Miami Heat: Why do players not play much anymore? | Five on the Floor

Miami Heat: Why do players not play much anymore? | Five on the Floor

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Trouble y check the FL plan got it all B y’all seen the block stop with one hand and Pat trust it’s SP have the guts we here to bring the heat y’all can hang it up welcome to five on the floor a daily Insider show on the Miami Heat and the

NBA featuring Ethan scholet Greg sander and Alex Toledo plus others from the five reason Sports Network all right welcome back to five on the floor here’s today’s floor plan I’m Ethan skullnick you can follow me at Ethan J skullnick and at five reason Sports I got Greg sylvander you can

Follow him at Greg sander I got Alex Toledo you can follow him at Tropical blanket we come to you with the Miami Heat having 10 games remaining on their schedule there not out of the plan at this stage but the big topic we’re going to get into is who’s actually going to

Play in these games and why it is that we’re at a stage of the Season where there’s only one guy on this team who may play 72 games and that’s a rookie who looks like he’s broken down at this point because he’s had to play all these

Games because so many others are not playing and that’s haime Hawkin Duncan Robinson is the other who could play 72 but most most likely won’t because we still don’t know when he’s going to be back this comes to you on a day that Tyler hero was in the news again because

Shams from the athletic and other places tweeted out something that seemed to me at the time even like speculation not actual information we know that the national guys don’t have the same bead on heat information that they do on information other teams because the heat don’t really leak very much and

Especially to the National reporters but he Essen said that no one knew when Tyler was going to be back and then that led to speculation that he might not come back at all this season and Tyler followed up with the cap Emoji did I get this correct that means not true

Basically right is that that good with the kids well Greg I can’t go to you on that I could go to Alex Brady’s not here damn otherwi a shot at me mid go ahead I’ll catch that straight continue you’re you’re 80% of my age actually 80% of the

Games would be a lot for a Heat player to play um so he he returned with a cap emoji and then the other tweet today and this is not really necessarily A Tyler episode so I don’t want to over focus on on this but obviously it’s part of it for Heat

Fans um the exact tweet that he saw which was via Shams but it was tweeted by the Heat versus haters account was Tyler herro has quote Tyler Hero has not played in a while there’s no sense when he’ll be back so he tweeted cap but then

He also tweeted separately I just had a great workout but I ain’t coming back no time soon I will acknowledge that I miss the irony or the sarcasm I should say of that tweet at first but apparently this is more of a sarcastic tweet okay I just

Had a great workout but right I’m not coming back anytime soon that’s the way to sort of read it okay so that’s the Tyler part of this but this comes after 24 hours of discussion about the team Superstar which is Jimmy Butler and the criticism of Jimmy which I have I’m

Gonna say it right now I have not seen this in the five years he’s been here in social media this level of criticism and it follows him attending a tennis tournament uh taking pictures with Neymar um some said it was DJ khed it was not DJ Khaled of course it was uh

His friend Ernie who was in the photos and um as well as a couple of tennis players who he’s close with he tends to uh go wherever alcarez goes and a couple of the others okay and of course the Miami open is down here and then they

Were all at the Heat game last night but of course Jimmy Butler was not playing Neymar was there I guess they’re 0 and four when Neymar is there and all the rest of this a lot of criticism of Jimmy for not playing in a way that I’ve never

Really seen okay and I’m going to start here before we start to get into some of the numbers and we’re going to try to dissect this in a reasonable nuanced way if we can Miami Miami Heat players do not play enough anymore thank you that’s where I’m at they don’t play enough anymore

And what the reasons for that are and we know that some of it is freak injuries I don’t like to speculate on players injuries because I don’t know how hurt they are I don’t know how sick they are okay but the collective okay the macro is the heat didn’t used to be like

This and I we need to go into right we need to go into why is this a decision that’s made by the organization that either we’re going to hold guys out longer because we want them to be 100% when they come back or maybe we’re not

