Examining the New-Look Miami Heat with Couper Moorhead, Jayson Tatum Returns + Unrivaled Recap

Hi, hello, we have a jam pet episode of the darker spot coming your way.

Heat fans, if you were looking for heat commentary on Tuesday, we got you covered today.

Cooper Morehead joins us to discuss all things Miami heat, the shifting off fence, elite

defense, bandboard cases, Tyler Heroes fitting in, the young guy sliding in.

We talk about all of it and some lineup stuff on top of that.

After that, Jason Tatum is returning later tonight.

We dig into what we are looking for.

And we have a conversation around the recent discourse surrounding Jason Tatum's return

and how ridiculous it is, but that's okay.

And then finally, we close with Unrival Talk, Miss BC wins the championship in one hack

of a game over fans of BC, Kelsey Klum drops 40, Brandon Stewart drops 32.

We talk about our favorite moments from that game and talk about the ending and potential

changes we may want to see in next year's Unrival season.

Stay tuned.

We hope you enjoy.

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Hi, hello and welcome to another episode of the Dunker Spot.

We are part of the Yahoo Sports Network.

I am your host, Nikkei Stunkin and joining me as always is my co-host, the always excellent

Steve Jones.

Junior Steve.

Happy Friday, sir.

How are you?

Hello.

Okay, we have the quick intro from Steve, which means we have a guest in boy.

Do we have a guest for today's episode?

We have the one, the only Cooper Moore head of the Miami Heat, Heat Insider, host of

the After the Buzzer podcast, per viewer of all things, Miami Heat, Cooper.

Welcome to the show.

How are you on this Friday?

Tell us is great to be here.

I just came from my daughter's poacher, so I got all kinds of kids stuff in my head.

I'm ready to shift back to heat mode and I'm just really happy to be here.

What I tell you, we're going to dig into the conversation shortly.

What I tell you, this is like literally years in the making of Get It Coop on this

here podcast.

The talk, it has been a fun journey.

One of my favorite people in the space, one of my favorite heat people in particular.

This is going to be a fun time.

Very happy to get this one done.

But let's jump into this Miami Heat season, a team that has long had me in the emotional

headlock, someone that grew up a heat fan as a recording.

The history of podcast Steve has also had to deal with my various.

This is great.

This is awful, but he rules me in all of the time.

But as a recording, the Miami 34 and 29, they are eighth in the east of conference right

now.

They are, clearly in the glass, 13th and offensive rating, 4th and defensive rating.

They are level to net rating just outside of top 10 on that front.

So Coop, just on a very basic level.

What were your expectations of this Miami Heat team heading into the year with reported

changes coming to the offense, some rotation things.

You get the acquisition of Norman Powell.

How were you feeling about the heat heading in and how's that kind of, how's it kind

of matched or maybe exceeded expectations or where you kind of hit with them right now?

Yeah.

I think they're a little bit along the lines of what I expected, maybe a few, like a

winter or two above, but not quite.

A large part is because last year with the saga that was going on with the roster, they

just never really had a chance to come together and they were just figuring out who they were

going to be in the post-Jimmy era in those two months after that deal.

So coming to this summer, then you get Norm in the off season, which is a great trade,

Norman's been awesome, but you kind of come in, Tyler gets hurt a week before training

camp.

So we spent all this summer talking about Norman, Tyler playing together, and then Tyler

gets taken out of the equation for a lengthy period of time.

Now you're already adjusting your, you know, calibrating your expectations.

And I'm sure you guys are the same way.

Every time you hear a coach saying, we're going to play faster, you know, in spree season.

It's the same thing as a guy coming in saying like, I had 15 pounds of muscle, you almost

kind of hear it and goes in one ear out the other.

You don't really take it too seriously.

And even Spowe has said it before, going into training camps.

Spowe has wanted to play faster before and then they come in and maybe they'll play

faster for a week and then all of a sudden their pace is back down, you know, in 20 to

30 range.

This year, the pace has been for real, they've stuck with it.

It took a week or so to really wrap my mind around what this offense was going to be,

but because we've only had, the only presence we've had is what Memphis ran last year without

taking all the screens and handoffs out of the system where they have been a handoff

heavy screen heavy system for a long time.

So within, you know, all these managing expectations and then completely revamping

the offense, which I think Spowe deserves credit for because not every coach is going

to be willing to just scrap everything they've done before and he admits he was, you

know, pushed into that a little bit based on his reaction to the Cleveland series and

how that went.

But, you know, I think overall they maybe, you know, give or take a winner to hear their,

they're about where maybe you expect them to be, the East has kind of shaped up, I

guess, kind of how we expect the East to be as well, but, you know, the 5 and 60 is

still possible for them.

So if they can climb up to be around there, then I think it's a pretty good season based

on where we thought they would be coming up.

I'll keep it there.

Excuse me.

I'll keep it there.

And I asked this question because I think one of the things that stood up by Miami season

has been their consistency with their pace, with their tempo, with getting the ball up

the court.

We're going to get into what we do very quickly.

We're going to space it for when we're trying driving kick.

Oh, how surprised are you that that stuck to a degree and what kind of nuances do you

think people are missing out as far as it's easy to say, well, they don't run screens

and they're trying to do this offensively, but there's a consistent floater what they

do almost every possession that's kind of allow them to stay in different types of

games and different types of opponents.

Yeah.

What's I'm surprised just because having known and been around spoke for a long time when

he commits or something, he commits.

It's the same thing as when the LeBron, Wade, Bosch team is a full pace in space because

once they install something, they're going to keep banging that drum, banging that drum

constantly until they get it right, until they make it consistent.

It does wax away in some times, but that just takes a practice or a shoot down and they

usually kind of turn it around if the offense goes awry in terms of the function, the results

are going to be here and there.

I don't know if you guys have struggled with this this year, but like you guys, I love

to get into the nitty gritty.

I love to find all the little details and everything that they're trying to do, but

this offense has almost kind of simplified the game in such a way where there are intricacies

and I think you guys would love to talk about the way they cut, the way they sacrifice

cut, especially early in possessions, to clear space, to clear empty corners for these

kind of one-on-one isolation plays, they don't want to call isolations, but in some

ways they are, some ways they are, and those cuts in the way they grind precise precision

spacing to make sure the offense functions, but if you kind of look at it from a top-down

perspective, it is a little simplified, right?

You don't have to worry about four guys running perfect timing sets, you don't have to worry

about a lot of times, multiple people will come into the ball, and so I think I've

struggled with that to try and find more details than are sometimes there, and that's just

my brain going to work and the way we watch basketball I think is as analysts, but it's

also a little liberating because you can appreciate the game in a different way, because you

know every possession that they're going to come down, they're just trying to do the

same two, three, four, five things every time for any possessions of game, and a lot of

times it works through all.

That is a fascinating point that I want to stay on for a little bit, because I agree

like the simplified nature of it, like it does take a little bit off the plate mentally,

like this is how to heat one attack, this is how quickly they want to do it, they want

to clear space, this is how they clear it, and it just kind of turns into how often did

they win these possessions?

How many times did Davey on Mitchell win his drives?

How many times did Noan Powell do so?

And if those guys do it, how may hockey it's the same thing?

If those guys win their drives, the heat are going to drop 125, 130, they're going to

win their games.

If they do not, then they're going to be getting back in transition, and it's going to be

a different look for them.

And so trying to balance that part of it, like you don't want to come off reductive when

talking about the heat, and I think that's also why, like for Steve's sake, I try to space

out my heat thoughts on the podcast, because I know I can fluctuate depending on what

I'm seeing for a four or five game stretch, but it's also like because to your point

who, like what they do is kind of in your face and simplified to a degree, you kind of

just have to let results build before you get into, okay, it's been six games of the heat

dropping 125, the offense is operated like this on defensive ender doing, we're going

to get into the defense a little bit later, but like they're defending at a high level,

they're winning games, or teams are now sprinkling again, late help on these drives, they're

helping off a certain player as the fun like shots elsewhere, and this is where the heat

is struggling.

Like a group of games before you can really bring something new to the table, because it

does just kind of feel result based on how they set that up.

So it's fascinating to me.

Steve, how have you kind of felt about analyzing my indie as a concept this year?

I think it was more so kind of to whose point for me, it was understanding, okay, what's

the purpose at first, right?

There's a lot of drives, there's a lot of driving kick, and then understanding, okay,

their time in their cuts around it very well.

And so there's an intention behind what we're trying to do.

So we're trying to get the ball up the court, and we're trying to make quick decisions.

And it's not always going to be an automatic, which I think we are so used to in today's

NBA, where okay, if this happens, I know that's going to happen.

That doesn't always happen.

If you get a drive, you might get a heat player space to the wing, a corner cut, someone

flowing out from the other corner to the wing, and it's like, okay, they're not going

to do that every time, but without what's good, okay, what's it like when they win a drive?

How they feel to the next portion of it, it's not an automatic, okay, we're getting to

a handoff, it's okay, drive kick, drive kick, drive shot.

It's like, okay, everyone's just kind of grouping in a different way.

And so I think the importance of winning matchup has been key, but it's also kind of them

playing with a freedom that's a little bit different, and you see them communicate when

they're on the offensive end.

If someone's about to drive and look to attack a matchup, you'll see guys pointing to

each other, not getting the corner.

Let's face, let's get ready for the kick, if it comes, let's drive.

So it's more so just like, okay, I know what they're trying to do.

How does this impact defenses?

What happens when teams put physicality and size and length on them?

How do they react to that?

What are the counters they're trying to get to?

And then you kind of dive into, well, they never stop doing this.

And so it's like, okay, they're having a hot stretch, but they're not going to stop offensively.

They're struggling to start a game, but they're not going to stop offensively.

And that was the thing that stood out to me, where it's like, ooh, okay, they have a

confidence in their pace and their tempo and their ability to drive and play against

teams.

And so that kind of is what's boggled in my brain.

It's not an easy thing that I said.

