UNLEASHED: Miami Heat’s Kel’el Ware OUTSHINES Victor Wembanyama | Jakucionis DAZZLES in Heat Debut

UNLEASHED: Miami Heat’s Kel’el Ware OUTSHINES Victor Wembanyama | Jakucionis DAZZLES in Heat Debut

He dropped their third straight preseason game, losing to the Spurs on Wednesday night. But strong showings from Khil Wear and rookie Caspress Yakosionis highlight Miamiy’s bright future. So what does this mean for the team moving forward? We’ll answer that in today’s episode of Locked on Heat. You are Locked on Heat. Your daily Miami Heat podcast, part of the locked on podcast network. Your team every day. All right, welcome to Locked on Heat, your daily podcast on the Miami Heat. Whether you’re tuning in on YouTube or on your favorite podcast app, thanks so much for making Locked on Heat your first listen every day. I’m Wes Goldberg, host of Locked on NBA Daily and Real GM radio. Here with David Rmill. Both of us are credentialed Heat Media members who cover this team every day. David, we’re recording this on Thursday morning after the Heat’s preseason game against the Spurs. We’re going to talk about Kasparis Yakonis’ preseason debut in a second, but we have to start with Kell Wear who finished the night with 29 points and 12 rebounds, outplayed Victor Webbmanyama. Eric Spolstra was praising him after the game. It was one heck of a bounceback. And it is games like this that show you why everybody is so bought into his potential. David, absolutely. But it also kind of underscores why Eric Spolzer felt the need to call him out because he knows these games are something that he’s capable of producing. The fact that he was as engaged as he was and I I hearken back to what Spouse said about that the minutes that Khil played in that second preseason game just weren’t impactful. All but three of his 23 minutes weren’t really all that meaningful and how he affected the box score or changed the course of the game. That wasn’t the case on Wednesday night where he was really, really solid. He played great defense. He looked like he really wanted to make a statement against Webinama and he was doing it offensively and defensively and it was that all-around game that really shows what he’s capable of and why I think the Heat coaching staff is frustrated. But you know what? Instead of harboring on the negative, I think the positive of what we saw there is something worth talking about. Can this be what we see from Khil Wear moving forward? Can he do enough to continue building off this so that he can emerge as a starter yet again? Or is it just a blip on the radar and maybe it’ll just regress to what we saw in the first two games from him? Before I answer that, I just want to get to a couple of things that Spo said because you mentioned uh and I think it’s a great point. This is why Spoes him so hard and why he was so critical after the first two preseason games. After this one, Spo did a 180, right? Because Ker did a 180. Uh here’s a couple things. Spo said, quote, “He put a lot of it together tonight.” End quote. Here’s another one. Quote, “He was playing with force.” End quote. Which we know from Spo is among the highest compliments that could be paid to a player. Um, he pointed out a a possession where he passed up a three-pointer and then took his man off the dribble and got to the rim. Uh, and and even mentioned in the postgame press conference, these are the things we’re pointing out to him on film and now he’s doing it on the court. As a coach, that’s all you want. Hey, do this. Okay, cool. He did it. That’s all you want to see if you’re a coach. To your point though, whether or not we can expect this to be the norm. It depends on what we’re talking about. A couple maybe off nights followed up by Eric Spolster calling him out, followed up by a big bounceback game with a lot of motivation. Yeah, maybe we could see that being the norm. It’s already been the norm, right? We saw this in Las Vegas, right? Two listless V Vegas games. Spoles them out after practice. Two dominant Vegas games. two listless preseason games. Spoles him out. Dominant preseason game against the Spurs and Victor Webbyama in I know that everybody says for young players it’s all about finding consistency. I think consistency is such a underrated trait in the NBA. You’ve heard me say this before the superpower isn’t the shot making. The superpower isn’t being able to go off for 40 every once in a while. The superpower is consistency. LeBron James might be the greatest player to ever play the game. What made he he never scored 80. What made him the greatest player of all time was the fact that he goes out and puts 277 and seven up on the box score every single night. Consistency is the star superpower. So expect and I only bring that up because I don’t want to expect that from Kel Kel right now. I don’t expect him to have the superstar superpower just yet. I expect it to be a little up and down, but boy are these ups really, really high. And it gives you a hint as to what the potential could be. Absolutely. Um but I also think it’s fair to should expect more of the ups rather than the downs. And I know that he’s a young player and so you give him grace for that. You understand it’s still learning process. But if he’s capable of these against a defensive player of the year candidate, a perennial defensive player of the year candidate in Webmanyama, and he feels an extra level of motivation because he’s going up against him and Luke Cornett, you know, that that should be the case almost every time. And yes, I it’s unfair to expect that he’s going to be able to produce at that kind of level. 