Are the Miami Heat Contenders or Pretenders? Mock Trial | Miami Heat Podcast

Are the Miami Heat Contenders or Pretenders? Mock Trial | Miami Heat Podcast

Miami season has been inconsistent and the fans are equally torn about the team’s chances of being a legitimate postseason threat are the heat truly cooked can Jimmy Butler save them once again so many questions and not nearly enough answers so we put the Heat’s postseason chances on trial today as we

Lay out our arguments both for and against Miami it’s a playoff mock trial on 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 I’m West Goldberg joining me as always it’s David R however you’re tuning in on YouTube Odyssey or your favorite podcast app thanks for making lock on heat your first listen every day got a fun show for you today we’re going to do a mock

Trial to determine whether or not the heat are contenders David you’re going to present the position that the heat are contenders I’m going to present the argument that they are not contenders because I guess I’m the cynical one on the show uh we’ll start with our opening

Arguments then we’re going to get to uh uh our evidence we’ll present our different points of evidence and then we’re going to end of course with closing arguments and finally a ruling before we begin just to set the table really quick the heat are 37 and 31

They’ve Dro to eth in the East they have less than a 23% chance of climbing out of the play in tournament and getting a top six Seas according to basketball references playoff tracker um they haven’t beaten a team with a 500 record or better since February 26 and they are dealing with

Injuries to Jimmy Butler Tyler herro Kevin Love Nikola yovic and apparently now Duncan Robinson with a bad back and that all of this with just 14 games to go so I guess I’m the prosecution in this mock trial you’re defending Miami status as a legit Contender I guess I’m

Pro I’m putting them on the stand and I guess I’m poking holes in their contending status here so uh you Googled it right before we started I suppose the prosecution goes first yeah all right so I’m gonna go first yeah we could do a virtual coin flip if you like but either

Way I think you lay out your argument uh I think I think people are torn right now I think this is basically as I said in our opening statement uh you know I think a lot of people are torn even every episode we do it seems like

There’s a an even mix almost of like no this game means nothing or yeah this is fine this is just indicative of you know how good the heat is and then you have just as many people saying and I don’t think all those people are you know necessarily Heat fans uh you know

There are a few people probably coming in from some other fan bases as well to leave comments but just interesting how many people come back to say the exact opposite you know that oh this team is cooked they were never good enough to begin with etc etc so it’s a it’s an

Interesting exercise I think to kind of lay out an argument you know everybody’s free to make whatever judgment they may want but I’m curious to hear how based on our respective arguments whether or not people will yeah disagree or agree we did put it out on a Twitter poll too

And we’ll reveal the results to the Twitter poll later on sort of a a jury with act with with no power because you and I rule this show with an iron fist uh so what we say goes it’s this is more like a Judge Judy type trial where it

Doesn’t really go to a a jury but never watch an episode of Judge yudy can you believe it um yeah I’m familiar I’m familiar with that you’re familiar with her work um she’s starting to make a comeback on social media like old clips of her stuff

Is like in my algorithm I don’t know uh if that’s just because I watched her when I was like homesick from school and that was sort of it but um let’s move on watch People’s Court uh I don’t I I was watching Judge Judy okay never mind I

Guess let’s move on to the opening arguments here go for it I am the prosecution poking holes in Miami’s status as a contender here’s where here we go with the opening statement the 1995 Houston Rockets the 1969 Boston Celtics the 2020 Miami Heat what do all

These teams have in common they got to the NBA finals in those Seasons as a lower seed and then did diddly squat the very next year those 1995 Houston Rockets the six seed made it to the NBA finals congratulations to those Houston Rockets they lost in the second round

Pretty swiftly the very next season the 1969 Boston Celtics made the playoffs as the fourth seed missed the playoffs the very next season the 2020 Miami Heat who we can all remember made the NBA Finals as the fifth seed in the East got swept in the first round the very next year no

