NBA schedule release shows Miami Heat’s lack of relevance | Five on the Floor

NBA schedule release shows Miami Heat’s lack of relevance | 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, Apple Podcast, on Android to recommend Spotify. Also check out the Five Reasons YouTube channel for all your South Florida sports content. Lots of stuff on the Dolphins today, their workouts in Detroit or their joint practices in Detroit. Also off the floor, our Discord server, two bucks per month, the place for most heat information and conversation. Sometimes I can’t find the channels, but eventually I do. 10 different channels plus the stage shows bringing back more of those. You can meet all the cast of characters, a lot of whom you hear from here on the podcast. But again, this is the place to go. You’re not going to be want to be on Twitter much longer. Trust me, we put everything that’s interesting from there in different categories here. Make it easy on you. So off the floor, $2.99 per month. Also check out prize picks. Use a code five fiv. Follow us for our baseball picks. We’ve been on fire lately. Use the code five fiv, get your 50. Also, NFL preseason. There’s a strategy to that, but you probably call me a degenerate if I went into it. Use the code five fi. Put down your five. Get your 50. And now today’s episode heat nation. Yeah. Mercy go down the on the floor. Ride for my dogs. Here’s a thing. You can check the score. Hustle hard. Couple stars. Bubble frog. Kept a full plan. Got it all. Y’all seen the block with one hand and trust the guts. 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 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. Sorry, I was checking out the schedule here on the side. Here’s today’s floor plan. the NBA schedule is out finally. It was this trickle. They they like to get the most out of this. They got all 85 of their streaming services. Have to get in on the action. Uh but now it is finally out. So, you can actually check it out. It’s on heat.com. We’ve also put it on our Discord. And I always start here. We’re just going to go around the room. We’re going to give our five takeaways. So, we didn’t prep for this in any significant way, but we’ll give our five takeaways from the the schedule today. But I I always start with this, okay? The schedule always looks more difficult when you’re not an elite team. when the big three were playing and the schedule came out, you’re like, “Okay, well that’s a possible hiccup. That might stop their 11game winning streak.” That’s how you view it. When you are kind of middling, you know, three straight playins, although one of those is a final appearance, uh, and you’re expected, you’re projected to be somewhere in that kind of five to nine range again or six to eight range or something else along those lines. a lot of games are going to look tough because there are teams that are projected to be better than you. And so that’s just the nature of this. Uh but here’s my number one takeaway from this and you actually put this on a on a text us Greg and I think this is the number one takeaway from all of this. The Heat are going to have to prove their relevance again. Um they are not a national TV team. There’s there’s there’s this one game that Amazon has which the Heat are playing the Knicks, uh, which is part of that, you know, cup that ridiculous cup thing that I I disagree with Mark Jones about this, by the way, this ridiculous NBA cup thing that’s still going on just so that they can make some more money during the season. And, uh, you know, that but that’s like the only one. And then there’s this rivalry week where there’s 11 games and some teams are featured twice. The Heat are not in there. They’ve got five uh, national television games total. Now, this could should change, but it’s basically, okay, I I the way I’ve got it here, uh, November 19th at home against Golden State, by the way, our guy Ernie the man, Turtle, to Jimmy Butler, he’s already complaining on Twitter that the schedule makers, cuz they’re out to get Jimmy. Uh, the schedule makers put that game at the back end of a Golden State road trip on the second night of a backto-back. Anyway, that’s November 19th. Uh, that one’s on ESPN. Jimmy will sit. uh January uh 6th they’re in Minnesota against Anthony Edwards and that’s on Peacock. So I just had to resubscribe to Peacock. Actually part of it was my daughter wanted to watch Modern Family but beyond that it NBA games. Uh March 30th Philadelphia at home on Peacock. That could be that could be changed by then. They’ve got a game on Prime against Houston on February 28th. That one’s at home. And I’m missing one because I I don’t see the fifth one here on the schedule. There was there was a fifth one. I think some kind of an ESPN. I think you named What’s that? I think you named all five. Okay. So there. Yeah, there was four, but I think Oh, the Knicks one’s the other one, but they didn’t exact. Okay, so that’s it. That’s it. Like the heat used to be maxed on these. Um, and again it tells you part of it is well Jimmy’s not here anymore, but even Jimmy wasn’t leading to the numbers that the big three led to it. So Greg, I’ll just start there. I mean that’s the point, right? Like that they’re just