Miami Heat Bench Needs Jolt From A Starter? | How To Feel About New Giannis Heat Smoke?

Miami Heat Bench Needs Jolt From A Starter? | How To Feel About New Giannis Heat Smoke?

Hey, welcome on in guys. Tobin here with you and thanks for checking out the channel. Hope everybody’s doing great out there all late tonight. You know, they got a got a Panthers game. They’re taking on the Colorado Avalanche. So, I’m going to get ready to go sit on my couch and watch the Cats. See if they can take This is a big one. You know, Avalanche have had a good season. So, we’ll uh see what’s what with that. The Miami Heat, they’re getting ready to uh resume practice on Friday. They got a couple of nights off. I think they had the old Christmas party at Pat Riley’s place and doing some karaoke and uh now it’s time to get back to the grind. I I want the Heat to almost look at this like a you know almost like a mini training camp of some sorts. Like I I think this is a good time. You’re staring these four straight losses in the face. You’re about to get this extra home game with uh the Toronto Raptors on Monday night, which very I mean inconveniently is on the same night as Monday Night Football. I I of all the days they could have picked like that’s that’s that’s the one we go with. Not a day later. Uh no, that’s the that’s that is the day we pick. I I don’t know. I just annoying. But either way, it is what it is. The uh and Toronto’s been in a little bit of what Miami’s gone through. like they had that hot start, you know, and now they’ve come down to earth a little bit from where they uh they were catching everybody off heels. So, it should be a pretty fascinating matchup. You have two teams in a bit of a desperate spot right now going into this game, but so much stuff has to be looked upon right now and just kind of figure out where things are at right now because you’re going to go into this game, you have these days off. Uh, we’ll get reports on who practiced and we’ll get a report on what Pella, you know, how Pella Larson’s doing with his whole injury and where things stand with that. But I do think it’s a good time for Eric Swer to just kind of figure some things out, like see how guys come into this thing. How are they competing? I’m sure at one of these they’re going to go pretty hard at these practices, I would imagine. Um, and see, all right, does anybody stand out? Is anybody giving that extra effort? anybody trying to make an impression. I think these are pretty, you know, these could be important practices for, you know, Nico trying to get out of the the the spo dog house and, you know, maybe show something. This could be even Casper’s Yakonas who’s, you know, shown some flashes in the G-League. Could there be some kind of a spark there? I mean, I don’t necessarily see it from a a depth chart perspective because I don’t see how he supplants DaVon or Drew Smith when it comes to playing time just because of the defensive tenacity of those guys. and Spo seems to be really irritated by the defense and how things are playing right now. Um, and then just overall it was uh it’s going to be interesting. Does Spo make a big change in the starting lineup or does he go with what got off to such a tor start against the Orlando Magic, right? like does he stick with the three guards with DaVon, Tyler and Norm with Andrew Wiggins and Bam Adabio or does he think this needs an infusion? And and I wanted you know I I think there’s an interesting thing here too because one of the parts on this we’ve been so starting line of focus guilty of it as charged but one of the things that also has to be known is like the second unit hasn’t been as potent either. you know, Simony’s shooting’s gone down. Nico’s a DNPCD every single night. Haime, you know, got off to a ridiculous start, you know, and maybe hasn’t found the the same footing, you know, that that he has had. Maybe does maybe there’s too many teams focusing in on him. He doesn’t have enough relief options. So, could the second unit just benefit from some boost from one of the other guys as well? Um, I think there’s that argument. And I think if the problem with the Heat right now and that starting lineup is you got four guys in it where like the idea of them getting hood on the bench is looked upon as like such a slap in the face where if it was really just about winning it it really shouldn’t be because you know I I mean there there does have to be something beefed up there. So, I do wonder if there’s there’s something to be said for putting one of these guys there and then, you know, who whoever the fifth guy slid in. Now, obviously, in my mind, I would like that to be Kel Wear. I I you know, I would like to see the pairing with him and Bam. But, if they’re not if he’s not going to start KL Wear, all I would hope is that at some point during these games, we do get Wear Bam time together. So where is not just so stagnated by oh cuz Bam’s going to play a ton of minutes and if it’s just going to be they’re not going to play together well then his minutes are just naturally going to shrink. So I hope that if this doesn’t directly lead to him starting I hope that we get out of bio and wear minutes to try and work that out because putting trade talks aside and I do want to get into some trade stuff here in just a second. um if things were to just stay as they are right now with the organization and like let’s just say they go through this year right we’re going to ride it out we’re going to