Team that has ever made the finals as worse than number four seed has ever returned to the finals in the very next season and here we have the 2024 Miami Heat so similar to those 2020 heat that we remember and they are not going to be the exception they were the eighth seed

Last year and were the first eighth seed ever to make it to the NBA finals in a in a standard length regular season sorry those 90s Nicks doesn’t count you only played 40 games in a year they lost to the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Finals as we remember and even

As the eighth seed we’re talking about at like two seeds worse than the worst seed that we were talking about previously the 1995 Houston Rockets and even that team couldn’t get out of the second round this team is back to being a playing team again this year more likely

Than not with 14 games left there is there was no historical precedent for the team last year to make the run that it did and because of that there’s even less of a historical precedent for the team to do it twice more to do it twice in a row I should

Say past performance does not dictate current per performance or future performance we never look at a team based on what they did the year previous and apply those things to what that team can do this season and just because the heat haven’t proven it yet does not mean

That they are going to prove it in the future maybe like every other team in the NBA we take what we see in front of us and we believe that to be what is true and not some imaginary thing that we think can happen or even something

That did happen with a different team in a a different League a year ago with different competition and different factors and different variables I think the team in front of us is simply the team in front of us and I will present my evidence as to why even this year’s

Team does not have the upside that last year’s team did I’ll do that in my in when I present my evidence later on but for right now I think just the idea of this team did it once before as a reason that this team could do it again Bears

Absolutely no fruit and should be thrown out the door right way right away as any sort of reason why they could do it again end my closing arguments I don’t know if that’s how it works in court but I don’t know if I sayen I think you just say thank you and

S thank you uh judge uh I I Judge Judy thank you Judge Judy um I yield my time to the defense I don’t know your your turn all right ladies and gentlemen of the listening audience uh I think it’s fitting that in just a few days we’ll be

Celebrating at least as we measure our yearly calendar the beginning of a new season spring it’s a time of Rebirth of putting away your winter coats for a few more months of seeing the first few Blades of grass poke through your uh the clouds of snow outside your door or if

You live in Miami it really doesn’t mean anything at all except that you’re probably going to be seeing more mosquitoes than you did over the last few months for the Miami Heat spring begins a little bit later but holds the same significance when mid April rolls around there’s an understanding these

Games matter and that they matter because they are what really Define you it’s something that Jimmy Butler has learned over the years of his NBA career now that he’s made his money and established his brand no one gives a damn if you beat the Boston Celtics in

November or if you lose the Washington Wizards in March but we all remember Jimmy Butler having put on one of the most incredible displays of basketball Artistry that we’ve ever seen in October of 2020 something you just referenced when the world was in a dark place and

No one knew what was going to happen next hunched over the tables next to the makeshift courts in the Orlando bubble giving it his all because that’s what he came to Miami to do and two years later he did the same thing just falling short of reaching the finals for a second time

In three seasons and then again just last year when no one thought Miami could possibly do it again well they did because they are the Miami Heat because they are inevitable because you can always count on them to show up like spring no matter how dark and Bleak the

Winter or regular season could be life and the Miami Heat find a way thank you very good um that’s the opening arguments we’ll take it to evidence after this here on our locked on heat mock trial or the Miami Heat contenders get to it next today’s episode is brought to you

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Eastern on the lockdown sports today 247 streaming Channel on YouTube or for free on the Amazon Fire TV channels app continuing with our mock Miami Heat trial are the am heat contenders we’re trying to figure it out here we already started with our opening arguments David

I liked how poetic yours was I liked uh I liked the the imagery of spring I like that it was scripted and well thought out whereas mine was just basically what I have been saying the whole time over the last month with a little bit of historical I did some research at least

Hisorical you did look up the the other teams oh I I I think um I think that’s kind of the basis for any argument when you’re looking at the Miami Heat and what they’ve able to accomplish over the last four years and you know even though we’re on opposing sides of this right

