Miami Heat: Should Erik Spoelstra continue being out(Spo)ken? | Five on the Floor

Miami Heat: Should Erik Spoelstra continue being out(Spo)ken? | Five on the Floor

All right, welcome back to Five on the Floor. Here’s today’s floor plan. First, we’re celebrating the end of Miami Heat summer league. I do not need to see some of the players on that team ever again. But we’re going to talk about Eric Skolra today. My name is Ethan Skolnick. You can follow me at Ethan J. Skolnick and five reasons in sports. I got Sean Rochester. You can follow me at SR RochesterNBA. We’ve got one of the writers for our website. Make sure you check out five reasonsports.com is coverage of uh WNBA, The Heat, Boxing, and more. We got Matteo Mayorgga. We’re in three different locations right now, three different states. Uh I am back in the state of Florida, but I was in Las Vegas and I was there for a rare occasion. It’s like a meteor. Eric Spoler speaking poorly of a player publicly. Um not something that we typically hear him do. since he took over in 2008. Uh he has sort of found his voice over time as he’s become a more credible person in the league and ultimately the longest tenured coach uh in the NBA with one team. Uh but the one thing he has really not done is step out and criticize to the media. Um I’ve always said that what he does is he he praises individually when criticize sort of collectively. He doesn’t go after particular players. Now, Pat Riley used to do that. Um, used to do that a lot. Other coaches have done it. Um, Pop certainly has done it. Uh, but it’s never really been Spolster’s way. He will say something on the side at times, but publicly he doesn’t want to do that and he’d rather not speak much publicly at all. That’s what made this unusual the other day because just to give a little bit of context on this, uh myself and Anthony Chang were sitting baseline before one of the summer league games and uh Spolster came over, said hello, spoke for a few minutes. I I noted that not even a few minutes, it was like four or five minutes. Um noted that he he looks refreshed. Uh there was a lot of conversation about things he’s been going through and obviously that was a challenging season last year dealing with Jimmy Butler and everything else that went into it. Uh but he looked refreshed and we were just, you know, speaking casually about a couple things. And then he joked, “Oh, maybe I’ll talk to you guys tomorrow at practice, which he used to do that when he’d be out at summer league, but hasn’t, from my knowledge, hadn’t done that in a while.” But it wasn’t just like a little like three minutes, I’m trying to get out of here. It was it went for 18 minutes. Um, and you know, I was there with Anthony Chang, with Tim Reynolds, Ira Winderman, uh, Wes Goldberg, and Jason Jackson. Okay, so the six of us were there. He knows all of us. And he, but he spoke to the public. It was, this wasn’t just like him chatting with us or something like that and saying, “A player needs to get it together.” He spoke with the public. And when he was asked about Kell Wear, who had played poorly, not just poorly, but had played with very little effort in the previous game, he was very direct. and he even opened it with what seemed like a prepared speech. Uh there are levels to this and then went on from it. And and reason I’m having uh Sean and Matteo on is because they have very different perspectives on this because as this was happening, we chat about it on our internal strings. Um and so I want to get their views on it. And I I guess I’ll just start here. Sean, it’s not something he typically does. Um, the last time I can remember him even even leaning this direction was with Dion Waiters when I was up uh at camp in uh Palm Beach in 2019 and Dion said something to us about how he wanted to get more touches or be more featured and Spo was like, “Well, yeah, we’re not going to do that.” Basically, right afterwards, but it wasn’t prepared. It was like it was reaction to what Dion had just said on the same court a few minutes earlier. But before that, the only player I can really remember and I guess there was a little of beasley, but it was early in Spo’s grid was Whiteside that that when Hassan would sort of challenge after games, be frustrated about touches, and Spo did go at him a couple of times publicly. What do you make of the fact that he did this with Wear and then we’ll talk about the response that Wear had, which I thought was actually pretty good. Yeah, I think the fact that as you said, it’s not a common thing that he does, um, makes me believe, and I think we can probably agree on this based on what other things I’ve heard, is that there’s there’s been more to this behind the scenes. This wasn’t just a reaction to a few summer league games. And I I feel like, you know, Beasley is a great comparison. Not that we’re saying that Kal and Beasley are the same because you know that that connotates certain things with what Beas was doing off the floor, but just because of the age like Assam was a little bit older because of the path he took to get to the NBA. Um, but the fact that Spo doesn’t do this often makes me believe that this conversation certainly has happened prior to this. Like this was not breaking news doing this publicly. These conversations have happened repeatedly, I would imagine, over and over off the court prior to this before it went public. And the fact that he doesn’t do it often, it has more meaning. Like the comparison I would give is as a coach, if I’m constantly yelling, it loses its effect at certain points. Spo the fact that he’s not calling people out publicly or individually