Miami Heat 2025-26 comprehensive DEFENSIVE preview | Five on the Floor

Miami Heat 2025-26 comprehensive DEFENSIVE preview | Five on the Floor

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[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. All right, welcome back to five on the floor. If you hear a little noise in the background, we’re under some skylights here and there’s one of those South Florida afternoon thunderstorms uh that are going on. We’re actually here in Dural, as I mentioned, 305 800 pain studios. I’m Ethan Skoling. You can follow me, Ethan J. Skull. Got five sports. I got Alex Celo. You can follow him at Tropical Blanket. Today’s floor plan, we’re going to do the second half of our training camp previews. We’ve done training camp previews for three months, but as I said on the last episode, none of you listened. We’ve we’ve been talking to ourselves for a very long period of time. I feel like ever since the Norm Powell trade, we just had all these different series. Everybody giving their words on the state of the Heat. Matteo’s done this. I I Well, no. Well, well, no, by the time that this posts, I probably will have actually. Yeah. No, I I I’ve come up with my word, but there’s been all these different series that we’ve been doing just to get you through. We would appreciate it if the heat would advance into May at least this year so we don’t have to drag it out for all of these months. Uh but we have we’ve literally posted an episode or more every single day. This is the second part of our training camp series on the defense. So we already did an episode on the offense. Both Alex and I came down in about the same place on where we think this offense is going to be, provided that there’s relative health. Now the defense is another story. Whereas the Heat have struggled offensively during most of Eric Spellelra’s tenure since 2008. Uh even with different players, different play styles, etc. They have not struggled defensively for the most part. Uh they have found a way to be a good defensive team. I remember what Nate Duncan said last year when I had him on the podcast. He said, “As long as you have Spo and you have BAM, you’re probably going to get a top 10 defense.” And that’s true because they’ve had a lot of sort of subpar defenders and it hasn’t mattered all that much. That’s not just a spo thing. You know, Pat Riley put together some top five defenses with Tim Hardaway as his point of attack defender. And I can tell you at that point, Tim had no knees. Uh, and but they managed to, again, other guys covered up. They had PJ Brown, they had Alonzo Morning, but they had Dan Marley way past his prime. They still figured out a way to do to be an elite defensive team. It’s what they they they pride themselves on. But let’s be honest here. They were not elite defensively against the Cleveland Cavaliers. They didn’t stop anything. Nothing. Now, I know that there’s going to be a lot of focus in this episode on Tyler Herro because he was picked apart in that series in a way that I can’t remember him being picked apart for four consecutive games like that. We’ve seen him struggle in some games. I remember being at a game in Philly about three years ago and they just went to Tyrese Maxi every single time in the fourth quarter, isolated Tyler and it was a mess. Uh, but he had gotten somewhat better defensively, but that series he was bad. But he wasn’t the only one. Wiggins was bad defensively, not what was advertised. And and the rest of the team, I mean, I thought really only Da’Von really competed uh consistently on that end. And obviously Bam gave you what he could, but uh didn’t seem to have a lot left. So, we’ll start with the numbers here, Alex. What were they defensively? And I know you’ve broken this down a little bit to pre-Jimmy trade for Wiggins, DaVon, and others. and post Jimmy Trade. And then on the other side, we’re gonna get into what the addition of Norman Powell means and the way that they approach the season defensively. Like honestly, it just it wasn’t good enough. I think post Jimmy. Now the numbers are actually a little bit better. Like I kind of had a similar thing last episode. I I just maybe it’s just it’s a me problem there. I just look at it overall negatively. The post Jimmy um era there. I don’t know. I mean I don’t even know what the better word would be because it’s not an era. It was just a small sample size of depression and but honestly like once I look at it now um their defense ranked 12th post Jimmy trade um it was 11th in half court and 10th in transition which is the big number that’s actually going to surprise me here because their transition defense was 27th when Jimmy was still on the team. Now again this doesn’t account for other seasons that you know that might not hold for an entire season. I don’t know if they’re going to stay a top 10 transition defense that stood out to me because it but it felt like the the half court defense took a drop and it did by the numbers they were sixth in half court defense with Jimmy 11th um postJimmy