Goran Dragic’s Miami Heat legacy | Five on the Floor

Goran Dragic’s Miami Heat legacy | Five on the Floor

Welcome to ladies episode five on the floor on the five reason Sports Network thanks for joining us on your favorite podcast app Google podcast Apple podcast Spotify and red circle as well as the Five Reasons YouTube channel make sure youit like subscribe and turn the notifications on particularly if you’re

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Just $3 a day so you can enter him at any time it’s a great bargain and now today’s episode all right welcome back to five on the floor here’s today’s floor plan I’m Ethan skolnick you can follow me at Ethan J skick and at five Reon Sports I

Got Greg slander you can follow me at Greg sylvander we will get back to the current team in 2024 which as we’re recording this is just about seven hours away and we’ll get into what’s going on in this road trip of course the heat are going to Los Angeles they’re there already

Actually they’re going to be playing the Clippers and the Lakers after disappointing loss in Utah we did a recap episode myself Alex and Brady so make sure that you check that out too but we’re gonna go back in time a little bit announcement over the weekend or

Over this yeah over this weekend to the weekend from Goran dragic that he is retiring and I’m a little surprised uh Greg not real surprised because there just wasn’t much Buzz around it I you know I covered Goron for a few years I have access to

Him by text Etc you know hasn’t changed the phone number and we’ve communicated over the years even since he’s left Miami I hadn’t heard from him recently we’ve talked about getting him on the podcast talk about the possibility of coming to play for the heat I never heard anything back there really wasn’t

Any Buzz about him joining any teams and my understanding was that he really only wanted to play in the NBA again if it was going to be for the heat that uprooting um you know I know his kids are still down here in South Florida and uprooting everybody

Again to go play for some other franchise when you know his experiences in Brooklyn Chicago and Milwaukee I don’t think were all that great for him he was kind of looking to replicate what happened in Miami he wasn’t able to and um when I talked to him he was here were

The Bulls last year and I’ve mentioned this many times he thought he could play two or three more years like 15 to 20 minutes a night his body felt good he felt he could still play at an NBA level but if he wasn’t going to play for the

Team that he really wanted to play for and the city he really wanted to be in I didn’t necessarily know that he was going to go to OKC or you know to you know some other team that may be looking for just a third point guard who’s

Probably not even gonna play much during the playoffs uh at that stage and so you know with the heat they didn’t seem to have a ton of Interest we’ve talked about it and then you know they went with Drew Smith they went with RJ Hampton Drew Smith got hurt his contract

Was guaranteed feel like that kind of took away some of their flexibility at that stage once that happened because they maybe could have walked away from from uh from Drew and brought in Goran at a certain point when you know the the the second apron concerns were kind of

Out of the way Drew’s contract gets guaranteed again that seemed to be off the table so I guess when you put all that into context Greg it’s not that surprising um and he gets to do it on his own terms he’s going to you know play one final exhibition game in

Slovenia his home country where he’s beloved where he led them to a world championship I just want to get your initial thoughts when you heard before we put into context where he fits uh in heat lore I just want to your thoughts as he retires it wasn’t surprising only

Because of the fact of you mentioned lack of Buzz I also just knew that the interest level throughout the league um it’s gotten cold out there for the veterans and that’s just something that the way that the league is and Goran kind of got lumped into that even though

I think he can help contenders Mike Miller on his OG podcast with UD said the most underrated thing in the league right now is having veterans in your locker room real hardcore playoff tested veterans Goran is that um and so I thought maybe he could catch on

Somewhere but when Miami has Drew Smith go down and RJ Hampton is in and out Lowry is in and out now and Goran still doesn’t get to call Financial stuff aside I knew that it was probably the end of the road and um and we’re going

To talk about where he fits Etc and I’m going to wait to what act’s poetic to when we get there but I I’ll just say I was less surprised that it happened although I would say this I’m surprised he didn’t wait the season out and see if somebody got injured because like we