29 points is a monster game from anybody at any level. And for him to do so against Webyama really just shows, however, that what he’s capable of. So, I I would like that to be the case in 70% of his games. I think expecting it 80 or 90 might be too high given the fact that he’s just a secondyear player, but we should see this more often because that’s what he’s capable of and because he is that good. He is a swing type player given his length, his size, and what he’s capable of doing. And there were moments there like he took a step back three off a rebound with a shot clock expiring. That that was that’s something a guard should be able to do. David, it’s something Victor Webbyama does. Well, yes, but I mean the way that it is, but at the same time, the way that people talk about Webyama being a generational player. That’s what I’m saying. I I mean, look, I get it. But look, we after one, I think matchup last year, didn’t I refer to it to wear as like Webyama light or something like that? Like there were there was just a moment there where it really there are but it’s crazy to say it. There are times where that looks to be the case. There are literally times where Kelw looks like the closest thing to Victor Webbyama outside of San Antonio. Yeah. And that’s wild. And that again, that’s what we’re talking about here. To your point, I think you’re right. To expect 29 and 12 every single night. No, come on. Stop. He’s not a Kim Lawan. But to expect the effort every single night, regardless of he’s making these crazy end of shot clock step back three-pointers, right? That’s not happening every night. We know that. But if the effort is there every night, then you can live with a 15 and 10 night, right? A 17 and eight night or whatever that is. But as long as the effort is there, his reads in the pick and roll, I thought were just he looks like a different play or something. That’s the part that I can’t figure out. There are games where he just looks like he’s never seen a pick and roll in his life. And then there are games like this where he’s he’s corelling ball handlers, getting back to Victor Webbmanyama to contest shots. He he blocked Web Minyama in this game in a pick and roll coverage. Like it was um or maybe that was an isolation coverage, but still like there are just times where you’re like, “Oh, you do know what you’re supposed to be doing. Why isn’t that happening every single night and I think that’s why Spo gets so frustrated with him sometimes.” Yeah. On that block, I think he had switched on to another player and then Webinyama took advantage of his switch and was able to drive and then Kh smartly sagged off of who who he was defend. Webanyama and there he was just meeting him there at that apex and uh and just putting that body right in front of him and Webbyama still looking a little clunky and not able to really get a good look especially when you have somebody as as big and long as as where and so there was that whole one minute sequence that I want to point out because we’ve already talked about it around it a little bit but there was that one minute it was literally 54 seconds bails out of possession by making a three-pointer at the end of the shot clock. That was the first step back three he made. Made the right read into pick and roll coverage. Contested a shot to force a miss. Uh he get the ball back. He’s sprinting up the floor. Then saves a loose ball that led to a new possession that led to the second three-pointer step back three-pointer they made basically from the same spot as the previous one. And then on the next defensive possession has that uh series against Victor Wmanyama where he ends up blocking a shot. All of that happened in 54 seconds. And my jaw is on the floor after I’m like what? Who is this guy? It is wild to see what he can do when he’s locked in like that. Yeah. Um I hope he he he looks at this and kind of just uses that as the motivation to remind himself on a daily basis this is what he’s capable of because for him to be able to have that kind of a performance against Webignyama. It really is impressive for any player much less a secondyear player still trying to find his footing. And so you hope that he can build on that and and whether he comes off the bench or starts, I don’t even know