often this really, like you said, a meteor. Like all he’s doing is coaching. And I don’t think Kell was like blindsided by it. maybe the fact that it went public, but he knows this criticism is in the minds of the coaching staff. So, I I don’t I don’t want to overreact to it, but I do think it’s important that we talk about it because this is, you know, one of the most important players in our program right now. Well, and to that end, um I just to give a little bit more background about h how this ended. So, Spolster was asked by Anthony about where very basic question, you know, about his effort and where he is and all that. and he spoke around for like two or three minutes and then I asked about Yovic right afterwards and suppose eyes lit up and it became this uh comparison that he made about where Yovic was when he first broke in and where he is now in terms of professionalism and then he pivoted back to well that’s why I’m encouraged by Kell but the wording of that is a little weird I don’t think he meant to say encouraged by Kell He’s encouraged that Wear is going to figure it out because Yovic did, but that it wasn’t that he was encouraged in the moment by what Wear has actually done. Uh, and then I I guess the next part of this was Wear came out and played harder in the next two games. I mean, I was sitting baseline and watched both of them. Like he he played harder. He did he he set not perfectly, but he set better all the little things that that Spo wants him to do. the setting the screens, the boxing out on rebounds, the nonboxcore stuff. He did those things in the next two games. And he also had the right responses in his postgame interview uh both times about sort of taking it to heart. Matteo, you had a different reaction to this though because I know Sean at first his reaction was, “Okay, this is this is good. This is coaching.” Why didn’t why didn’t you like it from Smolstra? Thank you for having me back. Um, I’m not a fan of this because I don’t like it when a coach snitches on their player. I’m perfectly aware of wearing out Spolstra, but it’s unnecessary because of the rift it can create. You know, public comments are usually for show. I have zero doubts that Eric Spolstra could have lit the same flame under his rear with one of his tur intensity one-on-one conversations telling him, “Look, man, I’m coming after your minutes if you don’t get it together.” And I think that’s the most effective way to motivate a player who especially is got like these maturity issues because money or excuse me playing time equates to money down the road. And if you were out of the rotation for a certain amount of time, you likely will not get the certain amount money you are looking for at the end or at the next cycle. You know, players are no different than the three of us. They don’t want to be humbled in front of a large room, especially in front of people who may respect them. And you know, Ethan, you touched on it a moment ago. This is some of the most eyepopping stuff since Dion Waiter and Hassan Whiteside. The the quote that I thought of was the one that’s really going to age me when he he said that he needs to be or speaking of Hassan, he needs to be more accountable to the players and the coaching staff. And you know, I’m usually skeptical of these approaches because, you know, you think of a year ago in the off season, you know, the relationship with Jimmy Butler was already souring, but uh Pat Riley spoke to him through the press telling him to shut up and it it really didn’t uh help things and considering how good the Heat were at their best with him, it was unnecessary at that point. and you know uh privately I I don’t I don’t want to try to steal the the sauce but you mentioned that this is kind of like Spolster really asserting himself further because uh strong and contradicting personality is no longer there. I’d like to take this a little further. It seems to me that Bam Arabio, the team captain, has not become the vocal force that he needs to be yet. And uh Spolster is taking on the role of almost like the old Udonis Hazm. And granted, you know, he was the one president at the time and you know, he was the one caught in the scrum, but you know, you think of the severity of, you know, or how heavy these comments are. That’s and it’s it’s not more serious than being, you know, said that you’re not being a good enough professional. And the other underlying message, hey, I don’t have your back here while I sick the media wolves on you like Ira, like Barry, and now you got to deal with this storyline the entire year. I I just don’t think it was necessary. That’s now I’ve got an image of Barry as a wolf. So, I’m going to hold that one in my head. Uh, except reality. Um, I I’ll let let me pivot on this a little bit because I I think there’s a larger conversation to have on the other side of this of kind of where Spur’s voice is going in the organization, which I think there’s more to this ultimately. Um, but I I guess Sean, the reason that I kind of lean on your side on this, and it’s with all respect for Matteo’s comments, is because I I I think that in this day and age, um, the play the way to get players to respond the most is by humbling them publicly. And I don’t think it’s necessarily I and I don’t think Spo did it with, you know, total force. Okay. I I I but I think what look where was walking out of the out of the the way they have it set up there at Resorts World where the team was staying was they have tents set up in the back like these huge tents and you know they have courts there and where was walking out alone and he’s scrolling his phone. I have