trade and then obviously that is not accounting for that beatd down that took place in the playoffs there where all of it just came apart and that is where I struggle. I actually think I’m I’m gonna have more trouble on this defense episode than I was with the offense, which I don’t know if I would have said that before, but now that we’re actually going through it since, you know, like we tried to account for the Norm Pow edition on the offense, now the defense is obviously like taking undergoing a big change, too, where um like you mentioned, Spo is is is the the mastermind behind the defense. Bam is the anchor. Jimmy was a huge part of it obviously as a guy who was playing 35 minutes a game for so long there and somebody who when he was at his best was one of the best defensive playmakers in the league as far as um you know intercepting passes uh getting in the passing lanes and all that type of stuff and it really drove their defense. It it was as you mentioned on the last episode the way the last episode the way that Spo describes it or skirmish skirmishes and I I think like the skirmishes went down post Jimmy they didn’t have that defensive play playmaking nowhere near the same level. So I do think there’s going to be an emphasis on making sure that their halfcourt defense is as solid as can be because they can’t they don’t have the personnel to take the risk that they were taking before as far as guys specifically Jimmy coming out of the scheme and taking risk to get steals. They don’t have that type of player. Like DaVon, you know, is not that type of player. He is as solid as they come one-on-one, fighting over screens, guarding the opposing team’s best guard. And look, he he was at fault, too, for the way that things went down in the playoffs. It’s obviously not just him, but he he didn’t do a great job either compared to what he was doing in the regular season. I just think it all kind of came apart there and it and it became I I think not representative of them overall. I just think they they they they almost gave in a little bit. it kind of looked like by the end of that series there and everything just fell apart. But when you try to project the defense for this upcoming season, first of all, it’s so hard to project because we don’t know what the starting lineup is going to be, even though we we all think we know what it’s going to be or perhaps what it’s going to be. Um, well, you and I don’t agree on what it’s going to be necessarily. I mean, I I think that it could be different, Greg and I sort of think it could be different a couple weeks into the season than it is at the start of the season, but I think what you’re getting at is is it going to be You’re mostly talking about the front court, right? I mean, are we in agreement that Pal’s going to start next to Hero? I I have a hard time seeing Spolster go any other direction at this point, right? I So, we’re really talking about is Wear or Yovic starting next to Bam. Is that is that the decision? Pretty much. And also, is there a way that DaVon can get in there? I don’t know. Like, that is still I guess somewhat on the table. And I guess that’s where it becomes hard. But we know DaVon’s going to get plenty of minutes. We know Wiggins is going to get plenty of minutes. We know that whether like whatever they do with the front court with Yoic and Wear and all that like all those guys we know more or less the type of role as far as minutes that they’re going to have right. So, I think once you try to like account for all of that, it’s I don’t have the same expectations that I used to for them defensively where it’s like, okay, you need to be in that top 11, top 10ish, right? And I think like you lean into it on on in the playoffs, which is what, you know, and in the clutch as we talked about in the last episode about their offense. They their their defense was always the priority where you had to have that solid in order for everything else to work. I do think they can still be in the upper half, right? And we’ll talk more about that. I do think they they that path is still there, but I don’t think it’s as easy to get back there. I because I don’t want to take away from what Jimmy did for them. Now, they got back DaVon, who was an awesome perimeter defender. They got back Wiggins who maybe is not at the level he was during the, you know, as he was with the Warriors when they went to the finals and won the championship, but is still a positive defender and I think can can do better than he did last season for the he I I that’s kind of where he disappointed me a little bit cuz offensively I thought he showed off a few different things that he’s capable of doing and we’ll see more of that. But I think they have the personnel to get into that top half defensively. I just don’t think they can be a great defensive team. I’m going to be really interested to see what they do with those lineups because I don’t think Powell’s like this terrible defender, but he’s going to be next to Tyler a lot. So, it’s going to be I’m really interested