not a marquee attraction at this. No disrespect to Bam and Tyler, but it is what it is. It hurts to see it. And also like if you narrow it down to just major networks, it looks like there’s they’ve got an ESPN game and an NBC game. I don’t know how much we should care about this really. I think let let me put out a PSA to the NBA or anyone that’s listening to this that has any level of influence. I think it would do the NBA a great deal of um success if they explain to the fans very um they have to be very articulate with how they explain where to find the games because now that I’m looking at this like to your point all these different uh subscription networks and things like that that you need to be signed up for. People are creatures of habit. So I hopefully they get that across. Luckily that’s not going to mess with Miami’s uh viewership. Can I can I can I can I can I jump in on that because that’s a good point and I I think this is what’s getting lost here because I think sometimes the NBA thinks they’re the NFL. So the NFL is doing this and they’re putting stuff everywhere, right? But you’re going to find the NFL game. Like you are going to find it. If you are a fan of a team or you’re going to a sports bar, obviously they’re going to find all of them. You’re going to ask them to put everything on. Like that’s just a different level here. The NBA does this stuff sometimes and I think they shoot themselves in the foot because they’re not the end. There’s 82 of these. There’s not 17 of these. And they’re not King Sport, even though it’s my preferred sport to cover. And so I I’m with you on this. Like I think this people are gonna get in the habit of this with the NFL in September and they’re going to get annoyed by it, but they’re going to do it. They’re going like if if the Chiefs are playing on this stream, they’re going Chiefs fans are going to find them for that week’s games. I don’t know that Clipper fans or any are going to find their team. I that’s you know I know there’s the local broadcast too but I I think this is going to be problematic. Anyway, continue. So that was my first initial takeaway is that just seeing the different networks it just and I mean I guess if you get used to it from the NFL to your point then maybe people will be more flexible. But I I I’m with you there. I think that that’s going to be a challenge. The other thing for me is that I always like to look at the schedule other than when the Heat come to Charlotte. So, I get to go to those games is how they start the season and what what it looks like right before the trade deadline. So, before the episode started, we looked up the deadline is February 5th. So, they play um a host of road games. They go to Golden State, Sacramento, Portland, Utah, and Phoenix. And then they finish up against Orlando, Chicago twice, and Atlanta before the deadline. So that’s an interesting point. And then just I’m not going to belabor November, but it’s a lot of road games. It’s a tough start. So those are just the major takeaways, Brady. Let’s belabor November. It’s ugly. It’s ugly. It’s ugly. I mean, it’s not just the quality of teams, it’s where they’re playing them. um open in Orlando. We know that we expected that it’s always that they go to Memphis team that finished around the same level they well eighth seed but maybe more talent on that roster although they’re going back the other direction a little bit too. They traded Bane then New York. Okay. Then you get one projected lottery team in Charlotte at San Antonio. They’re improved at the Lakers at the Clippers backtoback. By the way, finally the NBA started doing that. They used to send like four or five years ago they started doing they used to send the Heat on two different trips to Los Angeles. They don’t they don’t do that anymore. Uh Lakers and Clippers back toback and then like the scheduled loss November 5th. Put all the money down. It’s not the second night of a back. Not going to stay up for that one. No. No. November 5th in Denver. We’re all skipping that one. We know how that one goes. Uh then they come home. Charlotte and Portland at home. Okay. Two against Cleveland. Return of Massacre Memories at New York. New York at home. Golden the Jimmy game. Golden State at home at Chicago at Philly. Dallas at home. Milwaukee at home. Detroit at home. Clippers at home into December at Dallas at Orlando. How are they getting out of that Brady? They better be good quick. Yeah. So, well, let me start this by saying that the thing we have to say every single year, which is I may trust them against some of these teams that you’re mentioning, like you’re you’re you like skip past Charlotte and Portland, and I don’t appreciate that because the that’s what the Heat do and they end up down 20 in the fourth quarter. Uh I actually trust that against some of these other teams at least they could play up a little bit and get ready for some of these games. Maybe early in the season it’s it’s better to get tested like this. Uh but no doubt, I mean, the first thing that jumped out to me is the the first eight games. I mean, six of the first eight games on the road and they’re tough road games. One of them is the road trip that you mentioned. Like that that is a brutal