Ranking the Miami Heat players in the Southeast Division | Five on the Floor

Ranking the Miami Heat players in the Southeast Division | 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, recommend Apple podcast or Spotify. If you’re Android, we recommend you check us out on Spotify. Gets up there quicker. We do delay before we put our episodes up on the YouTube channel. Also, check out Off the Floor. That’s our Discord server. $2.99 per month. Most heat anywhere. Most heat information, conversation, tender for channel, stage shows, host updates you don’t get anywhere else. Twitter organized for you. It’s all on off the floor. So check it out. Link in the description. You must pay the $299, although you can, just like I just did with most my streaming services. You can cancel at any time. Also, check out prize picks. Hope you played it for the WNBA all-star game. WNBA coming back here. Also, MLB is going on. And then we lead up to football season. Prize picks. Use the code five fiv. They give you a free square for the MMA fights. Yesterday, I won going under on Pacquiao’s punches. Lots that you can play on prize picks. Legal in the state of Florida. Use the code F I V. And now today’s episode. [Music] [Applause] Mercy luxurious heat nation. Yeah. Mercy down the gang. Five on the floor. Ride for my dogs. Hey, here’s the thing. You can check the score. Hustle hard. Couple stars. Bubble frog. Check the floor plan. Got our own y’all stop one hand and paps. 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 Reasons Sports Network. Also, make sure to subscribe to Off the Floor for the most heat anywhere. [Music] All right, we’re going back back in, excuse me, we’re going back in time here a little bit. I’m Ethan Skolig. You can follow me Ethan Joling at five in sports. I got Eternal Bast. You can follow him at Eternal Bast. There was a time where divisions mattered. The NBA has deemphasized them to the point that we rarely even discuss divisions or even talk about who’s in them or anything along those lines. But in recent years, the Southeast division as it stands has been fairly weak. You have the Heat, but you have the Magic, the Wizards, the Hornets. The Hornets and the Wizards have been rebuilding it seems like forever. or the Magic have kindly finally kind of got off the mat and the Hawks have been in this playin purgatory uh that the Heat have now found themselves in although there have been improvements of late but it does seem like the division is starting to come up a little bit. Washington appears to at least have a plan which they haven’t had. Orlando looks like a top three team in the conference in the Eastern Conference and I mentioned Atlanta has made some moves both with some young players and then also with a couple vets uh to get better over the past couple of years. Uh additionally additionally uh the Hornets don’t look totally lost at this point, although I’ll believe it when I see it. But here’s what we’re going to do to put into context where the Heat are from a roster standpoint. We are going to put together first team, second team, and third team all Southeast teams going into this season. And so Eternal, I know and I are going to probably argue about a spot in the in the f on the first team, but let’s just go with trying to construct the best possible starting lineup we can from available Southeast Division players. So this is again the Magic, the Heat, the Hawks, the Wizards, and the Hornets. Okay, so let’s start here. Let’s start with the front court. Would Bam Adabio be your starting five? He I’m going to make you sweat. And I love this because I I love that this was your idea. I just want to give it give a backstory on this real quickly. My original plan was just to rank a just a random top 15 out of Southeast Division. But you making it first, second, and third team, Ethan, is why you are a long storyried journalist. This is shields. I love it. I love it. I love it. So, I am picking Bam since I’m going first. You can, you know, go next. Bam. Uh, since we’re going back in time, uh, Bam is my four or the four. All right. Well, I I’m I’m putting Bam on the roster, but I I’m having a hard time seeing how he would be the four here. Um, let me just put a second player on the first team, which is Po. He would be three. Palam Palancharo. He’s gonna be your three. Okay. So, you’re playing big. Mhm. And I So, I’m trying to figure out here who is your five because it’s not coming from Washington. It is not coming from the Hornets. It is. Are we going with where is that what you’re doing here? Or a Congu. Who? Who is your five? Would be KP, right? Oh, I forgot about him. You’re right. Okay. See, this is why this is why I should have reviewed this more carefully before. Of course, Chris Porzingis was created to the Now, you got to go next. So, you’re going you’re going with Porzingis as your starting five. Okay. So, we go. So, your front court is Porzingis, Bam, and Paulo, which I assume is moving France Vagner out of the starting lineup. Correct. No, France has played. He has logged in minutes. You’re playing with a two. No, no, brother. No, no. I’ I’ve done my pick. Okay. Now, so my pick. Okay. All right. Well, I I know this is going to go counter to what most people would anticipate here because I I I don’t love his defense, but I I do think as far as a playmaker in the starting lineup that I would go with reluctantly because I reluctantly uh I would go with Trey as a starter. Would Trey also be a starter for you? