward. I want to see Caspers and Kesha Johnson actions where like Keshaw just rolls on that short roll because Caspers will get him that ball. He had Casper one of his best passes of entire summer league was that one Keshan Johnson slipped to the basket a few games ago. I don’t know if you remember it but he kind of slipped uh and it was just like a back door pass from Caspers and ended up like a pretty, you know, good finish at the rim from Keshan. I just want to see those like didn’t go through. Like Casper had a few of those passes where like the the teammate just didn’t finish it. I’m like, “Oh, man. We’re not going to get to see that on the highlights, huh?” Yeah. So, that that’s kind of where I stand with Kesha. I’m just curious to see uh we’re going to talk about his role, but I’m just curious to see what his role looks like, if this is the element that you’re getting, especially the one that you got in this game today. For sure, man. Um it’s really nice that you got so much scoring out of the three of them again in you know in offense that it’s just kind of like they’re the you know the actual team right not a lot of spacing out there man like Stevenson can really shoot the ball right and he started today but man like it’s not like they have a lot of shooting out there and for those guys who who these guys who we consider to be like somewhat below average shooters to different degrees to still perform out there and just kind of get it through the mud where like they’re coming out on the other side with these great shooting percentages like that. That’s something, man. Like, like you said, like you want to see these guys um completely outperform the competition and that’s what they did. Like, and I get it. The Celtics don’t have any like, you know, like top tier talent out there, but they do have like a bunch of guys who are draft picks, like recent draft picks, right? Just not top of the class, but you know what I mean? Like, they’ve got multiple NBA players out there, you know? This that’s a it’s a decent summer league team, man. Um, so I I I give them credit for for putting up big games in this in this uh on this stage because I think it was kind of needed, right? Especially like what you you wanted to see Kal respond and he two straight games, two straight games now where he comes out and and gives you like these really really productive games and he doesn’t look like he’s not doing the too cool for school stuff anymore. That’s that’s what I want to say about Kel because I I feel like sometimes I go too much on his flaws and he still needs to work on that stuff, but he there is definitely more um energy out there from his end. Uh as far as Kashad, man, like you said, he’s so interesting because of the athletic tools um and and the physical tools like he is he has access to stuff that other players just can’t do right on both ends of the floor. on defense it comes out it shows more often but I feel like it would show a little bit more on offense um obviously if he could get the floor like get onto the floor I should say I should say on like for the heat but um again in in an offense where you know there was a little bit more spacing and he could find some easy angles as a cutter angles as a roller um you know I just think we’re and we’ll talk about this more after the break as far is what he can or can’t be. But I’m still excited about Kashad, man. Like, he is somebody who I think they should keep around. And I know some people have criticized like them giving him a standard before, you know, like kind of like waiting out to see what was going to happen with the roster, but uh I think Kashad is somebody who you just lock up and you just get that part out of the way, right? It’s somebody who they seem to have a lot of interest in. I don’t know how much you’ll see the floor, but um yeah, it was good to see him have another productive game and this one was really like two-way impact cuz he has that defensive impact most of the time, like really makes plays on that end and in general moves his feet pretty well. Um and then on offense gave you the 22 points. So, shout out to Kell, shout out to Kashad. Um, we’re going to talk a little bit more about these three guys and what their role um could be for the Heat next season. But before we get into all of that, I want to shout out Price Picks. You guys already know the deal with Prize Picks, man. They’ve been our sponsor forever now. We love them. I know you guys love them. But if you haven’t signed up yet, of course, use our code five. The code is five. And all you got to do with with prize pegs is bet over or under on props. And honestly, man, like you can do it for any sport. They’ve got anything and everything you can think of on there, including Heat Summer League, by the way. Um, which I just confirmed through my sources here. But, uh, in general, you already know the deal with prize picks. Get on there, use our code five, and you get $50 instantly after playing $5. Use the code five. All right, Brady. So, I already teased what we’re going to do here, but has anything changed for you? And I want to group all these guys together for this one because we’re already at 24 minutes because I don’t know how to be quick with this stuff. Has anything changed for you with Pella, Keshad, or where with how you look at these guys? How you looked at them coming into this summer league? uh and how you look at them after, you know, this this sample of summer league games. Has there been any if there hasn’t been any significant change for you for any of the any of these guys, what are the things that are, you know, like what you’re going to be looking out for regarding their role this season and how that’s been affected by affected or even not affected by what you’ve seen in summer league. Yeah, I’ll say by far Pella’s been the one that’s kind of like my where my expectations were coming in where I was saying to myself it’s going to be a battle in training camp between Pella and Haime, but I mean I’ll say this before I get into Pella, I don’t want to like discredit the role of Haimey