no idea what he was scrolling, okay? Could have been scrolling anything. But the point is he definitely did pay attention to social media because I know that he took offense to a video that I posted of him doing uh basically I came in, okay, before talked, you know, we come in, we come in towards the end, they let us see more during this period of time than they let us see during the season, but we come in and I just start shooting the video. I just start shooting a video wherever and I literally focused on wear for 33 seconds. That’s it. Okay. before spoke came out and I was like, “Okay, I got to put the phone away because I’m going to go, you know, we got to redirect it towards a conversation with Folster and the 33 seconds I took were of him versus Golden and he where looked terrible and disengaged on two reps against Golden and so I posted it as I often as I post video I posted video of where making a three-point shot also. I posted lots of video the next day. But I guess this video because somebody who’s connected to Jimmy Butler decided to make a big deal of it and so Wear saw it, posted something on it which he then deleted. But the overall point is okay and the next day I posted like eight positive videos about where there’s no agenda here against it was just this is the video that I posted. Um but I guess the overall point is on it that he he he’s paying attention to social media by the way as most players do as I know Hero did for years. Okay. as I know that that LeBron did. Okay. All right. Dwayne would see things. Okay. This is and I I think in this era, we can talk about money and all this and and where it plays into where’s not in the position to get paid yet. They do they can hold playing time over him. They can hold a starting position over him. But I guess that’s why Sean, I think this day and age is a little different. I I feel like the your peers are out there in the public. So, so doing it out there, I think is motivational to some to some guys and maybe you’re trying to see if this is a button you can push. Yeah. And I agree with that in terms of like this age of athlete and how they respond. What would make me fearful of this strategy is so are you telling me that because this is not fixed. I know I’ve seen people like, you know, doing the circling of like, oh my god, he called him out. He played well for two games. Like that’s really cool. It’s what July 19th, 18th. like we fixed the problem in a week. If it was that easy, imagine how great Spo could make every single player. He’d just go to the public or go to the media, call them out, and immediately within a week, they’re all solved. Like, what do we you know, it’s this is going to be an ongoing problem. This was something that was brought up when we drafted KL. So, what I would be fearful of is again, this has happened behind the scenes. He didn’t respond to it then and it took a July report, you know, from Resort Worlds to make him play harder. Like, I’m not saying that I’m indicting him on forever and, you know, forever he’s going to be a lazy, unmotivated, all those, you know, unprofessional. No, I mean, he he’s a young kid. He can fix it. We remember we went through this with Tyler about the the music festivals and stuff. Like, there was always the, you know, there’s always these things that these young guys have to learn. I just to me I don’t have any problem with it. I understand what Matteo is saying in terms of like the individual. Um but if it is a button that he can press I think you can only press it so many times before at some point that button becomes jammed and like K’s got to figure it out and not just to him but any young player at this point. And and on the other side of this, I’m gonna I want I’m going to let Matteo respond and I want to let him respond on the other side, but I also again want to get into kind of why I thought this was more significant for Spre than for where um in terms of where the organization, no pun intended, uh may ultimately be going here. Before we do, we want to mention great sponsor of the Five Reason Sports Network. Where you should be going if you’re looking for a house is ago how Pat would always kind of do this like in the 90s. You know, it’s not strange for, you know, Pat to kind of go back on his own preachings, but for the most part, they’ve always preached to, you know, follow the heat of staying in silence. And that kind of goes back to, you know, how he always wanted players to be when he started with the Lakers. In his first year, he got super pissed off at Michael Cooper over some comments that he made frustratingly to the newspaper about Kareem’s shot diet and how he he wanted more. Pat Riley lit into him there because it, you know, cast a negative light. And um on top of that, there was another instance that same year where he humbled the entire team. It was called the Salt Lake explosion. And they wouldn’t even look at him when he he got on the bus the next day. They wouldn’t like start, you know, uh, being okay until he got them all in a circle and apologized for what he did. It’s just, you know, you only like more to what Sean said, you only have so many of these triggers that you can push before you, you know, you can start, you know, tuning out a player. I don’t, I hope I didn’t, you know, uh, but butcher your point. And you know it gets very uh in my opinion dangerous when you you do that because man like again I’ve been you know in in previous jobs like I I used to work as a as a groundskeeper in college housing at two separate places and I I had a a not so great boss who would you know try to uh show me up in front of other people and