if that matters so much as he’s having these kind of impactful minutes because they’re going to need him to be I know everybody’s kind of focused on the starting job or not, but I don’t know that that matters as much because even last night Drew Smith wound up starting in place of Hakez and I don’t know that that’s in the preseason that really shouldn’t matter so much because it’s all about just trying to figure out the right combination of players to get some kind of balance. And look, Tyler Herro, DaVon Mitchell, neither of them available. They’re probably going to continue to start. So again, the starting job is going to be the starting rotation, I think, is not very set with the exception of Bameio, Andrew Wiggins, and Norman Pal. I think those three players are the other two spots very much out in the open right now. And I think there’s plenty of options there for Spo to choose from. So you hope that where looks at that and says the starting job is still something. That’s what they’re pushing him for. Like Nico told us on media day that he wanted to start and that he wanted to continue to build off of his season last year, what he learned in Euro Basket, etc. We heard almost the virtual opposite of that from Kh where he’s like, “Oh, I’ll just embrace whatever role.” But you, this is why they push him. This is why Spo says the things he does in media because he wants him to respond like this. you you have to show that you are willing to to fight for this, to take it, to to be uh capable of proving that you deserve these kinds of minutes over somebody else on your team. And and I think as long as we continue to see showings like this, he’ll get that starting nod. But I don’t even know if that matters so much as long as we continue to see continued growth and progress from him, which is I think what we saw yesterday, his best game as a pro. Um, for people that thought maybe Eric Spolster was too critical of Khlo Wear, the proof is in the pudding, man. Look at it. It worked. Look what Look, it worked. It worked. And you hope that that is the case going forward where Spo doesn’t have to necessarily go to those lengths. But, uh, let’s talk a little bit more about Kasparus Yakonis. He made his Heat preseason debut. We’re going to tell you what we liked and why he could end up factoring into the rotation sooner rather than later after this. Today’s episode is brought to you by Quo. One of the tools that helped make a huge difference for business owners is Quo, formerly Open Phone. It’s the same great business phone system you’ve heard me talk about before, just with a new name. And here’s why it matters. Every missed call is money left on the table. 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David, let’s talk a little bit more about Kasparus Hakonis, the Heat rookie. Makes his Heat se uh preseason debut in this game. We saw him in summer league. Yep. Wasn’t terribly impressed with what we saw in summer league. Feel totally different after this one. David, eight points, 10 assists. 10 assists in his first NBA action. You immediately saw the difference on the offense when he was in the game. I was so impressed. And these 10 assists, these were real assists. These weren’t just dribble the ball up half court, pass it to Norm Pal, Norm Pal dribble, dribble, dribble, pulls up for a three-pointer, and then the stat the statician gives uh Cass the the the credit for this. No, no, no. It wasn’t that. It was drive into the paint, two feet in the paint, get to the basket, probe, dump off pass, spray out to the corner, whatever it was. These were real assists. Casper Sakonis as a rookie was creating making stuff happen. and David, as we like to say around here, making stuff happen. I was so impressed with him. He was really solid. It was a lot of fun, too, because he’s got the size and he has a a defensive tenacity that you might not expect, but he put pressure on the ball, too. And then to create what he did offensively, like there was a moment there where he was sharing the back court with Pella Larson, and I’m all in. like the idea of these two guys from Europe being as gritty as they are and just always hassling anybody with the ball just making things happen as you said just creating opportunities and then to be playmakers to be able to and and Spo called that out with Pella and and Cass out there he said they they have like a kamicazi type of quality to them and I’m like I love that. Yeah, let’s go. Like yeah and mentioned how they’re just always on the floor and things like that. Yeah. Yeah. I I you love that. you love to see that as a fan and and just somebody who appreciates basketball. Um, and as a playmaker, he looked really solid. I mean, the offense is still a work in progress and I think it will be for a while, but he’s put on weight, too. You can tell I mean, we talked about guys at media day that looked like they were bigger over the summer. I think you you definitely saw Yakonas