heading into next season because I really do believe Spo is going to play him. Like I think he’s going to at least try and figure this thing out. Like he’s the Terry thing. I think we’re past that point. Like I know like there’s just certain guys that I think they’re going to just they’re going to worry about their main guys. They worry about the guys coming in and all that stuff. Haime is not one of them. Like Spo really wants to get Haimey back on track. I know there was stuff he was, you know, mentioning about maybe not relying on the three ball as much where it’s like, okay, get him back to what worked before. So just keep that keeping that in mind. I still was thinking Pella and him was going to be a battle, but I just like I I have a hard time thinking Pella is the guy on the outside of the rotation looking in next season. And that’s why I think that’s kind of my where my expectation has changed most is is Pella just because that guy needs to play. Like he needs to play. And I thought you mentioning the lineups and stuff. It had me thinking when you mentioned Hero and Powell playing with Pella. The one I was thinking of specifically was Powell with BAM just because I think they’re going to need uh some perimeter defense in some of those lineups that they’re running with Powell as like the bench unit guy without Tyler like when it’s no Tyler no Kell and instead of it being you know a bunch of offensive options out there with no defensive options or vice versa where it’s like okay you’re throwing D’Von out there some of the or Haywood Highmith off the bench like Pellet’s kind of the easy tweener that they can at least like they have an opportunity here where he can get more on ball usage in a lot of these lineups. So, I think where we both stand is that I like the idea of Pella and Powell to be honest. I think that’s going to be like an interesting tandem that they could work just because there’s versatility with the size uh and just the offensive defense and things. So, that’s part of it. Uh Kell is I’m going to be honest, he nothing changed for me in the summer league. I know there was all the hype behind the effort thing and I’ve mentioned the three-point shooting or there’s been certain things. I think is glow. I I we knew this coming in. We knew this last June when they drafted it. They knew what this was. They knew what they drafted. They knew that the one part of this was going to be this guy can do this. This guy can have his moments. This guy has really high level offensive upside and defensive upside. The the question is, can you get it consistently? Can you get it 82 games in a regular season? Can you get it night in and night out, you know, Tuesday night against Charlotte? Can you get that version of KL consistently? and we’re still going to see that. Uh, that’s kind of where I land on him. And Keshan, I don’t want to say I I’ve changed majorly because I still it’s a lot of stuff that we’ve already talked about that I’m not going to keep talking about over and over, but I still am where I am with Keshaw that he’s he always gets this Haywood comparison because he’s behind him in the depth chart and he’s kind of the guy. If Haywood is out, he steps in. But I don’t think I think it’s almost kind of a little disrespectful to Haywood just to say this, you know, somebody that came in on a two-way contract, they got a standard contract can like easily replace him because Haywood’s developed this game where he has really developed his three ball. Like he’s he’s gotten to this level. And that’s why I think it’s not the comparison, but honestly, I think it’s actually Kesha needs to use Haywood as a model to of what he needs to get to. Like if okay if I could develop my three-point shot like this where maybe I get a little more air time like Haywood did or just like the little tweaks that he made to his jumper and if he gets to that point it’s Haywood Highmith offensively with just much more offensive you know athleticism and stuff at the basket and the attacking and all that stuff. So I’m not a fan of that comparison but just my overall thing of changing was just what I want Keshan to get to because I do think the potential is there. I think he can get to that. Uh, and that’s why they ultimately got him on a standard contract because I think they see that, too. So, uh, Kesha’s going to play this season. I think that that’s clear to me. He’s he’s not like he’s going to be in the regular rotation, but he’s going to have games where he plays. He might even have a game where he starts, but 100% he’s going to have a lot of games where he’s kind of a guy that comes in off the bench and tries to make an impact. Uh, and that was the role of Pella last season, right? That’s why I say Pella’s beyond that to me. Pella is not a guy that you throw in, you know, one every four games because you want to spark. Pella needs to be in there regularly. He’s he’s a rotation guy at this point to me. No doubt about it. I’m with you there. I kind of just, you know, I have him there almost in pen at this point really. Um, and with with Keshot, I’m with you. Like he he’s got to get to the baseline that Haywood’s at regarding the the catch and shoot three. And I think obviously like they the comparison is not good as far as like their two play styles, right? But if you talk about getting to that catch and shoot baseline, I think what Kashad can provide, man, it can really separate. He can really separate himself from Haywood. If he gets to that level of three-point shooting where it’s just like, okay, he’s not by any means a knockdown guy, but he will hit these open ones. And that’s that’s where Hwood’s at. like he’s not taking a whole lot of them, but he takes open ones and he hits them at a pretty good rate. Like it’s kind of what we got with DaVon and what we’re probably going to continue to get. Like I’m not trying to jinx her or anything. We probably don’t get 45% again from three, but just in general like a guy who you feel comfy with them taking those open threes and they feel comfy taking those open threes that are being given to them. And