Now at least technically for the sake of the show in this episode you know mine kind of my argument is basically less rooted and something realistic or or tangible in terms of what we’ve seen yeah what we’ve seen over the course of the first 70 games yeah I mean maybe

Fact and reality is not exactly it right it’s just you you’ve seen 70 games they provided a sample of what this heat is capable of some good and some bad mostly inconsistent and mostly hurt and which is why my idea that they can be still be contenders or can be still viewed as

Contenders is because yeah I believe and what they’re capable of so we’ll lay that out soon uh how many points of evidence do you have I have a and C here which I think again is how you do it in court you don’t I think you have like

Evidence a evidence B evidence C I have a yeah that’s fine that’s fine I’ve got three three points here Point yeah so why don’t we do like should we instead of just doing all of our evidence right away as a presentation let’s just do like wow exhibit a wow changing the

Rules of the American legal system on this podcast I literally is it I don’t know how it works have you never seen a court room drama before like I know you watch TV okay uh well we present all our evidence we go ABC yeah yeah yeah yeah you lay your case out everybody

Goes everybody the jurors start each other shaking you think be more interesting in terms of the podcast format though because ts are boring so do you think it would be more interesting if we rotated evidence a I think that would maybe more interesting if we almost went like

Wow snake style wow uh go evidence I’ll go with my first point of evidence what’s what’s a TV show now that everybody loves isn’t there like a CRI special crimes unit or something person in the middle of the NBA season I watch basketball I don’t watch oh yeah I don’t

Watch it I don’t watch I have uh we we got halfway through through Love is Blind during family hour yesterday before I don’t know what that is Love is Blind reunion um Love is Blind have a reunion I missed the original show man what you missed a lot there’s a lot to

You know Jimmy and Chelsea I still haven’t figured out what’s going on with them but we’re gonna we’re gonna we’re gonna get there tonight before the game start up on a Tuesday night um why don’t we do this I’m going to present evidence a and then if you feel like you have a

Good Counterpoint to it then you go and if not then I’ll just continue let’s just do that fair enough evidence uh my evidence a is what I am calling it and I don’t know again if that’s correct um it’s it’s something that I presented before but I’m going to go a little bit

Deeper Miami they are 3 and 18 against teams the top 10 point differential this season I’ve repeated that stat because it’s worth repeating and I’m repeating it again now because hey those are the teams that you’re going to play in the playoffs the good teams those are the

Ones that make the postseason you don’t get to beat up on the Detroit Pistons like you have over the last three games Miami’s last three wins are all over the Pistons the Pistons are not going to make the playoffs so you don’t get to eat up those cupcake teams anymore you

Actually have to beat the good teams which is something that the Heat have struggled with not only have they struggled to beat the good teams this year they have struggled to beat the teams that they’re probably going to play in the first round this year if they enter the playoffs as the eighth

Seed they’re going to play the Boston Celtics theat are 0 and three against the Celtics this season and if Heat fans want to say that the Heat live rentree in Boston’s head and that they own they have Boston’s number okay you beat them in the finals in seven in the Eastern

Conference Finals in seven games last year and the heat lost to the Boston Celtics in seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals the year before so I don’t think anybody has anybody’s number they’re 500 against each other in two seven game series in the Conference Finals over the last two years one year

They were the one seed and one year they were the eighth seed so it’s not even like they he upset them in NE in it was like an upset in the first year when they lost in seven games so I don’t think that there’s I think that that’s a

Little I think that’s overstated and also the Boston Celtics are a different team this year and so are the Miami Heat so they’re Owen three against the Celtics in the course of the regular season they’re 1-2 against the Milwaukee Bucks they are only one- one against the Cleveland Cavaliers who are the three

Seed right now so if Miami ends up as a six seed that’s who they would play in the first round I still think that there’s a chance at least mathematically that Miami could get the number six seed so they are combined two and six against the three teams that they could face in