to see how they manage that and because somebody has to be the point of attack defender there, right? And I don’t know if they brought Norm Pow here to make that his um you know, his primary duty. Now, I could see him having to chase over screens sometimes, but I don’t know if that’s going to you know, if that’s the best decision decision for where to put him. Let let me let me go over a couple of things you said there quickly and then we’ll address some of them on the other side. Uh starting with Powell, I I don’t think anybody’s anticipating he’s going to be a great defender, particularly at 32 years old. I I do know he was a better defender earlier in his career than he seemed to be last year if you talk to people who watched him and he needs to get at least back to the level that we saw at times in Toronto, okay, or close to it. Uh that’s the first thing. Tyler, we know about what the limitations are. I think he’s become better as an off-ball defender, as an onball player. We know that he’s not going to ever be elite on that end. Okay. So, that just is what it is. They’re going to try to mix in DaVon with both of them and but that again gets to the one of the things we talked about on offense is that they’re leaning so much into hero and and Powell to carry the offense and get a high volume of three-point shots. And if you’re going to play DaVon instead of one of them, then that changes what you look like offensively. Unless you’re going to go super small, which we know Spoler is going to do at times. He’s gone super small with much less gifted groups than this. Uh, and smaller groups than this. I mean, I remember the the Vincent, what was it? The Vincent Hero Lowry groups and all that kind of stuff. He’s definitely at the m he’s definitely going to play he’s definitely going to play Powell some at the so-called three. There’s no question. Okay. And probably Wigan some at the four. And we’ve talked about that, too. But you’re right. If you’re looking at this starting lineup just as it is, okay, or what we expect it to be, let’s say it’s it’s where they are counting on Bam and Wear to clean a lot of stuff up. I mean, that’s just what it is. And because Wiggins can’t guard both guys that most teams are going to have two guys that can go get theirs, okay? And you can’t you can’t have Wiggins on both. And you need Wiggins to at least be good at guarding one of them this year, which he was not at all times last season. So that’s part of this. So much of this to me, okay, depends on where We is, honestly. And I I know that I’ve leaned more into Yoic as a starter. And I I I do think they’re going to give Wear a chance to earn the spot in camp, hold the carrot out there for him a little bit. Uh, you know, Spo has kind of he’s kind of set the groundwork here by, you know, talking about Wear’s lack of professionalism at summer league and then of course Wear came back with a couple games that were stronger, but then directly comparing it to Yoic’s improvement in professionalism. Like, it’s clear he’s trying to light a fire. It’s like when you compare siblings to each other to try to get them correct. It’s like when I compare you and Brady and Greg. Uh, and and uh so he’s clearly trying to set something up here. And I I think they believe that where is reachable like this is not a whiteside situation like where cares enough that if they put these kind of markers out there for him he’ll try to reach him. So I think they’re going to give him an opportunity to win the starting job. I think their rotation balances better with Kell coming off the bench. I I just think because they don’t have a lot of bigs. We’ve discussed that as well and I just think bringing where in for one or the other and Spolster kind of figuring out the layering there makes more sense. But there’s no question that the minutes that Wear does play, whether there’s a starter or off the bench, he is going to have to be effective as a positional defender. Uh it it can’t just be jumping for blocks all the time and getting beat on the weak side, that kind of stuff. He’s got to clean up that kind of stuff because he can be a real positive force for them defensively and allow Bam to do the things that Bam does that nobody else in the league can do, which is be 6’9 and be Giannis is the only other one that can and can get out on the perimeter, guard everybody, all that kind of stuff. You want to free Bam up to be his best defensively. We’ve always talked about, we always talked about freeing him up to be his best offensively. You want to free him up to be his best defensively. He shouldn’t be have to clean up everybody else’s mess all the time. But there’s going to be some of that. Now, on the other side, what I do want to talk about though is as the rotation uh looks, are there other kind of X factors who can help this a little bit? And I got one guy in mind in particular, and you’ve been listening to me over the last month. I think you know who it’s probably going to be. But anyway, if you have been listening to me, you haven’t been listening to me, just send me some money. You sign up for Cash App, okay? We’re going to tell you about that deal here in a second. But the most important thing with Cash App, uh we always start with this, is that it’s safe. Okay? When it comes to your money, you deserve to feel safe from fraud and in control. That’s what you can expect from Cash App. If a suspicious transaction pops up on your card, Cash App has your back by automatically declining. 