Miami Heat work out former first-rounder Kai Jones | 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 Podcast on Android. We recommend Spotify. Also check out the Five Reasons YouTube channel for content across the South Florida sports spectrum. Also, you can find Off the Floor. That’s our Discord server. Two bucks per month. Link right here in the description. We had this Kai Jones thing a few days ago there. This is where you should be headed all the time for your information and your conversation. Again, it’s off the floor. You can cancel at any time, but make sure that you subscribe for now. Also, check out prize picks. Use the code five fiv. Follow our baseball picks. We’ve been on fire lately. Use the code five fiv. Get $50 to play right away. Again, follow our choices. WNBA, MLB, golf, tennis, boxing, lots of stuff on there right now. And eventually NFL. You can play preseason NFL now, too. And actually, there’s a way to play that. So, check it out. Price picks. Use the code FIVE. And now, today’s episode. [Music] [Applause] Mercy luxurious heat nation. Yeah. Mercy logo down the gang. Five on the floor for my dogs. Here’s a thing. You can check the score. Hustle hard. Couple stars wearing bubble frog [Music] kept the floor plan got all y’all seen the block stop one hand and pap 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 Skol. You can follow me Ethan Joliver in sports. I got Alex Leo. You can follow him at Tropical Blanket. Not much heat news these days, so when there is some, we’re going to update you on it. Also, check out our past episodes. 2006 championship series of episodes coming on that as we commemorate the 20th anniversary season also present and future we are up to four words four words Alex yours was first satisfactory Brady Hawk seeking Greg Sander crossroads and digital Adele you did you did me dirty with this whole series by the way we could say that I did put you first growth growth uh was that word uh from digital Adele and of course this is uh the state of the heat and asking all of our contributors to give their opinion on it. So, we’ve got Sean, Brian, Eternal, others will be coming up here over the next few days. We’ll continue to do those, but there is a little bit of heat news here and this is not a huge surprise. If you’ve been following us on Off the Floor, our guy Timothy Bane, uh based down of the Bahamas, well, he’s in the States all the time. He’s very close with a lot of the Bahamian uh national team players and others uh who’ve come from that area. Of course, uh, when I’m down in the Bahamas, uh, every other year for training camp, I spent some time with Timmy down there, so I know how connected he is. He kind of tipped me off a few days ago to the fact that the Heat had some interest in Kai Jones. Uh, if you are not familiar with Kai Jones, who, by the way, according to Chris Haynes, worked out for the Miami Heat today before joining the Bohemian national team in Nicaragua as they’re preparing for the America Cup. So, that’s probably why the Heat wanted to squeeze this in. Also, there was a report that he has a potential deal overseas if he wants it. But if you’re not familiar with Kai Jones, this is a former first round pick. I believe he’s 19th overall by Charlotte. Uh played really well at Texas. Came out uh as some athleticism for a big guy, but had kind of a sort of a weird situation couple years into his career, some ranting on social media. He requested a trade and he wasn’t traded, he was waved. And so since then, Kai Jones has he 21 he played 67 games in Charlotte over 21 22 and 22 23 seasons. He was with the Philadelphia uh G-League affiliate. He played with the Clippers for 28 games, averaged 2.2 points, and then last year had a 12game stint with Dallas. He actually started six of those games. remember how ravaged the Mavericks were after trades and injuries. Um, and he averaged 11.4 points and 6.6 rebounds. We’ll talk about that a little bit, but obviously under, you know, circumstances where the Mavericks were just searching for anybody. Now, there’s some dispute here. And I I’m I have we gotten to the bottom of this. Can the Heat offer him a two-way contract or does it have to be a standard? Because I know from Timmy talking to him that Kai Jones wants a standard. And I don’t think the Heat are prepared to offer a standard right now with their tax situation. Yeah. So, there was a lot of conflicting information and I was very confused about whether or not Kai Jones was eligible for another two-way. Um, there’s rules about like after four years of NBA service, um, you’re not eligible anymore. But then it gets confusing because there was a season there in 23 24 where he did not play, but he was signed on a two-way with the Sixers. You mentioned their G-League affiliate. At one point he was he was on he was on a two-way deal and um I was talking about it with Timmy on our Discord server which of course you should all