The first round of the playoffs that’s not good enough to beat a team in a series so that’s my that’s exhibit a in terms of my evidence do you have a Counterpoint to that within your evidence findings or should I move on to exhibit B no are you done sorry I kind

Of like faded out there for a little bit I wasn’t really paying attention no you go ahead you could get lay out that’s F exhibit B variance was very much in Miami’s favor last year with three-point shooting they were the worst one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the

League in the regular season we were all expecting a positive regression to the mean at some point and it that indeed happened it happened at the best possible moment in the playoffs for God’s sakes and it fueled their run to the NBA finals that variance does not

Exist for this Miami Heat team this year the Miami Heat are in the upper half of the league in terms of three-point shooting percentage they are a good three-point shoot shooting team by all accounts there’s not going to be any sort of major Snapback regression to the

Mean happening at any point for this Heat team that they can rely on so variance is not even a factor for this team uh and even if it if there were something in terms of variance I think it could be Health right something I pointed out on yesterday’s episode if there was

Something that could snap into place at the right time for Miami maybe it’s that they all miraculously get healthy for the first time all season at the right time this season but I would also argue in the small sample that we’ve seen Miami’s three best players on the floor

Jimmy Butler b bio and Tyler hero that team those lineups have a net rating of plus 5.7 they’re outscoring teams by 5.7 points per 100 100 possession that’s good it’s it’s a good that’s a good clip and I actually saw that and I was like wow that’s really encouraging then I

Compared that to some of the lineups of the the best teams in the league at least in the regular season Denver’s best lineup plus 13.3 Oklahoma City’s starting lineup plus 8.3 Minnesota’s starting lineup plus 9.1 Milwaukee starting lineup with Chris Middleton in it plus 15.3 those lineups Crush Miami’s

Best lineups so even Miami’s Best lineup with its best players when healthy don’t even compare to the lineups of the teams that have had their players all year and have developed that chemistry so I don’t think that variance is going to be much in Miami’s favor either and then my

Third point is sort of related to the second Point exhibit see the competition that they are going to be dealing with in the Eastern Conference is just so much better than it was last year Boston’s net rating last year plus 6.7 Boston’s net rating this year plus 11.9

Milwaukee’s net rating last year plus 3.4 this year plus uh 4.3 New York’s net rating last year plus 2.8 their net rating this year plus 4.5 Cleveland’s net rating last year plus 5.6 this year plus 4.2 they’re the only team of that entire group that has gone down and even

If you start diving into the numbers and some specific combinations there’s ways that Cleveland can actually be up so my my three points they’re not good against the top competition the top top the top competition is even better than it was last year when they made their

Run and the thing that helped them make their run in terms of a variable is not a variable that is at their disposable their disposal this playoff run potentially there’s my argument David it’s it’s a Well Aid argument there um you know again it’s just it’s so hard to

Figure out exactly what Miami is based on what we’ve seen from this team and that’s the basis of your argument you know is that they they might just not be very good but there’s always the possibility of it and that’s kind of what uh you know I’m looking to as far

As evidence I don’t have statistical evidence again I don’t I don’t have statistical evidence I I you can’t you’re trying to you’re trying to uh um appeal to the jury’s emotions and their and the heart all that well you’re gonna so you’ve got you got three points that

Appeal to the emotion that’s what you’re G about to get to here yes I think we could do that after the break geez today’s episode is brought to you by our good friends over at Nissan are you the kind of driver that likes to push things a little further have you

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Favorite podcast app fan of the show make sure you subscribe hit that subscribe button right now like this video on YouTube also leave a five star rating and review on your podcast app David let’s just jump right into your evidence well my evidence is basically my first exhibit if you will is Jimmy

Butler uh you pointed out to the 2021 uh playoffs and of course that was as everybody has conveniently forgotten a really terrible season where Not only was it a truncated season it was extremely condensed 72 games into much less time we see now even over the course of a regularly scheduled spaced