I wouldn't do the thing that people do and be like, well, look, this offense is brand

new.

No one's ever done it.

It's not.

Exactly.

But, you know, it's a team understanding their strengths and trying to find different

ways to poke at the teams.

And I think the biggest thing is just different because it's Miami.

You're so used to this.

Coop said, Miami playing a certain way to a degree and now it's like, nope, we're getting

nothing down.

We're going.

Everyone's attacking.

We're going to put pressure on you.

You got to deal with us.

And it's like, oh, okay.

Yeah.

I think it's something at first.

Yeah.

Like I think to that point, and circling back to what you said earlier, who kind of circling

back to what last year was and them trying to move past the Jimmy Butler area and everything

they kind of came with that, it's kind of funny to zoom out to this is Jimmy and

bam.

This is Jimmy.

Jimmy's out of here to like, hey, what have we empowered literally everyone on the roster?

Let's just completely zag and make sure everyone kind of has the freedom to explore space

and explore the games and expand their games in that way.

So that part has been fun.

Just kind of put numbers on things for pushing things forward, again, the heat of Florida

with a top 10 offensive rate.

The 13th and offensive rate right now, their 13th and half court offense, both figures

better than they were last year.

They are first in pace.

They're first in terms of how quickly their position is in about 13 seconds.

Their position on that front and the screening has been different.

They were in the top 10 last year and both on-ball and off-ball screen set per 100 positions

last year.

This year setting about 18 per 100 on the ball.

So the picker roll volume incredibly low, they are last in league.

And even to the off-ball portion, which I kind of want to circle back on like how they're

spacing around these drives, they're down to around 28 off-ball screens per 100 positions.

And I remember talking with Steve last year as they were trying to figure out what this

offense was going to look like, I know that they're like in the top five, top six in terms

of how often they're setting flare screens and how often they're setting pin-ins.

And like that felt like an uptick for what we had seen for previous heat teams.

So for them to kind of scrap that portion into be more spacing base and more cutting base

has been kind of interesting.

Like how do you feel about the kind of off-ball balance with what they're doing around those

drives this year?

Well, I think it is important to note that like even though they are super low and on-ball

picker rolls, those off-ball screens, in a lot of ways can function as a picker roll,

because even though the ball isn't there, you're still creating an advantage in making

the defense react 20 feet away on the left wing when the ball is on the right wing, just

with one of those off-ball screens.

And some of it is, I mean, when you don't have Duncan Robinson anymore, Duncan Robinson

was a big recipient of plays like that.

So that's going to bring you a usage out, but then you have Norm Powell, who is one of

the best quick decision catch and shoot, catch and decide, catch and choose guys in the

league.

And I think Norm, you know, we can get into Norm and Tyler probably a little bit later,

but I think people think of Norm and Tyler as the same kind of player, but they're different

in the way that they go about things.

Tyler is a much more on-off-ball mix and Norm is much more off-ball, first on-ball.

He catches and he makes his move.

So they do have to run a lot of early offense for Norm and I think, you know, this is kind

of one of my favorite stats of the year, is that they're the best offense of the league

in the first three minutes of the game, specifically.

And it's because Norm starts so fast and they'll just immediately go flow right into like

first possession of the game, it's either a ban post-separ isolation if they like that matchup

or it's Norm flying off the weak side, weighing off the screen, off a pin down and catching

and he'll just fire away, you know, first possession of the game within the first five

seconds.

So it creates an interesting flow and again, I think we're just going to keep coming

back to this thing of, they have to, the offense is constantly about cutting and relocating

and finding empty space and filling empty space, lifting your shooters up.

You can't stand still in space properly for everything that they want to do.

Everybody around the ball has to be moving kind of in concert with each other to create

these pockets of time, pockets of space where guys can attack.

Because if you give a defensive static look for long enough, they're going to figure out

a way to gap, you know, the driving lanes, they're going to find a way to bring two on

the ball somehow, to pay if they don't like the matchups.

But all that stuff keeps the defense moving around and then once the guy is pulling, even

if the guy is the low man, if that shooter is pulling the low man up, then you have that

like one and a half seconds to attack and he's already looking the other way, his guy

lifting up and he's worried about that driving kick when high made kind of gets his double

hop spin move and then all of a sudden you're in trouble because otherwise you got to

maybe a smaller mess match stuck in the paint trying to deal with high man his shoulders

and then you're like, oh my gosh, I just lost the guy up on the wing and just lifted.

Yeah, it's the heat of done a really good job of putting that kind of strain on defenses

to that point.

The heat leaned NBA and drives for 100 positions this year.

They saw help on around 72% of their drives last year per second spectrum, still wanted

to lower marks in the NBA.

That's like 59% this year and says how often they're seeing a help defender on their drives

that is easily the lowest mark in the league, so to your point and to your point Steve as

well, just the way that they are able to occupy defenders with their spacing, with their

cutting, with some of the screening, even if it looks drastically different last year,

they have an effect turned this into a 101 game that kind of goes back to, are they winning

those?

If they already look good, if not, then we have more questions.

And I think as the offense has shifted as rapidly as it has, like the person that's

come under the most spotlight, naturally is Bam out of bio, who of like the duo between

him and Jimmy Butler, he's the guy that's left out, like he is the holder of the culture

at this point.

He is their best player still.

1910 and 3 this year, he has once again been one of the best defenders in basketball.

We're going to dig into that as well.

But who I start with you, how have you kind of seen Bam adjust to what this offense looks

like this year?

Yeah, I think the first thing I like to start with with Bam, especially on the offensive

end, is that there's sometimes a mistake where people want to cast him as the number one

offensive option, just because of his status in the team and the way the roster has kind

of been, you know, falling into place around him, but the team doesn't always use him that

way.

I think it's, you know, we talk about actions over words and expectations.

He doesn't have this 30% usage rate.

He's not trying to do things that, you know, in all NBA, trying very playmaker is trying

to do.

They do want to use him a lot in terms of isolations and finding mismatches, and one of the interesting

things about this offense is that because it's so spacing and flow based and they're not

using picks, it's not always easy to find and create the mismatches that you want to

create on the floor.

That's something I'm kind of keeping an eye on for the playoffs when it becomes a very

mismatch based basketball.

And for BAM, it's created sometimes where even though he's not the 30% usage guy, they

do need bailout offense from him.

They do need shot creation.

And for years, he's always been kind of the guy on the team that gets those grenade passes

with four seconds left.

And this offense has sort of, you know, with less picking role, he's not catching the

ball as much on the move.

There's people just aren't creating for him as much as a function of this offense as

somewhat intentional.

And the roster itself also probably, one of their strengths is not, you know, advanced

level playmaking.

They're all very willing on selfish passers, but there's not a lot of like pocket passes

coming BAMs away.

There's not a lot of skip passes where he's going to have a huge advantage.

So he's creating sometimes a static, static situations.

And we saw in December or so where there was like that three-week stretch where his

numbers were down and people were worried about, you know, slipping offense.

And to me, I was watching that thinking, well, one is jumpers is not falling and sometimes

that happens to everybody.

You know, Ray Allen, some duck and Robinson, some, you're going to go through periods like

that and it didn't worry me too much, but also his shot quality is down.

Even with more threes, he's taking more threes than ever, which this offense needs, whether

or not he's playing with Kalo aware, his shot quality on both assisted and unassisted shots

is at a career low, just because of what they're asking him to do.

And I think, you know, to his, to his ability and he's gotten, even when his like efficiency

numbers come down, he finds a way to, to improve 10% on offense every year, you know, whether

it's funny a double pivot move now he does that like that double reverse spin move in

the paint.

He takes more hook shots now than ever, he's just not just that little push shot that

little runner used to do.

So he's expanded his game.

The offense has just changed around him and the requirements and the necessities of what's

been asked of him have also changed.

Okay.

I'm glad you said that because my question was going to be what's one of the bigger misconceptions

about BAM as far as the season has gone.

I think offensively, I don't think he gets enough credit for how decisive he has been

this year as far as when he drives how quickly he gets off of it.

And I think because of how the offense has changed, it's not necessarily okay, we have

to play it through BAM.

BAM is going to give us a hand off, BAM is going to attack at the elbow, but he has those

pockets, those moments where, okay, I catch it, I go, I mean, they're into one, I'm going

to get shot.

And if not, I'm going to kick it and we're going to continue to play.

I think that's kind of been subtle ways that he's grown while this offense has changed

to not say, hey, everything has to orbit around what BAM does for us.

I think people got to understand like when he's decisive and he's attacking and he's making

these quit pockets, like you've seen hot stars from where it's like, actually, I would

invite to go to the RAM and you can't guard me.

Well, that's a different version of BAM than we've seen before.

So I think like it's easy to kind of lose what he does within what the heat offense kind

of is right now, in my opinion.

Yeah, and I think it was early on when everybody was kind of getting their minds around

this offense, I think still, you saw him because they need him spacing out to the three

point line.

He was getting a lot of his catches out there, but still trying to drive an attack from

the three point line out.

And he's made a little bit of adjustment in the past couple of months or so, really since

2026, where they're giving him more post touches, more catches kind of in the mid range,

where yeah, they do still need him to take threes and space out there.

Any way he catches there, he's just more willing to fire away, but he's not trying to

attack 23 feet out.

When he gets the touch from 15, 18 feet, then he's going into his attacks and getting

the pain from there.

And that just takes one or two dribbles away.

It's less time for the defense to react to trying to come to you and it forces a more

of a reaction.

We've seen some teams, when he gets a lot of those early mid post touches, they are doubling

him.

Like Memphis a couple of weeks ago, the straight up doubled him from the first possession.

They just kept doing it, doing it, doing it, and he was more than happy to swing, swing

to the opposite corner and the heat was just beating out threes.

But it's a little, those slight adjustments of where you know you're catching the ball,

where you're more comfortable attacking from, and not just trying to brute force everything

because the offense also needs you to space out.

Yeah, like I think to that point, that's where it's been fascinating.