Going to hold them as accountable as we used to hold them or maybe we don’t want to deal with their agents the other people around them so we’re going to be more lenient is this players who are more spoiled than they used to be taking the lead from other players around the

Team but we’re going to go through the numbers and the numbers are undeniable Miami Heat players used to play a lot and now they don’t and that’s just facts okay so again whether this is by Design whether it’s by some bad luck and by Design or

Whether it’s all bad luck we need to get into it okay and that’s without me saying that I know how sick Jimmy was Tyler is I don’t and I’m not gonna criticize them individually when I don’t know the answer to that but I do know that it’s not an acceptable situation at this

Point it’s just not you’re you’re 10 games before the end of the season and it just seems like this te is content to be the that’s how it feels to Heat fans okay and if that message they don’t want to go on Twitter right now because that is the perception

And Greg I I’ll just go to this before we start to go to some of the numbers it’s as angry as I’ve seen Heat fans without it being like a transaction that didn’t go through which a lot of times we defend the organization on that because the fans don’t understand

Everything that goes into that and the things that are beyond the team’s control or what they might have in mind later on and we know fans are reactionary and they just want moves so we defend them a lot okay but beyond that um as we look at the overall

Situation other than that or like a bad playoff loss I I’ve not seen the level of anger on social in a long time so I’m gonna read you a message I got I got a text earlier 8:36 a I got this text message from a friend who I would

Consider to be um as big a Heat fan as me as a as he’s as plugged into every single game he is a lifelong Heat fan and this is what he messaged me morning Greg sorry if I haven’t been around as much lately but I’ve been totally

Checked out on this team the last few weeks when I do randomly check a game so many guys are out over and over just uninspired I can’t say watching I can’t stay watching it without getting upset so I just turn it back off that’s from a lifelong Heat fan who messaged me um

It’s one of two things it’s either this is strategic and all of the the load management is top down strategic although I don’t know how much of it that’s what it is or we have a group of players that have taken this to an extreme and maybe there’s a bit of luck

Involved as well I think we should acknowledge that but it’s unacceptable and it’s not sustainable you can’t be a highlevel team go look around the league at all the teams in the top seeds they don’t have guys with only 50 games played so far with 10 games to go like

There’s just not a ton of that so this is something we’ll dissect that we’ll get into the numbers but I will say that when Jimmy missed that game last night I the Heat fans there was a shift in consciousness that’s all I’ll say that that I have not seen from the fan

Base yet and there was something about Jimmy missing that particular game and the Optics of him being where he was the night before that matter it’s the Golden State Warriors like people come to town to see like we got our guy um Dan Healey who flies all the way across the country

Like across the the pond to come and watch the Heat and that’s a game where you got Steph in the building and and Jimmy doesn’t play and you saw where he was the day before the Optics of it don’t look good I don’t want to speculate beyond that the Optics of it

Don’t look good and the team has kind of followed suit and that’s a weird place to be when there’s only a couple guys leading by example bam and Duncan being primarily those two and then the Rook Kime um where they’re available most of the time bam probably can get to what 70

71 games maybe um so I consider that to be pretty available other than that it’s been a complete mixed bag and the fans are feeling it right now yeah again we’re gonna get to the numbers uh on all that as we go forward um but Alex I’ll go to you on this uh

You know before we do Jimmy has earned the benefit of doubt in terms of what he’s produced down here when it’s mattered and so I I felt like the fans were kind of on board with with it like what Greg is getting at like I think we’re kind of on board with it

Okay preserve yourself you don’t need to play 70 75 games give us 60 to 65 strong games and I think that’s why it hit yesterday part of it is the Optics of photos of the tennis look guys get sick overnight okay it happens it doesn’t necessarily mean he was out partying I

And and lots I’ll say this too as somebody who’s done this for a long time and was on the road with players so a lot of guys come back to the hotel at four in the morning play really well the next day okay uh so I don’t I don’t get

Into all of that okay there and and for some of those who are critical of Jimmy for being in movies or now like he has 10 different commercials and all the rest of this I don’t care what they do on their off days they are a lot worse

