Dru Smith re-signs with the Miami Heat (for 3 years) | Five on the Floor

Dru Smith re-signs with the Miami Heat (for 3 years) | 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. On Android, we recommend Spotify. Also, check out the Five Reasons YouTube channel. Plenty of Dolphins content, Messi and Inner Miami content. We’ve got everything on there. So, make sure you hit like, subscribe, turn the notifications on, even though we prefer that you listen to the podcast in other places. Also, check out prize picks. Use the code five fiv. Put down your five. Get your 50 to play right away. WNBA baseball and more. I’m playing some MMA tonight. Um even though I don’t know what I’m doing, but they gave us a discount. Check that out as well. You can play soccer on there. prize.com. Use the code five. Get your 50 to play right away. And now today’s episode 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 wearing bubble frog kept the floor 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. All right, welcome back to Five on the Floor. It’s August. We’re not supposed to be having this level of transaction. Uh, I’ve got Digital Adele. You can follow him at Digital Adele. We’re going to do a quick episode today. Drew Smith is back. Um, three-year contract. Do we know at the moment if the last two years are guaranteed? is I’m seeing we’re literally just ripping and running here. Like I I haven’t seen Okay. I have seen some reports that they’re not fully guaranteed. So, we have to wait to see how that plays out. But, it’s a three-year contract for $7 million total. Uh reported by Shams Tron. I can never pronounce Shams his name. Shams from ESPN. And uh so, Drew Smith is going to be back. And I’ll just start here. First thing, uh, credit to our Major Passins, who has been banging the Drew Smith drum for a while, talking about how far ahead of rehab he was. I’ll say this though, okay? And we love you, Major. And if you were available today, you’d be here in the seat instead of Adele, and I’d be giving you your props, but you’re not. But also, also, I mean, anybody could have predicted this. Um, and let’s just go back. Two years ago, Drew Smith works his way uh into Eric Folure’s sightelines and I believe uh at the time, this is pre-ROS, right? Yes. So, this is pre- Rose, he works his way in there, pre-davon Mitchell, obviously, then he gets hurt because of that crappy court in Cleveland, right? So, he blows out his ACL and I tweeted that day he’ll be back. SP loves in. Okay. Right. Then let’s fast forward to last year. Last year, you know, it looked like he probably wouldn’t have a rotation spot of any kind. Working back from injury. Again, ACL is a traumatic injury. Not what it used to be. But then he starts playing and he plays well. Not just defensively, but he took care of the ball. He made open shots. And he went from a guy who he fans were like, “Oh, we don’t why is why does Spo like him?” to a fan favorite pretty quickly actually over like a three to four week span. I thought he was going to start at one point because it looked like Spo was moving in that direction and then he does he has an even more traumatic injury. He tears his Achilles and at that point every he’s done he’s done and I literally tweeted that night he’ll be back and the reason I thought he’ll be back is a he’s an extraordinarily hard worker. Okay, they don’t seem to care about him being an advanced age for a quote unquote prospect which is something I want to talk to you about. And the other part of this is uh again Eric Spoler loves him like just does like he he has from the beginning and even when people in the Heath front office at the very beginning of this whole Drew Smith thing did not know what Spo saw in him. Spo said well you guys didn’t see what I saw in Gabe either. Give it some time. So I’ll just start with this. I’m happy for Drew because he’s he seems to be a quality person who has dealt with ridiculous amount of adversity and he’s put himself back in this position. Now, Haywood Highmith, also a good person who put himself in a good position, was traded to get under the luxury tax and then this move happens right afterwards. So, this is the 14th roster spot. They still have one left. They are still under the tax. Uh we’ll see if they fill the 15th. Kai Jones, as far as we know, well, we do know he’s in uh Nicaragua right now. Nicaragua right now training with the Bohemian team. I don’t think that’s dead. So, let’s continue to watch it, but I don’t know if there’s going to be a particular hurry. But I’ll just put it this way. He fans are, it’s funny, they swing wildly on this stuff at the ones on Twitter. They did not like Drew at all. Didn’t Okay. Then they started to love Drew. Now what I’m seeing on Twitter is why are they resigning Drew Smith? Um, where do you stand with this? So from the Miami Heat fan perspective, I can understand where they’re coming from because Drew Smith, although he was a nice player