Miami Heat: Can Simone Fontecchio provide help? | Five on the Floor
Welcome to the latest episode of Five on the Floor in the Five Reason Sports Network. Thanks for joining us on your favorite podcast app. On Apple, recommend Apple podcast and on Android we recommend Spotify. Also check out the Five Reasons YouTube content. Uh for everything from Messi and Company, that’s our soccer podcast to three yards per carry and more. You can follow the Dolphins daily updates there from Alfredo Artiaga. Go to the Five Reasons YouTube channel for that. Like, subscribe, turn the notifications on. Also off the floor, that’s our Discord server. Apparently, people aggregate off this thing. You can just see it for, well, not for free. I was going to say for free. $299 a month. Link right here in the description. The place for the most heat anywhere, most heat information and conversation. If you’re not there by now, why not? This is becoming the biggest Miami Heat community, and we plan for it to get bigger. Also, prize picks. Use code 5 fivics is the official fantasy sponsor of the Five Reason Sports Network. Again, prizepix.com. Daily fantasy in the state of Florida legal simplified. And now today’s episode. Mercy luxurious heat nation. Yeah. Mercy down the Five on the floor. Ride for my dogs. Way. Here’s a thing. You can check the score. Hustle hard, couple stars bubble frog plan got all y’all seen the block stop one hand and pap y’all can hang it up. Welcome to five on the floor a daily insider show on the Miami Heat and the NBA featuring Ethan Skolnick, Greg Sander, Alex Toledo, Brady Hawk, and others from the Five Reason Sports Network. Also, make sure to subscribe to Off the Floor for the most heat anywhere. Welcome back to Five on the Floor. Here’s today’s floor plan. I’m Ethan Skolnick. You can follow me at Ethan J. Skolnick and at Five Reason Sports. I got Brady Hawk. You can follow him at Bradyhawk305. We’re going to go back and try to fill in some gaps for episodes that we probably should have done before, but we were focusing on the guy going out instead of the guy going in, which I think most of you can probably understand because we’re talking a lot about Duncan Robinson and not a lot about Simone Fonteo, who he was actually traded for. Simone Fonteo, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with that, but I’ll do my best. uh who he was actually traded for in what was, you know, obviously one of these typical NBA deals where you’re not really trading for the player, you’re trading for the contract. Duncan was able to get money from Detroit, uh places close to where he went to college. They needed a shooter. They didn’t Malik Beasley obviously that wasn’t going to work out anymore. Tim Hardway Jr. signed a minimum contract with Denver, so they were looking for a couple of shooters. they ended up getting to and and Duncan was a fifth there, but also you had to get something back in the deal. Uh the Heat did not get a draft pick back in the deal. I know there’s some frustrated with that, but again, there were a lot of circumstances behind the scenes that played into that that I I have some awareness of. And so, they end up getting a player in Fantio who has hurt the Heat before. He’s had two of his biggest games ever over the course of his career right in front of us in the arena. He was one of these situations that he reminded me and I said it at the time. He was like Wayne Ellington or Malik Monk. There are these players that just like busted out against the Heat. Of course, Ellington ended up joining the Heat now as a co well first as a player and then as a coach. He tore up the big three Heat. Like he did it three different times. He had a 30-point game and then he wouldn’t score anything the next night. Like and no offense to Wayne, but like it was just this all over was one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet, but like all over the place. And Malik Monk, I remember being in in the arena and and I think you guys gave me a hard time about this because I tweeted out that he was the only Kentucky guard who hadn’t amounted to anything and then he scored like 37 that night or something like that and he’s been very effective player since. So I should get a commission on on all of the salaries he’s he’s gotten after. Uh and then there was Fonteo who I think the Jazz were coming in trying to lose one night Brady and he just kept scoring. Right. I I and I think there was I think they actually took a lot of their players off the floor in the fourth quarter from what I recall uh in an effort to lo lose the game. That was one of the most blatant tanking jobs I’ve ever seen. But he went nuts as a shooter and now he’s a member of the Miami Heat. They could wave and stretch him, but they haven’t done it yet. And the questions I’m going to ask you are this, okay? One is how does he get back to the level that we’ve seen against the Heat instead of a guy who admitted in his Zoom call with us that he was not a very good shooter last year? And the second question is they did a similar thing. Um they did a similar thing with Kyle Anderson where they they they got Kyle Anderson. They weren’t really supposed to keep him. Toronto couldn’t go through with all parts of the trade because they traded for Brandon Ingram. So essentially the he held on to Kyle Anderson, but I was told the same thing about Kyle Anderson at the time that I was told about uh this player, which is that well some of our coaching staff kind of like him and so we’re going to see what we could do with him. And Kyle Anderson ended up giving