Talk about the Heat going to all these other guys I mean if Kyle Lowry were to knock on wood get on get hurt for some reason what would you do for six weeks you know what I mean like so it surprises me a little that he comes out

With the announcement but I think that part of that is him wanting to go out on his own terms and not be kind of pushed out he’s saying I’m done he’s been with four franchises since he was last with the heat yeah people don’t want to talk about Toronto because he’s not real

Popular up in Canada since he never wanted that trade to happen and uh we know he only played five games there he only played just to go through it here a little bit um early in his career obviously uh was Phoenix right uh he played 88 games in in Houston with

Kyle Lowry by the way for a lot of those uh here’s his game totals overall he played more games for the heat than any other team which actually I think people in Phoenix would be surprised by that 391 for Miami 388 for Phoenix 88 for

Houston 51 in kind of an okay stint in Chicago again that was after his heat days 16 in Brooklyn seven in Milwaukee five in Toronto so if you add up the Chicago Brooklyn Milwaukee Toronto stints after Miami he played a total of 79 games yeah you know so he never he

Right exactly and with a little bit of Houston Thro in but really he’s Phoenix or Miami um and I think that’s how he’s going to remember himself and and remember the way he left Phoenix was not good um although it wasn’t because of the fans it was he didn’t he didn’t have

A good relationship with Ryan McDon the general manager by the end of it and a lot of critical things said and gor tried to bite his tongue one of the things I always appreciated about Goran though is that biting his tongue words would still be said um he he

Was you always always remember there’s so many of these instances but it’s a little bit different I don’t want to statuses yes it’s a little different for European players they’re more open I think they don’t come out of that culture where they’re coached uh to not say anything about anything and so with

Goran I was always especially careful I’ll tell you I had a very good relationship with Goran when he played but most media did like I wasn’t alone like it wasn’t Goran wasn’t one of those guys that was like okay this reporter is his guy there are certain players like

That there were certain ones that I felt that you know were my would go to me first when there was information that maybe trusted me most there were others who maybe trusted others who’ve been around the heat for a long time or a national person Goran had good relationships pretty much with all

Reporters um he was open he was the type of person that prior to a game when you used to actually be able to find players in the locker room before a game before they all started hiding in the training room that you could basically shoot the

Bleep with Goron for 30 minutes and I often did that just about everything and I was always protecting him honestly like he would just tell me things that we were just you know we were comfortable so he would tell me things on background and I’d be like do I

Really want to get him in trouble for this no uh you know because he just he would tell it how it was like he wasn’t nicest guy in the world but he had opinions about how things should be done and I think one of his frustrations when

He left my was that things were not done in other places we’ve talked about that before but they were not done in other places like they were done in Miami and so you know the one that that is kind of funny is remember when he went up he had

His Zoom call he had a zoom call because we were doing all Zoom calls during covid so during the bubble the heat would like make two or three players available per day by Zoom so we would jump on the zooms and it hadn’t been widely reported who had stayed back

Because they tested positive for covid but we knew the network that it was bam and nun right and then gorad just blurted out that what was it that bam when when when Kendrick and Bam get here yeah and it was like oh gor’s gonna get in trouble for that but but he was

Tenured enough at that stage he could get away from would get in trouble he would get in trouble but but he most players would and it was just he was just himself in all of those ways and I I think before we get into his context

Of where he fits overall in heat lore I mean again I have great memories of covering him I family fest I have you know pictures of him with my daughter at various stages and it’s just you know he just was he was a regular guy like I I’m

Not he’s dead I’m talking about when he was playing like when he would go um you know one of the things he liked about Miami he would put a hat on when he go to the park to take his kids to the park because he didn’t really want anybody to

Recognize him because he just wanted to sort of blend in like just regular dad you know with his young kids at the park in Miami and he grew to love Miami honestly I mean of we talk about certain players who embrace the city and the culture and all that stuff Goron is is

