Miami Heat Floor Crew | Mid Season Breakdown, Analysis & Prediction

Miami Heat Floor Crew | Mid Season Breakdown, Analysis & Prediction

[Applause] Welcome to the Miami Heat floor crew brought to you by the five region Sports Network I’m your host Jonathan AKA three-piece combo I got Marco I got Matt and as always every week we like to bring you a little bit of extra flavor from your normal five on the floor

Podcast here uh we’re going to give you a little bit of a breakdown of you know almost here at the mid-season we’ll talk about what we’ve seen thus far into the season and we’ll talk a little bit about a little bit coming up next week uh in

The next week of Miami Heat basketball and give our predictions as well but let’s get it from the top guys we are about a game away from being halfway into the season you know coming into the season there was a lot of disappointment um with how you know things played out

In the offseason but I think with the play and growth that we’ve gotten from you know specifically guys like haime and then the growth of Duncan Robinson the continued elevation of bamat [ __ ] and Tyler hero like him or not you know he’s had his moments uh in games like last

Night where you know he was able to be one of the key uh primary reasons that we were able to get that win in overtime you know after dropping behind a couple points in overtime he hit two really big threes to able to allow us to get the

Win uh last night but let’s talk about this team overall I want to talk ask you guys how do you feel now compared to the beginning of the Season about this team Marco you weren’t here last week I’ll let you kick it off uh honestly it’s

About the same but I think the highe factor is kind of it’s the whole different wrench into the whole equation which I think slightly better in terms of what they can do now in terms of like cleaning up the wing spot because coming into the season I knew they had a strong

Like Wing like room but now they have like more than more guys than they can even play like Nico and haime are guys that you kind of have to play because you want them to grow uh you have to find minutes for everybody now Caleb Haywood J Rich

Uh haime and Nico so it’s a lot of wings out there it’s not including Jimmy Butler as well so now I’m even more confident uh but that’s also the confidence there is that they might have a move to be made that maybe wasn’t there before because now you have Caleb

That’s Expendable or that you can attach to maybe your future move that you can help Shore up the parts that aren’t as deep you know like the point guard position or the or the big man position so I think just slightly more not in terms of play but in terms of the

Individual guys you know because in as a team I haven’t really changed my mind as much but individually you see that there’s a lot that Miami can do with these guys in terms of like how they can continue to like build up their confidence and grow them uh or in terms

Of just moving other guys uh so they could bring bringing you know reinforcements at the other positions absolutely and to your point about haime I think he definitely is I mean as a rookie the the numbers that he’s putting up um Mr vanley good night to you as

Well appreciate you joining us here um but like you said as Hae what he’s doing as a rookie top three rookie in his class of this season the fact that we were able to do it yet again with another pick um and then now we’re even

Starting to see a little bit of growth of yic as well but I think behind haime the thing that’s popped out to me or maybe that I was least expecting the most from season was the growth of Duncan Robinson right the the amount of confidence that he has the layers that

He added to his game inside outside throwing lobs like you know the confidence in a shot that’s something that I love to see as well but Matt I’ll defer to you kind of uh what your thoughts on of the team now versus your thoughts coming into the season I mean

Kind of backing off what maros said it’s pretty similar um 24 and 16 right now 19th in offense ninth in defense um over the these last I think six or seven games Miami’s been one of the best defensive teams in the entire league just on a per possession basis um I mean

You’ve guys have you kind of hit the nail on the head both of you with like High’s development and how he just kind of popped out of the clouds like Nia yic these last five or 10 games has really shown you something especially on the offensive end with his with his creation

Ability his ability to operate in transition um he he he’s even looked pretty good defensively um Tyler hero even though he’s been kind of off and on offensively especially since the return uh from his injury he’s flashed defensively a little bit at least he’s shown improvements on that end um you

Talk about Duncan Robinson and all of his growth we talked about Duncan plenty of times on here before um the network has in general just how much he’s grown as a player from an individual standpoint as kind of like this guy who was came in as a specialist and now he’s

Doing everything but including knocking down 40 41 42% of his series I don’t remember the exact percentage off the top of my head um but like just there is like kind of like that log Jem at Wing as Marco mentioned you’re trying to figure out okay there’s roughly what

Three weeks until the deadline how do you consolidate that into something whether it is a backup big which you probably don’t have to pay a whole lot for or even a point guard um whether it’s Kyle like whether he Kyle Lowry is still on the team or not like how do you

Consolidate all that um and so at least as of right now I I think it’s about the same if I’m being completely honest um I think I expected a little bit more from the backup big spot with Thomas Bryant obviously that flamed out pretty quickly at least quicker than I thought it would

Originally because I thought he had more juice on the offensive end than both deadmond um and Cody Zeller uh that was a lie like Miami’s had 22 starting lineups I believe in 40 games and that’s kind of crazy the fact that they’re eight games above 500 and

Only two games behind Philly now in the East like they’re they’re right knocking on the door for a top three seed in the East which is you put that in just by itself it’s pretty crazy to think about yeah the perspective wise like you said with the amount of injuries that this