them effective minutes at times. Uh of course now he’s been tra since traded. So I’ll I’ll start with this question. How does he get back to can he be that player that we’ve seen against the Heat? cuz if they get that player, I mean, he can be an effective stop gap player at the very least. The the big question is, is he closer to the version we saw in 2023, 2024 compared to this past season? And the thing that that’s mainly different other than the fact that he, you know, he mentioned that he shot worse was his role was completely different. I mean, you mentioned him playing out there with Utah and and they took everybody off the floor. That was kind of his role in Utah. I think he he played 50 games with the Jazz that season before he got traded. and I think he started in 34 of them. Uh so he was kind of a main like part of that team and had a major role. So his job was kind of get up what eight to 10 threes a game and he could get up a bunch of shots up and and kind of get into a rhythm and he kind of found that rhythm and then it led into him getting traded to Detroit. In Detroit he kind of found the same success at the end of that that that specific season and he was still you know just shooting at a high level. Then as you mentioned it got into last year where his role diminished a little bit. They had a bunch of shooters come in like Beasley and Hardway. uh he was playing I think bumped down to like 15 minutes a game in the games that he did play. He was pretty available for for Detroit. Even though he was kind of logging uh just not a part of their regular regular rotation, he still was, you know, pretty available for them. And the big question for me is you you want to lean and say he these shooters like it comes and goes. So like he could have a season where he shoots 42% from three again. like you you don’t know. But his role to me is going to be closer to the one it was last year than the one the year prior. And I think that’s kind of where the question marks are going to come in is because when I said last year for Detroit, he was kind of, you know, maybe on the fringe of the rotation and playing 15 minutes a game. It’s kind of what I envision this season. Um I actually think he’s going to be playing more than some people anticipate. I said that on a recent episode we did where I said kind of one of my hot takes of the season is I think he is a rotation player. like if they bump this rotation to 10, he’s the 10th guy to me. Uh, and you you bring up Kylie Anderson is interesting just because of the factor of not only him just coming in and like them like having to deal with it. It’s like, okay, we’ll take this guy. We could find a role for him, but also the fact that Spo liked Kyle Anderson a lot like he he he like actually had a real liking for him and his his sty style of play, his high IQ and all that stuff. And I kind of imagine the same thing with Fonteo. think he’s going to be somebody that Spo’s going to be like, well, maybe we should play this guy because we need a little bit more shooting in this lineup. And it’s like, okay, maybe it’s and it’s going to probably be somebody that you don’t want to see getting knocked out of the rotation. That’s going to be the the conversation, I think, at many points of the season is like, oh, wait, Larson’s getting a DNP, but Fontkio is playing 23 minutes. Like that that I could see that on many nights just because I think Spo’s going to want uh the specialist that’s not on the roster no more without Duncan and, you know, Max before and everybody else down the line. I think they’re going to lean into this a little bit. So, how do they get him back at that level? It’s it’s his role is just going to be simple. It’s it’s not going to be as Duncan Robinson coded to me. It’s not going to be him running off constant handoffs, but I think he’s a guy that they’re going to stick in the corner. It’s going to be closer to Alec Burks than it is to Duncan Robinson. That’s the way I view it. It almost like Spo’s going to use him in that way where it’s like some nights he doesn’t play, but other nights he’s going to be out there for a good portion of time because maybe he’s has it going and he’s hitting a bunch of catches, shoot threes in the corner. Uh, and the difference is with him compared to Burks is he is a little bit bigger. Um, he that can kind of size up defensively and they could find, you know, gaps for him to defend and he’s also just a bigger player offensively. So, he’s interesting in that way just because I think they’re going to find a trust for him to kind of be a plug-andplay guy. Well, the the the defensive part I want to get to that because that will that will, you know, that will lead Spolster one way or the other. like this is not a team that has a ton of elite uh individual defenders. I think Bam obviously well not I think Bam obviously DaVon uh for what he does yes uh I think Wiggins and Highmith can get to that level. We’ve seen it over the course of their careers and that’s pretty much it, right? Like I mean obviously we’re not talking Tyler Norm. I don’t think anybody’s thinking he’s going to be elite. You hope he gets back to average. I think there’s a chance of that uh based on the metrics and and what we’ve seen in recent years. Um am I missing anybody? I mean I I mean um I I don’t think that uh Cass is going to play a lot. I think he’s got the potential. And then Larson, right? Lson I think we we believe has a chance to be an above average defender, but there and and then Keshad, but again I don’t think he’s going to play much. So and I don’t