Things to be doing than to be on a movie set okay or to be even recording um you know a commercial for six seven hours okay as long as he’s working on his craft enough he’s getting the proper rest for him that’s fine he here’s where

I come down and again I’ll go to you Alex on this if he’s going to play 60 games play them pedal to the middle and I think that’s where for me this has gone off the path a little bit this year because in a lot of the Morey games we

Talked about this year and this team is now by the way 0 0 and nine as a home Underdog that means when they play good teams in what should be a favorable place for them to play they lose and some of them he hasn’t played and some

Of them he just hasn’t played with high intensity and I kind of feel like if he had played the games against Boston and Milwaukee and the others with high intensity people wouldn’t care as much when he misses a game here or there because he’s had legitimate reasons for

Missing a lot of them right or maybe even all of them but I feel like that’s why this turned a little bit I completely get that sense and you know I think it’s fair especially when you start comparing to heat star of the past right it’s like you know if you’re a

Heat fan you’re saying we still need you to be there to get us you know to a decent seatings or you don’t have to do this again or you don’t have to play um you know kind of the three best teams in the Eastern Conference back to back to

Back just to get to the finals right like the seating I know they don’t don’t give a [ __ ] about seating but you know um if I think if the NBA regular season hasn’t been so deemphasized over the years right this would be a different story they might be like the four seed right

Now or five seed I just think it’s gotten to that point where you know as time has gone by like I think the heat do like Jimmy and the heat do it like more than other teams but it really feels like a League wide pattern so like

I agree with you that you know no other team has like their Stars missing that many games uh and you know the heat has had such a weird season with the 35 starting lineups like it’s really hard to get a representative sample especially ever since the the Acquisitions that were made right where

Like these guys have been thrown into regular rotation minutes right like Terry was thrown into as a starter and then you know Patty and D as guys who are who have come in and replaced others who’ve been out like it hasn’t been stable and even you know when there was

Some health it wasn’t that great either um and so it’s hard to look at it like uh you know they’re a contender everything’s fine you give them the benefit of the doubt I give Jimmy the benefit of the doubt because we’ve seen this before but when it comes to the

Heat it’s like I can see like I I can see the vision for who they want to be but there has been no consistency there’s been no stability right and and Jimmy has been kind of the guy who set the tone for that and like you like you

Said Ethan I’m not gonna speculate on you know how hurt a guy is or how sick a guy is and I I just roll my eyes at the whole like oh Jimmy was out at the US Open oh Jimmy has a life outside of basketball he’s told you this a million

Times he’s this not this is worst kept secret it’s not a secret at all like I I understand people don’t like it when you see like you know a guy miss a game after being out at the US Open I don’t know what to tell you man

Like this is kind of the trend with the NBA at this point is like if he’s actually sick which you know I’m not gonna say he isn’t then it’s perfectly reasonable to sit like I wasn’t upset at them for losing that game last night the

Way they did where they just kind of ran out of gas which makes perfect sense when you look at all the guys they’re missing uh most of their offense right and but Jimmy has been the one again who has set this tone where it’s like like

You said Ethan even when you do play it’s not balls to the wall pedal to the metal like and I just think that’s kind of the product of the the NBA that we live in now where it’s like okay you’re not gonna shorten the season because you

Want to milk all this money well we’re gonna be like conservative right and I’m not talking about Jimmy by himself I just mean around the league and like I said Jimmy does it more but we’re going to be conservative with the way we are it’s like we’re not going to play

Through injury for regular season matchups for TNT matchups I think everything has been you know winning in the playoffs is what matters that is all that matters that’s what we’ve talked about for years and years and years that’s how the players feel that’s how coaches feel this is kind of the the

Reality of that it’s like they want to make sure that you know it’s they’re on like a maintenance plan it feels like to make sure that they’re good to go for the playoffs and it’s really hard to feel like that’s not happening with the heat right now when we’ve seen it play