Team has had to had I mean you have no Jimmy Butler right for a long period he comes back he’s out again now he’s back again you know haime hakz or sorry Hae hakz um Haywood heith who was intention you know intended to be the starting

Four for this team I mean he’s missed a majority of the games as well and his defensive presence is you know definitely something that sticks out when he’s on the court you know he’s someone that reminds you like you said in in the build that we saw all coming

In he’s that mini PJ Tucker right I mean he’s doing all those little things obviously maybe not as much when it comes to passing from the top of the key like PJ was a little better at sometimes but you know those other things with the defense and the hitting the three at the

Corner definitely love seeing that but um let’s talk about just about the uh prediction for this team moving forward as far as um how do you guys expect healthwise actually let let’s scratch that overall because you don’t you can’t predict Health but going into the latter

Half of this season do you expect this team to get healthy and make a run and see it on both ends of the court at the same time at some point because we’ve seen flashes offensively we’ve seen flashes defensively I don’t think we’ve seen both together in many games Matt

We’ll let you start this time I mean healthwise like I I’m not really sure how much you can Bank on them like everyone being healthy at the exact same time because we really just haven’t seen that throughout the Jimmy era or at least in a big enough

Sample um but I mean I think we’ll see like Jimmy look better than he did at the start of the Season remember that was a big talking point like are we should be worried should we be worried about Jimmy like this that and the other thing and especially last night it’s a

One game sample but um he looked phenomenal it’s like oh it’s January like this is beginning the time where Jimmy’s we joke about it but like this is the time where Jimmy kind’s kind he begins to ramp stuff up um and so so like I think we’ll see that um it’s also

Just hard to project because of the deadline like we don’t know if Kyle’s gonna be on this team we don’t know um if Caleb’s gonna be on this team we don’t know if I don’t know player X is going to be on this team like there’s so much that could happen although Miami

Hes hasn’t made a big trade since acquiring Oladipo um or at least for a player who wasn’t a free agent so maybe I should uh temper expectations when it comes to the trade market but like we really it’s really just hard to tell um but I think this team will be

Healthier and I think this team could go on like a 45 to 50 win Pace even though they’re kind of already on that tra trajectory already um it just depends on what happens over the next few weeks with uh with the deadline and everything that happen from there it’s just hard to

Project I’m sorry I really didn’t answer your question no it’s fine I worded it terribly also but Marco I’ll kind of rephrase it a little bit too and and ask you about the second half the season what is the biggest change do you think that we’re going to see from the first

Half of the season to the second half of the season oh change uh I think they’re gonna feature obviously Jimmy more because he hasn’t played as much and I think they’re gonna try to build more of what bam can do and that might include getting him either a backup point guard

Or maybe a new starting point guard and maybe they keep Kyle uh you know like a smaller move like a Tyas Jones or Monty moris that won’t cost a lot that maybe will cost a second round draft pick or they’ll make you know a bigger move for

A guy like Deonte Murray like who knows I think but they’re going to try to get bam more ball handling help in terms of the pick and roll at least I would hope so because I feel like they’re doing a disservice to him just not getting that

Kind of guy for him or at least getting him a threat that goes downhill in general uh so I think we we’re going to see something change because I think there’s too much of a glut at the win position like we talked about I think they have to consolidate that uh

Especially now that guys are starting to get healthy and you’re some guys aren’t going to play and he’s going to be like well you have all these playable guys what are you gonna do with them come playoff time somebody’s gonna have to get their minutes cut uh and that’s not

Going to be pretty especially when the playoffs when minutes you know get a little harder to come by guys are going to be playing 40 plus nightly so I think myam is going to get prepared for that and I I expect them to go on a little

Bit of a run because Eric sper teams have a history of going pretty well after post February like they have a history of doing really well uh except for last year I think last year was kind of the exception but I think mostly they’ve done uh really well after the

Trade the trade deadline uh I don’t know what it is maybe it’s the conditioning Miami’s conditioning you know stays up while other teams you know don’t handle it as bad or as good you know the marathon that is the regular season uh but you know historically you know Miami

He teams under Expos to have done really well like that uh so I do expect them to go on a little bit of a run uh it to them it probably doesn’t matter if they get the four or the three or the five seed just you know that kind of area is

Where I expect them if they get the three seed that’ll be great but I get the four seed I’ll also be happy with that it really doesn’t matter to me or the coaches just being in that area will probably suffice it’s just about how they look and the guys they have and

That’s what I hopefully we’ll see them do maybe they it will be a big trade but I I think there’s consolidation to be had though they they have to make some moves especially with Caleb having an expiring or coming up for his deal soon and Kyle deal expiring and teams are

Probably looking at that and they’re like that’s enticing to teams like like that don’t have a lot of uh wiggle room to like make free agency splashes or like we go to look at doing these little moves like that like Miami’s doing so it’s a lot of buying in the trade market

It’s just about who’s going to be you know selling absolutely and I mean to your point of course last year is it’s almost an anomaly in a little way because you know you had guys like Gabe Vincent and Max strus who went on to to get solid