that type of stuff you know it builds resentment. I’m not trying to, you know, compare myself to an NBA player, but those type of things are natural for people to feel. And, you know, again, sticking with Spolster’s comments about professionalism, man, uh, highlighting an extreme case, uh, the Orlando Magic calling out Shaquille O’Neal’s professionalism is the real reason why he didn’t stick around. They wanted him to report back on time when he was grieving the death of his grandmother and he took it as a sign of some disrespect, like, how dare you? and they were done since. So like you know prof professionalism is uh is a very you know a tricky thing to go at and you know credit to where that you know he played a lot better in the next game but you know I’m I’m curious to see if if this is going to last because of course you know we’ve you know known throughout the year that you know he’s had a motor that doesn’t always reach his his sixth gear. But again, like I’m not with this man. Like, you know, you you say you’re about keeping things in house. It does look right to the young player. You know, you start thinking about the circle of trust being broken when you conveniently start breaking this, you know, credo for, you know, to send a message to somebody. You’re on mute. Oh, sorry. Let me ask about that term professionalism because um that one of the things that happens here is when you use kind of a broad term like that, right? Right. That can encompass a lot of different things. Sure. So im immediately after that, you know, we all started to start, okay, well, what was this about? Like that’s always the next question, right? Okay. Is this just what we were seeing on the floor, which is it’s a summer league game? Maybe he was a little too cool for school, wasn’t taking it seriously enough because it doesn’t really count. Maybe he felt like he shouldn’t have been there because he was, you know, second team all rookie and started the end of last season even though Hakez did was first team all rookie and played a couple games the next year. Um, maybe it was just that or maybe it was more, right? Like maybe it’s missing meetings, maybe it’s missing curfew, maybe it’s this, maybe it’s that. And that’s where everybody starts to go with this. Do do you if you’re going to use a term like professionalism as a coach, do you need to specify or is it just enough to leave it out there? Because I can kind of see it both ways. Like I I can feel like if you’re giving away details of what was going on here that that’s going to be worse, but at the same time when you say professionalism, you kind of leave it open to the imagination for everybody. You know, like again, go ahead, I want Shaw to get in on that, too. My bad. Naturally, like I I don’t think you should be snitching, but like naturally, like when when uh people like yourself, you hear him saying or go to that and it seems like a prepared speech, you want to know what it’s about and you hope it’s not like something uh that’s, you know, too serious, but you know, I think what he did was enough. You know, you said you said professionalism like you don’t put yourself in a further hole with the player. Yeah. Yeah, and I’ll add, you know, obviously where Matteo stands, if you’re if you’re vague about it in professionalism, certainly if you go into specifics that, you know, look, Kell was out until 4 in the morning playing blackjack and he went to, you know, like you’re there’s no way that you’re going to keep the credibility. And I think if you make this broader, I think that’s where Ethan was trying to go with this episode is like Spo, not that he didn’t have a voice before, but this is outside the norm of what we know of him. I think you’re in a very slippery slope if you start being too specific. But I also think, you know, we’ve talked a lot about Kell. If this is a new strategy or a new Spolstra, you if you’re going to do that for one, you almost have to do it for all. Not that all players have to be treated equally, but like is he going to call out Tyler for shot selection? Is he going to call out, you know, Bam’s leadership or his his ability to be the cat? Like those types of things. Not that everybody has to be treated equally because that’s not how professional sports, not how sports works, not life. But I just think it’s a it’s a unique circumstance where I think he tried to pull a lever to make it work. And at least short-term results are good. Um, but I I don’t think that you’re going to see Spolster calling people out on the regular with you guys as you’re in the media scrum because these are ultimately their people. And the reaction to that, especially if that lever is pulled too many times, is going to pollute, poison your locker room. And well, Sean, Sean, to that end, to that end, if the media jumps on something like this too much, then the the typically the reaction from the team will be to close ranks and go after the media. That that’s how these things work. It’s like you kind of you kind of start the fire but then if we make too much of it and and you know again the comparison starts getting made you know to Hassan and I as someone who covered Hassan and doesn’t know Khal that well but has been around him a little bit and was there for the two post practice post game interviews out there after this happened. I mean he’s he’s a soft spoken I mean I was there the night he was drafted and there’s a confidence to him and all the rest of that. I was in New York that night and and he’s very pleasant. he’s engaging. Uh but you know, he’s he’s kind of laidback. That’s sort of his personality uh in this regard. Um I I