Near the top of that oh yeah um and and and I I think that again as we put into context here he did not have easy circumstances with the heat for a variety of reasons first he’s acquired for the the couple of first round picks right our guy Norris Cole actually went

Out in that that trade uh he the best asset in the league don’t forget that’s exactly right and he was and he out for a couple of first round picks and uh he joins a team he’s supposed to be playing with Chris Bosch and lit and all we

Talked about was pick and pop pick and pop pick and pop what’s that gonna look like he did it with Channing fry what’s that gonna look like with Chris Bosch right the very day that drit was acquired was the day that Bosch checked was in the hospital yeah for the first

Time for blood clots it’s just like right after you know P acquired you know all those players to play with zo and zo failed the physical it’s like these kind of things happened to the Heat organization so we got to see Goron with Bosch but not ever in full flower and by

The time that they did start to play together like we were like where is the pick and pop it’s like they hadn’t worked on it it was It was kind of weird and then of course when Goron started to kind of get his SE legs playing with the heat and figuring

Out how to play with Dwayne which was one of the hard things he had to do and I’ll get into that in a second then Bosch went out again and so we never got to see a team that I believe if they had actually had their starting lineup of Whiteside BOS Joe

Johnson uh with or Lu alang uh with say he played great with lu alang he played great with well they they were very close remember like that was that they became like Fast Friends him and him and LEL great relationship with LEL great relationship with Jimmy obviously later

On like hard to find a player who played with Goran who didn’t like Goron uh just personally and and I I think when you look at that team you’re like if you had that lineup and then Dwayne and Goran in the back court with a with a rookie Josh Richardson Justice Winslow who

Contributed that team probably could have beaten Cleveland in the Easter Conference Finals and might have gone to the finals that year so you had that then he finally adjusts to playing with Dwayne like for a while he would stand in the corner like yeah and let Dwayne

Take over and I remember right after they first came Dwayne had never really played with a guard like him like he played with Rio Rio did not need the ball in his hand Goran did uh for you know and so it was very different and I did like a standup interview with the

Two of them together um and wrote a story on and spent 15 to 20 minutes with both of them about how this was going to work and you could tell like Goran was so deferential to Dwayne oh for sure that it almost hurt the team I think at times

Agree he he just he did not want to step on Dwayne’s toes at all and I think Dwayne loves him personally but Dwayne was still trying to be Dwayne and Goran was like okay be Dwayne and I I think at times uh I think it was better with

Jimmy um and they they kind of they they got into a better Rhythm there you’re right but with Dwayne at times it was tough It’s arguably as talented a back court as they’ve ever had um but it it was not perfect and it took some time for Goran to develop and it really

Wasn’t until Dwayne left and Goron had that run with Dion in the 16 17 season the seven 11 uh you know back court that I was like okay this Goran is carrying uh with this team and then he has that great final act with the heat which

Should have been better which was the bubble and you know he was their leading score for most of the bubble um you could argue whether he was their second or third best player but he was certainly in the top three a lot of talk about Tyler Tyler was great as a rookie

But it was Goran was was the guy and agree and he just he got hurt and he tried to play through it and that Zoom call that he had with us where he kind of knew it was over um was one of the hardest interviews I think I’ve seen a

Player do with the heat because he put everything into it I think he knew it was his last real chance to win he’d been through all that and uh and then we and then you get to the end of it and he pushed himself out there on the floor at

The end and he was not he couldn’t play and he wasn’t the same and it’s he was goes out the way he goes out the way UD went out in a lot of ways UD played for years after it but both of those guys pushed themselves to play in a playoff

Series and I think it affected them um when you look at this and then again on the other side of the break Greg will get into you know where he kind of fits overall I mean which is the Goron that that you think of the most with the heat is it