You hit on this a little bit earlier, Cooper, where the heat are now more often starting

games and starting second halves with, okay, let's get a cross screen for Bam.

Let's get him a touch at 16, 17 foot range.

Let's let him make a decision.

We can kind of exchange on the weak side of the necessary.

If they do want to send that hill, then we're spraying it.

We're playing a match basketball from there, but if not, Bam go.

Get you close to the basket.

Let's get you down hill.

Back to the foul drawing bad that you've had since you've been a rookie, really.

And I like that they've been spend as I've talked about Bam with Steve on the pot and

off air.

For me, it's mostly been, can the heat and can't find this kind of middle ground to where

they don't need him to do everything and just be the handoff hub, trade, mark emoji.

And everything runs through you and that's a big burden on him.

But I don't think it can also just be, we need you to run a three point line all the time.

You're not getting those middle touches.

You're not screening already, like your own ball screens are down, y'all ball screens

are down.

You're not getting those reps either.

It just kind of feels like we have four or five positions in a row where Bam's just

kind of floating.

It's just like, you are still our best guy.

You are still our best source of generating good offense, whether for yourself or for others.

And I think over the last month or so, I'll go with you like since 2026.

It has felt like Miami has found a better blend of the spacing principles we want to get

to getting bambed involved just as a concept and then also within that involvement, let's

get you those elbow area touches, let's get you those low post touches against mismatches.

Let's let you get the work.

So like that part has been fun for me.

Of two of the defensive side of the ball group.

I think we would all agree that Bam is of course elite defensively, but that he made

a bit underappreciated in non-heat circles and non-ducker spot circles with everything

that he has tasked with doing, like the heat playing as fast as they do, independent

of how good the offense is or is it?

The heat playing at this pace and being a top five defense is not an easy thing to do.

It's a, I want to kind of lay out like what do people miss with Bam out of bio, but like

why do you think this kind of disconnect exists with who Bam is, what he's asked to do

and maybe more of the league wide acknowledgement that he gets?

I think there's a couple things to it.

I mean, Bam has said this multiple times or the league does care about somewhat simple

stuff like steals and blocks.

He's right to a point about that and I think when you look at defensive voting for various

awards, that does factor in, but I think it's about more than just the defensive stat

categories because all the advanced numbers that a lot of the voters look at, he's always

been great at.

Every's on the floor, basically at any point in the last six, seven years, that he have

a top five defense.

But I think it's somewhat his style of play, he's not, he's not Kevin Garnett, like yelling

all the time in your face, kind of a defender and he's also very, very, and I mean this

in a complimentary way, he's very stable where he doesn't fly around looking for blocks.

He's very, he's so good at moving his feet while having his hands high, you know, and

keeping his hands high and being wide, he's like almost a prototypical textbook.

When you're teaching kids how to defensive slide, Bam is what you want them to be doing

and he does it without fouling and but without fouling because he's also not swiping at

the ball.

He's not trying to be as much of a defensive playmaker all the time because I think in

part of the tee, he knows the team needs him to just be solid.

So when they're playing Brooklyn last night and he picks up two fouls, he has his fifth

foul on the third quarter, I almost about fouling my chair because that never,

ever happens.

Bam is never a foul trouble.

But I do, I agree, every year and I, I probably is still more in talking about Bam's defense

than and most people on the planet.

I just think he is an unbelievable defender.

I think he's one of the best defenders of his generation.

After, you know, him and Jaymond Green, especially, are probably, maybe Jaymond's a little

ahead for what he was to speak, but one A and one B as far as the best switch defenders

of the past 15 years and switching bigs, unlock, and entirely new dimension to your defense

if you have the right personnel around it.

He haven't always had the right personnel.

When back in 21-22, when they were the number one student in the East, they had PJ Tucker.

It was one of the best role players the team has ever had, you know, in the 20 years and

he was a perfect, perfect compliment along with Kyle Lowry.

Kyle Lowry enabled some of those two, but for them to switch one through five, as the

roster changed, Bam had to completely change up his entire

defensive coverage.

All of a sudden, he's playing drop coverage most of the time.

To me, I just don't think he got enough credit.

And credit is, you know, in the immediate world, credit is whatever it is.

I just think it wasn't built up as a big enough story in terms of what he is as a defender.

He's also, I'm playing a defense of coverage that wasn't playing to his strengths at all.

And now they're back to switching.

They are playing a lot of his own.

A lot of that's went with Kaleil, when Bam and Kaleil on the floor, especially in the

past, he looks like 50% of the possessions have been in so on.

But it just doesn't matter what you put Bam in.

He's going to put a top five defense on the floor as long as he's there.

And he does it with communication, he does it with leadership, he does it with unbelievable

athletic ability.

And you just see it.

And the respect that teams give him, they want to get him switched onto someone else and

they want to put him in the corner and get him away from the ball.

And that's one of the biggest signs of respect a team could ever give a defender.

And one of my favorite things on that note, and I'll end it there, is that Devin Booker

over the years has been the kind of, the A number one guy for this.

Devin Booker will just get Bam out of switch and then he'll go stand like half-court.

And just say, you all play for him for him.

You know, I did my job.

I got Bam out of the play, you all go play for him for him, figure it out.

And sometimes that was the right move because it just gets Bam away from the ball.

So I think defenses, coaches around the league show you what they think of Bam as a defender

and how they run their offense.

It just takes fans a little bit of time to catch up because he's not a highlight guy in

the way that some other guys are.

Yeah, I'll just say, real quick, me and the guys have joked about that.

It's, hey, Bam, good to see you.

You go stand over there.

We're going to play offense anywhere before you're at.

But I think to Coop's point, there's a volume that people can see defensively and I

don't know if Bam's always registers.

If you're looking at him every single night, he nails every rotation.

He nails all of his coverages.

He does his job.

He lifts his team up and he's asked to do a ton on ball and off ball to make sure that

he defense operates at a high level.

I think that's where you have to have an appreciation for it.

It's going to be hard for someone to turn on the heat game and see Bam space in the corner.

A team does a cut from the wing and Bam just very quickly says, I'll take this cut and

switch.

And now without anything else, the heat defense is recovered.

You don't notice those type of things all the time.

I think switching can be noticeable, but then if it's like, okay, we don't actually want

to attack Bam.

Okay, well then you're not going to notice his rotations or his efforts and we'll be

excited or his communication.

So I think it's more of a volume deal with Bam more than anything else.

Go ahead in the cut.

I don't know.

I was just going to kind of supplement.

Now both of you have kind of said, this year, the Miami Heat defending at a top three

level with Bam on the floor.

And when he goes to the bench, their defense or rating is equivalent to around 16th.

I think that's where Dallas is right now, which I'm quite a sliver for Dallas.

And they've been in the top 10 for most of the year.

But either way, that kind of shows you, Bam is here we do when he is not.

We can be fine, but we don't turn into the elite defense team that we ultimately are

overall.

You see that half court defense is elite with them on the floor.

And I think quieter and it kind of circles to your switch point.

I think for the pro heat pro Bam folks that want to make the defense a player to your

case louder for Bam.

I think highlighting the fact that Cooper, you've done this a ton with your writing over

the years.

The fact that he operate as like one of the best defensive rebound team in basketball

with Bam's on the floor and they just cannot in possessions whatsoever when he goes to

the bench.

It's like a very under discussed portion of Bam's overall impact with Miami's defense

this year and overall.

And I think once you also tie in the fact that they play zone at a higher rate than anybody

in the NBA, the DSL last year to doing so this year, they switch, pretty much switch

more than I think everyone except Brooklyn this year, funny enough coming off those two

games against the net.

High switch rate, high zone rate, they in possession of the elite rate will Bam on the

floor still regardless of them kind of shifting their cover just to that degree.

That's not an easy needle to thread.

And I think Bam deserves more credit for that.

He's been phenomenal again this year.

Like you shouldn't play this fast and then once you also factor in like who they've had

the point of attack at times, all the injuries that they've had to deal with in their guard

and wing room, the fact that they're like firmly a top five defense right now should speak

very loudly to what Bam has meant to this move this year.

So good to make sure that Bam got his love there and want to talk about the defense there.

I guess to kind of close out that portion, like how real do you think his award exploits

are this year?

Like does he have an all NBA case on top of like a deploy case?

Well, he does and I've been putting these numbers out the past week.

He does have one of the best on off point, differentials and just net rating differentials

in the entire league.

Like he's below Yoke Chimumbi, he's just above Shay.

So as far as impact, I think he does have an all NBA case.

I totally understand that the way all of this works and people look at the offensive volume

and numbers and everything and that things don't always line up.

So whether or not he gets all NBA or not, I think he will get votes this year just because

the heat have been as good as they have been on defense.

DPOI, I get what it is with Wembee.

I think Wembee is one of the most unique possibly best offenders we've ever seen.

And there is this sense that as long as Wembee is eligible for the award, people gravitate

towards him, I just want to make sure Bam gets enough of a look.

Even if he's not going to win DPOI, which I do think he is a strong candidate for and

to your point, Nekias, people always have for years talked about the heat's rebounding

and they have just simply not understood that he are an elite rebounding team when Bam

is on the floor this year.

He has the single highest defense of rebounding percentage differential in the entire league

of anybody.

Nobody has impacted defense of rebounding more than Bam in the league this year.

And even whether or not he wins DPOI, whether or not everybody loves Wembee and Wembee

is great, obviously, I just last year he missed all defensive and that shouldn't happen.

Bam isn't all defensive of the player every single year, whether or not he wins the top

award or not, I think he needs to be on one of those two teams because he is that good,

that generational of a defender.

Yeah, I'm right there with you.

Steve, do you have any quick thoughts on the Bam award cases this year before we move?

Nah, I could play it out very well.

There we go.