know exactly what his role is going to be. Yoic, you’re just hoping he can be again passable for what they’re asking him to do. and then where but you’re not asking where to guard a lot in space or any of that kind of stuff. You’re asking him to clean up the mess and and not give up a ton of defensive rebounds cuz he’s, you know, chasing blocks and stuff like that. So, I mean, I I don’t I don’t know that he’s going to want Spo’s going to want to throw a a guy who can’t compete defensively in the mix with this group, but they do need shooting. So, I let me So, so here’s the thing. like can he defend well enough in your because he talked a lot about that in his presser and it seemed genuine that he believes he’s a good defender I don’t know if this is the perfect comparison but it is kinder when he came in Miami liked him I mean he was you know a gunslinging shooter that they needed to kind of get into two realm try to work his way up the roster but he was just so rough defensively and I mean look it’s still happening to this day he’s still playing summer league for the Lakers right now and having that uh and it’s still the problem is like he has these big shooting nights but the question is the defensive side of it. Fonteo to me is somebody that’s like just as good of a shooter obviously he’s doing at NBA level but is serviceable defensively and that’s kind of what they wanted specifically from that type of player. They wanted somebody that look he’s like 68 210 and I mean it’s he’s not somebody that you want guarding at the point of attack and trying to guard stay with these small guards on switches but he is somebody that can guard on certain wings. He’s somebody that can move his feet a little bit and just can play physical defense. Uh I mean look, let’s let’s just compare it to the guy you got traded to for the Duncan Robinson. I mean, he’s a little bit bigger than Duncan, not in terms of height, but just in terms of pure size. Uh and I mean the question is like I don’t think they’re going to it’s similar because I don’t think they’re going to want to play him with Tyler. Like there’s going to be certain lineups like Fontek is not a all the way plug-and-play guy where it’s like this guy’s three and D, we could play him with anybody. I think they’re still mindful of certain lineups they want to play him in. Uh, but just in terms of he’s I think he can serve defensively like guarding threes and fours. And I think that’s ultimately what you want from a guy that you’re, you know, getting back and you’re talking that’s on the fringe of your rotation. That’s that’s all you could ask for. And really the pop factor is we talk about with all these guys like, okay, can he take the next level as a driver? Can he, you know, find this part of his game, the passing, this or that. When it comes to a guy like Fonteo and and just a you trying to get a sharpshooter, just a specialist, I just want that guy to go out there and have a confident shot. Like I I I think sometimes a new team and we’ve seen this with guys that have gone out and guys that have come in from Miami, but sometimes a new situation clears their mind. Like the times when Duncan was struggling like P in the past when we talked about trading, I imagine him going to another team and immediately lighting it up because you get to a new situation and a new system and you just kind of clears your head a little bit. You he kind of opens things up. Coming off the season that Fontio just had where he feels like he could have shot a lot better. I see a situation where he could come out and and shoot the ball at a high level. So, I don’t know if it’s closer to the season prior or the one in 23 24, but I do think it’s kind of in the middle of that because it’s going to be the minutes of this past season, but I’d imagine it’s going to be closer to probably 38% from three just because it’s a better situation with probably I’m not saying better situation in terms of Miami to Detroit, but I think there’s more of an opportunity this year for him than the one he had last year. Well, like I said, they need shooting. It’s just there’s just the that’s the deal there. All right. On the other side of this, we’re going to talk about other shooters. You mentioned the type of shooter he is. Uh but I want to deep dive into that just a little bit more. But before we do, we use during the season, we do the X-ray of the play of the day. That’s with our friends at Mobile Carm and Staffing Services. If you work in a medical office, reach out to Nelson, his family, his team. They do a great job for you. They will bring the X-ray and staff X-ray equipment and staffing to you. So, here’s where you find it. Again, you can fill out the form really easy. If you’re looking on YouTube right now, you can see where you can do that at the top on the contact page. c-armmanstaffing.com. That’s c-armmanstaffing.com. The phone number, reach out to Nelson directly, 561891-9620. That’s 561-891-9620. Again, it’s mobile arms mobile staffing services or c-armandstaffing.com. All right. Now, let’s get into comparisons. Okay. Now, the Heat have had a lot of different types of shooters. You’ve mentioned a couple of them. Um, I go way back. Some of these are going to go before your time. Uh, if you look at in the Riley era, probably the first shooter that they had who got heavy minutes was a former second round pick for Milwaukee named Vashan Leonard. Uh, who they brought in and he became kind of a he and Dan Marley kind of switched off as the starters on the Zo Tim teams. And Leonard these days would be getting