I think it’s going to happen with Kashad. No doubt he’s going to get plenty of space, right, if he does touch the floor. And I do think he’s going to touch the floor more this season. Of course, it’s a low bar, right? like it’s an easy one to go over cuz he didn’t play much at all last season. Uh but I think especially if we do see any sort of trade involving Wiggins andor uh Haywood just depart wise like it’s two guys who are playing the three sometimes the four you know depending on what Spo does this season. Um and I think that like something like that would clear the way depending on what they got in return but it doesn’t seem like that’s something that’s likely to happen. uh you know the report came out from the the Athletic Lakers reporter today saying that uh Wiggins you know the Lakers are not really that interested in him. So just in general like and I thought that was something that could affect Pella too by the way since I haven’t mentioned him here in in in this in this portion. Um like if a Wiggins andor Haywood got moved Pella oh man he might be playing 29 minutes per game sooner than later because of the amount of like wing minutes that open up. um if that were to happen. And again, I’m not trying to like talk about it like it is going to happen or anything, but that’s just like something that went through my mind as far as how their role may or may not change cuz I’m with you. Like my my opinion didn’t really change that, you know, it didn’t swing too hard in either direction for any of these guys. P I was just going to jump in and say P and like in Spose’s eyes, Pella’s like wing Davon Mitchell to me. like that like that’s his mindset because those are the type of guys that he just wants to play for as you said 42 minutes like he he want he’s they’re not going to well DaVon’s starting at this point but like those guys that come in off the bench that he just keeps out there the rest of the 18 minutes of the entire half because he never brings them out. Pella is at that point. He’s at that level. I I really do think Spo is going to he’s he’s a he’s a he’s he’s just a hard player to like take off the floor because he’s just always impacting things and how hard he gets after it. I know I joked around about how much he dives on the floor, but he’s legit always on the floor offensively or defensively. Like he is just like going at it at a crazy level. So, uh that always helps. Like that part of it helps just because I know this guy’s like Spo’s going to play this guy and that’s why I’m interested because it’s like you the guy that Spo would usually lean into is Pel Larson, but the guy that Spo does believe in it’s Haimey Hawkins to get back to the level that he was in his rookie season. So I’m like it’s tough for me to like predict what I think Spo is going to lean into next season. Maybe like my question is I guess and we’ll finish here like is there any possibility where let’s say Pel is playing at a really high level in a training camp but Haime kind of also has a redemption where he’s shooting the ball decently well. Is there a way that they both could play off the bench? Because I I don’t know. It’s I have a hard time seeing how they would be able to do it but do you think it’s possible? I think it’s technically possible, you know. Um, I don’t know if I I wouldn’t expect that, but I think it’s it’s technically possible first because I don’t like you can start, you know, u narrowing it down if it’s like you you don’t expect Casper to play. If you think like Spo for some reason, whatever reason is not impressed by, I don’t know, like Fonteio shooting, he’s like, “Okay, it’s not worth, you know, whatever flaws you perceive. He’s not like a good enough shooter to play him.” Like whatever. I’m just trying to figure out like like the path right to how you get to Hakez and Larson obviously and he must to play either if they don’t get let’s say they don’t get the backup big I guess and it is the big man room is bam and wear and it’s like okay well we have to stagger this season we have to kind of do this I could see a way where like let’s say it’s the Davon Tyler Wiggins Bam wear just for now and then you throw Powell with Haimey and Pella and then maybe you mix in a Haywood and you’re staggering Bam and wear I guess that would be my only way I could think of where they could figure it out. But it’s tough. It’s just tough. The reason I bring it up is just like it’s tough. It’s a tough thing to figure out the way for them both to play. And I hate to pin them against each other, but I do think it is a case in training camp where that’s going to be the most interesting battle to me. It’s going to be kind of who comes out on top there. Uh, and who ends up cracking the rotation, but I guess it is possible. Ideally, that they do have a backup big though. I really hope that’s not the case where it’s like Pel and him are playing off the bench because they didn’t get anybody else to back up wear. I I really hope that’s not the case, but it is a possibility. I I’m going to differ with you a little bit on that. I don’t I wouldn’t mind whatsoever if they got another like they they they absolutely do need death piece like a deaf piece um as far as like another big man. I think I didn’t mention Nico. I just got to say that I was knew I was missing somebody when we were going through that and that’s a big part of this as well. So, that also puts like a big piece of this. No, no doubt. That is 100% like a big uh factor into all this. And I’m with you. They need another They need another five just like depthwise. But I’m honestly like if it were up to me, and you know, for good reason, it isn’t. But if it were up to me, I I would be a stagger guy with Bam and wear. And not like 100%. I just mean like after the starting lineup, you know, one of them is on the floor at all times. then you can go back to it if you want like for a closing unit if you’re really impressed with wear that day whatever but um and I think that’s likely where like it goes if I had to bet not only because that’s where the roster is right now where like there