play we’re going to keep Nor we’re going to keep everybody keep Wiggins we’re going to keep Tyler we’re going to keep Bam we’re going to keep everybody to me the heat’s investment standpoint from this point for going from the long is Bamio and Kel wear right it is going to be Bam’s got the contract Khalware is showing the most upside of any young guy you got. That duo seems to have a big willingness to work with one another. You know, Bam has put a big a lot of investment in it personally. Kell seems open to it. He’s shooting. I think like the spacing of it is not necessarily a disaster. Defensively, I understand Spo that should be a lot better and I know that he’s putting that on K. I’m not even saying that’s unfair. I just think that there are things that have to be worked through, right? Like we saw it with the rebounding. We’ve seen it with the the the the offense with him. We’ve seen it with the shooting. Like I I think we just got to give it all some time and some grace. And I just hope it’s not a thing forgotten cuz you’re just trying to dig your way out of this whole thing. So if if somebody was to get moved to the bench, who should it be? I know everybody’s gonna go immediately and they’re gonna take one of the shooting guards and they’re gonna go with Tyler. They’re gonna go with Norm, but I almost think it was interesting. I had uh we had Brady Hawk on the uh on the radio show, which you guys should go check it out. Brady was awesome. No surprise. Um and Brady made a great point. I thought it was interesting that that that Tyler and Norm almost like Bam and and Wear almost need their time together to feel each other out and get to know each other. So, I would be hesitant to bench either one of them, not just because of the drama of it, knowing that a Tyler going back to the bench will be felt some type of way. Norm who has kind of embraced being the feel of the Heat. Yeah, the Heat don’t owe Norm anything. You know, he’s been here for three seconds. They don’t have him long term. So, maybe they don’t care about it. They just want this thing fixed now. But I think there’s something to be said for, hey, he’s been your go-to guy for the majority of the season. Uh, he seems to have a a really strong relationship with Bam Adabio, and I I I would doubt that they’re going to put him there. So then it comes down, we know Bam’s not getting benched. So then it comes down to DaVon Mitchell and Andrew Wiggins and which one of those guys could you go with from this standpoint? And I think the easier move is probably DaVon. Uh, I don’t know if it’s the move I like more because DaVon’s been so crit critical, you know, but I do think that, you know, you put him on the you put him in that unit. First of all, the bench it’s a little lacking on some defensive chops. You know, I think that there is something to be said for that. Like, so you add, you know, one of your best defenders to go in there, kind of run things, maybe spark some things with Haime as well. It doesn’t have to be always on ball with Haime. uh Haime can create. We know how good he is out of that. But maybe give him some relief efforts there if you don’t think Yakonis is ready. And then you know you have I’m looking at a unit now that has like Haime not exactly known as a great defender with DaVon Simony. You know, maybe that just has a little bit more of a jolt to it. And I’m I’m kind of sparking this without Pella being healthy. You know, we’ll see when that happens. I don’t know how gnarly that ankle injury was. You know, he may be a Swedish cyborg and be ready to go. I don’t know. The dude is built like a tank. Uh, but it did look like a pretty bad ankle twist. Um, yeah, that’ll obviously cause diminish for Drew Smith, but I think Drew’s as, you know, good a soldier first as it is. So, we’ll see what’s what with that. And then Wiggins, you know, Wiggins can also add some potency. You can have some feature time. Jeff Teague, who I am not uh I do not like his DWade takes. I don’t know what his deal is with that. I genuinely like the Club 520 podcast, although I don’t watch it very much. I pretty much just catch whatever heat culture throws up on Twitter. Um which he does a very good job of. And I don’t Yeah, I don’t know what his deal is with the DWade thing. I I don’t know. It’s like he’s kind of like less ridiculous Gilbert Arenas when it comes to his DW takes. like he doesn’t seem to have this like respect of Dwayne as a like he said something today of like oh Kyrie versus Dwayne Wade I would take Kyrie over over Dwayne and it’s like cuz he never took a step back. I’m like he literally took a step out like he was sick of LeBron James first and foremost. Second of all uh if anybody took a step back it was when DW when LeBron got to the Heat. LeBron took a step back. It caused Dwe another championship and probably a Finals MVP. Neither here nor there. But he did make an interesting point about Andrew Wiggins not fitting fully with the Heat. Now, Andrew got off to like a really incredible start at that Orlando game like most of the players did. Um, and I don’t know with his status, with him buying in more to the Heat, as they’ve said, I don’t know how they would feel about doing this to him, but would he be welcome and open to going and being a reserve? And I don’t know the answer to that because I think it’s twofold, right? One, I do think there’s an element of the Heat. They are kind of showcasing him. Like I do think that Andrew Wiggins is going to be