follow link in description but um he says he is not because of that and and I think that tracks and then also Anthony Chang who had said earlier that he was still eligible for a two-way backtracked and said that he’s not. Um so I think we’re good now. I think we finally know that he is not eligible for a two-way anymore. Um, but yeah, like it’s an interesting it’s an interesting name here because it wasn’t one of like the main names that you’ve heard thrown around as far as like the minimum bigs available for the Heat if they wanted to add another deaf piece there which everybody has identified um as a positional need there. Whether or not like cuz like I’ve said, you know, they’re going to stagger Bam and most likely they’re probably not going to play another big in the rotation. At least that’s that’s where I fall on it. I think that’s what they’re going to do. But if something happens, like I think you’d much rather have a guy um even with Kai Jones’s like issues, you you rather have a guy who’s been on the, you know, in the NBA for several years and I think has shown like some growth like as far as the the personality stuff in the sense that, you know, two teams are willing to give him two-way deals ever since that or multiple actually more than two teams ever since that happened. And you know, like you mentioned, the Mavs were depleted. They needed anybody. But he was pretty good. Like I can get into the stats later that I that I saw like considering that the circumstances like you know for a deaf big you you could you could do worse like he’s 24 years old. He’s 6’11. He’s still really athletic. He has a a 7 foot plus wingspan and in general like you know what he’s going to give you. He is going to you know screen and roll and he’s going to play defense and that’s what he does for you. like if if somebody were to get hurt, I think it would make sense for the Heat to go after somebody like this as opposed to somebody whose role may be a little bit more like up in the air as like, you know, like not to start talking bad about certain guys, but like a precious, you know, like I just don’t think like at least I know with Kai Jones, he’s going to be a solid screen and roll big with Precious, I’m not really sure what he is. I wouldn’t consider him a positive as a screener roll big. you know, a guy like M Bagley, you know, is not necessarily he’s he’s has a little bit more of like an offense game, but you don’t really know what he is on either end of the floor. You know, there’s just certain like questions about the guys that are out there. And I think his minimum would actually be a little bit cheaper um as opposed to some of these other guys based on like the the scale of that, right? So, that would be an interesting one. But yeah, like I’m I’m skeptical that him or any of these other like veteran minimum bigs would be signed by the Heat um to that open roster spot because of the luxury tax stuff. Like they have all year to get under it. Um they’re currently.6 mil over. Um so, you know, if you’re going to add another two, three mil to that, I don’t know if that’s where they’re headed right now. And if they do do something like that, they must feel pretty confident that they can have some sort of move in their back pocket closer to the deadline that would then bring them back under the the luxury tax line because I don’t think other guys are like worth that. This sounds like the kind of move and I know Greg is against this move. It sounds like the kind of move that uh the guy’s potentially got offers overseas. You want to take a look at him, make sure you’re not missing out on anything in case he goes over there. And I don’t know what kind of contract he would sign overseas. some of those contracts you can get out of. So, it’s it’s worth doing the due diligence on the player, particularly if he was leaving uh after this. I I do want to on the other side is I’ll just let you go through some of his numbers to just show what he’s done as a player because I I do think the offthe- court stuff and you should also check out our guy Timothy Bane has done extensive interviews with him. I know Kai Jones has a music career also and they sat down and they mostly talked about music. Uh but he seems to be in a pretty good headsp space right now. I mean, it’s hard to evaluate anybody at any time, but I’m just saying he seems to be in a pretty good headsp space. Wants to get back in the NBA, wants to contribute to a team, doesn’t seem to consider himself a star level player anymore, which is obvious. But you’ll go through some of the numbers after this, but I before we get to that real quick, this is a need for the Heat. I don’t I don’t think we can argue it’s not. This look, okay, we can talk about what they got wear and bam starting and that Yovic is going to play with either of them and then what like you know what I’m saying? There are going to be games that I know Bam is historically durable uh