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if we’re if we’re going how they used to do, right, based off of positions and stuff, because Weey got robbed a lot of the years for the shooting guard position, right? Um, yes, but Trey I is there a better point guard than Trey in the Southeast Division? No. Well, I’m not going La La L you can’t get. Okay. Because at least at least I know Here’s the thing. There’s a difference between them. And I look, Trey’s height’s a problem for me. Trey’s defense is a huge problem for me, but at least I know this. Trey is playing offense to help others get better. LaMelo does not do that. So, I’m I’m going to take LaMelo out of the mix there and likely be on the second team or third team, but I’m not putting him on the first team. He hasn’t proven to be a winning basketball player at this point to me. Okay. Um, this is going to create an argument about this last spot. So if we’re going Porzingis Balo, you’re going with Fron asing to and you’re going to play big, right? That’s what you’re doing. And just to just to give context a lot of times I know people can listen to the pods and lose context, you can go check basketball reference, France has lost minutes at the two for more than like 10 games. Okay. Can I can I ask you on this first team? If your first team is going to be Porzingis, Bam, Paulo, Fran, Trey, how much defensive work are you asking Bam to do? Not a lot. I mean, France, Fran, and and Paulo are really good defenders. Yeah, I know, but you’re putting them out of position. You’re having them guard out on the perimeter a lot more than they typically do, right? I mean, that’s that would be one of my concerns here. And Trey is a civ, so that’s an issue. It’s it depends like you I think with that starting group you can do some manto man you can do some mixtures of 221s you can do some 131 like you can do a lot of different defensive coverages to kind of take advantage of the height that you have on the back end and also you know the I mean France can guard you know somewhat one through five two through two two through five for sure uh Paulo is a really great perimeter defender as well so like you’re you’re not limited on the other side We wanted to do offensive and all NBA like all all defensive. We could do that. We could save that for another pod. But yeah, that that’s Well, we do have a lot of time to fill. August is going to be a a dead zone. Uh but c can I make a case for someone else here? And I know you think I’m going to make a case for Tyler, but I can’t because I’m starting Trey. Oh, I I know who you’re about to say and I can’t argue with there. I can’t. Can I make a case for Can I make a Well, there’s two guys I can make a case for. I can make a case for Jaylen Johnson and I can make a case for Desmond Bane. I thought you actually you know Jayen Johnson for those who don’t realize was Atlanta’s best player for the majority of last season before he got hurt. He a he was averaging 19 and 10 I think four or five assists as well and he’s a better defender than France out in space. So can can we not make the case? Look Paulo has to start. Bam has to start and I’m starting Trey. If you’re going with See, I would go with Bam at the five. But and I would I would I would go with Bam, Paulo, Jaylen Johnson, Bane, and Trey. That would be my five. Okay. It would that that I would go with Bam, Paulo, Jaylen Johnson, Bane, and Trey. That would be my five. That would give you a little bit of everything. But if you if you insist on starting Porzingis and you’re going to start France because you’re going with this like 1995 lineup, then I I just I’m asking you though, doesn’t it make sense? Would you at least consider Jaylen Johnson or Bane as a starter there next to Trey? You’re frozen, I think. Okay. Yeah, I think you can make a very strong case for uh Dez and Bane. I mean, Dez is proven in the regular season and also in the playoffs. So, if you want to go that route, you you could. uh Jaylen Johnson um for two straight seasons was looking like a all-star. Probably would have been more than likely would have been picked as an all-star uh last year, especially as a reserve um with the numbers that he was putting up before he got hurt uh which may have implicated somebody on the Miami Heat roster, but it’s neither here nor there. Well, I I I I know where you’re wrong with that. I can’t I can’t I can’t say you’re wrong, right? Like I think Okay. I think you can go either way with that. Um Yeah. All right. So, but let let’s say we go with your uber big lineup here. So, we’re going Porzingis, Bam, Paulo, France, and Trey. Okay. Um let’s look at the second team then. This is one of the reasons why I thought about starting BAM at the five because I don’t really see a clear five for the second group now, right? Like who who are we talking about? Okangu, is that is that what we’re doing here? Because there is a case for on Charlotte. I mean, if we’re if we’re if we’re doing this how they actually did the first team, second team, it’s like best players at those