The final Miami Heat rotation preview | Five on the Floor

The final Miami Heat rotation preview | Five on the Floor

Welcome to the latest episode of Five on the Floor and the Five Reasons Sports Network. Thanks for joining us on your favorite podcast app on Apple, Apple Podcast. On Android, we recommend Spotify. Also, check out the Five Reasons YouTube channel. That’s for all your South Florida sports content. The Dolphins Demise, Inner Miami in the playoffs, Panthers trying to survive their injuries. It’s all there on the Five Reasons YouTube channel. Also, check out Off the Floor. That’s our Discord server. Two bucks per month. New stuff coming there. And there’s going to be some contests that you’re only eligible for if you’re subbed. And that includes giving away League Pass subscriptions. So, you’re going to want to be on there. Check it out. It’s off the floor. That’s our Discord server. Again, the link is in the description. You’ll bypass the Apple upcharge and you can cancel at any time. Also, check out prize picks. Use the code 5 fiv. We got the NBA starting up on Tuesday. Play NBA, NHL, World Series coming up. It’s all there. And of course, the NBA. So, check it out again. Well, NFL, I’m sorry. prize picks. Use the code F I V. And now today’s episode. Uh-oh. Yeah, it’s Mercy Music by Mercy again. Keep Nation. We the culture. Yo E, I need you to call out radio traffic blanket open for the bread. Still five on the floor. Still ride for my dog soon on the court. Still survive in the war. Keep your eye on the ball or get burned from the heat. This mic off the wall without turning the jeep from night to day. No sleeping pads or allowed to mourn us. The nut is sleeping us. Never catch us alive from Miami. We pour in the heat with five reasons from the court to the streets. Hey, wait. Be patient. 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. Back 25 on the floor. Here’s today’s floor plan. I’m Ethan Skolnick. You can follow me at Ethan J Skolnick and Five Reason Sports. I got Brady Hawk. You can follow me at Brady Hawk 305. Check out our work as well as others for the network on the Sports Illustrated site on SI. We have the Heat and the Magic sites there and we’ll be getting you your written content there. But we’re going to take one of the stories that Brady wrote there. We’re going to bring it to life. Um, we are looking at two days before the season starts in Orlando. I’ll actually be up there uh with coverage. We’ll also have others from our SI team. Of course, the Heat open in Orlando, then they go to Memphis on Friday, and then the home opener is Sunday against the Knicks. This is not an easy schedule. Six of the first eight games are on the road. Six of the first eight games are against teams that went to the playoffs last year. So, this is going to be challenging. We don’t know when Tyler Herro is going to be back. Although he said again on a video that he put out on YouTube uh that it’s going to be sooner rather than later and he wants to get on the court in the next week. But again, even once he gets on the court, that doesn’t mean he’s going to be back immediately playing in games that count. He’s got to get into a little bit of rhythm and obviously got to get comfortable on the ankles. So what Brady and I are going to talk about today is his article about the rotation and who might be on the outside looking in. And I think we do this two ways. One is what it looks like with Hero out and then what it looks like with Hero back in whenever that happens. So, let’s start with the with Hero out. Give me what you think Eric Spoler is going to start with on Wednesday night in Orlando. Again, taking the opponent into account, uh that opponent likely is going to start uh Wendell Carter Jr. at at center. uh Palo Bonerro, France Vagner, it’s a big front line, and then uh Desmond Bane, their acquisition from Memphis, and probably Taius Jones at point because it doesn’t look like uh Suggs is is healthy yet, and I don’t think they’re going to go with Anthony Black or Jace Richardson, although Richardson had an impressive camp as a rookie. Um considering that lineup, considering Hero being out, what do you think the starting lineup is for the Heat? Yeah, the interesting thing about the whole rotation thing is I thought there was going to be a little bit more question marks about what the decisions were going to be coming in to the start of the season, but kind of like the whole outcome of where I was talking about was like it’s pretty simple to me. I think it’s without Tyler right now, I don’t think there’s a lot of hard decisions to be made. And I know we’ve gone back and forth about the starting lineup. I thought at game one of the season we’d be sitting here still talking about who’s going to start next to BAM, who’s going to be starting next to Norman Powell. Uh, and I just think it’s pretty simple. I think it’s Nicole Yovic that has the starting position. I think it makes the most sense for the balance of the roster. Uh, we see the way they just cut Precious Achila. They don’t have another big like it’s it feels like they have to balance out Bware anyway, even besides the stuff that Spo said about Ko. Um, and they just need Nico in that lineup for the offense as we know. So, that makes a whole lot of sense. He’s healthy now. Uh, he’ll be ready for for Wednesday night. And then it’s David Mitchell. I know we’ve done podcasts