start. The only easy game you would say there is the Charlotte game and like I just said, it’s that’s probably the one that’ll probably hurt them the most. But, uh, in it’s a it is extremely tough November. I mean, last year, I remember we were talking about they had a lot of the road uh home games on the back end of the schedule. We were like, okay, past the deadline, they can get back home. maybe they can get into a rhythm, you know, before we knew what the season was going to become. That’s not really the case with this schedule. It’s just a lot of the tougher teams early in in the season. November is just, as you mentioned, it’s just it it’s a lot of these two game sets, too. Like, that’s one of the things that jumps out on this entire schedule. It’s like either they’re going on the road to Toronto twice or they’re staying here playing Cleveland twice or New York twice. Like, it’s just a lot of these like two game pairings, which I feel like Miami kind of likes these little mini like playoff series types. Spo likes that type of thing just because he could scheme up against it. He can kind of get familiar with certain things. Um, but yeah, it it’s just definitely a brutal start to the schedule, but like you said, it’s like when you are you jud you look at the schedule differently with the with the type of team that you are. I mean, it’s just like these games look a lot tougher as you said with with the verge of the heat that they are right now. Uh, and I’ll say instead the other thing I was going to mention is you mentioned like right before the deadline some of those teams you we I remember last year we were talking about like them talking themselves into it late in the season like oh they have a bunch of home games maybe they can get it together. I’m kind of looking at February that way like that that’s kind of the one month that jumps out to me just because little pre-deine and post deadline like there there is like a little easier stretch of the season like you said the two Chicago games Atlanta’s definitely not easy games. Boston we don’t know what they’re going to be. They have Washington, Utah, New Orleans. Uh then they get a couple tougher games in there. Then Brooklyn twice, Charlotte. Like there’s some easier games they could kind of find a rhythm in February. That’s kind of the one portion of the schedule that jumped out to me that could be easier. But like I said, there’s no easy part of the schedule. Like I I don’t trust them against those type of teams anyway. So, uh in all honesty, I think it probably is better to get tested early in the year with some better teams to see what version this team is to push some of these guys. Like I don’t think this team has been around for so long. These guys have played with together for this long that it’s not like Tyler dropping 40 or Bam having a 28 point game. It’s not moving the needle for me on the season. It’s about everything coming together. So maybe an early trip early road trip in the season to kind of get the team together, get Powell into the mix, let see what Wiggins kind of looks like in this locker room for a longer period of time. Like maybe maybe that’s what they need. So So maybe a tougher schedule to start the year isn’t the worst thing. All right. All right. On the other side is we’re going to talk about uh like how this may affect decision-m because we talked about that last year, but I do want to mention one other segment of the schedule first. So January at Detroit, this is after uh backtoback against well two games against Indiana and Denver. At Detroit, Minnesota at home, New Orleans at home figures to be one of the weaker teams in the league this year. uh at Minnesota, at Chicago, at Indiana, at Oklahoma City. Okay, so you’ve got the sort of the Midwest, and then you get the defending champs at the end of the Phoenix, Boston, OKC at home, and then the other West Coast swing. So you get Golden State, Sacramento, Portland, Utah, Phoenix, three teams at the back right up to that. Now, those three teams at the back, now those four teams at the back end, actually, and I I don’t know how good Golden State’s going to be, honestly. There’s so much age on that roster, it’s really hard to tell. But then at Sacramento, at Portland, at Utah, at Phoenix, that could be one of those road trips where if you’re playing well, you can surprise people and change the thinking here a little bit. Um, having those teams paired together, it’s really the other West Coast swing, the one early in the season. I mean, at San Antonio, at Clippers, at at at San Antonio, at Lakers, at Clippers, at Denver, I mean, That’s a lot. That’s a lot. So, on the other side of this, we’ll talk about how this may affect their decision-m as we go forward. We do want to mention in terms of your decision-making, if you’ve been feeling tight in your hips, stiff in your spine, your body’s just out of alignment, listen up. The Align Training Method by Nette is offering a free 30inut virtual movement assessment completely free. This isn’t some generic workout plan. You get a personalized breakdown of your posture, hip function, and movement patterns so you can train smarter, avoid injury, and move better overall. It’s great for anyone working through