Out in other Seasons where it’s like Jimmy is just kind of like he’s playing well he’s still like a top 20 player when he’s out there for the most part you know he has some bad games here and there but you know he he turns it up to

A different level in the playoffs I think that’s hard to replicate year after year as you get older but I think he’s doing this because he’s getting older and he’s played so many long playoff runs already and others are saying he he does it because they didn’t give him enough

Help I mean that’s another conversation like you know and again there are a lot of reasons to kind of look at here and you know some have said okay let me just throw them out here before we go forward because I do want to get to the numbers

Because the numbers are startling the I the if even if you want to get into a lot of these things being freak injuries okay which I’ve talked about with Tyler many times right um you know we’re stepping on a foot or something like that it does not that does not

Explain did were the heat lucky for the first 20 something years of Pat Riley’s tenure as team president because no I played we’re we’re going to get into it but there when you when people were going through the list today okay and they want to blame the front office for

This like someone to blame the training staff someone to blame the front office someone to blame the players right someone to want to blame a black cloud over the arena or whatever it is okay but some were saying okay if you didn’t have such an undersized team that had to

Work so hard that maybe you wouldn’t have some of these injuries in some cases it’s well the team practices too hard I can tell you that’s not the case anymore okay like that is not okay Pat Riley had these guys working after backto backs for six hours okay and

Again I was there at Lal waiting for them to come out okay and then they play the next day okay and he played an eight-man rotation so that that’s just not and there are some who believe actually and I’ve actually heard this from credible NBA people including some associated with

The heat who think that the lack of practicing these days has contributed to more injuries okay like they’ve eliminated a lot of these backto backs but it’s changed kind of the practice schedule in some ways and that the guys are not as conditioned maybe as they used to be at least for

Game action because they’re not getting in the work in practice that they used to and again that’s League wide that’s not just here but that is a philosophical change and some of it has been caused by the players and their agents and a conscious decision that we’re not we’re going to preserve

Ourselves for later but I can tell you this was not the organizational philosophy before this organization would go for the one seed that’s the way they were wired and we were critical of it Greg again before we’re going to go to break here in a second get into some

Of the numbers but the criticism of Riley way back was he worked them too hard practiced them too hard he ran them into the ground as a one or two seed and then they lost to the Knicks right they would always be short on every shot in

The playoffs because you felt like they had been worked too hard and they always were a top seed like that was the reoccurring theme and they always had the best defense in the league and they you know you saw that all season long consistently and everyone from PJ Brown on PJ may have

Played 81 games in all of those runs like over and over and over he did he did you know who else did during the during the big three runs Mara chamers yeah always out there Norris Cole always out there not just the the younger players either okay and we’re going to

Get into that Ray Allen and Shane Bader in the 12 13 season this is under SPO not under Pat okay in the 12 13 season I think they missed a combined I did the math to think a combined 11 games between the two of them they were combined 71 years

Old Ray Allen and Shane Bader in the 1213 season it’s not just an age thing okay so after the break we’ll get into of those numbers and then again I I’m willing to take all opinions on this of why this is happening I just keep coming

Back to the same point it’s not this is the fans are tired of it I think okay and the only way that this is going to be validated is if they have another run like they had last year and I don’t know right now that any of us see that coming

All right we’ll get to that in a minute but first a word from one of our great news sponsors hey it’s Ethan skolnick for the five reasons Sports Network we’ve got a great new sponsor that fits with us perfectly it’s called jerseys 305.com that’s jerseys 305.com this is

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Reason Sports celebrating with a 10% discount on the next purchase using the code five a checkout unlock your exclusive savings on the entire vintage collection all right so let’s get to some of the numbers here as we come back um let me start from way back okay so these are uh

These are some of I’m see if I can still find this these are some of uh the teams that Greg and I would actually remember as I can try to locate this hold on oh here we go ready all right 96 uh 97 season I’m I’m gonna go back here this