Out schedule players still missing time due to injury and everything else now imagine playing 72 games and less time than this regular season has been allotted for and not only on top of that dealing with the fear of social unrest dealing with CID dealing with the

Pandemic in full swing not being able to see your family friends coaches fans the same way that you regularly do as an NBA player the it’s not an insulated area like the Orlando bubble it’s much more wide open and much more scary as a result and not only that but getting the

Occasional wakeup call from a team or NBA Personnel official at three o’clock in the morning to try and get a sample uh uh you know to test you whether or not you could even play the next day guys missing time Mario chmer is out of the league for years getting a 10-day

Contract so that you know he can fill in because you just need a body at that point that was the 2021 regular season so if you’re looking at where Jimmy has failed where he was stupidly locked in publicly and not privately where he should have been then that is your

Evidence right there that everything else that we’ve seen from Jimmy Butler with the exception of that one terrible horrible season that shouldn’t even have been played is that Jimmy Butler over the last four years has been the best playoff player that you could possibly get not Steph Curry not Jason Tatum or

Jaylen Bran or anybody else it’s Jimmy Butler and Jimmy Butler has a way of making this team achieve the impossible and given that that’s why I believe this team is capable of reaching another level so that’s one thing the other exhibit exhibit of be if you will is

That I think this team is lacking Health your own argument states that if there is a variance to be taken into consideration it’s that this team has been unhealthy why because they’re playing it safely an argument that we’ve made many times before wisely not just safely but wisely because it doesn’t

Matter what happens in March as frustrating as it is as a fan and even as difficult as it could be for a medium member to cover a team that doesn’t seem to care as much about the regular season it doesn’t really ultimately matter yeah

You want to avoid the play in but if not guess what you can fight your way out of it because that’s what the heat does and so if they’re healthy at the right time and that’s the expectation is that you’re sitting out the games now Kevin

Love can afford to sit out these games at age 35 because they don’t matter but in a month from now when they do he’ll be out in the floor Jimmy Butler did T Tyler hero that’s still a bigger question mark But the expectation is that he’ll be available and if so the

Team will be healthy at just the right time when other teams are dealing with Donovan Mitchell missing time Chris Middleton missing time Etc players up and down lineups missing time because they’ve gone through the full 82 Game season with the idea that those games matter we’ve got to play them and we’re

Playing for millions of dollars Etc the heat will be rested at the right time and as a result the heat will be Exhibit C better this is a team that’s better than they’ve been in years past just as other teams in the Eastern Conference have improved maybe the record doesn’t

Reflect that but that’s because of other mitigating factors they’re deeper they’ve got more players that can tribute at a higher level and I think we just haven’t seen it all tied together at the right time and that’s what the expectation for the playoffs is is that

You’re going to be able to see a team that’s led by Jimmy Butler that’s healthier that’s deeper than they’ve been in the past and given all those different x-factors and I haven’t even mentioned the possibility of Eric spola coaching this team to another level than what we’ve seen during the regular

Season and taking away whatever strong factors are in favor from an oppon opposing team that’s why your Miami Heat are still and remain legitimate title contenders all right so that’s the evidence uh we’ve had our opening arguments we’ve had our evidence presented now we’ll go to our closing

Arguments which I would imagine would be hearing the evidence that the other person presented and then trying to poke holes in that evidence so I’ll go with my closing arguments and then we’ll get to our final ruling here my closing argument is simply this I hear everything that you just said about

Jimmy Butler and Eric spoler in fact I agree with you about Eric spoler Eric spoler is still a coach very much in his prime he was the most dominant person on the Eastern Conference side of the bracket last year and it’s why Miami Heat it’s why the heat ended up in the

Finals maybe even more of a reason than the heat ended up in the finals than Jimmy Butler who after tweaking the ankle halfway through the knck series just wasn’t the same player after that between SPO and Jimmy’s dominant basically series and a half and then the three-point shooting that’s what got