for them last season and he was a nice surprise. And when I mean whenever I say a surprise, for the first three years of his career, he didn’t shoot higher than 30.8% from three for his entire career prior to the past two seasons. And he’s worked himself into a competent three-point shooter where the previous season he averaged 41 or his percentage was 41.2% from three. And then before he got injured in the 14 games that he played, it was five point or 53.3% from three. Like so he was really showing some promise to be able to not be a liability on offense and and to be able to take care of the ball and turn it over. And when you see some efficiency, I mean, it’s a stark contrast to what you saw from Terry Roier. Okay. And that’s true. But now let’s look at the guard room. Okay. And first thing, we don’t know when Drew is going to be back healthy. And I think this is Greg has been voicing this on our chats and on our Discord if you’re following off the floor. Like why do they have to do this now? So that’s something that I’m going to try to get to the bottom of like how healthy is he? Did they feel like they could only trade Heismith into the Nets cap space now? So they had to make that move, get under the tax. They weren’t going to wave and stretch Fonteio. It doesn’t seem like they’ve got an August 29th deadline on that. So just do it all at once. I I mean I look when they traded Icemith I said one of two things is going to happen with this spot. They’re either going to give it to Kai Jones or if they really like the workout or they’re going to give it to Drew Smith. Like it was pretty that’s what’s gonna happen. But we thought it was possible they could give it to someone like Kai Jones and hold the spot for Drew the 15 spot until he’s healthy and then you’re accumulating less uh salary against all of your various thresholds by just him later. So they must feel a he’s close to being back which would be remarkable. Now here’s get back kills. He’s not a guy who relies on quickness. So I I don’t think this is but are you concerned and then we’ll get to the guard room. Are you concerned because I think you’ve mentioned this before about lateral quickness on defense. Offense I don’t care about ball up the court and spot up. You’re concerned about it on defense. I am. And and and the thing about this, I mean, even though he doesn’t rely on quickness and burst, I mean, he is a defender first. Like, he is on the court for point of attack defense. And if you can’t be able to move laterally and contain some of the most explosive guards in the league, I don’t know what his role and fit would be on the team. Because as much as you like Drew once we start talking about the guard room, it’s going to be slim pickings if he can’t play defense on why you would put him out there over some of the other guys, especially if you want to develop guys and you want to see how they’re going to be able to play alongside one another, how they’re going to be able to grow. And while we were talking, I did look and Anthony Chang did report that it’s a three-year 7.9 fully guaranteed deal. So 7.9 I don’t I don’t know where the other reports came from. This is why I got to wait. Uh so okay, they guaranteed it’s not a lot of money. It’s easily movable. Um so that’s that’s not a concern. I mean it’s it’s basically it’s under $3 million a year. You basically got him, you know, you basically got him in a minimum deal. They’ve done this kind of deal before. They did it with Kendrick Nun. They did it with uh I mean they’ve done they do this deal a lot. They they do it sometimes at the very end of the season. They did that with Nun. I I I guess here’s where I could see. Okay. You look at the guards right now. We think that Powell is going to start with Hero. Yes. We also think that DaVon, who brings you those defensive chops that Drew is bringing, shot the ball very well, is a quicker, I think, more creative player with higher upside than Drew, who they’re paying 12 mill by a lot, who they’re paying 12 million a year to also. So, they’re paying him almost four basically four times as much per season. So, he’s going to get minutes. he’s going to play 30 plus, right? Uh it sounds to me a like we’re not going to see a lot of Hakachonis, right? And and I at least at first and it also seems to me well Rosier we knew I mean that’s I mean this just cements it, right? Like I mean there’s I mean I don’t think they’re even going to be trying to rebuild shareholder value here. Like I it seems like that’s just a lost because I thought there was going to be a Terry Rosier day in training camp where Spoke comes out is like wow Terry worked really hard this offseason. he’s put all this stuff behind him. You know, it’s a credit to him, you know, that he’s taken all the slings and arrows and he’s he’s, you know, he looks great. I thought there was going to be one day everybody would write about it. We never think about it again. But I I don’t know if