And this is way back this is oldtime NBA okay but I’m not doing 95 96 only because that was the year that Pat to put the team together on the fly yeah in that year we just said that there’s only one guy on this team that has a chance

To play 72 games and that’s hakz who we’ve all I think agreed needs a little bit of time off right now Duncan was gonna get there but if he misses two more games he won’t and Bam is gonna just miss it most likely well he’s gonna

Miss it but but probably just by a little all right so 96 97 these players all played 72 games Ike Austin Tim hard away it was in his 30s by the way PJ Brown had bad knees uh PJ Brown Keith asins and Vashon Leonard Five Guys 9798 season Eric Murdoch Tim Hardaway again

Fon Leonard PJ Brown again Dan Marley can I ask you a quick question how many of those guys played 80 um I don’t have it off hand but I can tell you uh just looking at Ike Austin did that one year he was a younger player that they had kind of you know

That he was one of Pat’s first projects and I PJ did for sure and PJ did the second year too um and Murdoch did in 9798 for sure but and Vashon was right there again a younger player and then Marley who again Marley was supposedly broken down when they got him he played

At least 72 games that next year the year after just a 50 Game season but it was a compressed season six players on that team played at least 40 6 of the 50 okay including Terry Porter who was aged 35 and played all 50 games all right so that’s old school

Riley crazy ass long practices right not the conveniences that the players have now all right things were not as easy for them as they are now they didn’t have a practice facility right there in the arena okay again it was Lal it was you know across the city all the rest of

This kind of stuff they were going to Miami arena and all that and yet somehow they managed to play all of these games all right then if you want to go into the spst ER again I’ve mentioned this before the Big Three the 2012-13 season this is where it gets

Interesting these guys all played at least 72 games Norris Cole Ray Allen at age 37 Mario chamers LeBron James who did not take games off did not had to be forced to take games off Udonis Haslam Chris BOS Shane Bader at age 34 Dwayne Wade did not he played 69 and

Everybody complained he didn’t play enough nice nice and the other one thank you and the other one and and this is why I say it’s actually eight of nine who did because Birdman played 44 games after his acquisition he was obviously on a pace to play way over the 72 if he’d been

With the heat the whole time so you’re really talking about eight of their nine rotation players play at least at least 72 games and the only one who didn’t was Dwayne who missed 13 and again there was a lot of criticism of Dwayne not so much

That year but there was some but the year after of course uh for not playing enough and then if we want to go and then let’s go into the post LeBron era okay 1415 they had a rough season we know about that they only had two guys

Play 72 which was chamers and Deng 156 all of these guys played at least 72 Winslow Deng Wade Whiteside he played dragic year after 1617 McGruder this is the year they came back from 11 and 30 mcder with a 30 and 11 run gudder Whiteside James Johnson dragic Tyler Johnson Five

Guys 1773 171 18 season Jay Rich Ellington oen James Johnson Tyler Johnson Five Guys played at least 72 games bam I guess that was his rookie season played 69 probably would have played the full 82 I think there were actually some games he was held out I

Don’t even remember if that was injury related so that’s five guys could have been six 1819 season bam KO Josh Richardson Hassan again and Dwayne Wade at age 37 with a 29% usage okay which would be the same as Tyler’s on this team played 72 games age 37 after the

Knee injuries after everything now didn’t play Heavy minutes like he used to but he played a big role on that team okay so that’s 1819 then we get into the covid period and see I think this is the thing that’s not talked about enough I think that

Changed the way that some teams operated um it was such a weird season we had situations where guys were in they were out then they had the long break so it’s hard to really measure it because again there was like three months off in the

Middle of it but I’m going to give this a 64 game pro rate because they played 73 games so that’s equivalent to playing 72 over 82 Duncan bam nun and KO all played to that level 2021 that’s a drop off though a drop off no and that exactly and then I’m gonna

Now 72 Game season in 2021 64 game pro rate Duncan and Bam that was it okay Iggy just missed 2122 back to a 72 Game season uh back to 82 I’m sorry on the uh Duncan was the only one who played 72 games PJ Tucker at his age played