about you kind of mentioning Drew Smith. I just think they’re at the point where you can’t do the placeholder thing when you’re just not good enough. Like you could do it when you have a good team. You can do it when you have certain things and it’s like, “Okay, well, we don’t need to just bump everybody up a slot. We could put our guy that’s that’s 11th on the roster in there and we can make it work.” Those days are over. Like you don’t have that main guy anymore. So like you just have to go with whoever your best player is. And at this current moment, DaVon Mitchell is just uh a better version of Drew Smith. and they they they’re just going to throw that in the starting lineup, it appears. So, uh, DaVon Mitchell, Norah Pal, Wiggins, Nicole Yoic, and Bam. It just seems like they’re gonna have to lean into the defensive trio of Mitchell, Wiggins, and Bam. Like, kind of just lock you up on all levels, which I think they’ll be able to do for parts of the game. Like, we saw it even in that last preseason game. They were able to do it. I’m just more so wondering how much can Powell and Yovic carry the offense. Like, that that’s all going to be the question of the beginning of the season. But, they’re going to stagger quickly. We always go way too deeply into the starting lineup thing, which is why I think it’s better to go into the whole rotation, different lineups they can get to because that ultimately ends up mattering more than anything. Uh, but I do think that that’s kind of the the gimme starting five services. Yeah, it looks like I’m going to have to take uh a 50% on this because it looks like I’m going to be right about Yoic, but I I agree with you. I’m probably going to be wrong about Drew. Um, I thought when he put Drew in the starting lineup in that one game that he was prepping for that going forward, but I I think you’re right in the sense of even though he does like to get his bench going, he knows he’s going to have to make another adjustment anyway when Hero comes back. And I I I I get your point about when you’re the, you know, the big three heat and you’re plugging in James Jones as your 11th or 12th guy for Dwayne Wade instead of say putting Ray Allen in the starting lineup that that makes sense because again Ray got comfortable with that bench group already. And uh and you know, you figured James Jones as just a spacer, if you still had LeBron and Bosch in the lineup, you were probably going to be okay. They don’t have LeBron and Bosch. So, uh, as we know, so, so this is a little bit of a different situation. Um, and DaVon’s energy, I I think, uh, you want to get it right there in in the starting lineup. Now, what happens with Drew? We’ll get into that next, but I think that is the direction they go. Um, I know some Heat fans are going to say, well, where led all NBA players, not just Heat players, all NBA players in field goals, in in points per, you know, in total points and all that. He played a ton of minutes in the preseason. Like Spo was pushing him and evaluating him all of that time. Like he was the focal point player for the Heat during the preseason and now he’s going to come off the bench. Yes. Uh because they they have to balance this roster. They don’t have another big. It doesn’t look like they’re going to get another big until December until they they can do that and not go into the luxury tax. There are some bigs that are out there right now. Charles Bassie, there are others that they could look at. uh they have does not appear they’re moving in that direction. They’re going to stay with 14 and Vlad Golden may get some emergency minutes provided he’s with the team uh and not sent to Sou Falls and I don’t know how those are going to go based on what we saw in the preseason but it does does appear they even signed a two-way you know they they got Myron Gardner as a wing but they signed Jir Young who’s a a small guard a small scoring guard uh to a two-way contract. So there I guess the hope is that where Yovic uh and Bam are going to stay healthy and then they’re going to be able to use the 96 minutes between them because I don’t think they can give a lot of minutes to Keshan. Um right I mean you should go immediately there from what we saw in the preseason. I I I don’t I don’t see where he fits. But anyway, uh let’s get into the rotation beyond this then. So, if you’re looking at at starting Mitchell, Powell, Wiggins, Yovic, and Bam, who are you bringing off the bench and how are you staggering it? Yeah, so the first question is if you go nine or 10. When you’re talking about a team that has a little bit of depth and they’re without a main player, you would think 10. But honestly, the closer I’m getting, I’m I’m I’m kind of leaning nine. I just think ultimately gets there anyway. uh if they want to survive early in the year, they’re going to have to lean into their best guys when they are fresh, when they are healthy. Um play pal Wiggins and BAM as much as possible and kind of figure out the different combinations. So I’m kind of leaning into nine. So the question is, so you have your six, which is Kell. Pella is going to be kind of glued to a lot of the Kell minutes when he comes in. Like I was even saying, I think it’ll probably be Kell and Pella coming in together probably for like Wiggins and BAM. They they’ll probably work it somewhere like that. Um, then it’s Haimey, which was possibly the guy that