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Send five bucks to me or some other friend within 14 days and you get $10 dropped right into your account. Terms apply. That’s money. That’s Cash App. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash Apps Bank Partners prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank member FDIC. Instant discounts provided by Cash App at Block Inc. brand. Visit cash.app/legal/mpodcast for full disclosures. Okay, so we’ve talked about this rotation and what it might look like. Ker is going to be in the rotation whether he starts or not. Nikico Yoic is going to be in the rotation where he starts or not. DaVon Mitchell is going to be in the rotation where he starts or not. Pow is going to be in the rotation whether he starts or not. Wiggins is going to be in the rotation. Here is going to be the rotation. Bam’s gonna be rotation. That’s seven. Okay. From last year’s rotation, Duncan’s not here anymore. Heywood. Hey Haywood’s not here anymore. Now Kyle Anderson, Kyle Anderson kind of in the rotation the end of last year. Now with Duncan, everybody loved what Duncan tried to do, but we know that Duncan struggled at times with fouls. He didn’t really get a whole lot of calls. Teams did take advantage of him defensively. He’s not there anymore. Haywood, we all liked Haywood. The Heat coaching staff was not thrilled with Haywood defensively last year. I know that. Okay. It’s one of the reasons they decided to move on because that was his strength, but we saw it. It was not He was not the same consistently that he had been before defensively. He was picked apart like everybody else was. They’re out of the rotation. His I thought was okay on defense last year. I don’t think that was the big problem uh for him. It really was more the offensive stuff that he couldn’t build on what he did that first year and instead took a step back. But to me, the single biggest thing that could help them defensively is I I think Pel Larson’s going to play a big role on that end. I He’s not afraid of anybody. They trust him defensively. They put him on the toughest assignments last year. We’ve talked they put him on Demar D Rozan in his first game of real playing time. And after the game, Larson was saying, “Well, D Rozan gets all the calls.” Like he had there was no respect shown, which I loved, from Larson to any of the guys that he guarded, including Tatum. many many others and I just think coming off as long as he doesn’t kind of get away from what he was doing last year because offensively they’ve given him more responsibility now I think having Larson and DaVon Mitchell playing together at times and then the spectre of Drew Smith’s return I I don’t know what he’s going to look like when he comes back after you know not just the torn ACL but now the torn Achilles but they believe he’s going to be quality defender at least spo does and you have the option now of if things are getting ugly, you can throw DaVon out there with Drew Smith, with Larson, you do have some options and with where you start to talk about the personnel in that regard and it’s not as bad maybe as you’re making it out to be. Am I wrong? No, I do think you’re right there and I that’s why it’s it’s so hard to project because we don’t know exactly who’s going to be there. um not only with the starting lineup, but with the rotation, the Drew Smith thing. He is somebody who Spo has had no problem playing against everybody else’s wishes, including apparently some in the organization. Not I think it seems like, you know, Spo is a Drew Smith guy. I think there is no doubt about that from everything that you’ve said. Um and and it’s not for nothing. like the guy can obviously defend and I just took a quick gander at his stats here and my goodness in the games that he played last year the defensive rating man it jumped the defensive rating in the games that he played so against small sample it went from almost 114 to just under 102 about 12 points better per 100 possessions that is a huge jump and again tiny sample right so you don’t want to make too much out of out of it but it it confirms the eye test that Drew Smith is a positive and a very good defender at the point of attack, right? Then the same stats for Davy, again, small sample, but the defense like it got so much better when he was on the floor, about eight points better, more or less. And I do think it’s just how are they going to manage those guys and and I think Pella factors into this as well because all three of them can guard opposing teams guards. Now, they’re not exactly the same player, of