put on a little bit added weight, too. And he’s already got that size to go with that tenacious attitude. And he just he looked very comfortable. Everything that we saw from him in summer league, as you said, that was not the case. He looked like an NBA player out there. Certainly a guy who’s going to earn some minutes in this rotation. It’s going to be difficult. And again, one of the great strengths like we talked about the trade of Haywood Highmith being somewhat Ramy’s depth and yet now players are stepping up. Guys like finding a way to contribute and and you love what you saw from his game. It was just really really exciting to see him be able to make plays in a way that I don’t think we’ve seen anybody do that for a long time. Like Jimmy certainly had his numbers every once in a while. Bam, capable of doing so. Tyler certainly, but this was a guy who really seems comfortable initiating offense, being your floor general out there, as you said, making great reads, understanding the defense and how to create open opportunities for his teammates. So, really exciting stuff. Haven’t seen this at the guard spot since Goran Dragage, frankly. Right. I mean, even Kyle Lowry did it different. This I’m not saying Yakonis is better than Kyle Lowry, especially those that first year and a half that Lowry is here. saying that, but it’s just different, right? And you could see that European flare to Yakonis’ game and and Gorra making his way back into the Heat organization right now has taken Yakonis under his wing and you can already see maybe some of that stuff starting to play out. That probing dribble where he kind of goes into the basket, comes back out and finds a dump off guy or a guy in the corner, whatever. Like all that stuff, that was on the film for sure for Yakonas already. It’s not as if he never did it, but to see him do it consistently in this game. Now, uh, worth pointing out here that there is another team on the court and that team didn’t have some of their best perimeter defenders, right? Um, Dire Fox can be a good perimeter defender when he feels like it. He’s out. Stfan Castle is an awesome perimeter defender and he is out. One of our concerns with Jakonis out coming out of Las Vegas was can this guy really get the ball over half court? because sometimes his limitations athletically, he can kind of get swallowed up by really long athletic defenders. The Spurs didn’t have their super long athletic defenders in this game for very much, if at all. Um, and certainly their best ones weren’t even on the court. So, what does it look like when he goes up against a Stefon Castle type of defender or a Drew Holiday or or something like that? That is a fair question. But then again, a lot of ball handlers don’t look very good going up against those guys. So, the fact that he did it in this game in his first preseason action should be taken as a positive. We will take this moment to temper expectations. Let’s not do the thing that Heat fans do and see 20 minutes of a guy and be like, “Future allstar, the Heat think that this.” Let’s not do that. Okay, chill. It was a good preseason debut for the first round pick. Absolutely. Uh, and yet I I I also think like the size is such a factor for him and we talked about that when he slipped in Miami in the draft that he does have the ability to kind of see over other defenders and and for him to be as skilled as he is as a ball handler and to have the court vision that he does have at his size makes him I think the a very tantalizing prospect which is why he was looked at as a top 10 potential draftee and he just wound up sliding to Miami. And I think it’s it’s just there are very encouraging signs that he’s still going to be able to create opportunities and uh he just needs to be able to balance it. I think we’ll say with a caveat that if he’s not scoring well then that kind of limits what he can do. You just don’t want him out there as a guy who just makes plays for others. has to be able to blend it so that he can get those looks more easily because you know he’s going to find somebody and if he draws defenders the way that he’s capable of given his size and his skill, he’ll be able to create those opportunities for teammates as well as long as they have to at least fear his ability to score with Paul. I like that he took five three-pointers. He only made one of them. I like that he took them. He’s trying to establish himself as somebody who takes the shots early. And that’s a big that’s a big deal. Um and you’re right, process over results, right? like the shots will come and go, but um there he he had this great uh dump off pass to Kashad Johnson on the break. He Yakonas got the steal on the defensive end, which is another thing that we liked about him in the scouting process. This is a guy who does generate steals historically. So gets a steal on one end, brings the ball down the court, instead of looking to score, he dumps it off to a streak and