I thought was going to be on the outside looking in, even coming into camp, coming out of camp. Uh, I just felt like they were going to lean in a different direction with the way he was playing, but he had a strong preseason. Uh, he showed getting down the lane, getting back to his game. As he talked about, he did a lot of it. And simply, even if he does kind of tail off a little bit, they just need his on ball paint touch ability. Like, they just don’t have a lot of that on this roster right now. they’re just going to need that. So, he’s definitely going to be the guy. And then Drew, I mean, that that’s your guy coming in for DaVon. So, it seems like before it felt like it was a lot harder to kind of form a a solid rotation or like it was just an easy decision, but I think it has kind of been simplified. Fonteio is the swing player. He’s the 10th guy. He’s the the primary guy on the outside looking in. I thought he would be a rotation player. Uh I’m pushing back a little bit just seeing the way he was getting to his shots in preseason. Not that it was anything efficiencywise or anything, but it’s just so different than like Duncan coming in and he could be your primary action guy. He could form offense. He could fly off handoffs. He could do all that stuff. Fontki is somebody that’s just kind of off the ball weak side. He could take a bunch of like weak side catches, shoot threes, which they need because they were atrocious and and getting threes up and the efficiency in preseason. Uh but I don’t know if they have enough creators on the floor to like maximize it, if that makes sense. Like if you want a shooter out there consistently, you need to like it almost feels like Font if Fontekio plays, it’s going to be when Tyler comes back. Like it’s going to be when they have a little bit of extra creation and they’re like, “Okay, well, we could throw the extra shooter right in now.” I don’t know if that’s the case early in the season. So, he’s the kind of 10th guy. If they are getting up 25 threes in a game again in the regular season, it’s like, “Okay, we have to throw him in there. Let’s expand to 10 and give him a few minutes and see what he can do.” Uh, but other than that, I think it’s going to be those first nine. And I’ll say the combinations in the lineups is what I think is going to be the most interesting. Like I keep saying Powell with the second unit is going to be the main thing. I think it’s going to be Powell and Yovic with the second unit actually. I think it’s going to be Drew Powell, Haimey or Pella. I’m kind of unsure about if it’s going to be which one of those it’s going to be. They’ll kind of try to see the chemistry. We haven’t seen a lot of it. And then Nico and Kell. How Nico Kell I think is gonna be the trio of the season. I think that’s going to be a lineup that they’re going to stay to kind of just when the offense looks bad to start games, which I heavily expect to happen. Like these a lot of these starting lineups they’re going to be facing are just a lot better offensively than Miami, they’re going to be down in a lot of games. And the way that they’re going to win a lot of these games is going to be the revival of that second unit to kind of just find a different level of offense, play fast. Like if you have Haimey and Nico out there running the floor and kicking to to to Powell and Kell’s kind of getting back into his groove off the bench, I think that could be something. And then the other lineup becomes Wiggins and Bam kind of being glued together, you know, defensively with Davon. And then they can mix in guys like uh Pella. And I think that lineup specifically, I think it’ll actually they’re going to do some things where Kell stays on the floor when Bam comes back in. So then Nico after playing with the first unit, second unit does play with the third unit and then they get to Bam and Kell anyway. That’s why I was kind of unsure why we didn’t get like a ton of B and Kell. Like I I know the reasoning, but they’re as much as people don’t like they’re going to play together this season. They are like they’re going to they have to it it just seems like on the surface they have to play without each other because there’s no other big but there’s going to be a lot of moments where they’re playing together. So, uh, I wish we could have seen a little bit more of that, but I guess they’ve already, you know, they played together. They played together second half of last season into the playoffs. But, uh, that would be my mock draft, like my mock rotation. I guess the substitution pattern. I I want to get into on the other side, uh, some of the combinations we didn’t see as much. You mentioned one of them that I’m a little concerned about, and I do see even with the staggering that they’re going to play together some. So, I want to get into how that’s going to work. Before we do, this is what has to work for you. If you have a car accident, you got to have an attorney jump on it right away and make sure that you’re protected, that you get your money, everything else along those lines. And that’s why we tell you about 305800 pain. Easy because the phone number is the brand 24/7. They can take your call, get you to the right attorney. Again, it’s 300, excuse me, 305800 pain, car accident, slip and fall, based in Dorado, bilingual. They can handle uh any kind of situation that you’ve got. Really good people down