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Shout out to Khalilware for the perfect timing of having the game to yet,

right before we record a beat podcast, because what do you mean coming off the bench

into your earlier point, who bam, very rare foul trouble, checks out with five

fouls, who I think $6.56 left in the third quarter, and Khalilware plays, I think,

like $14.5 minutes straight, which that ended up itself just kind of insane for a big,

especially a young one.

But $16.11, which is good enough off the bench to eat a thing plus 18 minutes.

12 stops for Khalilware in this basketball game.

Five steals, seven blocks, with a goal 10 that was challenged and ultimately wasn't

overturned, another like block shot, but a student foul was called on.

It's like it could have been nine, I think, spoke reference that in the post game pressure as well.

So great timing for him.

But Khalilware has been one of the more polarizing, like second year players in the league this

year. I think that's fair to say.

It's on the high end.

He can change games on both ends of the floor, catch laws, not down three,

swat shots in positions, and on the low end, we have seen Spowe not be pleased with some of

the effort defensively and some of the screening and some of the shot versus past decisions.

And we see like, he played 10 minutes a night.

That's kind of interesting.

He had destined the first half.

We didn't see him anymore.

That's interesting.

So I guess for you, like, what strides have you seen from Khalilware in year two,

compared to year one, and I guess what do you think his upside ultimately is?

Yeah, I think there's, with Khalil, there's

Khalil as a player, and then there's a conversation about Khalil.

And those things can often not be matched up very well, and I understand why that happens,

because you see someone with his physical abilities and with his length and how easy he makes

some things look.

And I think from a fan perspective, you can sometimes see a player like that and think

he's closer to a finished product than he really is.

And that's fine.

And I get why that happens.

But we also need to let him develop.

And he's still a developing player.

He's still learning a lot last year.

Spowe, he's used the phrase.

Guys, rookies are you learning through a fire hose?

There's a lot of stuff.

Learning defensive coverages as a center is incredibly complex and complicated in the lead today.

But he's become much, he's become more solid.

And I think it's, you know, Spowe has shown you that the minutes have gone up,

the minutes have gone down a little bit, it's fluctuated.

But he's come back to, he's come back to trying to get Bam and him on the floor at the same time.

And I think part of that is just because that's, if Khalil is just playing as Bam's backup,

it's hard to get him more than 15 or so minutes of game.

Now that you're playing them together, it's easy to get Khalil's minutes up.

It's easy to reward him with more minutes.

When he's having a game like I did in Brooklyn, when he had the first 10, 10, 5 and 5 game

franchise history, first 10, 10, 5 and 5 game off the bench and NBA history, right?

And I asked Spowe after the game last night because 50% of Khalil's half-court defensive

possession sense All-Star have been in zone.

Whether or not he's with Bam or not.

There's been a ton of zone.

And Spowe's answer is to why he's been gravitating more towards that coverage form,

is simply that it has kind of simplified as the floor form.

There's a little bit less to read.

He can see the ball in front of him all the time.

He can use his length to just devour the paint.

And you've seen that some of these deals where, you know, Brooklyn,

and again, Brooklyn is not one of the league's elite offices,

but they're trying to skip the ball over the paint.

And Khalil just reaches his hand up and you can't get past them, right?

And that ability just keeps him there and he doesn't have to worry about playing

up on the screen, playing up to the level, stopping a pull-up shooter or anything like that.

He just has to worry about the paint and rebounding where he,

that's probably the single greatest strategy that's taken this year,

has been a consistent solid rebounder on both ends, especially in the offensive glass where

he can high point a ball where maybe only five other guys in the league can get that ball.

So he's become much more solid and there just is some development

than he's to happen in. That's normal for a young guy.

We just shouldn't treat them as finished products yet.

And when a coach is showing you through the users of a guy,

what they need to work on, we need to listen to what the coach is saying, whether he's using,

you know, with how he's working as rotations. But, you know, a game like that is just,

it's really nice to see for Khalil because one of my favorite things about him and I'll end

with this is just that he is, he responds to coaching. I think they're pretty hard on him.

Bam goes is on him, you D is on him, you know, he's sending texts from the prime studio,

you know, everybody wants him to, well, watch him to succeed.

And every time you hear about some of that publicly, he responds, he'll come in with great energy,

he'll come in, he'll dominate the glass, he'll protect the paint, he does what he needs to do.

So you just see these steps, these strides and it's just about stacking good days and

suppose words and getting a little bit better because where he is now versus where he got,

I think they'll be in a couple of years where he can be. There's still a, you know, a huge

way to go, which just speaks to how much better he can get versus what he is right now.

Yeah, I'm right there with you. Just quickly and I have a question for you, Steve, on the

wear front. Like one of my favorite mini games from that net's heat game from Thursday night,

in particular, was the heat getting into zone and like, Jordy for the big fan of Jordy and Brooklyn.

But either way, it's just like, hey, we're going to find a way to use MPJ as a as a weapon to break

this zone. We're going to start on the right wing. We're going to have someone clear from the left

wing. We're then going to relocate MPJ to the opposite corner because we know you want to have

Khalil wear there. Let's see how you navigate that. And like it wasn't always perfect on Miami's in,

but like watching them kind of navigate that, watch Khalil wear, I think to your point,

part of being in his own, like he sees everything ahead of him, like it forces him to be a communicator.

He has to be able to call things out from the back line. I think he's gotten better with that as the

Steve's going as the years going on as well. But like just kind of watching that kind of mini battles,

a fun one for me. And so Steve, for you with the wear front, I have the same general, like what have

you seen from him this year compared to last year. But as you are so good at know as a defensive

particular, I want to get your thoughts on like, where are you at with Khalil wear as a defender overall?

I think for Khalil wears about consistently doing your job on the defensive end. I think the growth

that you've seen at times from him comes from the timing. You know, a lot of zone helps him out,

but I think even some of the man possessions is okay. If my man catches on the perimeter of the elbow,

and there's a drive, am I over helping? Am I timing my health right? Am I getting back out so close

out? Am I helping our team with my help or am I putting us in a tough spot? If it's picking roll,

okay, are they putting me on the move? Am I in position to be close to level or in drop? Am I getting hit

by the roll? Am I able to contest? It's just kind of nailing the little things. I think his best

nights come when he's just solid defensively and just does his job. I'm gonna hit this. I'm gonna hit

why? I get out. We're good to go. And then that's a tough thing for a young player to do. I think people

kind of over underrate how hard it is to necessarily do your job every single time because of what you're

asked to do. You have to navigate space and time and pace and okay, there's a reject. Now,

do I over help here? If I over help, that's gonna open up the roll. Do I get back? Do I can test?

And so I think for me, with Colelle, it's just been continued growth as a young player and a young

big and a league that wants to put those kind of players in action. Hey, you're tall, you're athletic.

Would you like to defend multiple things at once? Would you like to be on the space on the

perimeter and try and help and do your job from a different area of the court? And so I think it's

kind of a give and take. And I think that's something we can kind of forget when it comes to players

developing. Once you kind of see the ceiling, it's like, oh, that person's that. It's like, yes,

but if you show me that, I'm gonna try and take that away. There's a whole other team. We're saying,

okay, cool. If you're gonna do this, then let's do that. And now I have to adjust to that. So it's

a back and forth. I think, but I think for me, it's more about just having a consistent effort

and having a consistency and doing the job. And okay, I know what I'm going to get. That's one

of the tougher things for a young player to kind of master, especially in today's and the year.

I think that's fair. Like I think for me, you just kind of track in the defense. I wanted to

question. I wanted to bring to both of you, but you've already, y'all have already answered it at

this point. But like, I was just kind of wondering, like, what is the ideal Colelle wear coverage right

now? The scoop is brought up like they have been in zone a ton. And I think simplifying thanks for

him, forcing to communicate more, keeping him near the basket. I think it's fruitful watching an

ungodly amount of drop reps from Colelle between yesterday and this morning. It's like he has the

length. The shot challenge can be good. I think conceptually the way that he's now trying to bake in

more of, I am backpedaling. I'm also kind of stabbing at the ball and trying to play that middle ground.

Like I like they find to do more of those things. But like the balance when backpedaling can be a

little bit inconsistent. Like the load ups when he is trying to contest. We're trying to get

backwards and try to contest those laws like Nick Claxton got him about one in the second quarter

and I end up clipping it and was like, sometimes I just sigh, watch him and drop not because he

like can't do it because like some of these are so loud. Just like, man, if he gets this, he's

going to be insane. But I just kind of want him to get this type of beat. But like I think it's

there for him ultimately. And as he continues to stack things, this is where you get into a real

or high level of scheme or still. Especially we were talking about him and Bam playing together.

Which to that end, that has also been one of the louder conversations around around the

Calilware experience since he's been drafted. When my brother men's like, okay, cool, you're

drafting a center that has a whole lot of upside. We have Bam out of bio, who is like an all-in-be-a-caliber guy.

Do you really project those two guys playing together? Which kind of took me to mind like, okay,

is Bam going to actually become a three-point shooter? Because he last year, like second half of

last season, he's like shooting 37-38% for three. And it's like, oh, well, this is real. This is

cool. We need to see if it's going to be real. Clilware this year. Shooting 40% for three, that's dope.

You look at what the splits have been for him so far this year. It's 47% from three before

the turn of the calendar. He's at 32% since the turn of the calendar. And I was like, okay,

I don't really know what to do with this. Steve, you'll probably chuckle at this one. It kind of

reminds me of how I felt about Atlanta Smith offensively tool degree, where it's just like,

if she has, if the three balls are part of the package in addition to like the passing,

the screening, et cetera, oh, this is a whole, this is like a friend. This is an all-star friend

all WMVA player. If she's not that, she can still be impactful offensively, but it does limit

the ceiling. And then as you get into the playoffs, okay, teams are just going to help off of her.

And so my bigger question about that pairing was less defense because I think BAM plus where,

even as he's trying to learn how to become a consistent defender,

pretty high floor and a very high ceiling with those two in the front court.