That team with Dwayne that was really Uber talented was it the 7-Eleven 1 and11 run or was it the Bubble Run Bubble Run because it was the one that cemented it for me where I started to tweet things like Goran dragic is the best point

Guard in Miami history and for me to say that over Timmy Hardway after my head coach screamed at me for four years in high school you’re not Timmy Hardway stop trying to dribble like him um I patterned everything I could possibly do on a basketball court after Timmy for me

To say goren drit is a better overall had a better overall run as a Miami Heat player is crazy but I stand by that and um I think that he Timmy had a better one season but as far as a career in Miami I would take gorens and um so the

Bubble Run is what cemented that I think he was up to like 25 and four in the Eastern Conference Finals that led them to the finals so when people talk about him being the fourth best player in that series are you kidding uh so like he he

Was a instrumental part of that and so that’s the that’s the run and that’s the Goran Jimmy Tyler Duncan team that to me like I can’t associate him with those earlier groups as much because one some of them weren’t that good and because we never got to see the Bosch combo it’s

Making me pivot to 2020 it’s funny because you got Josh Richardson back on the team now and I’m not with the team on this road trip but when Josh gets back I want to talk to him about this like Goran took a lot of those guys under his wing too um you

Know Josh was kind of Goron’s rookie uh as because Josh they were try trying to train Josh to play point guard when it wasn’t his position we still see them doing that even now that Josh is age 30 um but just Goran was just very very

Giving with his time to a lot of these guys younger guys that came in and he tried to be polite to the ones who frustrated him many conversations with Goran about why Hassan Whiteside could not set a proper screen he would always gr he didn’t he didn’t want to make a

Big deal of it but he’s like sets it at this angle well it’s because he didn’t really want to set it honestly let’s be honest okay but like it it was VOR tried to be polite about that in his own way um where the words didn’t always come

Out exactly as he wanted to come was always in experience uh and you know again he tried to make the best of it he tried to connect with whites side one of the funniest things about Goran was he was the worst lob thrower at the point guard position that I’d seen for his

First couple years and he became a great lob thrower uh outed his heat career especially the band I asked him about that early on in his heat career and another thing is like for a guy who only Pops in on the road four times a year

Let’s say uh he was always so gracious and and answered all my questions and he said straight up like he learned to make his best passes as bounce passes like that was drilled into him at one point and so he was he’s a great bounce passer but Hassan didn’t catch passes in

Traffic he caught him up and you know Alonzo used to always point up up up and so like that is something that I think he started to develop um more as bam ascended as weird as that was um because uh I wish he could have maybe done it

Sooner for to help Hassan in any way that he could have but it’s interesting that that connection never really hit the way that we expected point guard and center and it had a lot to do with bounce passes vers lobs yeah I mean Warren was was a

Different kind of player in the sense too that you know a point guard we talk about the heat not having a point guard a point guard but not a traditional point guard I mean he was a point guard who never had high assist numbers uh it was more about kind of creating angles

Uh he was great at creating angles and a terrific finisher like you talk about a guy who could finish in traffic consistently was in the 70s at The Rim um I mean you look at career I mean he’s clearly a Heat player it’s funny with Phoenix his last year in Phoenix he was

Third Team all NBA he never reached that level with the heat Al he did make one All-Star team and of course he had that incredible game with Phoenix uh in the playoffs once I believe it was against San Antonio where he went nuts in the fourth quarter which was kind of his

Arrival but he actually averaged more points in Miami than he did in Phoenix 16.2 5.2 assists in Phoenix it was 12.3 points and 4.5 assists uh more minutes in Miami 31 as opposed to 26 but almost the same stats actually otherwise 46% from the field 47 in Phoenix 37% from

Three 36 in Phoenix uh 79% from the line 74 in Phoenix so I mean the Heat this is one of those cases where the heat got what they bargain for when they made the trade of two first round picks they they got what they were expecting to get um

And I think I think the the connection with the fans though is the thing that’s really struck us so I want to get to that on the other side of this uh before we do I want to mention a great sponsor with the five reason Sports Network our