there. We’re going to be doing more podcasting from there as well. Manny Danny and his entire team or their entire team. Again, it’s 305800 pain. Again, 305800 pain or 305800p.com. Okay. Um couple combinations that we didn’t see a lot of. Uh Larson and Hakez for one. uh when they did share the floor, I didn’t think it looked great. And I’m I’m just wondering how they’re going to play off of each other. I feel like Pella got lost a little bit this preseason, maybe because of the injuries early, but we talked about him so much in summer league and also in uh in Euro Basket and then there were like, you know, a couple hit the floor moments that he has, but I I didn’t think there was the impact maybe that we were expecting. But he’s solid in your view, right? Like there’s there’s nothing going to take him out of that group. Yeah, I I honestly think because we were talking so heavily about him on the ball in the offseason with Euro Basket in summer league. I think they were trying to work him back in like the actual Heat offense where like they were playing him next to Haimey and it was like Haimey has the ball in his hands 24/7. We want you to do what you’re going to do for us this season which is all the offball stuff, the cutting, the off the catch stuff to see what you worked on. I felt like it was by design that they almost wanted to like they pushed him they’ve done it before guys. I mean in summer league where they pushed him so heavily on the ball and then they kind of just dial it back to begin the season. That’s what it felt like for me. And Jaime just needed to see the ball go in a bunch. Like he just needed this that that’s ultimately what he’s going to have to do. If he’s in the game, he has to have the ball. He’s he he can’t be sitting around in the corner as we know. Um so yeah, that’s going to be an interesting combination. Like they’re going to have to play together and the only way they can play together is if Haimey has the ball in his hands. And that’s kind of the the balance I guess of the seed. It’s like well if you want to maximize him, you have to put the ball in his hands. Like there’s a lot of these lineups I’m looking at that Haime and Pel are going to be playing in where like they have to put the ball in Pal’s hands. They have to put the ball in Bam’s hands. Like they have to be able to do some of this stuff. So I’m interested to see how Haime’s game more so than Pelis translates to the regular season because if if the on ball usage goes down will his will his play go down like it did kind of last season. So Pel I don’t worry about that as much. I think he’s going to be the defensive guy. is going to be the guy that’s still able to get those relief points and his his shot is just more long right now than than I. Well, but the other issue here too is if you’re bringing Larson off the bench with Drew, one of them’s got to make shots. I mean, I that’s I mean because you now you’re saying, “Okay, we’re going to play Powell with that unit. So, you’re kind of playing three guards essentially. Um, and you know, Powell obviously is going to take a lot of those shots for sure, but there has to be somebody else to offer relief as a shooter, especially if Wear is going to be out there with him also. Um, you you are I mean, I guess I guess you’re saying in some of those lineups Yoic is going to be in there with Powell, right? So that’s so that’s where you’re kind of going to for offense, but there’s really no way around this. Like Drew and DaVon are going to have to make open shots. I because uh you know and I don’t know that DaVon’s going to make him at the rate he made him last year. We’ve talked a lot about that. Uh Drew, you know, he he’ll he’ll take the shot if he’s open. He’s not looking for it. Uh but he’ll take the shot if he’s open, but they they’re going to have to to make those shots because you’re not going to get obviously a ton of creation. They’re talking about sort of everybody handling the ball, everybody uh can initiate it. That all sounds good in theory until starts things start to break down and then it’s like, okay, who are we going to to get us into offense and I’m concerned about and you talk about these starting lineups being able to score more than them. Like you look at a couple of the lineups they’re going against early like they’re playing against Orlando like Orlando and even without Suggs, they they are defensively suffocating. Okay. And especially then they bring Isaac off. Um they’ve just got a lot of different ways that they can go. Miami is going to go through through these droughts. Um I I I mean I I I guess as we look at all of it I’m just I’m concerned without Tyler how some of these lineups are going to score 100%. But it’s funny you mentioned that how Yovic one I worry less about because you’re putting two of your more dynamic offensive players that you have in the rotation right now together. But with that said, if they’re playing together in the first unit and the second unit, that other unit’s going to be question questionable like and you know what it comes down to? It comes down to two guys we talked a lot about last season with their consistency. Wiggins and Bam. Like you need Wiggins and Bam this season uh to be on their game offensively to be highlevel scorers consistently. Like it’s not like okay Bam could get to 20 or Wiggins get to 20. Like no, you need them to carry lineups. When