Offensively, I've always kind of wondered, can either one of those guys spread the floor enough

or at least provide plus value for the perimeter? And I think that's where the BAM play make

a building helps. But like, can they get there offensively? This year, nearly a 120 offensive

rating with BAM and Calil wear on the floor together for PVD stats. It's a plus 9.1 net rating

in 350 minutes together. So I guess Cougs, I'll ask you, like, what is your confidence level now

in that pairing as we get closer to play in slash playoff time and just kind of zooming out?

Can this just be the front quarter for future for Miami?

Well, I think generally speaking, yes, it can be the front quarter of the future,

but speaking to now in the next month or so, I don't really know yet simply because the

numbers have been so drastic. I mean, early in the season, when Spowe went away from it, it was

because the defense was slipping a little bit, getting a little unlucky with that pair in terms of

a point three point shooting, but the offense was, you know, as it was the April 4, it's a little clunky.

And then it's been such a dramatic shift over the past three or four weeks, but it's also come

against some teams that maybe don't have the strongest defensive looks. So it's a little

bit hard to say what's real or not, as far as the numbers go themselves, but I do think where

is real as a three point shooter, whether the volume is there to make defense as a respect

in space out, you know, as is true five out kind of center, I think we'll have to see, we'll just

have to see them play more high level defenses. I really want to see what a playoff scheme will

look against the two of them, because that's really going to be, you know, the tail of the tape

as far as learning about them and how a defense reacts them over like five, six, seven games.

If he can get there, they got to get, you know, do some work before them. But what's interesting

is just that like you said, the offense needs them spacing out. So it's not, we talk about double

big looks, but this is not like, you know, Steve C's group is back in the day with Zebo and Marcus

Saul. He don't have high low elbow dunker spot spacing. These guys aren't really interacting with

each other at all offense. They don't have a ton of path is going each other's way. So it really

does just become about that spacing. I think it helps that bam has become such a willing volume guy

and he takes step back sometimes now. There's zero hesitation. The release has gotten quicker,

which helps. But sometimes it just comes down to make her miss. And all the in between stuff,

I personally just want to see against a higher level, you know, defense, which we're going to start

teaming the heat, you know, in the next couple of weeks. They've got Charlotte games, Detroit games,

Orlando games, Houston again. There's a lot more tests coming in the next few weeks that we're going

to learn more about this pattern as we see more of it. Okay. A question I wanted to ask, I guess

less player specific, but as you brought up the zone with collale and bam on the floor in particular,

I guess I just had a general question about Miami zone and their usage. It's down from last year

in terms of the percentage of positions that they go into zone, but it is still tops in the lead.

And the conversation that Steve and I have kind of had throughout the years with Miami zone is like

one, how unique it is and how they go like high ball pressure into the difference zone looks,

the way they're able to pass off assignments. And so like the actual structure is interesting to me.

But the bigger picture conversation we've had is when Miami decides we're going to go zone.

How often they're going zone from a position of strength or just because this is a lot of

want to play versus we are kind of getting cooked in our base coverage right now. We need to change

this up. We need to make this offensive team think right now. Do you feel like Miami has kind of

found the ideal blend between whatever their man comps are switching, drop whatever and getting

to like this volume of zone? I think they're getting there. I don't know if we're going to know for sure

until because again, we really haven't seen the full rotation healthy all year long. Every time

Tyler comes back, Norm is out. Every time Norm is playing, Tyler's been out and how that alignment

goes as far as setting up for perimeter defense is going to inform a lot. I think of what

coverages they go to. But you know what the structure of the zone is one thing and the

Spobal move guys around almost every game. Davey on the other day was like all of a sudden I'm playing

on the wing. I've never played on the wing of the zone. I've always been up top. But that's just

the way they need him to play. And again, it's not just the zone. You guys know this. It's a press

zone. So they are pressing full core and then dropping back into the zone. So they're already killing

an extra couple of seconds off the clock. And then the team is coming up being like, okay,

what now what do we do? And by the time they even get into like a zone offense action,

sometimes there's like nine seconds on the clock. So that's kind of half the battle there. But

you know what has always impressed me the most about Spobal with the zone is how fluidly they toggle

between the two. If you're going zone every possession down the floor and the defense knows what

to expect, that's one thing. And the really really great offenses, especially those that can

shoot and beat you over the top, they're going to beat you eventually. They're going to find a way.

But what Spob does so well. And I think it's a huge compliment to the preparation of the team and

how much they work this behind the scenes is, you know, coming down. Here's our man and man coverage.

Next time down we put we're playing off a make. We scored. Playing half a free throw. We're dropping

back into the press zone. And sometimes it can be one, two, one, two, one, two constantly for like

eight straight positions. That is not an easy thing to do. And I do not want to play, you know,

what that does in terms of changing up your pitch mix. So to speak, you know, fast up change

up curveball, you know, way not giving the other teams the same look constantly. It has been

increased usage lately. I think in part because that's been good for Kaleh. It's been good for

Bam and Kaleh together. Again, we'll just have to see what it's like again the next few weeks when

the schedule kind of picks up. Yeah, the Houston game you feel very, you struck the one that point.

Go hasty. Well, I was going to say the Houston game where they decided, you know, we're going to put

someone in the middle or put a toothpick on the mouth. And so it started in the middle. And then

there's two passing. It's right back to the same zone. I was like, ha, well done, but that's good.

Overall, having the versatility to be able to time when they use it, to be able to tie in,

hey, we're also staying matched up within the zone to kind of be disruptive to offense as to where

it's a position or strength. I think that's always been when the Miami Heat have been at their best

defensively is when that zone is just something that, okay, it's not necessarily just to get you out

of rhythm. It's not necessarily just to slow you down in the shot clock. It's also, hey, you

don't necessarily know what we're going to do. You don't necessarily know where you're going to attack.

We're taking you out of something and now you have to figure it out. And so them being able to have

that in their back pocket is always one of their best. But yeah, that middle, that middle man thing

got me. They're always going to find a different way to kind of just say, hey, we're in zone, but are we?

Yeah. And even then that Houston game to that point, you know, they used it strategically

against the Houston Lamps when KD was off the floor. And Houston did not have a lot of shooters

on the floor. So those, often those half-port possessions were mucked up like crazy. There was

a very little space thing going on. And that, you know, you played to, who was on the other side

of the floor from you and Spowe knows, hey, I see a weakness in that lineup. Let's go to the

best coverage for it. Yeah, Al Prishengu did not have a good time dealing with that zone and

the pickups in the middle of the floor there. Okay, one more player I wanted to get into and do

we can get into a little bit of rapid fire. So Tyler hero is back as you alluded to,

norms here, here, heroes here, norm is it. We're currently dealing with the hero stretch without

Norm Powell, who hopefully is going to be back somewhat soon. But as of recording, 21.3 points per

game, 58% on twos for Tyler hero right now, 36.3, 9.2 from the line, four boards, three assists,

and 18 games so far. I wanted to ask you about the inside the art scoring in particular. I think

the great young Brady Hawke recently asked for about the floater in particular for Tyler here on

the hassle stats on that front. But it does look like Tyler just feels a lot more comfortable

as he's gotten more games under his belt the minute to rising. But he just feels more comfortable

operating inside the yard. And I feel like that's kind of been the big thing to all the star potential

talk with him. Like candy it to a point to where he's pressuring the room enough to really

be in defense. So like, what have you kind of seen from Tyler inside the yard over his last stretch

games? Well, you have to look at it within the context of the offensive running too because,

you know, Tyler has been a pick and roll player for most of his career until he comes in this year

and all of a sudden, hey, we're not doing that anymore. And when he came back, I think the second

time, you know, in January for a handful of games, the pick and roll usage did start to take up a

little bit with Tyler more screens with BAM. And it was just let's find a way to create an

advance form. But like to your point, these last few games now that he's been back, it's been

the pick and roll usage has come up a little bit, but not to the point that I was up before. And he's

finding ways he plays off everybody respects him as a shooter. He's playing off closeouts. The team

gets him in space. His handle has improved significantly over the past few years where he can,

he's excellent ever-jecting screens on the running pick and roll, but he's also great,

you know, hitting with an inside out dribble, crossing over, getting a guy on his hip, getting

guys in jail. And he's unbelievably comfortable now to your point, playing through physicality.

You know, he can get to that floater. He's off too feet. He's off his strong leg. He's off his

right foot. No, he can get to it whichever way. It doesn't matter. As long as he gets a little bit

airspace, he's getting that perfect release. He's got a great touch inside the, inside the paint.

And it's become a huge weapon because if you can make those short shots, those like eight foot

shots at the rate that other guys make convert layups, then you are basically in effect applying

rim pressure to the efficiency point, even if you're not actually getting to the rim. And as a

helpful part of that, you're also not one of those guys who's diving in and getting to his takeoff

takeoff zone, trying to take a crazy layup that maybe you're good at making, but you're always

going to fall down. And if you miss it, then you go up four on five the other way. Now, if you're

taking the eight foot shot and you're making it the same rate, your defense is more solid, you're

able to get back and still play five on five. Yeah, I got that into that point like the play

strength and the handle improving makes it a little bit easier for him to kind of live with that

particular shot diet, like him getting into like Steve Chuckles when I bring up like deceleration

and things like that. But he had a few in the next game on Thursday, where it's just like I am

absorbing the blow. It's a slow step. I can still get to this flick. You can't really do anything

about it. And he's still hitting it at this clip, which to that point, as a recording right now,

and like the tracking for like what's a floater versus what's a long layup, etc. Like insert grain

assault here, if you want, but from second spectrum, Tyler here 41 of 65 on floaters this year,

which is a 63 percent conversion rate. That is the best amount of 69 players that have attempted

to least 50 so far. And he is outperforming his expected efficiency, second spectrum tracks,

like based on where the player is, who defender is, how strong the contest is, etc. Like what the

expected efficiency is supposed to be. Tyler's outperforming his number by over 20 percentage points

right now. He should not be doing this to your point about, hey, it may be a tough shot overall,

but you are comfortable making these. If this is the level that he's at,

it does just kind of add another layer. In addition to, as you mentioned with Norm,

like we can sprinkle in some of the more designed all-ball stuff. We can't upstate the picking

roles, particularly in fourth quarters. There's something that you Steve has talked about,

now toss it to you. Overall, the cool kind of hit on like what Miami's doing, but how do you kind of

feel about the way that Miami has tried to balance their overall spacing principles and the driving

principles with making sure Tyler has still getting a few ball screens to kind of get him going,

particularly when he gets into like late clock situations or late game situations.