Deals from Team obviously Max’s doing a lot better than gay but those were players that you could have traded away and gotten some solid picks for right you know I mean you definitely could have had contending teams so you don’t want to continue to allow players to

Develop and then just let them go somewhere else right we’ve seen that happen a lot of times Kendrick nun was another person where you let him develop and you let him walk right you could easily traded him when he was in Rookie of the Year you know contention for a

First or a second round pick which would allowed you to have some more assets to potentially trade for another player but you know you don’t want to allow these guys that are that you create into playable players like Caleb Martin is someone you brought in you know he was

Essentially a nobody you brought him in you know you got him playing time you got him to really find his identity in this league and you know for you not to even get a pick out of that if you let him walk he kind of just did that for no

Reason at that point right so definitely want to make sure you consolidate that or even consolidate like you said a Kyle Lowry with an expiring contract as well there are teams that are looking for veteran leadership I mean if an Indiana Pacers right a guy behind that like H

Burton or you know maybe send him to Detroit um so he can give some veteran leadership there so they’re not just winning two games of the season but we’re getting close to the end guys we only got a couple minutes left me and Marco got a bounce here at six so we are

Going to get to predictions here pretty soon so uh Marco I’ll let you start with this one with the predictions we have the Raptors tomorrow the Hawks on Friday and the Magics on sun Magic on Sunday uh give me your record for those three games and a quick breakdown on it all uh

I think they go two and one uh the Raptor games just we just saw a rock fight yesterday but uh the Raptors games are always nasty to watch but I think Miami comes out of that one uh but I do think this is a better Raptor team than

The last time Miami saw them uh the Hawks get another division game uh they the Hawks that are pretty much in TMO right now they really don’t know where they’re headed they’re looking to trade a lot of their guys uh City Bay and the Jon Mari have been in trade talks uh

Together honestly maybe as a package uh but you know it’s a lot of they don’t really know what they are right now it’s just we’re looking to score and maybe will defend but that’s been the Hawks Mo for the last couple years uh I think they’ll beat them pretty handedly uh the

Magic game I think they’ll probably lose uh because I think the magic are like we got to beat these guys they’re they’re are big brother that we got to get this mon far back this year especially because the magic have been playing pretty well this year and on the road

And at home so it’s honestly like they’re going to look at Miami as like this is our like measuring stick game to see if you know we’re going to battle for the division at all so I think it’s two in one which isn’t too bad at all uh

Considering you know Miami could look at another chance next week to go double digits in terms of games up on 500 records so uh but I think that that’ll be a good week for Miami if it goes three and0 then that would be great I think one and two would be really

Disappointing but the past home stand went out just like how they thought so hopefully you know this next little stretch will go even better absolutely to your point you know the next four you have the Raptors the Hawks the magic and The Grizzlies and out of those teams the

Magic are really the most elite team but after that you have the Celtics Nicks Suns and kings in a Four game stretch which isn’t going to be the easiest stretch by any means uh but Matt break down this next week coming up like I said we got the Raptors the Hawks and

The magic how you feeling about these next couple games I think they beat Atlanta Miami at least for most of the Season outside of like the first few games have been better at home than they have been on the road or May and also outside of that big long road stretch

That they had the beginning of the season I feel like for like the last month maybe month and a half they’ve been better home than they’ve been on the road so I think they beat Atlanta they are kind of spiraling a little bit the magic one I think they lose

Because it’s one of those where I think what Miami’s beaten magic Orland Miami’s beaten Orlando twice already this season right like it might be one of those like we have to kind of maros point you gotta get one against this team um the Toronto game’s a swing game for me Toronto’s been pretty

Feisty uh this year especially of late after they acquired Emanuel quickly after they got RJ Barrett like those guys fit in pretty seemingly um to what they have over there as well as Scotty Barnes emerging um in his third season like this is feisty team and always Mi

Feels like no matter who’s on the team whenever Miami travels to Toronto it just it’s it’s hard it’s it’s difficult it’s always close um whether it’s Nick nurse whether it’s dark like it’s just it’s always close um but I think Miami gets it I think they go two and more in

The stretch I that’s the swing game for me that’s the one I have the hardest time predicting if I’m being honest even though Orlando too I think they beat Atlanta I think like at minimum they go one and two um but I I think they ultimately finish two in one this week

Absolutely I mean you guys last week were all wrong I was the only one that got correct I was I predicted three in one you boys were some gutless fools so I’m about to channel my in Royal and they’re about to blow these boys out

What you mean we got the Hawks who are the Hawks when was the last time they won something segregation I don’t know and then you have U the Raptors of course the Raptors they’re essentially tanking at this point and then you have the Magic The Magic have never won

Anything the magic will always be the Miami Heats little brother and at the end of the day it’s go heat you already know guys I appreciate you joining us as always we’ll keep you locked in for next week uh until we get to you guys then

Make sure you guys chat it on here on the five reason Sports Network follow us uh Marco mat Matt follow those guys um my friend Malachi is going to be at the Raptor game taking some pictures so follow him on Instagram we’ll link that as well make sure you guys follow the

Feed uh and thank you guys for always watching and let’s go Heat we’ll see you after the next stream

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