looked upon as like whatever direction the Heat go. I think they know that they could probably get something pretty decent for him. And so do you want to put the appearance of like you’re lessening his value. Don’t know. Don’t know the answer to that. Uh that’s kind that was my point in beginning of the season where I looked at this team. Now I definitely got some of the bench players wrong because I thought that Nico would be more involved not Haime. Um but I did look at that starting unit. I’m like, eh, this feels like the Heat are going to make a move at some point just because of it felt a little gluttonous with what they had. And and Teague was making this point uh today that it doesn’t feel like he’s he can really be featured. And we’ve seen Andrew Wiggins have some really good games in the early going where he has been. Uh hell, won a damn game with his damn athleticism. He’s had some pretty hilacious moments going playing two-way basketball. But is it possible for him to be that with this starting unit? And what would the ramifications of that be? I think publicly I I don’t know. Like I think getting a read on it, he doesn’t seem like a guy that would make a stink about that. And if he would, I don’t even know if he would do it without he would do it without even raising his volume a little bit. So I don’t know what the answer uh of of that is. Um, it feels like to me because of credentials that the easier move would just be like DaVon cuz I don’t think DaVon’s any drama whatsoever. The guy just wants to ball. But I think he’s shown his importance and especially, you know, Norman t Norm’s not the biggest stopper in the world either. So, you may want right off the bat to uh to have DaVon out there. Um, but you know, there’s also something to be said for like the creation. People have mentioned Tyler’s assist numbers not being quite there. Maybe this doesn’t uh maybe this can help that a little bit. But man, I I will say DaVon has been really really good setting up his teammates. I mean, I don’t think he deserves to be lessened if anything. You know, you could even say he deserves to be, you know, having the ball in his hands even more. That’s just how effective he’s been and been any and and his first note on this team is to be unselfish. So, that’s uh you know th those are some things that I’m just kind of chewing on with this. I’m curious to see where Spo goes with this. You know, people have mentioned do he need to you know bring in some more pick and roll? Do they need to mix it in a little bit more? Do they need to get Tyler Herro back more comfortable? Norm has even mentioned it that he wouldn’t even mind it. So, do they need to, you know, scrap the whole non-offense thing? Do they need to use it less? Does it need to be a temperature change? Don’t know. Don’t know. But uh but I I think everything’s there. Listen, you had Desmond Bane talking after the win. You got Bon Carro talking after the game. Something needs to be done. All right. You got these Magic feeling a little too froggy after beating the Heat three games this year. Um you know, so I I think the Heat there there’s a lot of uh mirror looking that has to come in from all of this with the uh the the Miami Heat. The other thing I wanted to touch on is the Giannis stuff and where I’m at with it because, you know, I’m not saying that I’m not going to do any talk on it because, you know, if something interesting happens, something interesting happens. But I will say I I want everybody to know where I’m at because, you know, you don’t see the captain’s hat. It is here. You know, the captain’s hat is here. Um I don’t know where my pipe is, though. Now that I think about it, my work I need my props. Um, but I’m mentioning this because I saw on the the rounds of podcast, you know, Miami has become a very chic name to bring up and I think the main reason is because I think everybody knows the Knicks offer is going to stink for this and there are some logistics salary. I think salary-wise Miami has things that can make this work pretty easily because of their hefty deals with Wiggins and Hero because of and and and the possibility of Roier because it’s uh you know be I don’t know how many people are are chirping nationally about the agent connection but I will say I’m going at this thing very very guarded. I’m not getting my hopes up for Giannis onto Takmpo. I’m not uh I’m not feeling froggy about getting Giannis onto TMPO. Um I do realize if the Heat give him up, I know Zack Low made this point. I made this point as well with uh with the Kelwear. I I think that if they are getting Giannis, I see no way that they’re getting him without giving up Kellwear. And I think again going back to a long-term thing, I don’t necessarily know if you’re keeping Bam and Giannis and Kell. I don’t even know how great of a fit that is with Kell. Now, it’s not impossible. You could kind of look at it as like a Bobby Portoris, Brook Lopez thing. Um, with how Kell has been turning into a shooter. It’s not impossible for it to work, but, you know, certainly with Spose patience with him. I wonder about that. But I don’t I I don’t want to go at this full boore unless there is like the list, you know, and it seems like Hannes, you know, is given the groundwork on some of this stuff with, you know, he told his teammates to focus on ball and so he’s getting some of the Giannis perspective out there. Um, but I don’t I’m not going unless I like I get a hey, they’re on the list. Whatever