where where you know needs to prove that Yovic has not been durable. So you’re talking about really having three guys rotating at those two spots. You don’t have Haywood now at least for training camp and possibly into it. We know that that’s a small ball four option for Spo and you know we’ve talked about them sizing down and maybe Wiggins playing the four uh you know late in games but they they don’t have a lot of bodies. I mean Kesha Kash Johnson is the one we’ve talked about but again he hasn’t really shown anything at this level either and you’re not using him as a small ball five if you if you if things happen. So, I I think that this is a need to have one more body, but it’s a question of how long you can string it out and sort of get away with it and also not push yourself further over the tax line so it’s harder to get under later. Now, they may have moves in their back pocket to get under it later and Andy has all season to do it, but I I do I think it is a need. I think they need one guy like somewhere in this mix because the guy that I saw in summer league and I hope he performs, but Vlad Golden is not ready to play at the NBA level. He’s just not like he’s he’s just too slowooted. Uh teams are going to eat him alive. They’re going to bring and I it was interesting that they use wear with him a little bit in one of the games that I was out there for and I’m like and then so Golden ended up getting stuck out in space a lot. You that’s not a good option. So they need somebody athletic. On the other side of this though, I want to ask you about Kai Jones and what he actually did in Dallas specifically during that small sample size where the metrics fall. Before we do though, check out the metrics for real estate. know what you’re getting into, but then reach out to real estate shopffl.com. It’s Amanda and Javier. Great team, family team. They’ll work with your family to find the right house or if you’re selling a house to find the right buyers for you. They got open houses every weekend all over Broward County. They do a great job with you and they share your their stories with you, too. They’re very transparent and again, honest folks. So, check them out. Real estatefl.com or the Fort Lauderdale Realtor on Instagram. All right, Alex, let’s go through it. Um, what did he do in Dallas? All right, so like you mentioned earlier, this is still like a relatively small sample size. They were very banged up. You know, I’m sure everybody remembers like the amount of guys that they were missing. It was just it was not just that they were missing like their top players, they were also missing the vast majority of their rotation. And not only were playing third string guys, but like we’re missing certain third string guys, too. And had to sign guys that weren’t on their roster. And so Kai Jones um you know benefited off of that, right? But it wasn’t necessarily a representative like sample of what like a regular NBA season would look like for him, especially like on the Heat. Like it’s obviously a very different circumstance. He would have to fit into what they have. It’s not just this blank slate like the Mavs were at that time. That being said, you know, like I mentioned earlier with the role clarity as far as what he does and doesn’t do, you know, that’s that’s something that’s changed with his career because I think he was more of like this, you know, I mentioned blank slate. He he was a a little bit more of that coming into the league. Everybody knew he was he was an extreme athlete. He was drafted 19th, you know, in the 20 in the 2021 draft, but you know, he he was kind of a tweener. Now, I just think like he settled in as this screen and roll big and, you know, it’s a very, you know, clear-cut role, right? And I think in that role, there was some positives like he, you know, the simplifying things for him, you know, they were the Mavs and the games that he played, right, had a plus. 83 net rating. So slightly better than neutral. That’s not like very like obviously like impressive in the sense that wow slightly better than neutral. Amazing, right? But when he wasn’t on the court in that time, uh negative4.22 net rating. So that’s Yeah. Like they were a terrible team. So just the fact that it’s almost like they missed Luca also. Yeah. Yeah. Kai Jones and and Luca, those were the two biggest guys they were missing. No, but um in all seriousness like and and and that that gap between slightly better than neutral at -14 um net rating uh was also kind of split between the defense and offense. The defensive rating got better about nine points with him on the floor. Offensive rating got better about six points with him on the floor. And you know then after that you get to him ranking 92nd percentile in deflections per 100. We know that’s a huge thing. Spo loves guys who get deflections and in general like was a pretty like by some of these numbers again in a tiny sample in a really