pain, coming back from injury, just looking to reset their body mechanics. So, just head to the vaulttraining.online. That’s the vaulttraining.online to book your session. This is where smarter movement begins. Okay. So, let’s get into the thinking of this. Um, this is not a front office that is easily moved. We know that they were, you know, 11 and 30 famously in 1617 season. And Andy was coming back to have a conversation with Pat off the road. They won three games and decided, ah, screw it. We’re going for it. and they went 30 and 11 and they missed the playoffs by one game. We know what happened last year, right? They’re always going to push forward. But that opening stretch of the schedule, even though I think this is going to be an improved team, I think the roster is better than the one that came out of training camp last year simply because in retrospect because we didn’t we didn’t get the Jimmy we were promised, right? So I think this roster looking at the motivations of the various players you know adding Powell um hopefully you get growth from where and Yovic in particular and you don’t have Rosier in the rotation. Um so I feel like all of those things together you could be better uh on paper but they also could start four and nine. I I just look right just looking at that and Greg I just I wonder I mean they’re gonna they’re going to preach patience and all that kind of stuff. um because it’s what they do and they’re going to try to give Spo time to figure it out. We’ll see if there’s key injuries because that always plays into it. But I I I don’t know that this was an ideal. It just doesn’t look ideal to me uh for what their circumstances are to have that level. Like I said, when you’re not elite, every schedule is going to look tough, but to to frontload it with those kind of road games early in the year, I feel like there’s going to be some games they’re close but don’t finish. and we’re going to be talking about progress and Spo’s gonna say, “We see it behind the scenes. It’s just not translating to court.” Like, I I feel like that’s happening. If that happens, how does that affect direction? Well, I think and I probably say this every year because there’s a part of me that just believes it’s good for anyone to get off to a good start. But I think like this group probably could use a shot in the arm confidence-wise. I mean, just you think about the way the season ended last year, the Cleveland games, the sweet like we have to just remember what that was like and the margin of defeat. I just I think that it is um imperative that they kind of prove to themselves that they can get back to a better level of basketball than we saw them finish last year. And getting off to a bad start is tough. Also, when you talk about the road trip that you extended out even further, and I’m glad you did because when you put in perspective that they go on a five-game trip and then a 4-ame trip in between January 6th and January 25th. So, you’re talking about like basically January, there’s two long West Coast trips. That’s before you you really have to make a decision on do you keep the guys that are on expiring deals or do you uh sell them for whatever you can get or is it a situation where maybe there is a depressed asset elsewhere. I hate to use that term like these aren’t human beings but you know a player that maybe is worn out their welcome elsewhere that you want to take a chance on. It’s just it’s a to me it sets up for them to have a lot of um I guess if they get through that stretch and they feel good about this team that’s going to be a good sign for everyone. And so I just to me it looks like a daunting stretch. And to your point, usually I would look at a schedule and have a little more confidence. And I don’t know why this one is making it more um it just it looks like it sets up difficult for the Heat. I usually do not buy into a ton of that. They only have three as I’m looking through here, three, maybe four four game home stands all year. But then to Brady’s point, sometimes those are the home stands they’re supposed to win and they lose. So to me, I think the decision- making comes down to those West Coast games in January. Can they survive that? And if they can, then they may actually um not be sellers at the deadline and may look to buy actually. Well, they’ve had home stands with elite teams and I mean the big the famous one is the big three in 2010 2011 uh which not only produced a five-game losing streak but also Krygate if you recall. So I mean some of these long home stands have not been the best for them and they they’ve played better on the road at times over the past couple years than they played at home which goes to Brady’s point that when we expect them to play play well sometimes sometimes they don’t. I I guess this the overall point on the league, Brady, is this. There aren’t that many really bad teams and most of them are in the East. So, I mean, you’re looking at at what teams are we expecting to be like bad this year? Like sub 30 wins. Utah probably still, right? I think they’re projected for like 13 wins or 14 wins in Vegas. New Orleans, depending on Zion’s health, but obviously that seems like a step back. Portland was not awful last year. like they