don’t think anybody’s viewing him as a problem. I just think it’s they’re trying to get the most out of him and figure out what. And I think where I agree with you, Sean, is that it’s clear that it didn’t work behind the scenes. Like they were not comfortable with the results that they were getting for one reason or another. Whatever it is that he specifically did to set Smolstra off to the point that he would take this step, it was not working. And I guess let’s get back to this and how what it means for training camp because I’ve and then we’ll do the Sper part here last. I I I’ve made the case that the best way to kind of get the most out of him and Matteo was kind of hinting at this is not to gift him a starting spot going into camp. And especially, and that’s why I asked the question about Yoic right after, cuz it would seem like the person who could push him the most on the current roster for that spot would be Yoic. Um, I’ll let Sean start on this one, then go to Matteo. I mean, how do you approach that? Because it seems like Bam wants Bam where to start with him. Not because not because Yovic uh he doesn’t like Yovic, but because he wants to play with a more traditional I know you hate this five. Um right. So if you’re leaning into what your captain wants and what maybe your highest upside is, it’s probably where. But it seems like this is the one carrot you could hold off o over him. Sure. And I think competition going into training camp is great. I mean, you besides Tyler and Bam, I would say anyone else, you’re competing for your spot in the rotation, in the starting lineup, whatever it may be. Or, you know, we’ve talked about it. You’re going to start DaVon, you going to start Pow, you’re going to start Wiggins, you’re going to start Nico or Wear, like there’s a lot of guys in that in in that mix. Um, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Having competition is always going to bring out the best in especially these types of athletes. Um, I agree with you. It should be a motivator for Kout. He should not be gifted. Um, but you know, you look back at over the course of time, there’s a lot of controversy or discussion about when when Tyler said he feels like he should be a starter. Um, Kell has not said that, but I would assume you go into your, you know, you finish your rookie year as the starter, you would assume that next year you’re going to get better and you would keep that spot. But I’m also sure that Nico feels like he has earned it over the course of many years, had injuries, had things that cost him opportunities, and that he wants to have that spot, too. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Um I to me I think you should be talking to both of them about what they need to do and you’re trying to build habits even though Nico now is a little bit older. You’re trying to build habits and that’s what you know ultimately I think the root of what Spo is trying to do is him alongside of the guys like Malik Allen, Alonzo Morning you know the guys that are on the team that are mentors Udonis um are trying to build habits for a young man that is 19 years old or 20 years old that he wants they want him to be a great professional basketball player. If he’s Han on the court even though it was a short spurt that’s great that’s a great pick. You just don’t want him to be Hassan off the court and have the longevity end up being, you know, wherever he’s playing overseas in a couple years. Um, and that’s that’s part of this process. All right. I and I we we’re going to close here soon, but I’ll let Matteo jump in on that and then I want to talk about Spo. What would you do as far as the uh as the competition in camp? Matteo, he he definitely got to earn it. You’re definitely right. It can’t be something that’s uh hand or gifted to him. As you recall, the power of a good benching. Nikico Leovic uh got his minutes slashed after the Heat’s visit to here in Denver, which we were credentialed for. And after that, when he started getting some more playing time, he was better on his drives. He was a better release valve, hitting some more open threes, and his decision-m was better. And you know, you you started to see a lot more growth uh more more easily. And you know, I I think part of, you know, getting a player to blossom like that is you cannot give them something they haven’t earned yet. right now. I I don’t believe Kell has earned it just off his his rookie season alone. Okay. All right. Let’s get to the next part of this and that’s Spolstra and that’s where this goes because obviously Pat is 80 and we don’t know how much longer he’s going to be in the position he’s in with the organization. We we’ve we should and we’ve done some on this but we should do more episodes because people still don’t understand it that the heater are kind of run like a consensus collective now more so than a strong man. uh it’s you know it’s it’s about six or seven voices in there and they come to decisions together. So, but Riley is still the front man at least for the one time he speaks to the media per year uh once or sometimes we get him twice. Okay, something along those lines. Uh you know, my belief is that ultimately what’s going to happen here is, you know, Nick Harrison has had final say since 2011. Obviously, the Arisons still own the team. Uh and you know, like I said, there’s a collective here. Adam Simon has gotten a little bit more prominence in terms of what he’s done. Andy Ellisburg obviously still a huge factor in the organization and has the title to prove it. Um, with that said, I the lean here is that Eric Spolster is probably going to be the front man