Well, I mean, you know, there's always going to be picking role. That was always the thing I fought

against. It's like, hey, I know they're not running a lot of ball screens, but they're going to

eventually. It's going to be mixed in for Norm for Tyler here and mix them in and put pressure on

teams depending on what we have. I think the one thing for Tyler is his adaption. As you guys

mentioned with the floater, it's a fluidity, fluidity in that, okay, if you're pressuring me,

I can now make quicker decisions because if I don't necessarily have a drive all the way to the basket,

I still know I can get it to a shot. If I don't have anything, I can get off it and I know I can

get it back. And so I think it's helped his overall rhythm as opposed to, okay, I need to set this

up so I can supercharge my drive so I can get to the basket. So now I can take the contact or

I can get to a step back or pull up. No, I can now kind of lead the dance a little bit more with

my ability to kind of create and get to, okay, you don't know if it's going to be a step back,

a pull up or a floater, but I'm doing the same handle and now you have to defend me in a different

way. I think picking role overall, it's going to be something that they're not going to lean on

or rely on, but it'll be in there. You'll always see it. I think it's just, I think it's a credit

to their offense that they can play so random, but it's going to be, it's going to happen. They

push the ball up and bam just like, you know what, I'm here. I'll set one for you Tyler. It's fine.

I got you. I'll quickly add on the Tyler front, averaging about 15 drives for 100 possessions so far

this year that would be one of the lowest marks of his career, but again, only 18 games in.

The heater generating over 1.2 points per possession on any tree featuring a Tyler Hill drive right now

that is the easily the highest mark of his career and that is third among 250 players that have

logged at least 100 drives so far. The two players ahead of Tyler here on that point,

Yannis, which makes sense because he's freaking Yannis in one of the most dominant run players we

have ever seen. And Tim Hardaway Jr., who sneaks in with 104 drives, so barely hits the threshold

of 100. A whole lot of clothes out of tags and never playing off of the Yoko's gravity, et cetera,

but like that was a funny one for me, but it doesn't again speak to like Tyler has been very,

very good getting down hill so far. Now I want to go a little rapid fire which you can,

as we do, want to ask you about some guys and I ultimately want to get into a lineup question or two

with you. But first, while we're on like the all-star slash former all-star kick,

this has been a solid season for Andrew Wiggins, I would say. I think on the high end, you see the

two-way impact for him, post ups, drives, knocks down threes, and then can defend a little bit of

everyone. It's like cool. On other nights, it feels like, hey, did Andrew Wiggins, did he have like

five touches tonight? Like, why has this felt so quiet for him? I guess this is in general how

have you kind of felt about the Andrew Wiggins season in more particular, like his offensive usage

within this content? Yeah, I mean, I think like you guys, we've lived with Andrew Wiggins as a

feature part of this league for a long time. I think we're pretty familiar with who he is. And

so I'm coming in, I had an expectation, let's see, Wiggs be Wiggs, and he has been. That's exactly

what he's been exactly his advertised in most of the best ways. I mean, he's like you said,

incredibly solid on defense is one of the three best defenders. He enables a lot of the swishing

that they want to do now. And I think to that consistency is point, it's not just a consistent

production level. It's consistent, you know, the way he gets the same shots every game. He

takes, it's like an elbow pull-up jumper. It's a drive from the wing. It's a post up into a

hook shot against a smaller guy. It's the quick trigger, you know, three-pointer. Obviously,

incredible transition. He really helps fuel their pace. He's just so solid every game, and I don't

ever really get, I almost never look at Wiggins numbers at the end of a game. What he scored,

anything like that, because he's just kind of the same guy. It's just the game, the context

around him changes, the matchup changes, the rotation changes, because his usage rate will come

down when the team is completely healthy. Or there's some games where he has a great matchup,

and he just want to go to a boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, make them stop you, or make the

defense adjust. He's a hugely, hugely versatile player, and I just, I commend him, because I think

the way he approaches the game is the way pretty much everybody in the league should.

They've needed a half-lead like that, and just that wing six, seven, six, eight, archetype

in the room for quite some time. So like, Andrew, he's been able to feel that has been important.

I think, think about the Wiggins experience overall. I've always kind of wondered,

like, hey, he's super athletic, he can fly around like one, why is the defense consistency kind of

been what it's been before we get to like the Golden State era and stuff, like why is this not

more consistent? And also, like, why is this dude averaging like four or five rebounds a game?

Like, this feels weird. You saw the uptick and go in the state. Some that I really enjoy within

this heat season for him, he's been flying in for these offensive rebounds every night. Like,

teams just do not know what to do when he is in the corner shot goes up. He's flying around. He

spaced around the wing. You don't see him coming. And now it's like either put back dunk attempt,

or he's just dying. Then grab one pump and get to the line. It's like, okay, these are the kind

of little things that you want to see for Andrew Wiggins that he's been capable of doing forever,

that you saw him literally do during a title run. And so it's been cool that Miami's

been able to get that version as well. As we cycle through some of the younger players,

with color, Larsen, what I literally have in the dog to feel the curtain back for the folks

listening or watching the pod, I literally have what is this as a question? Because like,

when he had flashes last year, as I will defend, I will get into your face, I will cut,

I'll knock down corner three sometimes. And I was going to be glue in this lineup.

The minutes have gone up. The responsibility has gone up. The freedom has gone up as Miami allows

everyone to drive. And like the drives from him, like I just didn't think it was going to look like

this where he's like shoulder-checking people on some of these. He's getting into like some

euros on some of these, some of these extension finishes from him. What do you make of the

fellow Larsen experience this year? But he's become a very important piece to what Miami does.

The pillow is awesome. You know, I think it took like two games in this first summer league,

where I looked at him. I was like, yeah, that guy's going to be in the league for the next 15 years.

He just, he passes every kind of eye test in the way he plays, the way he approaches.

And I'll tell you a quick story about him. You know, last year he had this great play in his

rookie year, where he like dove on the floor three times, eventually saved him for three points.

I got a huge crowd pop. And I asked him about it after the game. And he was almost mad at

himself because he was like, you know, two games ago, I didn't die for the ball. And I wasn't

going to let that happen again. And that's just the way he thinks. Every time I talk to him, he's like,

yeah, I think about that a lot. I think about my drive. I think about the way I'm saying my shot.

He's always thinking about the game. He's always kind of processing the way he's playing the way

he can, he can get better. He's unbelievably tough. He puts his face into everything. He's

constantly getting hit in the face. I'm sure you guys know about that whole thing. He's, he's

an unbelievably, unbelievably tough guy. He's very, very, very strong. When he gets a guy on his

shoulder in the paint, they can't do anything about it. His finishing is developing. I think he's,

he's taking all many steps forward in terms of being the paint finisher, using the glass,

finishing through contact and everything like that. But really, the only piece that has been

up and down is the shooting. You see some teams don't put centers on him. They'll put centers on

high man. They'll try and crowd the paint. And in the hoop with Houston the other day, that was what

he did so well. He just started sitting screens. He started cutting. And he also just looked at

Shenguin. It said, I'm going right at you. And he put Shenguin on the deck a couple times. I think

he scored through him going right into his chest like four times in that game. So,

Pella is, he is a complete package role player. He has sold himself as a role player since the day,

even before you got drafted. That's who he's put himself out there, advertise himself to be.

And he's been everything that he said he would be as a role player. I think he's going to have a

very, very long career. And I think as the, you know, as he gets experience in the playoffs,

he's going to become one of those, you know, not a star household name, but one of those role

players that every fan in the league eventually knows their name. That kind of a guy.

He just feels very set up. Like if the heat, either they stay in the play,

undermate the playoffs, if the heat like when a playoff round or make a random Easter conference

finals run this year, there's going to be like a three game stretch where you mentioned the shot.

And I think he's in the low 30s right now in terms of 3.4 percentage where he's going to do all

of the energy stuff defensively. And he's going to dive on the floor and there's going to be like a

chest to chest interaction with the star. And then he's going to go like 508 from three

in a game. And the only fan base is going to be like, why is the Caleb Martin thing happening

again? What on earth is this? Who is that guy? It just sets up for that. But like he's been a

credit for it. So he was going to tell us you a question. We talked quite a bit about highway

Hawkeh's junior this year. As of recording 15, 5 and 5 right now from early in the

intro seems to be towards the top of the list in the six man of the year conversation. How do you

feel about his candidacy? Candidacy now versus the end of the year? Just in general,

have you felt about the season from him this year? I mean, it's still strong. I mean, I think when

you were talking about Miami's offense and the ability to drive in the wind matchups,

how may Hawkeh's has still been really important and key to that. Maybe it's not as loud as it was

early in the season, but when he is able to get downhill wind matchups, getting the paint,

make plays, make defenses, go ahead and show help. And now he's able to open up other plays.

That's really important for Miami, you know, him and David are Mitchell. When they do that,

it feels different. And so I think for me, how may it should be on the list, but he's not a really

solid season as far as consistent growth and understanding. We have just the confidence of what

I'm going to do when I get downhill. The ability to consistently be physical and just have a

swagger and demeanor as far as not just going to be a step back or fade away. I'm going to hit you,

and you have to deal with me in a different way. And my team doesn't enjoy that experience

from the most part. So I'm still impressed by what he's done with you.