that’s even going to happen now. And then you But I do think I do think that one thing Spo’s back is have him guard up. Guard, can he? He’s He’s taller than DaVon, right? Yeah, he is taller than DaVon. He could guard up, but again, it’s going to come back th this all boils down to me to lateral agility. Like your Achilles cuz playing the point guard versus guarding the the shooting guard in today’s NBA. Yeah. Those lines are completely blurred unless you have a unicorn point guard, you know, like a Chris Paul or, you know, any of the old school point guards that are going to facilitate first, be super quick. Now they’re all big. They can all facilitate. They can all pass. It’s it’s all pretty much the same whether they’re the one or the two these days. So, it’s all going to come back to that for me. I mean, it’s fine if he guards up a little bit, but it’s not going to really take that much pressure off of his lateral agility. Now, the other question I have for for you on this, if they were going to play like a halfcourt defense where he could shade people to help all the time, that would be he could probably survive a little more in that environment. But they’re going to look to push the pace this season just like they tried. Well, you would think you would think one would think Neverless. Yeah, one would think they’re going to try to push the pace a little bit this season and they’re going to try to be able to run and you’re going to need to not only be able to get out in transition and run, but once you’re sprinting back on defense and being on an island, so to speak, by yourself a lot, I just don’t know how comfortable I am with with with that. Now, I do want to preface this. Who else would you sign? Well, that’s that’s the thing. I mean, obviously, they they were they’re not in a hurry to sign Kai Jones or they would have done it, right? Okay. So, there’s that. And then he fans are going to say because they just like the name Westbrook. But you think Spo wants to deal you think Spo wants to deal with that? Like I I just I mean, you talk about entering another player in the mix with bad shot selection. I understand Russ’s history and I respect Russ and I’m not I’m not a Russ hater by any means, but like they okay, they’re they’re trying to shade out Terry Rosier because of shot selection primarily and forgetting how to play basketball, but like Russ’s shot selection. Is that really what they want with this team? The way that they’re trying to get a flow. So, no. But yeah, that’s what he fans will say because they’re always going to talk about the name. I like Drew. I liked his minutes last year. They were a plus in his minutes. His lineups were good last year when he was playing. But again, that’s pre more traumatic injury than he had last time. So, their medical staff must feel really really good about this because it’s it’s one thing to like, you know, lean into his work ethic and say he’s going to put the work in. It’s another to rebuild the actual ligament, you know, or tendon to a place where he can push off of it and do things. And I also know Heat fans, and we’ll get to more of this on the other side, are going to say, “Well, you’ve been talking about no progress stoppers, and here’s a guy, what is he 28? He’s close to 28, right? He’s 28.” Okay. So, so he’s not a young So, we just they’ve moved off Highmith, and we talked about him being a progress stopper, right? The same age, right? Uh and and and I also think that Highmith’s uh absence is going to end up having Fonteio play more, who’s 30. So, it’s not this isn’t necessarily leaning to use. I I’ll say one other thing. They like to reward their guys. We know this. This is not a charity case, so people should stop with that BS, okay? But they like to reward their guys. At the same time, this is also a guy who I think Spo is very comfortable as a team player and that is a good guy to have on the very end of your bench. Like I think they know he’ll work, he’ll put in the time. If they if he’s not part of the regular rotation, spoken go to him and he’s going to be prepared. He’s not going to complain. And he is in a lot of ways he’s become Eric’s security blanket, I think. Can I that’s I think that’s kind Hold the thought. Hold the thought because we got a little bit more to get to uh on this. He’d sign resigned Drew Smith for three. By the way, people are asking he could not have signed the two-way. So, that was not an option. Otherwise, they probably would have done that. All right. Uh here’s an option. What do you want to sign? Well, you want to sign a deal for a new house, right? The housing market in South Florida is starting to get tricky. You need to work with experienced professionals. Reach out to Javier and Amanda. Family business, family team. They know what’s best for your family. They got open houses every weekend all the way from Fort Lauderdale all the way out west. Uh again, you can check them out anytime at the Fort Lauderdale