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Conversation um because I do think that D Gord drage will be associated with Miami Heat I think he wants to be associated with the Miami Heat seems like he’s gonna be living in Miami when he’s not uh in slovania and I I think for a lot of franchises you look at the connection

That he had with the fan base and then you also you take into account that the heater retiring someone’s Jersey in Udonis Haslam who does not have you know elth career statistics and you might say Okay Goron drag should get that number retired you know that number seven and I I’ve made

That argument in the past the the question becomes when you become this kind of organization right you’re a Celtics organization you’re a Lakers organization you’re a Spurs organization then you’re being compared again in some ways against others who are up there already right and I think this is where it gets complicated a

Little bit for GR because to me okay UD gets the community the culture pass culture fan base you and I both agreed with him being uh his number being retired yeah it’s a no-brainer people outside Miami can’t understand it but they don’t they they just don’t get it

Right they’re stupid though exactly okay but then okay you’ve got that one taken care of right yeah you can’t get a bunch more right so so what do you so what do you do here because this isn’t about Kyle Lowry wearing his number obviously Kyle’s number is not gonna be retired in

Miami um you know at some right so so let so do you think goran’s number gets retired no I don’t but I think it should um um well this is where I stand if Timmy’s numbers retired why is gor’s number not retired when Goran had a better career Miami Heat

Career Timmy got as far as game five of the Eastern Conference Finals Goran got all the way to the finals and he averaged uh you know incredible stuff I know Timmy had a great game seven in that run against New York but in in the games against Chicago they made short

Order of Miami um so he didn’t really make it that much further so to me I just feel like if you’re going to have Timmy up there Goran deserves it but the reason why Timmy’s up there is because Timmy’s a Hall of Famer and I think that that part of

It goran’s not gonna get in and so like you’re not going to be able to be like that’s a Hall of Famer up in the rafters and so I think that they’re going to ultimately stay away from it the similar way that they did with Glenn rice and

I’ll also tell you this there’d be no way in hell Kyle l would have number seven on if they were planning on ever retiring goran’s number yeah I think it’s a fair way to look at it um who wears number six has anyone even tried no it was before LeBron right it

Was uh it was Eddie jonesj was Mario chamers but once he were I I’ll say this and guess some of this let’s not get into the home arino and Jordan being up in the rafters because we both know that that shouldn’t be the case and doesn’t

Really have anything to do with this but I know that there’ll be some comments um related to that because there always are I I think it’s debatable to say that he had a better career than Timmy uh I I think that look T first thing Timmy took

A while to get in the Hall of Fame because of the other factors and also because the injuries that he dealt with uh that curtailed what was a clear Hall of Fame path in Golden State uh probably ahead of even Richmond Richmond took some time and Mullen uh and then he went

To Miami and I think the difference is this Miami for whatever they did in the playoffs on those Timmy teams which was not enough obviously they they lost three out of four series to the Knicks uh in the deciding game they were they were a number one number two seed type

Team for basically four years right um and and and Tim was one of their two best players like there was no question about that like you and I have had this conversation like there were times that Tim was more important than zo 100% And also the go-to guy and and also just to

Close the loop on Tim Hardaway in all those years he was um like we talk about Peak Tim Hardaway years in terms of impacting winning those were those years 96 997 in particular was just unbelievable so to me um that I do understand and also the reason why they

Flamed out early against the Knicks was not because of Tim Hardway no he he was never the reason actually like it’s it’s funny like when you look back at Tim’s career um and it didn’t end particularly well and he was unhappy with Pat about the you know the weight Clauses and the

Assist to turnover Clauses and all kinds of other things but yeah Tim was never blamed for what happened against the Knicks Mash was blamed at times zo was L because Ying uh would get off and some of those role players but Tim always escaped all of that stuff because it