up a ton of threes. I mean, it’s pretty much what he did. He was a physical defender, but he wasn’t a great defender. Couldn’t really handle very well, but he could shoot it. I mean, that in these days, he would he would shoot a lot. So, they had him in the late 90s. Again, Dan Marley was a distance shooter. Um, and again, today, he would be getting a lot up. Also, early in his career, he would have uh been above the rim a lot uh as well. Uh, but then as you go forward, you look at the types of players they had. They didn’t really get into the shooting specialist thing. uh until Spo honestly like even in the uh if you look at like the the the Stan year they didn’t really have like a knockdown guy there that’s the 0304 team they had ODM they had Karan uh they had Dwayne was obviously not a knockdown shooter especially at that point Rafer Alustin others they had Sha they had Damon Jones playing off of Shaq as kind of a spot-up shooter couldn’t really defend couldn’t really dribble that well but he could shoot you’ve two on sha, he’d kick it out to Damon. Damon would make an open shot. Um, so this is something that really didn’t come to being until honestly Duncan. Uh, they haven’t had a ton of them. Okay, they Duncan, I mentioned Wayne Ellington was somebody that they brought in uh from the outside. If you look at alltime three-point makes for Miami Heat um uh players, you’re going to find guys who are not really three-point shooters on that list. Like I think Tim Hardaway was first or second on this list. Let me go let me go through it here. Number one, Duncan Robinson. Not a surprise. Tyler Herro is number two. Now, some of this again, you have to adjust for inflation, right? Obviously, a lot more threes are shot these days. It’s like pre Curry and post Curry, right? But if you look at the rest of this list, and I just lost it, I’m sorry. Uh, if you look at the rest of this list, they’re trying to sell me some meals. Hardway is third, 806, Eddie Jones is fourth, was not really known as that type of a player. He was like a skilled scorer, slasher, but could also make a three. Timmy was Timmy had a knuckle ball jumper. Like Tim started settling for more threes because he couldn’t move the way he did in Golden State when he was explosive. Number five, the ultimate shooter probably in Heat history, Glenn Rice. Uh, but again, that’s pre Rileley. Okay, so I talk about the Riley era. He traded him. Uh, and then the next guys on the three-point list, Mario Chamers, again, playing off of a superstar, very effective at his role, but mostly a spot-up guy. Goran Dragic, who we never really thought of as a three-point shooter first, although he could make three-point shots. Again, more of an attacker. Josh Richardson in his two roles, but not the kind of player that you ran off a bunch of curls. Dwayne and Vashan Leonard, who I mentioned, and then you finally get to Ellington and Strus. So, this is really, this is not like we saw, oh, they got to find a shooter. They have gone through a lot good portions of their history without a shooter. It’s just that they had Duncan and Strus on the roster at the same time. And when they had the two of them on the roster at the same time, Spo he spoke to me about this, he felt he had to make a choice. He could really only play one a lot and it was Strus who passed Duncan before Struse left. So do you really think this is a necessary role? Yeah. Because a lot of the teams that we’re talking about, even let’s say the Jimmy ones had shooting on them. The big three, their role players, they had shooting around. This was a situation coming in where we were talking about this team needed more shooting just because look, they’re they’re leaning into the big lineup with Bam and Wear. You need shooting around that. We’re talking about needing help for Tyler. They got that in Powell. Uh they’re running these defensive lineups with Haywood and DaVon who both shot well from three this past year, but are you going to see that next year? We we’ll see if it stays at its same level. Uh you just need depth at that position, I believe. It’s just it’s not like you need because look they leaned away from Duncan for over the last few years consistently and that’s the like their guy and they they still kind of leaned away with it even when he had it going like they were not really leaning on the specialist thing fully but you need a guy that’s why I keep calling him like the tenth man. I just think they need somebody that they can throw into the rotation when they need a spark. Uh, ideally you don’t need that spark as much this season with Powell and Tyler. Like you have more range with the three-point stuff and maybe Wiggins gets, you know, could get more up if he’s playing a little bit more off ball. We’ll see how that all all shakes out. But I think it it just feels like they have to lean into I like Fonteo to me is way more shrew than he is Duncan. Like just as a player and everything and they need more of a shrew than a Duncan right now. I know they just lost Duncan. So, you would think they need a perfect Duncan replacement, but with this version of this team with the fact like Duncan was needed when they didn’t have any actions to get to and it’s like, okay, we don’t have a ball handler like big time pick a role player on the floor right now. We’re just going to go to the Bam Duncan handoff and that’s going to be our way of creating some offense. With this version of this team, they have some guys that can handle. They have DaVon who could create a little bit for for others. You have Nico we want to see