71 last year stru and Bam played 72 Caleb played 71 and now this year they may get one so we have started to see it tail off do you think it changes do you think it ever goes the other way again I mean it has to because it’s not all teams

Right like that’s the thing about this if you look around the league I mean I just quickly looked at some of the top team teams in the West in the East and it looks like if you add 10 games to all of their best players they’re going to probably play somewhere in the

Neighborhood of 70 something and to me that’s like being available um and I know that’s my arbitrary ruling there but that’s just what I’m going with so for the heat it does look like it’s been something that has kind of haunted them since the pandemic and I

Don’t understand why that is like what what there’s no probably correlation directly to that that’s not what I’m in referring at all it’s more of that just like what has happened there and to this point like this season is different because things are normal now and so

Like to me this one is a little different it hurts more it sticks out like a sore thumb more and to me it looks like all that culture stuff that they’ve been talking I mean it looks a little weird when you can’t get guys out

On the court I mean you had guys you LeBron who people have always said you know never fully bought in because he always wanted to do bigger and better things all led by himself or whatever the narrative is on him he was available you could not talk him out of playing

And like there’s a certain level of that that’s missing and um and you can’t quantify it but it matters because for you to say that Dwayne in his age 37 season played 72 games and we’re going to have no guys really be able to crawl to that other than the ones you

Mentioned that’s glaring like that slaps a fan right in the face like is the farewell tour that big of a driver over a run towards a fi a championship because like that’s what everyone’s goal is right um so to me it leaves a sour taste in the mouth for

Sure so let me ask you this Alex um Greg mentioned the heat culture thing right and one of the lines in there is best conditioned right best conditioned it’s right there okay so we have enough no I want to get to that because I feel like the heat culture philosophy

Has shifted from best conditions so we’re GNA practice the hardest be out there the longest people are going to play we’re going to show up we’re going to outlast everybody right like that’s the thing we’re going to drive towards it it has shifted to the three words that I’ve used to praise

Eric spoler a lot because he embodies this and the this is like this is the one we have enough exactly what you said right this has become the heat culture philosophy we have enough yes we’re short-handed no not everybody’s playing it’s not necessarily necessary because we have enough next

Man will step up we’ll do some of the things that the other guy did we’ll gut it out we’ll grit it out we’ll play it in the mud right our 12th guy on the roster will give us what the third guy on the roster was going to give us and

We’re still going to get wins anyway and that is a redeeming thing like to say we have enough it’s much better than Doc Rivers saying I don’t have enough because I had a long flight okay like I much prefer the Eric Bolster philosophy but we’ve talked about this in other

Areas when we’ve talked about personnel and Personnel acquisition that the fact that they have a coach now who is so good at what he does and making more with less at first we were talking about and okay they don’t need to get other stars because you know he’ll find the

Next Max stru he’ll find this guy he’ll find that guy along with you know the others who are good at you know Talent procurement in the organization or scouting and all the rest of that but now it almost seems like it’s like it’s like it’s almost like setting like

You’re playing Madden okay and you set it on like the hardest level just to make it as difficult you know it give me more challenges that kind of feels like the Heat culture now is that we have enough not necessarily the best conditioned right has it has it

Switched feel that way but go ahead Le no no you go no finish what you were saying though well now I forgot the question so you have to go well I mean I don’t know if we have enough here let’s go you guys are are to

Me like can speak more to whether or not that has changed but it does very much feel like we have enough you know kind of blankets everything else and I get I get why because it’s like we’re never like you said you don’t want to be the ones out there talking to

The media about oh we missing this guy and this guy like we already know that like that doesn’t need to be explained to Media members that doesn’t need to be explained to fans so it them just taking it the the kind of the Public Image and

I know not that they don’t treat it that way you know internally as well but them taking that you know image to me is just smart PR it’s just like forget all that we’re out here to compete we don’t care how many people are out we have other