Kashad Johnson. That’s point guard stuff, man. That’s that’s rewarding your guy for running, right? That’s I love that. I love that he has that mentality right away. Um, really adept at at that little dump off pass. He found Haime Hakees Jr. for a cut. Fel found KL Wear for a welltimed cut. Shout out to Khar again. Here’s an interesting thing. Seven of his 10 assists went to Kel Wear. And if my favorite thing about Yakonis in this game was his ability to get into the paint and then create shots inside out, I think my second favorite thing was, oh, he could throw the lob to Kell. And there was there’s something perhaps brewing with that twoman game off the bench that I’m really interested in. Um, yeah. And I I think and almost to me what it struck as was let me get the big guy going. You hear that so often from players who just want to make sure that they they find the guy who needs to get going to get into his comfortable rhythm. And I think that’s what I saw from Yakosis is that he was really making a concerted effort to try and get Khil those kind of looks where he can build off that because we know that when Khil is feeling a certain way and he’s feeling that confidence and and that comes from being able to score as easily as he did uh it certainly helps and and you want to be able from Yakoson’s perspective to help in that regard. So I really like that aspect of it at least from my thought process. That’s what I saw. I don’t know if yakishona spoke about it after the game or not, but um he was he was seemed like he was just working really well in tandem with where so again I I don’t know if it’s going to be something that you can rely off on the bench because the the rotation is going to be completely different once players come back from injury and stuff like that. But and and there is the possibility that where is going to start too. I think he he certainly made a strong case if he continues to build off that win on Wednesday or that performance on Wednesday. Uh so it’s still something that you can look forward to though down the line. And I think you’re going to see both of them playing considerable minutes together. And the fact that they’re able to build this connection early on in their first game together really does bode well for I think he fans. We’ll see what the rotation looks like uh when when guys are healthy. But if Yaka Jones is playing like this, there’s just there’s a little different thing that he adds like a different element, a different ingredient that he adds to the recipe here. Yeah. That maybe they’re going to need. Uh uh so we’ll put uh put a pin in that kesh for now. Um, it is time that we have a conversation about BAM out of Bio. Today’s episode is brought to you by Prize Picks. Every day we make decisions, but on Prize Picks, being right can actually get you paid. Don’t miss the excitement of this football season with Prize Picks, where it’s good to be right. Playing prize picks is such a fun, simple way to add more excitement to football. You just pick more or less on play projections like Josh Allen’s passing yards or Saquon Barkley rushing for a touchdown and you’re in the game. You’ll love how quick it is. You can make your lineup in under a minute. And Price Books just added stacks. So if you want to ride with a player, you can select the pass yards, rush yards, touchdowns, all in one lineup. So many different features that will make this simple and easy for you to use. So download the Price Picks app today and use the code locked on NBA to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s the code locked on NBA for $50 in lineups after your first $5 lineup price breaks. It’s good to be right. We’ll be right back. [Music] We have to talk about Bam who has been struggling to shoot the ball in three preseason games. He’s four of 18 overall in the preseason. uh including three of 10 uh last night against the Spurs. What’s your level of concern? Scale 1 to 10. What’s your level of concern with Bam? Because um I don’t want to bring up Old Demons, but like this is what it started to look like at the beginning of last season. We were always just sort of waiting for that shot to start falling. Four of 18 right now in the preseason. Scale of 1 to 10, where’s your concern? I’m a five. Okay. Yeah, we’ve seen him bounce back. We know what he’s capable of. Even if, again, the consistency may not always be enough to plate Heat fans, he is and has been a 20 points per game scorer over the last few seasons, and that should continue to be the case. Uh, again, the the shots that he’s taking are certainly of his repertoire. It’s not like he’s forcing anything, and I don’t know that he’s all of a sudden lost the ability to make a shot. We haven’t heard anything about injury. He had a long off season. He should be fully healthy. he shouldn’t be fully ready to play. His every other thing that he does well out there is still at a high level. It’s just the shot just doesn’t