Miami Heat: Bam Adebayo too old for the Olympic team? | Five on the Floor

Miami Heat: Bam Adebayo too old for the Olympic team? | Five on the Floor

Welcome to the latest episode of Five on the Floor on the Five Reasons Sports Network. Thanks for joining us on your favorite podcast app on Apple Podcast. On Android, we recommend I also check out the Five Reasons YouTube channel. Also check out Off the Floor. That’s our Discord server. That’s $2.99 per month. Link right here in the description. You’ll bypass the Apple Upcharge. You get access to the most heat anywhere, the most heat information, and conversation. It’s off the floor. Also, prize picks. Use that code five fiv. You now got $50 in free lineups. It’ll be on the explore page. Play your five bucks. You get your 50 to play right away uh on those lineups that you choose. Again, go to prizepix.com. Use the code fi. And now today’s episode. Uhoh. Yeah, it’s mercy by mercy again. Heat nation we the coach yo I need you to call time out radio blanket open for the shot still five on the floor still ride for my dogs on the court still survive in the wall keep your eye on the ball or get burned from the heat mic off the wall without turning the cheek from night to day no sleeping pad so loud to morning the nut is sleeping us never catch us alive from Miami in the heat with five reason sports from Report to the streets. Action. [Music] Hey, wait. Be patient. I’m so proud. [Applause] 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. [Music] Five on the floor. Here’s today’s floor plan. I’m Ethan Skolnick. You can follow me at Ethan Jolnik at Five Reasons Sports. Also, you can follow a new account, Heat Magic on SI. That’s a new Twitter account, Heat Magic on SI. Some of you might follow that already because I repurposed something else, something sneaky that I do. But check it out. We added a few hundred followers today. Uh that’s where we’re going to be putting the content from the Sports Illustrated sites, uh the Heat and the Magic. Um managing both of them and a lot of five reasons sports folks are going to be on there. One story that I wrote for there today because this caught my eye. Uh there was a tweet from basketball forever and this came in from uh a Bill Simmons I assume podcast. Uh Bill Simmons of course he of the ringer, prolific basketball writer back in the day, now provocator. Bill Simmons doesn’t think anyone over the age of 30 should be on Team USA’s 2028 Olympic basketball team. Where is that, by the way? Do we know? I I should have looked that up. The Olympics? Yeah, 2028. Los Angeles, right? Oh, it is. Is it? I mean, I mean, I hope I’m right. I could be wrong. I live under a rock most of the time. Hold on. Well, I’m trying I’m trying to live on a rock. It’s better these days. You’re right. It is in LA. Okay. Thank you. Sorry. Look at that. Yeah. Can Can you get me credentialed, by the way? Yeah, by by then I won’t be on this planet anymore. I got I got about a year and a half left. So, yeah, I’ll get the credentials before I pass. Uh 20 2028 uh in Los Angeles. Thank you for providing that. So, Bill Simmons doesn’t think anybody 30 or over or over 30 should be there. And here’s some of the players. Now, I didn’t hear the podcast interview, so I’m running off aggregation here. His picks for the starting five. Jaylen Williams, Tyrese Hallebertton. Hopefully his Achilles will be healed by then. Anthony Edwards, Paulo Bonero. This was perfect magic content for us. Cooper flag with Bigs. And this is the big thing. Chad Homegrren and Evan Mobley off the bench. Now, it raises a question. How old is Bam Adobio going to be in 2028? Well, Bam was born on July 18th. Uh, and it he was born on uh in 1997. So when those Olympics start, he will be basically in his birthday week uh for age uh 31, which according to Bill Simmons is too old to be on this team. Now, I’m going to let you uh get in here. Of course, BAM is a two-time Olympian, but I do want to point out one thing. Well, I’ll ask you a question. Who are the three best players on the US’s Olympic team that just won the gold in uh Paris? Who are the three who are the three most important play? Who are the three players you’re going to remember? Who took over the last game? My answers are going to basically show why Bill Simmons sentiment to have all young players there or under 30 is bogus cuz it was about LeBron. It was about KD and it was ultimately about Steph Curry in that final game and hint none of those guys are under 30 anymore. So I I think that the idea that there wouldn’t be um just naturally elder statesmen that kind of grow with a program like that’s the whole point of them having that pool of players that comes back and works together is that you’re not going to have all young players or something like that. So I think this is like how I mean we’re guilty of it too. Sometimes you have to fill content. And so this is an interesting theory of trying to redo something, but it’s overthinking it. To me, the best players are going to be there. And from the bigs that he listed, Bam is is usually one of the guys cuz he doesn’t need the ball a bunch that he fits right in with all the stars that usually are taking all the shots. Yes. I’m glad that you mentioned those three players because those were the three most important players on that team. And by the way, it wasn’t effing close. Okay. I mean, KD, let’s let’s just go. First thing, LeBron was LeBron throughout the entire thing. And LeBron is 40. So, he’s not just over 30, he’s 40. I know not everybody is LeBron, but okay. And Steph and and uh KD, they’re not just over 30, they’re on the other side of that, closer to 40 than they are to 30 at this point. And yes, they’re the reasons they won. They don’t