Myamy there they still have Eric spoler I would argue they don’t have a major part of that formula anymore they don’t have that version of Jimmy Butler he is 34 years old I know that people think that he doesn’t care about the regular season that he’s saving himself I’m

Telling you I don’t know what saving yourself looks like but I do know it doesn’t look at just whiffing layups that you got to in the first place I do know that it’s not just I’m not going to jump very high right now because I’m saving this jump for the playoffs

There’s real troubling statistical evidence for Jimmy Butler’s decline at the age of 34 which should be expected his shooting numbers by the rim have gotten lower he is not dunking as much even the free throw attempts have been on and off this year and I don’t even

Want to hear about the the officiating because that’s not part of it right you don’t go because of the officiating from nine and a half or 9.9 free free throw attempts to four before he got hurt the injuries seem to linger longer with Jimmy Butler than they have even in the

Past I I don’t know that we can count on Jimmy Butler to do what he did in the past again after he had done what he’s done in the past so many times I think because he’s had to do it so many times it actually weirdly in an inverse way

Affects him not being able to do it again because it’s just so much wear and tear on the body that it’s built up from past years so that’s my that would be my counterargument to your evidence what about you uh I I did not coun I have a prepared statement for my closing

Argument as you might imagine um I’d like to read that out but I’d also like to suggest something a little different and maybe we’re changing again the rules of the legal system here because I don’t know that either of us are equipped to offer a quote unquote judgment so I I

Would oppose it to people if they’ve gone this far in the show right now that they should suggest the winner of this or not the winner you know I don’t like competing necessarily but just what argument they found to be more convincing in our comments and and comments on on Twitter

Their social media Engage The People they’re the really what we’re representing I’m the voice of heat fandom you’re the voice of a different aspect of heat fandom you know the one that’s a little bit less uh well more Bleak perhaps you know more skeptical about Miami’s CH Ros less glasses less

Idealistic less um uh living fantasy world yes less naive good all right closing argument then all right here we go W you certainly laid out a convincing argument I knew you were gonna have a a convincing argument even before you actually laid out a convincing argument and there’s no denying that Miami’s path

Is a difficult one but then again this isn’t a team that has ever shied away from difficulty or challenges and I don’t expect it this year to be any different of course that isn’t to say that know Miami will get to the finals again or that Jimmy will become Michael

Jordan or that Tyler her will shoot 50% from the three-point land no one knows and that same idea applies to Boston or Milwaukee or New York Life is unpredictable and basketball is no different here we are in mid-march and one of the biggest sporting events of the country the NCAA tournament is a

Tested to that men and women find a way to win despite the rankings and the history and the top names the NBA for all of its professionalism is no different a team with Decades of winning and top draft picks still be beat that history doesn’t matter the games have to

Be played and players no matter the regular season success or their draft pedigree or their individual accolades still come up short life is unpredictable because people are unpredictable shots don’t fall mistakes are made the games have to be played because the outcome is never guaranteed and that’s why we watch that’s why we

Enjoy sports that’s what makes basketball so great and that’s why the Miami Heat have a chance and sometimes because no matter how unlikely David beats Goliath thank you very much all right um now time for the ruling we’ve heard the opening statement the evidence the closing arguments um closing

Statements so I I guess it comes down to you and me but I’m going to go through I’m going to go to the poll first so we pulled lock on heat listeners uh on our Twitter account before we started recording do you still believe that the

Heat can make a a deep playoff run 63 and a half perc of you said yes you do believe that the can make a deep playoff run so an overwhelming pretty I I was actually surprised coming off of a loss to Philadelphia how many people said yes

You know because fan bases can be fickle but that that speaks to the belief of this fan base and uh I’m proud of you guys David did I sway you at all with my argument no no not really not for lack of its you know uh isms or even how