Yeah, actually, cool. I want to ask you the same question about a six-minute year can of

see. But first, I'll kind of want to zoom out because Jaime is coming off of an up and down

year from last season. And so for him to kind of balance back to be in the thick of this race,

and ultimately be one of my most effective slash consistent guys this year,

were you expecting this level of bounce back for him? Or should we have seen this season coming

from him? I really wasn't sure. I think you guys probably say this whole time, but we all know

that development isn't linear. So if a guy has a down sophomore year, we should not assume that

it's going to stay that way. And in the same way, just because a guy has a great rookie year,

you don't always assume he's going to have a great second year. The league adjusts to you,

you have to constantly find counters and adjust. And once I figured out what this offense is going to

look like, like through training camp preseason, the first couple weeks of season, I quickly began

to realize that Jaime was going to be one of the greatest beneficiaries of what this offense is,

just because of his skill set to get downhill, because of how physical and rugged he can be,

and how well he can finish through contact. What he's brought up a lot of times this year is

playing off two feet. And at first, when I took that, I was like, okay, you're just doing less

of what I said before, you're less of getting into your one foot launching pad and going and try

to finish in the trees, but it's also playing off two feet and keeping your dribble alive. And I

think those two things go hand in hand, because, you know, his rookie year, I was not the same kind of

player, but in the back of my head, I was a little bit thinking of Tyree Gevens back in the day.

If you remember Tyree Gevens had that great rookie year, a lot of it was off that spin move.

It was power spin in the lane, power spin in the lane. And the lead kind of adjusted to it,

they started taking that spin away. And, you know, he had injuries in his career in a different

direction, but with Jaime, I was like, okay, what's going to happen once the lead adjusts to his

spin move, adjust to his work? And what happens is now he's not trying to go for the full spin

anymore. And that's part of where keeping your dribble alive. It's like a spin where he's keeping

to two foot spinning jump stop. And then he's still dribbling. And instead of spinning, he's more like

twisting his way back and forth. You're kind of burrowing his way into the lane, keeping the dribble

alive while also with his back to the basket. He now sees all the shooters around him for the driving

kick. So this offense has really simplified the game for him in terms of his reads and what he needs

to do. But he's also elevated his counter till he's adjustment by playing out two feet and just

staying alive and being an actor, playmaker as well, the couple is scoring.

Yeah, I think to your point about him really sliding into this, it's very fun to look at the

isolation list right now. And the top 10 is just like all star all NBA future Hall of Fame guys,

one through nine, and then 10 in terms of total isolations run, then it's Jaime. And it's just like,

well, that's a level of freedom that I did not expect heading into the year. But to your point,

he's gotten so good at it. And I think the spacing certainly helps for him. And like, there aren't

many guys that he's not going to get your number one defender more nights than not. So like,

you have small guard sometimes cross matching against him in transition. And he's just like, yeah,

I am bullying you, little bro. Like I'm sorry, you were coming with me. You're going to have to do

something about it. And like it popped into Brooklyn game last night, but you've also seen it throughout

the season. Like I mentioned the assist numbers from early on. Like some of the skill passes that he's

layering in all of these drives. It's not compute for him. But I've been very impressed with like the

timing of some of these weak side passes that he's tossing the placement on those velocity they

can get into with those as well. So like the scoring and the playmaking package has been pretty

strong. Um, the last young guy I want to ask you about and then I have a line of question for you.

Casper's y'all can show this as he's gotten more minutes over the second half of the year. He

is shooting the leather off the ball. I've been so intrigued by like the defensive positions

because you can tell teams are like, oh, that's a rookie guard. Let's put him in action. Let's get

him switched on. Let's try to bully him. And like he does lose some of those reps. But the fight

that he has on some of those, like he's not afraid of anyone. And I appreciate that portion. And like

you can kind of see that same audacity offensively with some of the threes that he's taking and some of

the drives he's trying to get to. The efficiency inside the arc hasn't necessarily been there. But like

conceptually, I have liked a lot of what I have seen from him. So a coup for you, like what were

your expectations for him? You figured he would be a piece of the rotation with mine be kind of

slow play it would you league things like what kind of think about him heading in where you at

I figured they would slow play it a little bit just because his age and being a young point guard

in the league is unbelievably tough on offense. Very few guards kind of hit the ground running in

terms of being a high usage point card or anything like that. And there was a bit of an adjustment

process that you could see happening in the whirlwind of draft summer league. They were trying out

pieces of the new offense in summer league. And look, he's for most of his life, he's been a pick and

roll point guard. And also in your drafted to a team where you're expected to be a playmaker without

screens really in any way. I think that's been an adjustment. I don't even know if that this

offense is necessarily like it's been so good for some guys, but he might be in that band category

where it's a little bit different and you have to figure out what your place is because you're not

using advantages, create off screens. But he's shooting the ball so well that he's by himself a

lot of development time on the floor. The shooting has kind of earned him mids on the offensive side.

If he's shooting like that and he eventually learns coverage reads and all that kind of stuff,

you're looking at a player, you're just the finishing inside the arc will come. I just think the

finishing inside the arc has also been down a little bit because he's attacking these isolation

situations versus a pick and roll where he has a threat of the lob or a pocket pass or the floater.

He doesn't have those multi multiple read possessions as much as he probably has in the past.

But to your last point about his toughness, unbelievably tough. You know, Steve and I, we watched

a lot of our Vistabartists back in the day. A lot of the tough look at the winning guys.

The cast versus exactly that kind of a guy. He plays defense with his chest. He doesn't get tossed

around. He's still not as big or strong or strong that he will be eventually. But he, you can tell

that he does not, you know, he's not the guy who goes in thinking I'm going to lose that fight.

He thinks he's going to win every fight when he's on the floor. Whether or not he does or not,

it doesn't really matter to me yet. We'll see where he is defensively in three years where he

becomes eventually. He's got a quick hands. He reads the floor well. I just think the world of him

as a player. I just don't think, I think right now a lot of it's just been shooting and defensive

toughness and play a small role, a simple role. He's going to become, we'll see, and it's going

to be a couple of years. He can become something pretty special. We just haven't really seen

the playmaking being truly unlocked yet because that's what's going to make him special eventually.

Yeah. He's even in his limited time. He's had put some fun passes on film.

Okay, question for you both to kind of close things out. I'll start with you.

What is Miami's best lineup? If we get two, five minutes left in a playing or playoff game,

what is the grouping that you would like to see on the floor for them?

I will give you my best answer and that is I don't know.

I don't know. We just have not seen the guys on the floor together enough. I don't know if we

know. I don't know if it's phone notes. I don't know if there's any possible way that you could

have that information. We were all just guessing at this here and we don't know when Tyler came

off the bench a little bit when he came back and then Norm got hurt and then Tyler's starting again.

If and when everybody is healthy, are they going to start together? It's one of them going to

come off the bench. Do they ever want to go back to starting two bigs? Right now they're doing

this funky rotation move where Bam is almost being pulled early and then he's being inserted,

re-interred into the game two minutes later to play with the Kaleil and then Bam comes out again

and Kaleil is standing in the game throughout that whole shift. Does that continue when you've

got all of your guys ready to go? I don't know what the best lineup is going to look like. We

haven't talked much about David on Mitchell. He's been incredibly important to them as an

on-ball defender, unlocking some of their switching, his playmaking, his ability to be physical on

drives. I wish I could give you a better answer than that. I just think this team has a lot

of talent and skill that we haven't seen together on the floor yet and they've only got a few

weeks left but we could be going to a situation at some point where they're going into playoff

game or a playoff series and they're still trying to figure out or just going with their best

guess as to what their best nine-am rotation is. That could be the story of the season is that

that you get to the last week or two and they're still just, hey, we think this is the best

thing we have but there's not necessarily a thousand minutes of data to support it. You just

got to figure out and treat the season. Go with the season as point of front of you and I think

they're doing that so far but right now I don't know and we'll see. Yeah, that's fair. Steve,

do you have a line of thoughts? I have a guess. I have a guess. I have a guess. The one I want to see.

I will say and speak for myself. Give me Davey on Mitchell Tyler here on Norman Powell,

Andrew Wiggins Bam out of bio. Okay. I like it. I like it. I think the data that we have right now,

Miami's most use line up right now is Davey on Powell Wiggins Bam and where minus one in 142

minutes but trending upward and again when Norman Powell gets back, we will see what that

ultimate it ends with. As we're looking at other stuff, Mitchell Powell, Larsen Wiggins Bam is

plus 62 and 110 minutes and I kind of want to see more of that if you're going to have defense.

Pretty much like at the one three four and five spots and then Norman, like you just be a flame

thorough for us. Get into those off-ball actions with Bam, get into those quick drives. Everyone

that has the freedom to attack, like that feels like a nice balance but again, like that's without

hero. So like to your point, like I don't know how you factor in the fact that you have like three

guys that can get you 20 at any game of time between Norman, hero and Bam and then

trending enough defense around that. Like for me, heading in, like I think Wiggins is going to be

in, Bam is going to be in. After that, like you can kind of piece it together anyway you want

and I probably won't sneeze at it, honestly. But like those two seem to be the most locked then.

A actual final question for you, Cooper. Where can the people find you? Where can the people find your work?

You can find us. We've got a lot of videos on the Heat YouTube channel. We have a great team

over there. We've got the after the buzzer podcast. We're putting up YouTube shorts. We've got a

ton of featured content, a lot of on-demand content on YouTube. So please come and subscribe. We have

a ton of content recording a lot of effort into building out this YouTube channel. Always a lot of

analysis there. You can find me on Twitter at Coop MBA on Blue Sky and then we've of course got

articles up on the web up on heat.com. Anywhere in the heat space you can find us somewhere. But

but you too for sure come on over and subscribe and we'll give you a lot of good stuff there.

There we go. There we go. Thank you so much for joining us in rocking with us. It was a blast.

Excited to see what a heat hornet looks like later tonight. So it's certainly going to be

tapping in. We appreciate you, Beth.