Guys who can step up I completely get it but now it’s gotten to the point where I just don’t think people agree right and I know like whether or not people agree that that heat don’t care SPO doesn’t care Jimmy doesn’t care they they don’t hear that stuff they don’t hear they

They block out they block out all the all the noise they’ll tell you that game in game out if you ask them about what other people are talking about like they don’t care but you know like their belief that they’ll be able to be okay in the playoffs I think that’s kind of

Where that Line’s been drawn because a lot of people are like you sure you can do that again are you absolutely sure because yeah it is a different roster it feels like a deeper roster than last year if you just go through the names but like I said before there’s been no

Consistency no foundation and the to me the biggest difference with like this year between other years where Jimmy you know has quote unquote coasted I don’t really believe he’s not trying I just don’t think he tries as hard as he does uh during the playoffs I think that the

Biggest difference this year is that usually at this time of year Jimmy’s already already doing that stuff and like you kind of forget right like it it even it even happened as far back in as the first couple of Seasons here like that gvp stuff he wasn’t playing at a

Gvp level the first half of that season and I know like he played amazing in the second half and people forgot same thing has happened kind of every other year like you know he’s all right in the first half turns it up in the second half and ramps up towards the playoffs

That Jimmy kalender has been right year after year except this year we thought it was happening there in February and then it’s just kind of tailed off a little bit and I just think it’s a more extreme version of what he’s done in the past and I also think it’s got to do

With the wear and tear I think that’s also like a huge difference between you know some of the other examples when you’re just going back to to you know comparing to Heat players like you guys were I I think you know shout out to LeBron and Wade for being as available

As they were playing through injury all that I think it’s clear that stuff has changed within the last decade League wide to me that sucks the the fact that it’s changed sucks and I they’re not going to the season so it’s like they have to find a way to to elongate their

Careers and I think this is the kind of the compromise it’s like you don’t know ni night if you’re gonna see these guys well that’s true but but it does feel like the it feels like the bar has changed here in the sense of like I remember having these debates when like

The heat were in a certain position like should they go for the one seed and it was like okay do they really need home court throughout the playoffs or even during the big three er which obviously a more talented team than this okay but during the big three er it was like well

Not necessarily like you’ve got LeBron okay and you got Dwayne in some piece right and home court in the first couple round no but they didn’t they didn’t always well no that’s what I’m G get to they didn’t have home court down the line like they didn’t have they beat

Indiana on the Indiana was a one seed one year Chicago was a one seed one year and we were always having these conversations and this goes all the way back to Shaq being here whether it was important to be a one scen Shaq I’m used to downplay that stuff and I remember

That there was push back about that from you know because Pat believed in going for it at that point and of course if you remember they were not the one seed in uh in 0506 I mean they had that kind of choppy season and they had to go to

You know they had to beat Detroit you know as a road team in the Eastern Conference Finals but we’ve shifted now from do you need the one seed so do you need home court throughout the entire Eastern Conference to like I mean this isn’t a conversation about the one SE

This is a conversation about just being a playoff team like because you’re as you’re a playing Team you are not a playoff team like you are you’re literally on the outside looking in trying to scrape your way in and I don’t have faith in this team in a one game

Scenario at home from what I’ve seen lately I mean would they even be a home favorite in in a 78 game against a Philadelphia team with embiid no right probably not and like the the other part of this that that gets difficult to to manage is like let’s say they just took

Half the season um seriously with the games that they were available they could have enough cushion where they all could be resting right now and so like that’s where it gets even more to the point where I start to get frustrated by the fact that they’ve kind of slow played

This and now they’re in a situation where they could get bounced so anyway that’s just another kind of the tradeoff that they’re making now where it’s like before like you guys were talking about during the big three years even if they weren’t a number one seed they were like

Okay we’re going to have home court in the first couple of rounds and then from there you know whatever just you know Thug It Out basically right where whereas now it’s like you know maintenance plan throughout the season and then the grind is you know get out