weird representative sample that is not going to be a representative sample. You know he was an abovea defender. He he he was in the 69th percentile in steals per 100 67th percentile and blocks per 100. um this website that I highly recommend to anybody that loves basketball stats and an analytics data baller, right? They have this stat that’s called stop percentage. And what that does is accounts for steals. It it accounts for offensive fouls drawn. It accounts for blocks recovered by the defense. All of this per 100. He was in the 63rd percentile and stop percentage, right? He was in the 100th percentile uh when it comes to finishing in relative true shooting percentage finishing wise versus league average. So, just in general, like you know what he is, right? He’s going he’s an above like above the rim finisher. You know, he’s got a little bit in his game as far as being able to uh get up shots in the paint even when he’s not right next to the rim because he’s so athletic. Um but also like the defense was just much more solid I feel like than it’s been at other points in his career. And this guy is not going to change the game for you. He’s not a needle mover by any means, but what you’re talking about is is a deaf piece that you would want in case, you know, one of your other bigs gets hurt. He’s not going to play the four. You know, I can I can confidently say that he’s not going to play the four for the Heat. He would be solely a five. But look, if that’s what you want, that’s what he’ll give you. And the last stat that I have here, um 60th percentile and Darko offensive uh daily plus minus, 55th percentile and Darko defensive daily plus minus. Right. So, I just think in general like he was a pretty like above average guy. For a guy that you’re talking about on a minimum here as a deaf piece, he was decent. Like he he was he did some solid work for the Mavs in a really tough situation. Wouldn’t change anything for you. But if you’re comparing, like I said, to like Baggley and Precious and some of these other guys, if you just want a guy who was going to know his role and despite all the questions and all that, like he does that stuff. He’s very athletic. He’s 24 years old. Uh, and you know, even though like he was a kind of tweener coming in, he’s 6’11 with a 7-1 wingspan and and plays defense and and can make some plays on the defensive end. Like I think he fits that cleancut role if that’s what the Heat want better than some of the other guys out there. All right. And we’ll have further conversations about him. I’m going to have Timothy Bane on the podcast uh sometime in the next 24 hours to discuss. Again, this is not a monumental signing or anything, and I don’t know that it’s imminent, but if they like him, he shows a lot. I don’t think so either, but we’re getting two episodes out of it. That’s how I look at this. I And and look, sometimes they circle back to guys. That’s the other thing. like they they could look at him now and then he he could they could look at him now and then he could go overseas and maybe and then maybe when he becomes eligible again and they need a body later in the year the contract doesn’t have quite the same would cost less right this is like you put him in your pocket you kind of take a look later and we see them return to these guys all the time so I my attitude on this all along has been I’d rather they take a look at high upside guys than to try to sort of mold these undrafteds all the time like there was reason Kai Jones was drafted in the first round. And by the way, it wasn’t a controversial pick at the time. It he was considered to be a top 25 pick in that draft and there were some some questions, but also his college coach has said he’s one of the hardest workers on the team. So, this might have been just a blip that he’s worked through and and uh and we’ll see what happens there. Right, Alex? Appreciate it. More episodes to come again as we continue to get you through. By the way, also follow Alex and I. We’re both writing now for the Heat page on Sports Illustrated. So, uh, feed feed our, uh, you know, I don’t know, feed our takeout habits or whatever you want. Click on the articles. Have a good one, everybody. Thank you for listening to the five on the floor on the five reason sports network. After all, someone needs to listen to my dad.
Kai Jones, a first-round pick who was released by the Charlotte Hornets and has had trouble finding a home since, worked out with the Miami Heat on Monday. What could he offer if Miami signed him? Would they? Ethan and Alex discuss.
Sponsors: PrizePicks.com (FIVE) and RealEstateShoppeFL.com
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:
*https://go.happinessexperiment.com/begin-aff-o2?am_id=podcast2025&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=michael
* Check out Mood and use my code FIRST20 for a great deal: https://mood.com
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