there isn’t another five other than flag golden on a two-way um and uh so like even if they did have another five let’s just say like a replacement level veteran minimum big like a guy you know what I mean just I I think he would probably still stagger but I think it just in general if you another like a third big there who you can play cuz like you’re just you’re one injury away from being like extreme like it’s you’re one injury away from it being a real problem and I know that like injuries in general like you could say that about a lot of players but yeah like the heat just in general like two bigs on the roster is not enough especially when you’re starting two of them next to each other right like I just think it would be really nice to have another one there and uh yeah so I agree with you there um as far as Kell man I think you’re going to hear around training camp, and I know it’s been said before, but I agree with this sentiment that the the starting the starting lineup is, you know, a competition. I think that’s what you’re going to hear. Now, how much of it like or not? I I’m with you. I’m with you. I I I I think it should be. I don’t think Hello, you know, I think you want to make him feel like he has to put it all out on the floor and kind of you mean you want him to be there already, but just in a sense of like, hey man, like if you don’t clean up some of the stuff that we’ve been I know like for sure they’ve been asking him to do this stuff forever now. Like this is it’s the same like you mentioned it’s the same stuff that was the book on him pre-draft, right? like if he doesn’t like if they they feel like he’s not where he needs to be with some of the stuff that they need him to do, I think for sure you you make it a competition and and if somebody, you know, specifically Nico beats him out on the job where it’s just like, hey, I’m not necessarily like an advocate of that for as much as I like Nico and and think he’s good. Um because I sometimes like Nico in the starting lineup like it just ends up not looking that great unless they’re really going to emphasize him like on ball. you know, if they’re not going to do that, then I’m not really interested in it because I think there is something like to be said about like the idea of like him on ball bringing up the, you know, the ball up the court and then you see like Pow and Hero running off of screens like, okay, well, that’s going to be the stagger off the bench, right? I mean, that’s the ideal thing to me. I mean, you Nico is your backup point guard in a sense as your ball handler. Then you have Tyler staggered with with Powell a little bit like that that’s ideal to me. That’s that’s why you have to so like you could say that you have to go earn it but it’s also not just where earning the starting lineup thing. It also to an extent is you know maybe it’s DaVon and Powell like even like there’s there’s ways to frame this all around the board of of getting after it. Uh I mean I’m I’m it’s Tyler and Bam that are locked in right now in the starting lineup and everybody else go earn your spot. Like that’s the way they have to kind of treat training camp. For sure. I’m with you there. I’m honestly like I’m more you know we don’t have to get too much into it. We’re just I I I’m just enjoy talking ball with you, but the POW stuff, man, I would love to see him start, you know. Um not only because of how good he is and how much they need the offense, but I just want to see it, you know. I would like to see the Heat like those type of shooting threats around Bam. I would love to see how it looks and how they figure that out around th those two would be interesting, right? But I would like to see it, you know, and we will see it. Like for sure we’re going to see it. Maybe it just isn’t, you know, like I feel like everybody has different expectations for how the lineup is going to play out. I’m not I’m really not sure. I’m really not sure. Like I have maybe like expectations that Bam and Wear are still going to start, but I wouldn’t be abs like 100% shocked if Yoic somehow came out as a starter. I would still bet on where though, right? And then in the back court, like you mentioned, Hero is a lock. I think Pow is is I would lean on him being a starter and then from there uh I think but I I don’t think it’s it’s it’s in pen but then you get to DaVon and we get it gets tough. It gets it gets tough there. So let’s that’s for another pod though. Yeah. Let’s hope Ethan doesn’t get to Yeah. Let’s hope Ethan doesn’t get to the 39th uh minute of this episode to hear that we turn this summer league recap into starting lineup and rotation talk. So uh but honestly man, it’s whatever. like we that that was just we just dipped our toe into rotation talk and you know what it all came from a good place with good intentions because it it originally started with the guys who are here playing in summer league. But look, they’re they’re they’re a huge part of what the Heat are now, you know, with this iteration of the team. They’re they’re they’re a huge part of this team and what and like fans are what fans are looking forward to seeing next season. Like most of it has to do with these younger players who have, you know, intrigue. So like um you know uh it it was it was nice to see you know the three guys all play well in the same game together and really all three of them give you two-way impact. So with that being said um shout out to Brady Hawk, shout out to Price Picks, shout out to our off the floor Discord server. Oh and also shout out to the guys who covered the game for us on Playback playback.tvrn. We watch the games there if you want to check that out. Um, again, the Discord link is in the description. 299 per month. Make sure to do it on your computer if you can. Discord. Um, thank you Brady. Thank you to everybody for listening. And we are going to wrap it up there. Have a good nature.

Alex and Brady discuss the Heat’s first Vegas Summer League win, featuring big games from Kel’el Ware, Pelle Larsson and Keshad Johnson.

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