Of the playing tournament and face a harder path back to the finals and that’s kind of like they they’ve they’ve essentially like traded the old ways for this now and to me it it it pretty much just feels like that’s the the biggest difference and then also you talk about

Just Jimmy man like the amount of wear and tear he’s had on his body specifically what happened to him in the last playoff run where I thought he was a like at the past couple really because I think he missed a game uh a couple Conference Finals ago right against

Boston and that season they were the number one seed they didn’t have Tyler available Tyler was playing hurt in the playoffs and didn’t play well um before he was out they tried to bring him back did not work out we we don’t even really talk about about that anymore was it

Game seven of that of 2022 the Conference Finals they tried to bring him back didn’t work out he barely played and they just stopped playing him after that first in if I remember correctly and they were the one seed and look what that got him what I remember

More than anything when I think about that that season and how it ended of course behind the the Jimmy shot which will forever live in all of our heads of course is how hard it was to get there and them constantly losing at home they three

In that series what did the one seed get him and then last year they get there get to the finals as the a seed so I think part of it is like you know how much does it really matter I think that’s like me trying to get in their

Heads a little bit because of the way that some of these seasons have played out they got to the finals in 2020 of course the bubble’s a weird kind of situation but they did it as a fifth seed then and of course again home court

Was not a factor in the bubble but I just don’t think they care that much about the seating and I feel like that’s kind of the trade-off that’s happened now it’s like it’s all about the playoffs forget like busting your ass for the regular season no you’re right I it that that

Has been a part of the trade-off but it’s a stark difference to say okay we’re comfortable being the number two seed and we’ll have to play one Road Series perhaps or one start one series on the road in the Eastern playoffs as opposed to we’re comfortable in the

Playin where we have to win a a home playin game just to get in and if we don’t we’ve got to win uh another playin game and then that gives us the right to go on the road to play a top two seed in the Eastern Conference and if we win

That then we go on the road again and then if we win that we go on the road again I think you know part of this is like what they did last year was unprecedented it was unprecedented like it’s the only thing we’re holding on to

Hope for right now with this team and it literally has never happened before like the only thing that’s equivalent was Houston winning a championship as the six seed and they had a team in his prime okay or the Knicks when they were the eight seed and they got all the way

To the finals and that was completely weird because that team was only six games behind the first seated heat but it was as I mentioned earlier a 50-game season and so the teams were not that different and even though they lost Ying they didn’t have a healthy spre well

Houston that whole team together and they put that team together on the Fly the fact that we have to we have two examples basically over like 25 to 30 NBA years of something somewhat equivalent to what the heat did last year just tells you it’s not going to

Happen again and again I if the I think if if this is not to say that the heat want their players to be hurt or they wanted to be in the plan I’m not saying any of that I’m just saying that I understand the fan frustration with this

Because we’ve not seen this team healthy long enough for it to figure anything out and I think that although we could go through each injury or ailment individually and we can go through and and I’m sure that’s what you know some of the organizations will be upset at us

For even doing this because they’ll say well what do you want us to do about you know Tyler has this freak thing okay or Jimmy has you know needs some time away from the team we’re going to grant that to him or whatever because that was earlier remember that was for personal

Issues and we all understood that okay and we we we respected the organization stance to give him the time but the is it’s mounted now where it’s like it’s just it’s it’s everybody literally it’s everybody and that just I I think that’s where the frustration comes in so I

Don’t know that we’ve solved anything at this point I just know that over the last 10 games they need to get some bodies back right like even most available to that Mantra it’s a good way to close have a good night everybody thank you for listening to the five on the floor on

The five Reon Sports Network after all someone needs to listen to my dad

As the Miami Heat head toward the final 10 games of the season, with only one player (Jaime Jaquez Jr.) on pace to play 72 games, Ethan, Greg and Alex look at the way it used to be for the organization, and discuss what may have led to the decline in player availability. Is this strategic? Bad luck? Part of a larger NBA issue?

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