Pal’s not out there, they have to be attacking. They’re going to need uh the Wiggins that we saw for quarters at a time where he was kind of getting to his shot making. Uh, I like the way he played in preseason where he was just not afraid to shoot the ball. Like he was catching from all over the place and he could kind of be be their swing player from the perimeter when I look at the shooting stuff. Like if he could pop from three and put up, you know, seven attempts a game and and shoot at a decent rate, I think it could um it could just help them early in the season. And then Bam, the thing is with Bam, we know what he is right now, but it’s like you’re talking about the lineups he’s going to be in. D’Von and Drew are gonna have a lot of shots in those lineups because they are going to double Bam in the lane. I’m picturing it already with Bam kind of picking up his dribble around the free throw line or inside and he’s be kicking out the shooters on the on the wing in the corner and it’s got to come down to that. It’s going to come down even Kell I think they’re going to help off Kell a lot and we saw Kell kind of pass up a few threes in the preseason and drive. Like that stuff’s good. But like the shooting worries me. I mean it’s the number one thing of this team that worries me. It’s like it’s not just that they don’t have shooters. Like they were playing a style in preeason that like they were not even getting the 33s. Like they were just playing so far inside. Uh maybe you have a chance against the Magic. Bane is going to change that a little bit. I know they don’t go they’re not highly three-point shooters, but they added a little bit. Uh but I’m looking at a lot of these other teams be facing. They’re going to shoot them out the gym if they don’t take a bunch of threes. Like if it’s just Haime spinning in the lane and taking a bunch of twos and Bam taking the mid-range turnarounds like it’s going to be tough to keep up offensively and the lineups thing is the most interesting. So it’s going to be as we kind of expected as we talked about in the offseason after Tyler got injured. It’s a lot on Powell to to begin the year. Like I think he’s going to be fine. Like even with some of the stuff we talked about with like being a number one option and dealing with some of the schematics, he’s going to get his he can get to his spots. He can get to his shots. I’m not worried about that. But it’s when he’s not on the court, it’s when they start playing him even further and they don’t have any other shooters. Like it’s going to be worrisome. So, uh, yeah, I and I don’t think it’s going to be something this season as well where we usually have, you know, fans calling for this guy to play or Sp. I don’t see it this season. Like the players are who they are and I don’t know what Spo can do to kind of like change things in that way. So, it’s like just the the players are going to have to shoot well or they don’t and that’s going to be kind of the the tell of the the beginning of the season. All right, two more two more quick things here. So, if we’re talking about rotations and all that, it all leads to the end of the game, right? And we know that last year the end of the game was a problem. Um, particularly once Jimmy was gone and their clutch numbers were awful. Um, typically in the past, their clutch numbers uh were held up by their defense and Jimmy getting to the line. um with Tyler’s, this is not this is not a Tyler being out problem because it was a problem with Tyler in. Uh his his clutch numbers last year were not good at all. How do you think he gets to the closing lineup? Because when when I when I talked to Tim Reynolds yesterday for the podcast, everybody should listen to that. He actually just wrote a book about the history of the Heat and we we pivoted a little bit to this season and kind of where this season may fit. He was saying, “Well, Nico’s got to be in a position to to close games.” Um, it seems like it’s easier with Tyler out, but it’s still not guaranteed, right? Like I he he’s gonna close with Bam, uh, Powell, DaVon, I think, under most circumstances, unless Drew is really outplaying him. If like Drew is on a run, I could see him doing one of those things where he leaves him in. And Wiggins, right? So, is is the fifth always going to be Yovic or is it going to be someone else? I mean, it has to be Yoic or Kell in what we’ve seen from Kell. I don’t know if Spo’s got to trust in the closed games, but I look at it like this. If Nico like doesn’t have a game where he’s playing well offensively or maybe he’s turned the ball over and you’re playing the Magic, let’s say on Wednesday night and they’re playing bigger down the stretch, I mean, Kell is the only other option. You cannot go smaller than that without Tyler. That’s that’s the key word because if you I don’t see them throwing out Haime or Pella out there to close the games and playing Wiggins at the four and Pow at the three right now. I do see them possibly doing that when Tyler’s back. Like I I it’s going to it’s it’s really comes down to a lot of things if they can hold up defensively and on the boards, but like I see them getting to certain teams where it’s DaVon, Tyler, Powell, Wiggins, Ban, which is small. It’s going to be a problem defensively in in rebounding, all that stuff, but like yeah, they’re going to be able to score much more than they will uh to be in