Realtor on Instagram or real estate shop. That’s real estate shop with two P’s and an E. Real estate shopl.com. I put them on this episode because Javier is the single biggest Drew Smith fan I know. And he was on with me early last season and talked about how he thought he’d be a starter eventually. That’s before Drew popped and not popped the Achilles but popped as a player and you know he was right. I mean Drew played really well last year. All right. What was your thought on the other side? I don’t even know what I said. So you get this. Well my thought that that I have with this and this is my only critique and criticism of it is that Drew Smith is 28 years old. He missed 45 games with that knee injury. The the Achilles injury he missed 55 games. Drew Smith in his entire four-year career has only played 38 total games between the three years with Miami and the one year with Brooklyn. He’s played in only 38 games total. That’s a very difficult thing for me to say, “Hey, I know this guy works hard. It’s an Achilles, which is the worst injury going in professional sports right now.” and saying that’s the guy I want to put on my rotation. Now, if you look at it as I want to use him as an example for Casper’s Jaconis, this is how you work. This is how you, you know, fit in as a professional and get go about your business. That I can understand. But you got DaVon Mitchell that can do that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he Spo’s going to use the two of them together, isn’t he? He’s going to use Mitchell with uh with Drew, right? I mean, I could see lineup combinations where he does that, but again, I need to see this. I need to see this in a five on five game. What does it look like in a five on five game uh coming back from an Achilles like that for a guard? And it’s not like one of these big, tall, rangy players that Yeah. uses their length to get their shots off and to defend. I mean, you got to really get in a stance and move your feet to be a point of attack defender. We’re gonna see, you know what we’re going to see? We’re going to see the uh the Mitchell Drew Smith Powell lineup. We’re going to see the Mitchell Drew Smith hero lineup. Uh our guy at Turnal uh couldn’t join on the podcast today, but he just made a very good point on off the floor. He’d have a front court depth problem. They find another guard, right? That that 15th spot has got to go, if they use it, has got to go to a front court player. You cannot go in the season. We we haven’t talked about this today. Yoic looked terrific again uh playing. By the way, uh Larson looked terrific playing for Sweden. So, the Heats players are playing very well for their international team. So, because Pal had 34 the other night, uh they they they look good. The progress you want to see from Larson and Yovic seems to be happening uh in those environments. And Larson, oh, by the way, Larson is a guard, too. Uh and Tyler is a guard, too. And Powell is a guard, too. This is the most guard heavy room I I’ve ever seen from them. They just It’s It’s interesting. And and if you just break it up into wings, Himeme Hawkins Jr., he’s a wing also. And wins. Yeah. Right. But but I’m saying like as far as as far as bigs go, they have three. That’s it. They have three. And and one of whom uh again looked great. He had 22 points or 23 points or whatever. Yoic. But you you don’t want him playing like a big. You want him playing, you know, more out on the perimeter space. The thing that jumped out about Yoic, and we’ll do this another episode. I watched some of the highlights today. I didn’t get to see the game live, but he made four threes, but he also had four attacks that led to free throw attempts, right? And he finished two of them. And that to me is the most he’s the X factor for them this season. I’m I’m sticking to that. But they need to get another big like somewhere they got. And look, Kishan Johnson is one of them. And we haven’t even seen him play in in anything that matters, right? We’ve seen him in summer league. I’ve seen him play at Miami Pro League. and we’ve seen him uh and we’ve seen him play in the G-League, but we haven’t seen him play in circumstance that matters. I don’t know how you can trust that yet. So, anyway, Adele, appreciate it. Thanks for jumping on here. Drew Smith resigns. We knew he’d be back. He’s going to outlast all of us. He’s going to end up being the new UD, but hopefully not another injury. And again, happy for him. Uh seems like a great guy, and he, man, I would not wish what he had to deal with the past couple of years on anybody. Thanks for uh listening. We’ll be back soon.

Dru Smith is back, after another traumatic injury, this time an Achilles’ tendon rupture. Why did the Heat bring him back? And for three seasons? Ethan Skolnick and Digital Adel break it down.

Sponsors: RealEstateShoppeFL.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:
*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