the list is and even then I’m going to be guarded. The Damen Lillard thing honestly guys has scarred me for life as a Heat fan because that July 1st, 2024 when we got those sham that Sham’s bomb about Damen Lillard and he only wants to go to the Miami Heat was such jubilation. I was so excited. I almost felt like we had won a playoff series. That’s how excited I was. And I say that as somebody who really really likes Damen Lillard, probably one of my favorite non-heat players of all time. The fit that he would have been like a glove with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adabio. And the fact that I spent a year uh you know, weeks upon weeks podcast chasing weirdos on Instagram of like, who’s this guy? He’s Damen Lillard’s cook one time. Let’s go see what he’s liking on on Instagram. I didn’t like myself afterwards. I’m like, this is this is crazy and it all ended up for nothing and he ended up with the Bucks, which is why I have no bad feelings about the Bucks losing Giannis. Like, I’ve said this, but there’s no way to have something like that not feel some type way. And then I felt the same way with and then I kind of was buying into the Durant stuff. Um hopeful that the Heat could pull that off. And twice in the last couple months they did not get Kevin Durant. And it obviously made me very angry which is why I went on the rant that I did um on the radio the next day. So which got me called the ranter. So, I am going at this Giannis thing very delicately because one, odds are he’s going to say he wants to go to the Knicks and the Knicks probably won’t get him. But I I think that’s the way it’s going to go. And secondly, I don’t know if they have a better even offer than the Hawks because of that draft pick from the Pelicans. I don’t really know even if Kell Wear and his potential. I don’t know if that even gets you more than Atlanta would then because of the potential of this draft class and just having a new face of the franchise that everybody can dive into. Allah the uh the Dallas Mavericks getting Cooper flag. So I’m just going at this thing very very guarded. I’m not getting crazy about it. Even if Howard Beck says that he’s heard Giannis will be very happy. Even if other insiders are saying, “Hey, Miami seems to make a lot of sense.” Hey, we’ve talked about all this. We we have been on the the beat bath. The other thing is like look, I don’t know about the injury thing. Like when it first happened, everybody thought that he was faking it. I still don’t know that he’s not faking it, but it seems like that’s But I but we all remember that that was a very weird injury. Uh I don’t even remember did we get a grade on it? I don’t even remember if we got a grade on it from everybody about the caption. and they just said ah two to four weeks with with it leaning more four weeks and I don’t know what Giannis is necessar and I also don’t know if like look I don’t know what Giannis is necessarily waiting for either right like more guys become available to be dealt on Monday maybe he’s waiting for the NBA cup to be able maybe he’s waiting for the Knicks to lose the NBA cup maybe he’s waiting for um I don’t know I don’t know I really don’t have an answer for that but I’m being very very very just reserved when it comes to any heat crumbs, heat buzz. I don’t know if my heart could take a full investment anymore. Maybe I just don’t got my fastball anymore now. And and and maybe I’m just waiting for something a little bit more concrete because I do think there are other teams I probably can make more intriguing offers. It’s going to have to be Giannis really pressuring to want to come to Miami. Do I think there are reasons he’d want to come to Miami? Of course, I’ve spelled those all out. Um, but do I know that’s what he’s gonna pick? No, I don’t know. How do I know that he would rather go to Miami than New York? Maybe he wants to go to New York. I don’t know that he wouldn’t want to go to New York. Um, how do I know that he just is isn’t, you know, 611 Bradley Beal who just likes to flirt with everybody but wants to stay with the Bucks forever and is gonna sign for even more gazillions of dollars. Maybe he just does that. I don’t know. I will react to the updates as they happen. Um, but I’m just I’m being a little bit like I’m not I’m not ready to get my heart broken again. All right. I’m not I’m not there yet. I need to go at this thing easy easy street. Couple toes in the water and then maybe I’ll plunge in. But right now, I’m just going to kind of enjoy this lounge by the pool right now. And uh we’ll see what happens. But I I see all the noise. I see it. I’m I’m not not excited about it. I’m just not I I’m not getting my I guess I’m not not I’m just not getting my hopes up about it right now. Just going to observe. I’m going to try and be mature about this. And uh trust me, you’ll know when I’m full boore, full steam ahead the she blows. But it’s not there yet.

Tobin is looking forward to Erik Spoelstra having 3 days of practice to get the Miami Heat reset during their 4 game losing streak. They’ll be taking on a slumping Raptors team. Does there need to be a lineup shakeup not just for the starters but to juice up a slumping bench? Put Davion Mitchell, Andrew Wiggins, Tyler Herro or Norman Powell w/ the reserves? New Giannis to Miami smoke from national NBA reporters. How to handle this as a Heat fan? When is it okay to actually enjoy this fodder.
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