win the gold medal without if they don’t have one of those three guys. uh if in other words they have two but not three, they probably don’t win the gold. So everyone thought Anthony Edwards was going to make this huge leap and be like the alpha of the group. I remember there were conversations like that and it showed you very quickly that these guys just there was a pecking order. I mean Anthony Edwards openly says Kevin Durant’s his favorite player of all time. So I just think that that’s um it’s it’s unrealistic to think that they’re not going to send some guys that are a bit older. And truthfully, I I don’t love his lineup of Jaylen Williams and Tyrese Hallebertton as the back court. Like I I don’t know that that’s set in stone at all. Well, okay. Well, a couple things on that. First thing, Hallebertton didn’t even play in this last one. Now, you could say that he would he would rise to the level, but he he didn’t get minutes. Okay. He was basically the water boy. So, now coming off an Achilles, we’re looking ahead two years and we’re saying that I’m not saying he can’t rebound. Obviously, Tyrese’s a great player, but okay, that that’s just bit of a stretch. A lot of projecting. A lot of projecting here. uh you met Ant obviously. Okay. And Bonero obviously seems to be in that projection. I think Kate Cunningham is somebody we’re going to uh be talking about for that team probably in the program. But with all that said, okay, I looked back a little bit. All right. Um the dream team in ‘ 92. Now Bird had a bad back, but he was over 30. Magic was over 30. Ewing had just turned 30. Mullen was about to turn 30. I haven’t checked David Robinson, but he was a little bit be in that range. Yeah, he was in that range, but I think a little younger than Patrick was. Okay. So, a lot of guy I What was Stockton at that point? I I think 92 Stockton was over 30, right? Okay. So, let’s just start there. Like, you’re talking about half the dream team was 30 or over. All right. Exactly. Okay. Then they just celebrated this redeem team and I know that Dwayne and Carmelo and LeBron obviously were a huge part of that, but you know who else was over 30 on that team? Kobe and J who they’re crediting for getting everybody in the gym. Okay. And that and LeBron even said, “We knew this thing was serious when Kobe signed up. You know, I’m tired of watching you mfers lose.” Okay, that was the quote. So, this idea again that and by the way, Carmelo came back twice more, right? And I think was over 30 during those times. LeBron has been over 30. It’s I I think it’s silly. I think you’re asking to lose. Okay, but let’s just let’s just get to because we just saw if you watched Euro Basket, okay, which was a very high level of basketball and we’re already seeing the US and world world’s going to have a team in the all-star round robin this year. The idea that you’re going to diminish your team by by taking certain guys out of consideration. No way. No, you got the best damn guys and especially guys who’ve won before. All right, on the other side, we’re going to talk about Bam specifically, okay? Because you ain’t putting Chad Homer over Bam. I’m sorry. Not at this point. Nope. Okay, let’s get to it. All right, that sounds like a scam to me. You know what else is a scam? People trying to get money out of you. A lot of times that’s a scam. Okay, so you got to be safe. All right, you got to get that builtin security that comes with Cash App. When it comes to your money, you deserve to feel safe from fraud and in control. 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The exclusive referral code on the floor in your profile. Put that there. Okay? Send five bucks to a friend within 14 days. All right? Just send it to me. And you’ll get I I give you my handle and you’ll get $10 dropped right into your account. Terms apply. That’s money. That’s Cash App. So again, the code is on the floor. Send me money, you get more money. That’s a good deal. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App’s bank partners. Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank member FDIC. Instant discounts provided by Cash App Inc. brand. Visit cash.apple back/mpodcast for full disclosures. Okay, now the ban part of this. He’s just going to be turning 31. I don’t even know when that Olympics starts, but he might still be 30 in like 362 days at that point. Um, and it comes down to this. All right. There has been this anointing of a couple of these other young bigs. Uh, and Homer just won a championship as probably the third best player on the team, right? Would you, would you say, okay, Jaylen Williams probably the second best player on the team. Chat was probably the third best player. I don’t even know. In some cases, Chat was the third most important. I felt like uh there were times Dort was there were times Caruso was they had a they have a good team. Okay. They also had the MVP, right? Okay. And as far as Moy goes, I I I always come back to this and I I I you know, Moy just won defensive player of the year, something that Bam has never won. Okay. I still believe that if you lined up 30 coaches and asked which of the two of them do you want to anchor your defense, not all of them, but I do believe at least a slight majority of them would pick Bam. Do do you agree with that? Well, and to further illustrate, it doesn’t matter if all 30 would. I think that the coaching staff of Team USA would. And it’s been shown that like when they when they wanted to lean into a big, Bam usually found his way onto the court. Now, obviously, they play like in lineups and in shifts and there’s minutes and it’s a different ballgame there, but he’s a perfect fit among these guys. He’s going to have done it before. They’re