course, right? Like Larson does it in different ways than a DaVon, for example, but they’ve got guys that they can throw around in these lineups. Now, maybe I wouldn’t play all three together as you suggested, but I do think like he might when things maybe to send a message. I know what the shooting is going to look like in that. But yeah, I I do think like they’ve got these pieces to play around with. So, it’s like, okay, what is the vision going to be? Because if you’re not starting any one of these three guys that we’re talking about right here, if if you’re going to start Tyler, Pow, Wiggins, Bam, where does Wiggins become the primary defender on the the the other team’s best player? Right. And you mentioned, by the way, Bam and being freed up to play defense. He I think he’s going to be a huge factor into this, obviously, because he’s Bam, but also in the sense that he can be used in a different role. Now, you can throw him on the other team’s best player, throw Wiggins on the team’s best guard. And maybe that’s a look that we see a lot of nights, and you just kind of hide hero and pow in that way. You just take whatever mismatches come with that. I, you know, there’s no there’s pros and cons to whatever strategy, whatever way you want to go about this. But I do think it makes a lot of sense to if you’re not going to start DaVon, um I don’t think there’s any chance of them starting Drew or Pella. But if those guys are all coming off the bench, I do think it makes a lot of sense to have Bam and Wiggins kind of be the guys who you’re relying on defensively. And in that case, like you said, 100% agree with you what you were saying before about Kell. He needs to be solid. He can’t be going for blocks. He can’t be taking himself out of position. Um and he has to box out. He has to be solid in the in these things. And I think those little things are not going to be so little. Like once he solidifies and cleans up these quote unquote little things, I’m going to feel so much better about him personally just cuz it’s like you can’t like the whole thing with Wear is that he’s supposed to make things easier for Bam. He’s not making things easier if he’s taking himself out of position. If he’s not boxing out, then Bam is still that’s another person Bam has to clean up for now. So if Khal Wear is solid and I do think I have a lot of like I feel good about that. I’m I’m sure they’ve been, you know, nailing this stuff down with him in in the film room because it’s I think it’s obvious to anybody that’s that’s watches basketball like what a big is supposed to do, right? And and and we saw a lot of the similar things with Hassan where like once he gets these things down, he’s going to be so much more effective. And I think Bamon Wiggins, I think you can I think you can absolutely make do with that. Even with whatever decline you see in Wiggins defense since he was a Warrior and all that in the 2022 finals, he’s still pretty good. And I when you put him alongside Bam, I think there’s there’s stuff to work with. You can mix up mix in DaVon, Drew, Pella, you know, in some of these different lineups. And all of a sudden, it’s like, okay, you’ve got multiple like you got guard defenders, you got wing defenders, you got Bam who’s the anchor, you got where who can be the anchor at times without Bam if he’s staying solid, of course. And all of a sudden, like that’s why I do think there is a realistic path to them climbing back into the top half in defensive rating. I just don’t think it’s as much of a given because they’re not creating, you know, they’re not u getting out as far as uh, you know, getting out in the passing lanes and and doing all that type of stuff. Like they’re they’re going to be just as much as they created a new identity offensively. I think they’re going to be creating a somewhat new one defensively. It’s going to be a little bit more conservative in the sense of, you know, like going for passing lane steals or not, it’s going to be much more conservative, I think. But they have enough guys who are solid as hell, play physical, and are all about defense. And of course, not to mention Spo and a defensive player of the year type of candidate. And bam, like they’ve got enough to make it work. And we’ve seen Spo do with so much work. So, you know, although I don’t know that they’re going to be a top eight type of defense, I I feel pretty confident that they’ll get into that top half. Well, the the whole question is as we talk about some of the guys they can use is can they get this done while Powell and Hero are playing 70 minutes a night? And that’s why I say that Powell has to get back to at least some kind of average level to be able to make this work because otherwise if you have two guys there on the perimeter that are getting blown by then that’s a real issue. And then Spone needs to pull these other triggers, right? Needs to pull in the DaVon Mitchell trigger. Needs to p pull uh earlier and play him more minutes. Needs to go to Drew Smith maybe where you have some limitations with Drew