put the ball in his hands. We’re going to have Powell and Tyler, you know, they’re going to be their primary ball handlers. Bam is still somebody that’s work up the face up game. The point is that the type of shooter that they need is somebody like Max who was just standing around the corner flying off a down screen taking those type of shots. And that’s more of Fontekio’s play style. So I it’s it’s not even just I guess we overuse maybe the word specialist a little bit. It’s just they needed a good three-point shooter to throw into the mix when it’s needed. They needed depth to that position and they have that. It’s somebody that’s spoken lean into. The thing the thing that gets lost all the time here, especially in the conversations of trading him or what you’re going to pay him or all that, is that Tyler Hero is their best shooter. I mean, especially now, like I we can argue about Duncan, obviously. If you were to put both of them, I mean, Tyler won a three-point contest, but if you if you were to put both of them out there to just shoot, okay, 3,000 shots, probably Duncan wins that competition, probably. Okay. But as far as doing it in game with volume in a variety of different situations, Tyler’s their best shooter. And now they’ve added another guy in Norm who is really really good at a lot of uh these these metrics as as a shooter. So I I don’t know that the role is totally necessary if if they can get some shooting from somewhere else like Yoic. Okay, that’s a big one, right? Uh I is Haywood going to get minutes and still be around that 34 to 36% on four attempts. Okay. Can he be a little bit more consistent there? Is Hakez getting minutes and any better from there than he was? Does Bam’s volume go up a little bit and his percentage stays the same? Can you trust where to shoot an occasional one? Like I they they could have and Dave, we’ve talked about DaVon to death. He’s not going to shoot what he shot last. The question will your entire bench has question marks with your three-point shooting. like there there could peak you could see your best moments like you had at points last season. Uh or it could dip like I did with Hawkins. And that’s kind of the point is like if you’re four or five guys off the bench that we’re talking about have question marks from three, there’s a chance that if they do dip like Fontio is the guy that ends up in the rotation, but ideally like absolutely ideally that’s not the case. Like ideally Yoic is like is peaking from three and has it consistently and Larson has that develop like that. Those are the kind of the big question marks. But he’s kind of is this like the high floor guy on the team that’s like when needed he’s the guy that you can trust. I think he’s the break glass. I think he’s the break glass in case of emergency guy. Although I think he could have a camp that look when you see a player for the first time up close. Okay. You you again he had a couple games against the Heat and they’ve scouted him and they knew you know what he was. They know he’s not Duncan. But like when you see him up close in your training camps, you start to find some things there that you and we hear of this with Spo all the time. We didn’t really know he could do this. Like that’s a that’s a favorite pet phrase of Spo early in the years. And then they start to dig into that a little bit and they’re like, “Okay, let’s put this out there and see if he can give us a little bit more than we expected.” I can see that happening. And then I can see him being phased out over the course of the season as they get more comfortable with the shooting of the others. I that’s where I feel like this ultimately goes and then and I hate to say it because again he seems like a very nice guy and we want everybody to to succeed here but it seems like he then could end up getting squeezed out of minutes after getting them earlier in the season and then maybe even just getting waved and stretched at that point. But I think like they can I think they can find a use for him as a bridge early in the season and I wouldn’t be surprised if that actually happens. All right, thanks Brady. Appreciate it. Uh thanks to our sponsor c-armandstaffing.com. You want to sponsor Five on the floor, get in before October because we load them up in October. I know people complain there are too many ads here, but we don’t want to get rid of the local sponsors because they’ve been so supportive of us and we vet all of them. They all do great work. So, we appreciate uh we appreciate them joining us here. Also, check out Prize Pick. Use the code five fiv. Have a good day, everybody.
It got lost in the trade of Duncan Robinson, but newcomer Simone Fontecchio has actually had some strong games against the Miami Heat. Can he help the Heat this season more than other fill-in players have? Ethan Skolnick and Brady Hawk discuss.
Sponsors: C-ArmAndStaffing.com and PrizePicks.com (FIVE)
Join us on our Off The Floor Discord server for the most Heat anywhere! Get exclusive insider information, along with updates/stats/insights from the 5OTF crew and hang out with other Heat fans. https://discord.gg/5otf (Scroll down after clicking)
5OTF Special Offers:
* Check out Mood and use my code FIRST20 for a great deal: https://mood.com
*https://go.happinessexperiment.com/begin-aff-o2?am_id=podcast2025&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=michael
If you want more exclusive Miami Dolphins content, join OnlyFins on Discord: https://discord.gg/onlyfins
If you’re interested in sponsoring Five Reasons, contact us at fivereasonssports@gmail.com