going to need vets like that because I don’t know that I mean, is LeBron really going to play in 2028? So, I I I think that maybe maybe it’s it’s a shame that Bam hasn’t won a defensive player of the year when he is regarded as such a great defender. Hopefully, this will be the year. Um, but it cuz Evan Mobley now is he has an accolade that Bam doesn’t have. There’s a couple other guys that have gotten them throughout the years that I wouldn’t personally take over Bam. And I think most coaches would feel that way, but Spolster would feel that way, too. Right. and he’s going to be part of that coaching staff as we know. So, and you know has a voice in the program. But the other part about Moy is and look, Moy has an offensive skill set that that really Cleveland should lean into more, but they won a lot of games last year. Moy hasn’t really shown up offensively in the playoffs actually. Uh but again, there’s been times we’ve questioned Bam on offense. But you mentioned the shifts thing when it comes to Bam. that second unit that Timio was playing was more effective than their first unit for a period of time again until Durant and they until they kind of got going. And I by the way I think the Bill Simmons thing with not playing guys over 30 is because he’s probably still bitter that Durant moved right ahead of Tatum and shelved Tatum all the way to the back of the bench because that’s what happened. Okay, Durant was coming back from injury and just moved right ahead of Tatum because he’s better than Tatum and he’s always been better than Tatum and and even in two years he’ll be better than Tatum. Sorry, that’s my anti-Tatum bias. Um, but maybe that’s a little strong. I don’t Well, I mean, by then it’ll be with the Heat, right? Because that’s every two years out obviously will elevate him, right? Right. Right. Right. Age 48 when they finally get him. But that that may play into some of this, but they also played Bam a lot with those three. Mhm. And that think about it. That’s what’s great about BAM with them is that they could just slot him in wherever and he fits seamlessly. They don’t have to run plays for him. The three-point line is even closer. So, it makes it even more viable that he can help space. To me, it it’s I don’t think Evan Mobley is a better player in that format. Personally, I I don’t think he is right now either. I I think that again a year out, maybe Mobly takes some other leap that everybody’s been rejecting since he was a top five pick. And maybe Cadet does too, but I don’t know. There are some games, man, that Chet just gets pushed around. And I that’s Is Czech gonna guard Joker? Is that what we’re doing against them? Like, come on. He’ll break him in break him break him in half. I mean, that that’s So, I’m I’m not saying that Bam is heads and tails a better player than those two. That’s not what I’m saying. But I think the point that we’re getting at here, you I know you are. The point that we’re getting at is that he fits this format. They already know that the coaching staff is familiar with him. And the fact that he may be a couple of days away from 31 or a couple days into 31 is a very stupid reason to keep him off the team, especially when he has experience and it can help bring some of the young guys along. And by the way, yes, I have a bias in this because he need him in Los Angeles to go recruit other guys. Okay. Right. So, you need him on this starts the next cycle, right? That’s exactly right. The next cycle of false hope. We’re going to start it in Los Angeles where I didn’t even know that the Olympics were in 2028, but apparently you’re getting credentialed after I’m dead. And look, that’s that’s what we want here. We want Bam on that team. And I would be very surprised if he’s not on that team. If he wants to be on that team, right? Like that’s unless there’s some sort of injury or extenduating circumstance that makes him, you know, maybe if he battled a couple injuries leading up to it and he wants to take care of his body to prioritize the season. But also those guys really value the Olympic team like that group that just won that that was a unique experience and I think that guys really are going to value that going forward. I know that he said it was his last but if Steph Curry asks to be on that team. You say you’re not on that team because you’re 38. Come on. Let Bill tell him that. Yeah. Exactly. All right. So that’s it. We got 17 minutes out of that. Stupid, stupid, stupid uh suggestion by Bill Simmons. That’s it. You can quote me on that. Bam. We’re gonna get you on that team because you belong on that team. Uh better question is, do they need a shooter? Tyler’s going to be 28. Oh, add it to the resume. That’s right. It’s gonna cost more, Pat. No, that by then it will have already cost more, right? Because that’s some extension will kick in whether it’s here or somewhere else. All right. Thanks to our sponsor sponsors, Price Pick. Use code 5 fivet series with my word. I have a word. I have not revealed it to my co-host. The state of the heat is blank. I reviewed all of the other words and then forgotten them. But I do have a word. Yours was crossroads. I do uh major was mediocre. Eternals was what was it? Oh, heart. The heart. It was also we could get a Kendrick album in the head in the title. Uh, I have a word for everybody and I’ll give it to you guys on the next episode. Have a good one. Thank you for listening to the Five on the Floor on the Fiverent Sports Network. After all, someone needs to listen to my dad.

Ethan Skolnick and Greg Sylvander assess Bill Simmons’ view that Bam Adebayo and others who will be over 30 years old shouldn’t be on the U.S. Olympic team in 2028.

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