here going forward. Okay. And I believe he’ll he’ll hold the coach title while he has that role. That’s my prediction based on the information that I’ve gathered over the years and the people that I know. If that’s the case, Sean, then is it different when you’re when when ultimately Pat slides more and more out of the picture? Because Pat’s had the one voice philosophy and his thing has been Spo’s that voice during the season. Okay. I’m only that voice in the one day I speak to the media when it’s over. But I I kind of feel like I don’t know if Spo did this intentionally and I doubt he did. I don’t think he’s I don’t think he thinks in these terms. But the fact that he does speak out now, is there more of that to be done if he ends up being the Riley of this organization? Well, I guess the question would be how available was he going to be to the media? You know, Pat speaks once, maybe twice a year. If Spo’s only doing it once or twice, it’s really hard to like go back. Hey, three months ago, remember when Kell was being unprofessional and two months ago, remember when you know that that’s not going to work. um in terms of his role now, you know, Spo Quinn and you know the other guys. So Spo has to be the mouthpiece in a lot of ways to that represents the entire staff behind him. Um and Pat ultimately does that with even more people behind him. I you know again I I feel like going public I think there was a reason behind it. I think there’s more you know the iceberg there’s more below the water. Um, that’s that’s where I think this is all rooted in. And as he progresses into the front office, I I would say that he’s gonna follow a lot of the lead of Pat, but we’ve also seen that Spo is not just a carbon copy of Pat. He’s he’s taken what he’s learned from Pat, but he’s also his own man. So, I I would expect him to kind of carve his own path as he moves into the front office. Mate, I’ll let you close on this. What What kind of Aerospure do you think we would see? Not a very different one. I I think it would be very similar to what you kind of saw from, you know, Riley in the9s being the the coach and, you know, the front face of the organization. I don’t know if he’s going to be throwing people under the bus as often as Riley in the past, but this is not an unnatural move. Consider how Eric Spolster has earned it. You know, a coach on the level of Pat Riley, in my opinion, in superior, and you know, he’s got two rings, seven finals trips, and something he has done better than Pat Riley as the coach is, you know, do more with less. and he already is someone with a huge say on that committee. So, this is just what’s next for him. I I I I think he’s already ready if he wants to go there right now. Yeah. See, that that’s my biggest takeaway from this. The the wear stuff to me, I I agree. As I close this, I agree that it’s not over, that this is obviously going to have to be continuous monitoring and he’s a young player. The development needs to come in all ways. They obviously believe they have a strong investment in the player. It’s not just about holding him out of draft talk uh trade talks or anything like that. First thing, if you’re planning on trading a guy, you’re not going after him publicly, okay? Because that doesn’t make any sense. You’re devaluing your own player. Um to me, this is they see something in him. This is not a roster with a ton of guys with huge upside. So, the ones who they believe have it, they need to draw the most out of it. And I think part of this was seeing how he would respond. I I I really do. I think this part of this was okay, let’s do this and see what he does. And I think the response at least was promising. Okay, was promising. It shows that he cares. Okay, he cares what his coach thinks or more maybe it’s more so he cares what the public thinks. Whatever it is, but we have seen players who don’t care. Clearly, he cares. That’s good. That’s a good first step. But I think the larger thing to take out of this is that I wouldn’t mind Eric Sper finding that voice a little bit more often. Um, and the the point that I don’t know which of you made it, but I think it’s a good one. Uh, it can’t just be where then because then Wear will feel like he’s being picked on. That that’s the thing. So, if you’re going to do this, then if there’s somebody else who you don’t feel is putting in the effort in the heat way, then there needs to be equal uh criticism there. Or else a guy’s going to feel like, okay, he’s he coach is always on me. It’s always about me. And then that does build resentment at a certain time. But then when extension talks come up, that does become a problem. So I I take a little bit from both of you guys on this one. All right. Appreciate it. I think Sean, you got to go get a haircut, right? I have AAOU Nationals, so I need to go on the road. I did this. I felt like last time when we did this and I was in that uh what it was a Waw Wa parking lot. It didn’t work out very well. So no, this was much better. So we we’ll let you run. I thought it was for some reason I thought you told me to get a haircut. I can’t keep see I I can’t control my own staff. Uh Sean Rochester following S. Rochester NBA Mayorgga. Uh follow his work again on five reasonsports.com. Have a good one everybody.

Erik Spoelstra surprised many, including Ethan Skolnick, when he called out Kel’el Ware for a lack of professionalism last week. Should Spoelstra lean into this approach going forward, after largely avoiding it during this coaching tenure? Sean Rochester and Mateo Mayorga join Ethan for both sides to this debate.

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