offensively. That’s not what you want. I I just want to go through something a little bit here because this I think this is an exercise that’s useful as we talk about the Eastern Conference. Okay, we know the East is down. We know that Indiana’s without its, you know, offensive engine in Hallebertton, although I think they’re going to be good offensively anyway with some of the guys who step up. We know that Boston’s going to be without Tatum. We know Orlando is not a great offensive team and yet they project to be one of the top three teams in the East. I I think it as we look at some of the teams they’re going to have to deal with. Okay, I look at the Knicks for instance, who’s handling Brunson, right? Do I if if you’re g if you’re going against the Knicks and you’re obviously they’ve got Bridges, they’ve got Anobi. They’ve got Towns. We know Bam’s going to be responsible for that. We know Towns ate Bam’s lunch last year. Okay, remember that game? Thomas Bryant and well that too, right? That they have Thomas Bryant. But you you’ve got to worry about Brunson specifically, like okay, so you’re lining up with Powell and Hero. Probably Wiggins is going to need to guard him. Okay, so if that’s the case, if Wiggins is going to guard him in that starting lineup until you get to DaVon, then okay, you you’re going to have Powell guarding Anobi who’s much more who’s a I mean Powell’s more physical than he looks, but you might have to put Hero there. Okay, you might put Hero there. And and then who’s guarding Bridges? And this is why I’m saying like this is why Spo’s going to have to pull some of these defensive triggers a little bit sooner. You look at uh Cleveland, okay, team that just ate them up, right? Okay. Well, Mitchell ate Tyler up. We know that. Uh Garland is still there, okay? Wasn’t there for the last two games. That’s not a great backcourt matchup defensively for them. But you figure, okay, Wiggins maybe guards Mitchell in that scenario. This is why you talking about freeing up Bam. Maybe there are times that you got, you know, Bam hassling on the perimeter, okay? Or show and go, you know, at least show against him. Do some things that they’re going to have to be creative with some of these matchups. Kade Cunningham on Detroit, who I think maybe is going to be a top three player in the Eastern Conference this year. Who guards him? Tyler? No. Norb. No, probably Wiggins. Right. And this is why when people are talking about trading Wiggins, if you’re trying to be competitive this year, which we know they are, whether people want them to be or not, I I don’t think that’s a trade you can make with this current roster because you start looking at the defense and even if Wiggins wasn’t what he was projected to be last year, it’s in him somewhere. I think still he’s not an old player. Uh he just turned 30. I they they need him in these matchups. Unless they think Larson’s ready to handle all of them, but I don’t think he’s ready to handle them 40 minutes a night. And then you’ve got this other issue where if Larson’s going to do that, then he’s got to make shots on the other end because you at least know that Wiggins is capable of doing those kind of things. So, as I look at the Eastern Conference and I’m looking at some of these matchups, even Philadelphia, who’s going Maxi? Wiggins, right? And their, you know, their other guard defenders we’re talking about. But that’s why they’ve got to be creative with the lineups. I’m sure like, you know, like if whatever playoff series they get into next year, they can get real creative there. But just to get through a regular season, they’ve got to figure out what their baseline is with their with their lineups, you know, like who do you want to play together? What what what are the things you’re trying to get to? Who are the guys that are going to be in that role? Because look, for as much as like growth as I’ve seen from Tyler, as much as he drives there, he can’t be the guy ending up guarding other teams best players. Like they’re always going to try to hunt him out and they’re going to have their solutions for that. They’re going to they’re going to hedge and recover. Sometimes they’ll switch, you know, I’m sure they’ll um they’ll they’ll play a drop to start the season. We’ll see the switch thrown in at times. We’ll see the zone thrown in at times. I’m sure we’ll see plenty of hedge and recover. Um but outside of like the game plan stuff, who are the guys you’re going to rely on? Can Wiggins be a guy who is relied upon night to like the idea a little bit more this season because you’ve got hero and pow there to be the offensive infrastructure along with what Bam gives you. You don’t need Wiggins. I hope hopefully in my opinion they don’t go to Wiggins in that same way that they were going to him last season with that starting unit specifically because I don’t think there’s much space for him to get to his one-on-one bag with that starting lineup. I think there’s space for it in other units. Kind of like what I talked about last episode with Bam. But if he’s not