positions, you know, I those I can’t I can’t pick you a better five than that, right? So I I think um the next would probably be are you putting when they’ll it really depends on how you labeling the positions, right? Cuz I Yeah. Well, that well that but that’s why again if you’re as you’re stretching out the positions here, that’s why I probably would have put Porzingis as a second team center. But if you’re going to go with what you’ve got here, um yeah, Wendell Carter Jr. Kongu. I think either of them ends up being uh the big on the second team. And then I think you’re looking at uh Okay. So, wait, wait, wait. So, unless you’re going to make an argument for where here. No, no, no. So, my my pick is Wendell Carter Jr. for five. Who are you picking it for? So, just to just to make this clear, don’t forget don’t forget about somebody in Washington because I feel like you’re about to. you going with Alex Sar at at the four because I I’m thinking oh no no Jaylen Johnson since he didn’t make the first right right that’s where that’s where I would go I would put if you’re going to do that then Jaylen Johnson is there and then let’s look at that he could be three or four but let’s look at the let’s look at the three spot now um I mean are does Andrew Wig Johnson is your pick right yes does Andrew Wiggins get a look at the three or I mean the another guy we could look at if you’re balancing the rosters here is Dyson Daniels in Atlanta. Um, Rhysay, depending on what you think of his upside also. I mean, you you and I both don’t want to pick Miles Bridges for a bunch of reasons, but just on a talent perspective. Um, and also Brandon Miller. Oh. at the three if he develops the way he’s supposed to develop. I think that Oh my god, this is the second team is so difficult because I think I think you have a lot by putting Porzingis on the first team. You have a lot of options, right? Because you still you still have to find room for Jaylen Suggs, Tyler Herro, Dez and Dane Dyson Daniels. Like there’s there’s a lot. So since I don’t have to deal with that stress, I went first with Wendel Carter Jr. You picked and I went with Jaylen Johnson. And now you go my third is going to be Desmond Bane. So you’re putting Desmond Bane on here. Well, then I’m I’m going to do it because I know you’re not going to do it. I’m not putting Tyler Hero on the third team in this. No, no. Tyler would have been my pick for this. I can’t. So, so, so I, so I I I I’ll put Bane and and Hero together in the back court. So, at least we get we get Tyler in there. Um, I know that some might make the case if you want a defensive player there for Jaylen Suggs, who was really coming on before the injury last season, but I’ll go with Hero. So, you fill out the last spot for the second team. Here are some of the players that are currently available. Suggs, Dyson Daniels, and then we’ll come back and do the third team. Uh, Suggs, Dyson, Daniels. We still have not picked LaMelo Ball. I was about to say we I’m not putting LaMelo ahead of Tyler because Tyler at least attempts to win basketball games, which is not something I see when I watch LaMelo Wall. I’m sorry. I I don’t know what he’s doing most of the time. Dan Ston, Alex Sar, we we both like Trey Johnson’s future. Okay. And Chris Middleton is old, but he’s still a competent basketball player. You know what I’m going to do? I’m gonna I’m gonna I’m gonna introduce I’m about the last player for this. All right, we do want to introduce our friend Lynette. You can find her at insurancebyllet.com. This was Eternal’s idea, by the way. So, this the blame is on him. A aggressive insurance agency, insurancebyette.com, car insurance, life insurance, health insurance, all of that. She can serve you from her office in Lauder Hill or the entire tri county area. Huge Miami Heat fan. For some reason, she follows us. She’s on all of our platforms. You can find her. You can just reach out to her directly on our YouTube feeds. 954-5818800. Also a subscriber to off the floor. 954-5818800. Aggressive insurance agency. Insurance bylanette.com. Okay. So, the second team now because you you crossmatched all this by putting, you know, too many bigs on the first team. Second team, not surprising for you. Second team, we’ve got Wendell Carter Jr., Jaylen Johnson, Desmond Bane, Tyler Hero. Who is your fifth? How are you filling out this lineup to balance it? You can pick any position, but try to make it like workable. Jaylen Jaylen sucks. Okay. Also too, you just because a player is 69 and taller does not make them a big. How they play makes them a big I get it. I get it. Just want to see Fran’s guarding in space. That’s all. Okay. So, second team right now, Wendell Carter Jr., Jaylen Johnson, Suggs, Bane, and Hero. So, it’s my turn. I have to pick somebody for the third team. We do need to get somebody uh big on the start with the point guard position. Work go backwards. We don’t have a point guard on the second team, but we have enough guy. Tyler’s Tyler’s running point, I guess. No, it’s Jaylen Suggs. Okay. Suggs are hero in Bane. So that’s three guard rotation. Okay, fine. Third third team. Uh the player we haven’t first Tyson Daniels has to be on one of these teams, right? He should have been on a second team, but yeah, it’s just hard. I