seem to be falling and it hasn’t for the first three games. So, it’s not great and yet we know what he’s capable of. So, this is I think what the difference is. Some people criticize us for saying, well, why are why is it fair to criticize Khil Wear and not Bam and Bio? Well, I I’d say because there’s a much greater book out on where what I’m sorry on BAM and what he’s capable of and we’ve seen him do that rather than what where and the fact that he does tend to or has vanished at times given that he’s a secondy year player and he’s still finding his footing in the rotation etc. Like there are factors to consider which I will absolutely concede to but with Bam you know he’s going to start you know he’s going to be the focal point. He’s going to be able to create these shots for himself because that’s just who Bam has always been. He just has to be able to knock him down. Um the free throw line again has been helpful. He’s been able to at least generate some scoring because he’s been able to get to the free throw line pretty frequently and that’s a good thing. It’s just that whether or not the shot has to fall and and I mean last year there didn’t seem like there was any difference in between what we saw from him in the first half or the second half rather than just well you know what the shot looked like it was just following with much more regularity in the second half and that’s why he was able to put up the good numbers that he did. But it’s not like he was taking bad shots and I don’t think he’s struggling to find his way in the offense this season uh this preseason the way that he did last year where he wasn’t quite sure what to do and when to do it. He seems comfortable enough. He seems able to take his shots again that we’ve seen him hit with regularity. Uh they’re just not falling for whatever reason. So I’m not overly concerned, but I’m not liking what I’m seeing either. And you expect more from him. It’s not so much that he’s struggling to find his place in the offense the way that he was last year, right? Because we go into last year and Eric Schultz was talking about five out. We got to eliminate the mid-range shot going in training camp. It was one point for mid-range shots, three points for shots at the basket, three points for normal three-pointers. And Bam’s like, “Well, I don’t do those other things. All I do is the mid-range thing. So, what do you what exactly do you want me to do here?” And I felt like for the first 20 or so games, he was just sort of trying to figure it out until Spo was like, “You know what? Just take whatever you want.” And then we started to see Bam start to warm up a little bit and then it really kind of unlocked when he started playing next to Kell and he was able to go against smaller guys. Maybe that’s the answer. Maybe it’s hey, you know what? It’s hard playing against a big Orlando Magic team, Miles Turner and then Victor Webbyama. Now I would point out if you’re BAM and you’re supposed to be this allNBA caliber type of guy, that shouldn’t matter necessarily. Maybe against WB, but otherwise it shouldn’t really matter. Um, but that doesn’t really strike me. It doesn’t strike me to I agree with you. It doesn’t seem like he’s not knowing how to score in this new offense. To me, it’s more like he’s maybe passive, right? Like he’s he’s actually more concerned to make sure that Nico is going and Kell is going and that Norm and Wiggins are going and that Haime is going. Like he just doesn’t seem that concerned about getting his own stuff going. But that said, like the ball is is in his hands a lot. His usage rating last night was 29.4%. It has been higher. That’s that’s you know 29 28 29 30 that’s star level usage rate. Like the ball is is in his hands. He’s a functioning part of the offense. But if the shot was going in a little bit more, I think you just feel better about where it is. And even the assists, he’s only got three assists in the entire preseason. Yeah. So, it’s not like he’s this Alberin Shenun type of character where Houston is just using him as as their hub on offense. They’re not they’re not really using Bam like that either. Um, so I don’t know. It is a little confusing and definitely concerning. I’m I’m with you. I’d say I’m probably about maybe a six. I’m a little bit higher on my concern scale because again, I just want to know what the good shot for Bam is that isn’t a 15-footer because, you know, the uptempo style definitely helps him. We’ve seen his best moments offensively in transition and then semi in semi-transition when he could take guys off the dribble. Um, I went back and watched his shots from the preseason. We have our mailbag episode later, so we might do a deeper dive into this on that episode. But I’ll just uh as a teaser here, I do think that um they are trying to design things for him. We saw them design a play in the first minute of the Spurs game that flowed into a pick and pop uh with Wiggins passing it back out