the season without Tyler. So it feels like to be without Tyler, it feels like Nico is a he’s a closer like he has to be. He’s kind of what he’s prepared himself for. And honestly, it’s like he’s your guy that you want having the ball on in his hands, kind of setting things up. And maybe you’re worried about kind of the turnover stuff and being a young guy and figuring that out. But guess what? We know where this team sits right now, right? I want Nico or Kell closing. Like I I this is the time to give them the reps. Let them figure it out. I just I don’t want to see like Fontekio or different guys or veterans closing these games when this is the time where they should be learning. So, is there a way that is there a possibility that it could be Kell, Nico, and Bam with Powell and Wiggins? No, probably not. Like, probably not. They’re not going to get to that pretty often. And I think they just don’t trust even with DaVon shot being here and there. They trust his offense way more than they do the three big lineup, but that’s the only other possibility. It has to be Nico or Kell just because I I just don’t see them going small when they don’t have the offense already without Tyler. Okay, so let’s get back real quick and we’ll do more of this in about a week or two or whenever it is that it seems like Tyler’s getting back on the floor and maybe ramping up a little bit. Um, as far as the rotation goes, is it as simple as the rotation that you put out there and then Tyler replaces Drew? I mean, Tyler obviously starts and then DaVon would move to the bench, but is is it as simple as as that? Or is it possible they could go 10 or is it possible that Drew could retain some minutes and maybe it’s Larson who loses a spot or Hakez who loses a spot? I kind of think it’s Drew verse Hakez. That’s kind of the way I think of it immediately. I because Drew is the easiest to say just because I think Tyler steps in for DaVon in the starting lineup just simply. Um, so I think it’s just I don’t know if you’re going to run DaVon and Drew off the bench together, but like it’s it’s not the first time they’ve done that. Like they’ve done those two small guards off the bench before, so it’s not ridiculous. But I I think it probably is true in that sense. It just comes down to how plays to begin the season. It really does. Like if if Haimey plays like he did in preseason, it’s true. like Haime’s playing in the rotation, but if Haimey starts to see a little bit of a fall-off where the offense is not looking as clean as it did in preseason, which it happens all the time, um I think it could be Jaime as well. Could they go 10? Possibly. Especially because Tyler when he comes back is not going to be 38 minute Tyler Hero. Like I think they’re going to work him in slowly. So at least at the beginning, I think they’ll give it a shot and see what they can do with 10. I guess the real question mark would be if when Tyler returns I would be does Nico continue to start with Tyler, right? Um that gives you a lot of offense. I mean Tyler uh Tyler Powell Wiggins Nico Bam gives you a lot of offense. You have more than they’ve had in a while. Uh but is the balance there? Like are they going to lean in that totally? I think they have to just because of the Kell thing that we keep talking about with not having a backup big. I mean, they could start Kell and then stagger from there and Kell could still be your backup big while starting. Uh, but it’s just a lot tougher. I think they lean into the Nico thing. Um, and then they’ll just mix and match. It’s a whole lot easier to stagger though when we’re talking like that than we are right now. Like when we were doing it a second ago and it’s like any lineup that doesn’t have Powell and they have nothing offensively, that changes with Tyler. Like you actually have lineups that could survive offensively. So that’s going to change a lot. But I it probably is Tyler for Drew. I think that’s ultimately what it would end up being. The only thing I’ll disagree with you about is this idea that they’re going to hold Tyler’s minutes down. I I know what’s going to happen there. Spo’s going to do it for one game and then all of a sudden he’s going like, “Oh, I was supposed to stop him at 25 minutes and he ends up playing 34.” And you know, Tyler’s going to push to play those minutes. He always wants to play. So that I I don’t I don’t think the ramp up once he’s actually out there is going to take very long. I think we’re looking at maybe a game or two and then and then, you know, he’ll kind of he’ll kind of cut the leash there and and let him go. All right. So, we’ll see where everything goes. We have more episodes coming up. We’re going to do a full preview of their season of the Heat season coming up, make our predictions for wins and all that. Four of us are going to get together for that one. And like I said, I’ll be up in Orlando uh with coverage on Wednesday. So, you can catch all that here on five on the floor. Make sure you listen to the episodes. We appreciate that. That helps us going forward. Also, as I mentioned, sign up for prize picks using the code five fiv. Have a good day, everybody.

All offseason, we’ve debated what the Miami Heat rotation would look like for 2025-26. Now we are here. Ethan Skolnick and Brady Hawk predict what it will look like at the start, middle and finish.

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