Effectively you laid it out it’s just I still think that no matter what like I was looking at last year’s schedule and I feel like this conversation is almost verbatim something that we talked about many many times all of last year I think you were very consistent saying this

Team might just not be very good and going into the regular into the postseason and going into the playoff the playin tournament excuse me and being like I don’t know what the hell’s going to happen I I remember and I I’ll say this again again like I had been

Very positive about this team almost all year long but going into the play in tournament I wasn’t much of a Believer either like I didn’t think at that point they’d be able to get past Atlanta I didn’t think they’d be able to get past Chicago I was almost kind of rooting for

It like this team just felt and looked tired tired of one another tired of making the effort tired of trying and then something happens and and again that’s for how how little statistical evidence there is to kind of back that up I still believe in the ability for a

Team to do the unpredictable and that’s what makes sport so good you know so uh as much as of a a good statistical based you know argument you might have made people are still people and you can’t just you can’t break it down to just the numbers as much as you’d like

To I thought I presented a great argument full of facts um and reasons and uh objective objectivity and historical uh precedent and I thought you basically played to the emotions and uh I thought your case wasn’t very good I I to be honest I I it’s like emotional evidence

That doesn’t work for me like just appealing to the heart appealing to my fandom like it just like you said I’m the cynical fan it’s not gonna it’s not going to work on me that’s not that’s not the argument for me I want I want data points I want reason uh and you

Didn’t really present a whole lot of that that said damn it I can’t quit this team man I just I can’t I you back in I can’t man I know that they haven’t beaten a good team in almost a month I know that they don’t have a single statement win all

Season I know that the Eastern Conference is going to be harder than it was last year and yet if you really really ask me what I what Les what do you think is g to happen and and if I just gave you a point blank answer and any interview and

Anything I do when I talk to people yeah this I don’t think this team is very good I don’t really see the evidence as to why this team is good everybody’s going to tell you that you can’t count the Miami Heat out and nobody will tell

Me why I can count the miam heat in right right but and then but if you really really ask me in a sober moment and like a like a really truthy moment maybe not a sober moment I think that might be the difference yeah maybe actually a little

Bit less of a sober moment like like do you still believe in this team H the answer is yes and I can’t I and I hate it I hate it because they haven’t given me a reason to believe all season long and I think that’s why this season has been so frustrating is

Because I just want them to give me a reason to believe instead of just blind belief which is what we feel like we’re acting on now but I still do I think Eric spoler is by far the best coach in the league I think there is a way for

Jimmy Butler to turn it back on and I’ve seen enough from this team that when Jimmy is going and if he can get back to an all-nba level I think bam is better than he was last year I think Duncan most certainly is Caleb is now with the

Playoff experience you have the addition of haime hakz Jr uh I think Terry Rosier I think is an upgrade over their point guard situation last year yeah like there’s ways you could talk yourself into it and I’m going to just keep talking myself into it and when the heat

Are playing Boston Milwaukee or Cleveland in the first round of the playoffs I don’t know who I’m going to pick because I tend to be a little bit more cynical in my choices I think I picked against the Heat every round last year I think you did and they made it

All the way to the finals so yes did I think you win David I think you win I’m gonna nobody wins he fandom wins he he fandom wins that’s all it is fandom wins I suppose that’s it uh that’ll do it for us today and our mock

Trial thanks for making lock down heat your first listen every day hit that subscribe button on YouTube follow us on your podcast app every dares we will be back Wednesday night with our reactions to the Miami Heats final game on this four game Road Trip against the Cleveland Cavaliers a big one

Potentially to try to get a win over one of these teams that they could play in the first round maybe a statement win against Cleveland we’ll see thanks for listening that’ll do it for our Mark trial

We’re putting the Miami Heat on trial to decide whether they are really contenders. Can Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Erik Spoelstra do the improbable again? Or is the rest of the league too good for the Heat to make another deep playoff run?

Wes Goldberg and David Ramil present their opening arguments, evidence and final ruling.

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