I don’t know. All right, so Dyson Daniels, we’re putting on I’m adding him to the third team. Who else are you adding to the third team? Does LMO finally get the call? I feel like he has to. I feel like it’s different not to put LaMelo there. Okay, so we’ve got three spots left for this. Get stressful. Uh I’m I’m putting Brandon Miller on the team. Yeah, I feel like there there’s too much upside there. Okay, two spots left. We have not picked a single player from the Washington Wizards. I feel like the last two spots h because of what they did last year and upside. I feel like the last two spots have I’mma see who you go with. I’m not going I’m not going to speak for you, but the fourth spot is going to Alexar. So, it’s Oh my god, Ethan. Hold on. Time out. Brandon Miller or Zachary Zachary. Uh Risha. Risha. I I never know how to pronounce it. Uh I mean Miller’s further along, right? I mean, because he’s one more year in. He was a little bit older when he came in. Not much. Um I I think it’s Brandon Miller, although I liked what I saw from Reese O’Shea last year. Um I also love what I see from Trey Johnson. I think he may end up being a first team guy here in a couple years. I know that’s Adele’s guy, too. And and then if you were going to go with a vet, you could say Middleton, McCullum, Wiggins. Oh my god, we left out. Mhm. See, the conference has improved a little bit, but let me ask you this question before we we finish this up. Is there anybody else from the Heat? Because part the reason for this exercise was to show how from a talent level perspective, they’re not really above a lot of teams in the conference anymore. And I’m looking at the rest of the Heat and I’m saying, “Okay, there’s Wiggins.” Oh, wait a second. What are we doing here? Where’s Norel? Okay, let’s Okay, let’s let’s start. Okay, listen. Damn. Norpal got to go on the third on the second team. He has to go. He He was playing in a much harder conference. Yeah. And that’s we have to force feed Wendell Carter Jr. onto the second team. Can we just Can we just replace that? Can we just do just move Wendel Carter Jr. off of that? Put Norm on the second team and we’re just going to go with small ball. I guess we’re going to go with cuz you you made us go with big ball for the first team. So we’ll just go with small ball for the second team. Norpal cannot be. Is Norpal a top 10 player in the in the in in this in this division? I think so. Yes. Right. Yes. If you could make it top five. Okay. Right. We’re not. So if that’s the case. Yeah. All right. So I’m putting Norm on the second team. We’re taking Wendell Carter Jr. off. You So now we’re down to one spot on the third team. You got LaMelo Ball, Dyson Daniels, Brandon Miller, and Alex S. You got to take either Tyler or Dez off for the No, we don’t. Well, no. At this point, you may you sort of made it five best players, so that’s fine. Third team Ball Dyson Daniels. Dyson Daniels was an elite defender last year. I He has to be on one of these three teams. Brandon Miller, number two overall pick, right? He He’s starting to live up to it again. If he stays healthy, got to be there. Sar, do you like Sar better than Risha? Because that’s I think that’s the question here. See, that’s a that’s I feel like for the third team, Alex and Kh did a lot as rookies. Um, and their upside and their upside is is really high as far as like what their what their ceiling is and what the next step looks like for them. I think you have to you can make a strong case that they have to be on the third team. where it get where it gets tricky is the the Zack Andrew Wiggins uh like all of that there. Okay. So, so so here here’s a way to look at it. If I was to say to you right now at this stage of their careers, who would you take? Wiggins or Middleton? Wiggins. No question. Okay. All right. Wiggins or McCullum? I got to go Wiggins. I would I would take Wiggins. Okay. So, we’re crossing those two off. And as far as a young player, if I was to say you got one spot here or two spots because Brandon Miller, LaMelo Ball, Dyson Daniels are there. We could put Wendell Carter Jr. here, but that’s boring. Uh we could put Okongu here too because he’s obviously elevated in Alex R. I feel like Alex R and Kh are the Okay. So, so I was to say to you, if I was to say to you upside here, okay, two spots, Alex Sar, Risha, where Trey Johnson, Khan, Canipple, Bub Carrington. Those are all the young guys competing for two spots. You tell me which two have the best futures. Yoic, last year we would have said Hawz, right? I mean, So, listen. You good, man. You’re good, Ethan. No, I’m not. Actually, I’m not waited to put Norm Powell on until we were already on the third team. And they just remembered that the Heat acquired him. Um, we’re giving Wiggins a spot on the third team. So, we’re choosing one young player. Okay. Are you So, wait, wait, wait. Are you picking Wiggins over Brandon Miller? No, I’m just deciding here. Ball Daniels, Brandon Miller, and Wiggins on your third team. You get to pick one young guy one way, you would take LaMelo off completely. Yes. [Music] But I can’t I can’t I mean, the guy it was a near all-star last year. I mean, you had like the most votes, right? Uh SAR I’m looking at here at uh Assaur Trey Johnson Rhys uh Canipple