to Bam for a three-pointer. Bam missed it, but I thought the look was good. If they can generate more of that stuff for Bam and then Bam can kind of get on the perimeter with the ball in his hands, maybe start taking guys off the dribble and things like that, I think that bodess well for him. Absolutely. Um I I’m more concerned, and I know I brought this up in yesterday’s episode, too. I’m more concerned with the fact that we’re not seeing much of that increased pace translate to anything tangible. Like, they only put up 81 field goal attempts. They only shot 29 three-pointers. Like, this is not nearly enough. Uh we talked about this as being their their easiest tool to maximize this offense. We heard it consistently in media day and on training camp and it just hasn’t shown anything. It feels like it’s still maybe a little bit quicker, but they’re not really doing much to get more looks or more put up more shots at this. I think they’re trying really hard almost in a 2015 or 2014 Spursian way. They’re making the right passes to get the best looks possible, but at some point to contend with other highscoring offenses in today’s NBA, you need to be able to put up more shots with more frequency, and we just haven’t seen that. So, I don’t know. Uh I’m I’m trying to figure out how Bam’s lack of scoring kind of fits all this. And maybe he’s hitting his shot with regularity. If Andrew Wiggins has, you know, another strong showing the way he did earlier in the preseason, he struggled also three of 10 on Wednesday night. like maybe it wouldn’t matter, you know, maybe but still 81 total field goal attempts. Not nearly enough. It should be a lot closer to 90. Maybe it would have been. I mean, they did get uh 30 free throw attempts, so the math is a little wonky on that. Um 19 turnovers, too. And and they another game with a high turnover rate, right? They’re averaging 20 turnovers per game in these three preseason games. Um, if I’m spo, that’s the number one thing. It’s like, hey, we’re not going to be able to play fast if we’re turning the ball over 20 times. Like, you can’t afford to give away 20 possessions. I don’t care how many possessions that you’re generating in a game, you can’t give away 20 of them. Um, that’s the biggest thing. But then again, it’s like, you know, Kashad Johnson had three of those turnovers. Like Casper Sakonis had three of them. Like, how much are those guys really playing, you know, in terms of heavy minutes? Like Cavs played 25 minutes. Kashad Johnson play 27. Like when these things start shifting towards the starters a little bit more and when Da’Von comes back and things like like maybe that’s enough just to bring the turnovers down from 20 to 13 per game. But um to your point uh I do think like the the it’s not like these scoring totals have been huge. It’s not like we’ve seen them explode offensively which is what you would typically associate with a high pace team. But the pace is there. You know it’s what’s what’s how’s that saying? the cart goes before the horse. Is that right? Yeah. Don’t put the cart No, don’t put the cart before the horse. I don’t I don’t know that they are. I think the horse is the pace and the cart will be more scoring and more possessions, but the cart hasn’t caught up to the horse yet. Fair enough. I’m not sure if any of that made sense since I just learned that metaphor just now. I trust you. I trust you. All right. Uh that’ll do it for us today. We’re going to have a mailbag episode coming up for tomorrow. We’re going to talk more about Bam’s offense, a little bit more film study on that. We’ll talk about uh Kel Wear versus Nikico Yoic in the starting lineup, plus trade talk. Giannis, Lowry, Markin, and all of that’s coming up on our mailbag episode. For now, thanks for making Locked On your first listen every day. If you’re a second listen, go find Locked On Fantasy Basketball. Josh Lloyd hosts the number one fantasy basketball podcast, giving you daily tips and helping you win your league all while making you a smarter NBA fan. Find Locked On Fantasy Basketball on YouTube or wherever you listen to the podcast. Part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day.

The Miami Heat preseason is heating up as Kel’el Ware dominates against Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs in a breakout performance.

Wes Goldberg and David Ramil break down Ware’s potential, Erik Spoelstra’s coaching impact, and Kasparas Jakucionis’ impressive 10-assist debut. The hosts discuss how Miami’s young talent is shaping the team’s future and what it means for the rotation once the regular season begins. They also dive into Bam Adebayo’s shooting struggles, Miami’s pace of play, and how the Heat can clean up turnovers to stay competitive in the East.

00:00 – Intro
00:45 – Kel’el Ware’s breakout vs Wembanyama
10:35 – Jakucionis’ preseason debut
22:15 – Bam Adebayo’s shooting struggles

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