Just was the assumption that he was the big game player and he made so many of those those plays um I I I think that I I think it’s it’s a it’s a difficult argument and it’s and we can’t really have it on our Twitter feed because our audience is so

Young on who had the more impactful Miami Heat career I would lean to Tim still and I think even when you and I were discussing this during the bubble I still think it’s Tim I I just think I mean again you’re talking about a team if Jordan wasn’t in the way and they

Couldn’t didn’t they kept tripping over the Knicks like those Tim Zoo teams were I mean that was consistent contention year after year and it was them it was the two of them like we could talk about mash and Bashan and Marley and Terry Porter for one year or fry for one any

Of the other guys that they plugged in there but it was it was and it was Tim and it was zo and that was it there’s no drage team like I it’s it’s like like I just I just talked about sort of the three incarnations that he was with but

But I ask you this had he stayed healthy and Bam stayed healthy and they closed the 2020 title yes yes then then that changes all this right yes so he has an if in his bag too oh no he does and and I said that he’s got two of the great if

And the Bosch thing I mean it’s two of the great wh ifs and I I do honestly I do think they could have beaten the Lakers in that series absolutely and I think that nationally it would have been clowned and it would have been a bubble championship and all the rest of this

Stuff because I think the only reason it achieved any legitimacy with the national media and fans was because the Lakers won it it’s kind of like the inseason tournament this year if the heat had won that thing I don’t think they would have gotten any respect for

It it would have been looked at as a Mickey Mouse Championship some still think the Lakers won a Mickey Mouse Championship but again it’s LeBron okay it was LeBron and AD and they won another one and so it validated it it’s like you know it’s self-fulfilling right

Okay I I I just think if the he didn’t won nobody outside of Miami would have given it any credit but in Miami in Miami and also the context of what was going on at that time which is that people’s lives were miserable they didn’t know when they

Were G to be able to go outside again they couldn’t see family it lifted us up it lifted us up and we started putting out those podcast I’m not saying we had anything to do with this but I’m just saying generally heat content heat uh the Bubble Run was a great great thing

For people in South Florida and it endeared them to Jimmy and to Bam and to Goron and also the friendship between Goran and Jimmy and little face coffee and big face coffee and kind of these two guys come and brat and all the rest of that absolutely if Goran is able to

Finish that thing he achieves legendary status in Miami it just didn’t happen but to be honest and I’ll close here to me it showed his character more than if he had stayed healthy the whole time and they’d won because that guy cared about winning a Championship as much or more as anybody

I’ve covered around that organization in 25 never put on a uniform you’re damn right and he and what he said to Tim Reynolds on the way out that day and Tim was covering because he was in the bubble that whole time and Tim’s tweeted about this and what he said to Tim tell

The fans I tried I did everything I could and so you’re absolutely right okay in a lot of ways to this fan base he should mean that much um but ultimately I I think that if you look at the totality time in Miami Timmy and zo put this franchise on

The map you’re right Goran is Goran was a great Ambassador for the franchise he was high level entertainment He adjusted everything he cared he gave everything he could to this team to the point that after he left Miami he had nothing left he had nothing left okay he he I mean

You again look at the four teams he played for look at what he produced on those four teams that was it he left it on the floor in Orlando in the bubble for the Miami Heat that is heat culture so I do think over time maybe they should think about

Putting that that jersey in the rafters I don’t think it’s Forefront right now I don’t and I think some I think some time has to pass because I think 22 is getting up there and 1 I think I think eventually 13’s getting up there not I think you know and eventually

Eventually six is getting up there too all right uh and and I think it’s I think it’s yes Birdman no the other guy all right we’ll talk about that more as we go forward all right for Greg i’m Ethan happy New Year everybody

Now that Goran Dragic has announced his retirement, Ethan Skolnick and Greg Sylvander discuss his Miami Heat tenure, and how the franchise should honor him. Plenty of memories, euphoric and melancholy.

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