Wear Yovic some of the young guys on these teams Bob Carrington Kulabal uh so out of all of them you got one we got one spot left that’s insane and I took Wendle Carter Junior off because we we decided we’re not we’re playing without a big exposed coaching. That’s okay. All right. So, listen. All right. So, let’s let’s just list that third team again. We’re going to do this. Okay. You said I’m going to give you the teams again and we do need to close this because we’re spending seven minutes just going over what we’ve already done. First team, you decided on Porzingis. So, Porzingis, Bam, Paulo, Fron, and Trey. Second team, this is totally positionless, Jaylen Johnson. And then we’re gonna shoot you out of the gym. Suggs, Bane, Hero, and Powell. Okay. Third team, Ball, Dyson Daniels, Brandon Miller, Andrew Wiggins, because we say we one veteran spot. We took him over Middleton and uh and McCullum and Brid. You got to choose between Brandon Miller and Andrew Wick. No. No, I don’t. Yes, you do. You got one. What? What? You already got We got a choice. We’re losing downloads as we speak. We got a choice for one young player. No, I’m letting you make the final choice here. Sar, Ris, Akangu, uh, Carrington, Koulal, Canipple, Wear, Yoic, Anthony Black, Hakez. Those are some of the young players that are in this mix here in this division. Ethan, this is You have to you have to choose between Brandon Miller and Andrew Wiggins. I don’t have to do anything. Trey Johnson is the highest upside of all those players. Do you think? No. I Okay, so just to be very very clear, I think Trey Johnson can play himself by next off season into the first into the first team. I think he will have that type of rookie year. Um, but this is insane because I would have I just to make this clear, I would have picked for the four and five spot since we went position positionless for the second team, I would have picked Alex Hart and Khar. All right. Now, if you ask me who has the best ceiling out of all the young players in the division, it’s Trey Johnson. Hands down. Agree. Hands down. I now we can have a conversation after that, but Trey Johnson hands down. Now I my third chain would be uh LaMelo, Dyson Daniels. I I guess you got to put Andrew there. Uh Alex Rh. That’s how I would do it. So you know Brandon Miller? I think at this if we’re doing just at this juncture, I’m picking Andrew Wiggins. Okay. Well, you’re kind of going a little bit more position there. I think Brandon Miller’s got to be on our top three teams. Anyway, overall point here, okay, and we’ll try to sort this out afterwards. Overall point here, okay, is that is that the this this basically was a clown show. Um here, look, overall point is that the Heat’s talent level is kind of average in this division, right? Like I there like there are some teams that have higher upside young players potentially like a Trey Johnson because they picked higher, right? A couple of these teams have been tanking forever. Okay? I mean, look where LaMelo was drafted. Look where Brandon Miller was drafted. Look where Trey Johnson was drafted as opposed to where the Heat have been drafting. So that should be the case. And then in terms of young players who are on the comeup, like you look at Orlando, Paulo was a number one overall pick. Fron was a top 10 pick. Suggs was a top 10 pick. This is what’s going to happen here. The Heat’s talent level is kind of, like I said, it’s kind of in between. They’ve got, you could argue that that well, Bam is certainly the best defender in this. Well, Bam, D, Daniel, Suggs, I think, are the best defenders in this division. Uh, but then you take a look at uh at overall all-star potential in this division. Basically, Bam, Paulo, Trey and Tyler have been Powell was close last year. Jaylen Johnson could have been, Porzingis has been way back when, right? LaMelo has been voted into that. Brandon Miller and Trey Johnson, I think, have that potential. So, the division overall has gotten a little better. The Heat’s talent level, I think, more towards the middle. They don’t have the highest upside young guys. They don’t have maybe the most impactful two-way players because Paulo I think would probably be one there potentially this year. Uh but they’re kind of again still in this mix. So that’s the way we’ll do it. You and I will sort this out afterwards. We’re never doing this again. Go ahead. Now to be very clear, I would have had he played the whole season, I would have included Nico over Andrew because you and you’ve done this a lot. I wanted to address this about the find the role and and folk did say he had a role before he got hurt. 39 games before he got hurt. He was averaging 124 and4 on 4080. I I I you know I’m a Yovich guy so I I I think he has the chance to uh to kind of move up into this mix. All right. Thanks Eternal. We appreciate it. Um again throw more ideas at me and I’ll bungle them. uh at insurancebylanet.com. Prize picks, use the code fiv. Listen to this one at the pool.

The Southeast Division hasn’t been especially strong of late, but there are some signs of life. Ethan Skolnick and Eternal Bast partake in the challenging exercise of ranking the Miami Heat players in the tiers of the division.

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