being used as much offensively with that starting lineup, maybe he’ll have a little bit more energy to just focus on that defensive role where he’s just more maybe more of a catch and shoot guy with the signing lineup. Of course, he’s going to get, you know, his his catch and goes where he’s closing, he’s attacking a close out and driving. you know, he’ll still get his looks, but I do think like the one-on-one stuff that we saw him show off a little bit last season for the Heat, you know, that can come in other units and he’s got to be relied upon there. And like you mentioned with with certain bigger matchups, you can’t put Bam like against the Cavs, you can’t put Bam to be like this X-actor defender because he’s got to guard Mobly and then you’ve got Allen in the background who absolutely worked where in in the in the playoff series. Like they’ve got to get creative. They have a I think a good amount of tools to get creative with and and me mess around with the lineups, but like there’s I think there’s a lot of work to do because as of right now, like I see the vision, but can they execute it, right? Because you you can’t just play all three all like your best defenders together at all times. Like there’s they’ve got to they’ve got to find the right balance between defense and offense. And we’ve been talking about this forever, but that’s why I think that what you said about basically telling Bam and Wiggins, it’s your defense. Yep. Okay. Where? Stay back there. Don’t jump. Right. Right. We We got Larson. We got DaVon. They’re going to be doing some stuff on the perimeter. Drew when he comes back. But look, Wiggins, Bam, take respon. You’re the vets here. Take responsibility for this defense. There are limitations to Hero and Powell and they’re going to be playing a ton of minutes and they got to get up a ton of shots. You guys got to handle this stuff. Okay? You’ll get your offense. Like you said, when some of the lineups clean out a little bit and you’re one of the two best offensive players on the floor, we’ll go to you. There’s got to be pockets of the game where they do feed Bam. There got to be pockets of the game where Wiggins can get on in a rhythm because he’s a rhythm player. That was pretty clear last year. To get hot for like one quarter and that’s it, right? He’s a rhythm player and then that that’s it, right? But but those two guys have to be responsible because they’re going to be logging heavy minutes and they’re likely Well, we know Bam’s going to close. They’re likely both going to close. They’re probably going to close most games with that smaller lineup with DaVon. I I think that’s where they head to unless until Nico proves that he can be in the right place at all times because I we haven’t talked about him defensively at all. He’s made improvements, okay? But even some of his biggest supporters and I have some friends of mine who they love Yoic, okay? And even they were point out they’re like he doesn’t even on the Serbian team like his his awareness was not where it needed to be defensively. That has to improve. If he wants to be on the floor at the end of games, he knows this. He’s got to improve that part of it. as does where like neither of them is going to close. Like we’re talking about which is of them going to start. Neither of them is going to close as I see it right now until they prove that to Spolstra. I think the more likely closing lineup, which is the most important thing, it matters more to Spo and to the organization than all the starters talk that we do is going to be a group that le does lean in at least three of the spots to defense. It’s going to be Bam, Wiggins, DaVon, and then Hero and Powell. that’s most likely going to be and and we’re going to talk a lot about how it’s small, okay, and that they’re going to get beaten on the backboards. But you also talked about uh you know, making things easier for Bam. The guy who made things the easiest for Bam during the entire time that he’s been with the Heat was PJ Tucker. And it’s simply because he knew how to box out. That’s it. Okay, he’s 6’5 wide, 6’5 tall. Okay, he knew how to box out. Okay, stick his, you know, he stick his rear end and like he he got he made it easy for Bam to get rebounds, all the rest of that. They they’re going to have to find some dirty work players. And my concern with that closing lineup is is Wiggins going to do that? Is is Powell going to do that? Um I don’t know that that exists in that group, but but at least during the course of the game, they’re going to have to be better there. All right, so let’s get to we we closed the last episode with our view of the offense. both you and I had them kind of middle of the pack on offense, which would be an improvement from where they’ve been. If they’re middle of the pack on defense, it’s a downgrade from where they’ve typically been with Spo. Um, I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt on this. I I I think there are enough, like you said, mix and match pieces, although I’m concerned about some areas here that I’m I’m