got better and they they have I mean Drew’s on the team now. They’re not they should be better than they were last year. I know we hate to say that but it looks like it. Uh that’s pretty much it in the West. I mean Okay. And then in the East, right? So Washington is clear rebuild. People quietly like what Washington is doing. So you don’t really know. I like what they’re doing. I like what they’re doing, but I don’t think I think they’re a year or two away from producing it. But they finally picked a direction that seems like a smart direction. But yes, I don’t think they’re going to be very good this year. Charlotte, right? There’s talent on that roster, but it’s that’s they did the Heat fits at least once in a season, right? You know, so that that’s something to watch for. Um, the East games are weird to me because I think that there’s a lot of volatility between what Boston’s going to look like, what Milwaukee is going to look like, Indiana. Indiana, too. Indiana, too. That’s a really good point that I actually hadn’t considered. Those are always tough games for Miami, no matter what. Um, so yeah, it’s interesting how the East is so up in the air to get this team off to a good start, um, would be huge. And just us flinching at the schedule, I guess, is not a great sign. Well, Brady, I mean, look, to me, the games that the swing games here are Chicago, Toronto, Boston, Indiana, Milwaukee because of the garbage on the roster beyond Giannis. Like, you catch a game against Milwaukee without Giannis, I mean, you’ll be favored. like I so I it’s those games to me in the East. I don’t know if Atlanta fits that C category anymore. It looks like they’ve elevated out of that a little bit. But right, isn’t that how we’re going to define this to a large degree? Yeah, I would say honestly bigger picture, I would say like my biggest takeaway with the schedule is that schedules kind of like never end up mattering. like like I I don’t think we like when the season ends, we’re not talking about the end of the season like well they they were in this position because the schedule’s hard in February. Like nobody’s like that’s that’s never ends up being the case. Um I’m more so thinking about like the good example is you saying like if they catch the Milwaukee without Giannis and then like actually having to take advantage of that game and like be up 18 into the fourth quarter and not blowing it. like it’s more so the stuff the the tangible type stuff that we’re talking about in X’s and O’s and coaching and play and players kind of being healthy and playing at that level than it is ends up being the schedule because like you said I I just don’t I think any game is winnable for the Heat this year but I think any game is losable. I you could say that for any team. I mean that’s what happens in an 82 game season but I think everybody could agree it’s probably like that for Miami more than a lot of other teams just because of the the inconsistencies with the roster. I mean, you just we didn’t know, specifically last year, we just didn’t know what you were going to get on any given night. You didn’t know who was going to play at pre Jimmy kind of being traded. You didn’t know what version of that you were going to get post Jimmy. We didn’t know if Wiggins was going to play on any given night or certain players being in and out. It’s the same thing for this season. I mean, it’s just about them finding themselves consistently because I I just don’t think like the road games, and you mentioned that, too. That’s kind of my biggest thing. The road games don’t scare them or me just because I trust them more on the road, honestly. like they’ve had so many issues, especially honestly when they get caught at home for like a good portion of the time. Like it’s not like the games where they like, okay, they just got home off of like an a road game and they play it quick. It’s more so when they’ve been home for like three games in a row. Those are the ones that worry me. They get real comfortable and it’s just those are the games that I think kind of catch them a little bit. So, uh yeah, it’s just about finding I think a level of consistency with this roster because like the the schedule I mean the schedule’s always they they knew they have to play every year coming into this. We just needed a filler podcast here to talk about some stuff. Thank you. Okay. I was gonna I was going to stop I’m just being honest here. Like I I I was going to stop you there and I’m glad that you actually said it. No, this doesn’t mean a damn thing. Okay. It never does. I say the same thing about the NFL schedule. You know who they’re going to play before they play them. This is not any great revelation. But it’s August. Yes, it matters. Everything matters. Everything matters right now. We’re trying to get to the end of the month. All right. Brady Hawk. Brady Hawk 305. Greg Savand or Greg S. Now I got to write a story for Sports Illustrated about this. So, uh, God help me. 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.

What sticks out on the Miami Heat’s schedule? Just five national TV games. What else? Ethan, Greg and Brady go through a slate that starts really challenging.

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