gonna have them in the sort of 12 to 14 range on defense. I I can’t really put them top 10 again because I because I their starting back court to me is not a top 10 defense backcourt, but I think if you can get better play out of Wiggins, I don’t know. I I think and Larson continues to develop on that end. Uh Drew comes back. DaVon for a full season. Bam refreshed. There was no Olympics this year. There’s no Jimmy hangover. And the other thing I want to make a point about Jimmy. Jimmy’s defensive metrics with the the Heat were not great early last season. Some of that was that he was not engaged. Now, I did notice as I was looking over your shoulder here that the Golden State was the best defensive team in the league after they got Jimmy. I think they got a different Jimmy. Okay. So, what we’re talking about with Jimmy is what he was for them, which he wasn’t going to be again. Uh, but I I think I I would say 12 to 14 range on defense. I think they’ll be slightly better on defense than offense, which will be a closer gap than it’s been in previous years. I’m with you on that last point, and I’m pretty I’m I’m not as close to you as I was in the offense episode with the range, but I’m close. I do think the best case scenario is probably like nine or 10. It’s not what I would bet on, but I do think they’re capable of it because they’ve done it with worse. And look, like I said, the Jimmy thing, it’s a big piece in their defense. But I do think they have enough to embrace that identity that I was talking about earlier where they’re they’re just more solid, more conservative, right? Where they’re not necessarily getting out in transition as much. Um, even though their transition, you know, on defense, their transition defense was much improved with um, you know, in that post Jimmy era. Again, I don’t because of what you said, I don’t know how much of that is going to be representative. I’m not even trying to, you know, get into the trans transition defense defense as much here, but in the half court, I do think they can be real solid. Um, they can embrace that identity. And I think the the range is probably between nine and like 16. I think it would probably be like their worst case scenario if they just can’t figure it out with that starting unit. If Wiggins, it’s it’s it’s a serious decline on defense. I think that would be a big factor. Um, and maybe if they just can’t figure things out with the the the guard rotation there on defense where like let’s say Larson, you know, is still not a great shooter and they just don’t feel comfortable playing him too much because he’s missing too many open threes that they’re giving him. I think Drew Smith, you know, he was he looked much better offensively last year. It’s just hard to project so much. Even though he came off a big injury last year when he came back, now he’s coming off an Achilles tear. This one’s worse. Yeah, this one’s worse. And and it’s one that players can come back from now. Now it feels like they couldn’t before back in the day, but still like it’s how much can you project Drew Smith to go back to being that Alevel defender at the point of attack. How much can you expect for him to get back to some of that some of the improvements that he showed on offense before he got hurt where like that’s that’s the part that gets forgotten about a little bit. Like I think everybody knows now that he can defend, right? But his threes were falling and he was, you know, he had a little bit he had a couple drives here and there like making plays, you know, nothing too crazy. like you’re not going to rely on him to do that by any means, but he was showing some of that stuff and I think became somewhat of an offensive threat um before he got hurt there. So, it’s hard to project, but like let’s say Drew and Larson are just not playing that much for whatever reason that we’re laying out here. Wiggins has a decline. I think all of a sudden you you might be staring down the barrel of a team that is fighting to stay like in the middle there in defensive rating if all those things happen. like you really need those I think those ancillary pieces like Larson and Drew and DaVon to all, you know, be at the top of their game and Wiggins for sure. All right, so that’s where we leave it. Uh those are our two training camp previews. We want to thank again everybody who’s listened to us for the past three months because we said all this stuff before. So we apologize for repeating it, but we I said I know most of you didn’t. Uh also want to thank our friends for hosting us here. Car accident slip and fall. Check out 305800 pain. Also cash app. use the code on the floor and then off the floor is our Discord server. You know where they find that. Have a good day everybody.

In the second of a two-part series, Ethan Skolnick and Alex Toledo discuss whether the Miami Heat can get back in the upper tier of the NBA defensively, and what it will take beyond Erik Spoelstra and Bam Adebayo. From the 1305800PAIN studios.

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