And we are back with this episode of The Dunker Spot Steve. We're going to close with a couple

of news items. One on the NBA side and we're going to put a bowl on the unrivaled season. But first

on the NBA side. Jason Tatum is slated to make his return later tonight against the Dallas

Mavericks Cooper flag also return Thursday night. So we'll see if he plays on the second night of

a back to back. It will be cool to have like Tatum and Cooper flag and that one. But either way

Jason Tatum making his longer way to return has been kind of tease. The tease more heavily over

the last light month or so practicing with getting pictures and videos and things. But now he's back.

Steve, for you, what are you going to be looking for in the Tatum debut?

Well, I mean, I think one, you just give a salute to Jason Tatum for the effort that he put

in to get back on the court. Now, you know, I was captain of, hey, find a hobby, relax,

till don't worry about it. But he put the work in. We've seen the work that he put in and he's

got himself to a place where everyone's given him the thumbs up to play and that's a grueling

and tough effort. And you know, you got to kind of tip to cap number one. Number two, it now becomes

okay, how do we, what do you do analysts wise as far as Jason Tatum's game is contribution to

the Celtics? Because it's like, hey, it's just it's good to see you back on the court. And Boston

has kind of been an established team. Jason Tatum has an established game, which kind of leads

me to a little bit of the discourse that I've seen, which doesn't make any sense to me.

At all, I don't understand why we're talking about Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown in this

manner in 2026. And big 2026, we need to clock the tee and not do this ever again anymore.

There's no reason for us to be doing this because we've seen them win a championship together.

They're a good duo. They're fine. Like a lot, I just, I'm not moved by this discourse,

there's plenty of room for both them to operate. It's especially, and you could argue there's

even more room with how this roster is built for both Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown to do what they

do best, which is give buckets and make plays. And I think when one of my favorite stats to track

earlier this year, we, I said it on the pod. I like looking and seeing, hey, how many of these

field go attempts came from Jaylen Brown, Derek White, Peyton Richard, and at the time,

every assignment. I think there's room for Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown to both cook. I think

it'll be okay. I think they'll be fine. It'll be good. But overall, it's just okay. What's the

health look like? What's the defense look like? How's he recover? How many drives are we seeing?

Are we seeing pull-ups? What's the mix there? But, you know, if he's able to continue to look

like himself, we'll see the talent display. It's Jason Tatum. He's really good.

He is incredibly good at basketball. And this is why I wanted to get your opinions first.

And I wanted to bounce off of that quickly because I have been so annoyed by the discourse.

We're going to get there to answer my own question. One, just on a baseline level, Tatum makes

the debut later tonight. Is he starting or is he coming off the bench? And as such, like,

what is the minute's cap going to be? Like, I don't think Tatum's just playing 35 minutes

against Dallas later tonight. That does not feel realistic. I would assume it's going to be

somewhere in, like, the 15 to 20-minute range without seeing, like, reporting on that front. Maybe

Celtics media has hit to it. I just haven't seen it yet. So, I apologize about missed it.

But I would assume, like, 15 to 20 minutes. And from there, what are these lineup combinations

going to look like? Who's he playing with? Who's he playing around? How are the touches going to be

divvied up? Defensively is where I'm really intrigued because, like, my main complaint with

the Celtics for most of the season has been, oh, I like the increase in ball pressure. Like,

obviously, Derek White could still be very good. Like, they are a bit skeen versus the big room,

but it is a lot more drop than you're used to with the Celtics. But, like, they struggled so much

to end the possessions to start the year. For most of the year, honestly, they have quietly

creeped into the top 10 in defense of rebound rate per clean of glass. Like, that's kind of, like,

the last thing for the Boston thing if you had any kind of criticism for. So now we'll take some

back or take them back. He should help the defensive rebounding. And within that, how early do we see

Jason Tayden matched up with centers? Because, like, one of my favorite parts of Boston's defense,

when he was healthy, was we'll put you on a big, we can turn all these picker rolls into switches.

We have our big, Roman elsewhere to mud things up at the paint. Like, how quickly do they want

to go to that gambit as Tayden works his way back? Like, I'm excited to see what that part goes to.

To the discourse overall, it has been so incredibly stupid. It's been so incredibly stupid. And I

just won for Jason Tatum. He is incredibly good at basketball. He should help your basketball team.

We should not be questioning if he's going to help the Boston Celtics. Of course he is.

But, like, this thing where on one side, we have to have is Jalen Brown's team now, like,

that really matters. As you point out Steve, they have won a championship together. Who cares?

Who's team it is? We don't have to do this. That doesn't matter. Neither one of the characters

that y'all are pitting together in these conversations cares about it to that degree. Jalen Brown does not

care. You know, at least not past the extent of I have proved to myself and others that I can

handle a bigger workload. I don't think he wants to keep Jason Tayden about the door. That's dumb.

I don't think Jason Tayden, through who we have seen him to be, is like, nah,

bleep Jalen Brown. This is mine. I am now going to take 30 shots of game when I come back.

Nothing about his game or his mentality and how you produce things. Who would suggest either of

those two are going to be like fighting over the ball, Will Smith and Carlton Bakes salad at the

end of the high school game, when Carlton chucked the ball into the hallway. I don't think we have

to do that. On the other side, this thing where if you even suggest that a star player that is

entering a lineup like 60 plus games into a regular season is going to have an adjustment period

of some sort. And that is taken as like, you are disrespecting the entire Tatum lineage for whatever

reason. It doesn't have to be that deep either. Like, why is this such a hard conversation to have

of all the stars who could potentially be trying to slide back into a roster? I don't think there

are many that could slide in easier into a situation and specifically the balls in a situation

easier than Jason Tayden. And that's still going to come with if Tayden was playing 20 minutes,

who were those 20 minutes coming from? Are we not seeing you going anymore? Are we not seeing

Jordan? We're all seeing more again. Like, when are these lines going? What are the touches going

to look like? Those things have to be figured out. I think it's okay to acknowledge

as good as Jason Tayden is. It may take three to five games for them to find the rhythm. And that's

before getting into Tatum's going to go from 20 minutes to 25. He's going to go from 25 to 30. He's

going to go from 30 to 33. That adjustment is going to happen, but I think it's going to be fine.

We can say that without yelling at each other. We also don't have to turn into, we don't have to

have round 87 of Jalen Brown's team versus Jason Tayden's team. That's dumb. Nobody cares. Let

them be good. Let's just watch Jason Tayden play basketball and watch the Boston Celtics

who have been one of the best teams in league this year and one of the best stories in the league this

year. Let's see what they do as the top of the Houston conference is. Oh boy. One day you feel

really good about the pistons and the other day you look at the office. One day you feel good about

the New York news. One day it's like, ooh, it's going over cat. The Celtics have a prime opportunity.

Let's just watch them play out. I just, I hate this back and forth. And I always struggle with like,

we have to have a force of what the conversation is. And you don't want to add fuel to like what

you think is a dumb conversation. But it's also like, if I hold this in, I'm going to be miserable

as a basketball fan. So I got to say this somewhere. And so there we go. I'm excited to see Jason

Tayden. Those are things that are looking forward to conversation is stupid. Let's watch Jason Tayden

play basketball. Wow. Sorry. Just put the, just put the discourse bottle down there.

Just put it away. It's just, it's just in my face. It's for you. Just drop out the discourse store, man.

It's the episode of SpongeBob. With him and with SpongeBob and Patrick, we're like going through

like the perfume shop. And it's just like that. It's just in your face. And like they put on the

mask and then like, our hand reaches out and they like remove the mask and spray directly in the

like it's just that. And I'm just, it's, it's, it's a dumb. It's so, it's so dumb. It's so dumb.

Either way, congratulations to Jason Tayden on the rehab. I'm very excited to see him play

basketball again. The self-esteem is going to remain very good. Now to close things out Steve,

the unrival season officially ended on Wednesday night. And buddy, we got ourselves a game. We got

ourselves a pair of insane performances. The Miss or Miss B.C. They win the championship

80 to 74 over Phantom B.C. Brandon Stewart, 32 points on 15 shots. He only missed four of them.

Four boards, four assists, four stocks, two steals and two blocks and that one. Kelsey Plum,

18 points in the first quarter. I've been saying. Oh boy, it made me laugh and I wrote about this

and like my takeaways piece from the game. But like, start a second quarter, Kelsey Plum is having

a conversation with someone and she's like smiling and like, while this is happening, there's just

the graphic under her name. Kelsey Plum, 18 points, rest of team six. And I'm just like, ah,

well, this is pretty loud. She ends with 40. She was incredible. So Steve, just for you,

like what were some of your major takeaways from this one? What were your favorite parts of that

game and what do you kind of make of this miss season overall? I mean, the missed had the roster,

they had the talent to just kind of wear and poke at you in different ways. I think we saw that,

especially in this playoff run. The Lana Smith was great. Aureka was great once again. We have

Stu, we have Alicia Gray, like we can just kind of do different things and shape shift towards what

you're doing while also being able to display different things on our end. We can go to the post,

we could space the floor, we can get to different actions. We can always have a screener on the court.

We can feel a comfort on both ends. And I think it's just, okay, you think you're in a good spot.

Now it's, oh, that's right. Aureka has caught the ball at the elbow and Stu is going to screen and

there's no one on the other side of the court. What do we do? They just kind of found ways to put

pressure on you offensively. They found ways to score. And defensively, they just never were fun

to deal with. And so I think it's a big suit to the missed. And that's right. You got to say,

unrivaled champion Lee Yeroux and the guys and they'll let me forget it. But you know, I think

everyone kind of bought into their roles, everyone bought into the team structure. I think that's

where you have that third quarter stretch where I mean, it was a back and forth battle. You know,

we talk about the dog and the phantom, you know, cussed don't have a lot of points, but they

were given the effort. It was what's 6158. And then you look up at the end of the third. It's like,

wait a minute there. A lot closer to that target score than y'all are. This is an ideal. I personally

would say we, I need, we need to figure out a better way to end games and on a single free throw.

Just for my personal consumption. That's just my thing. I understand the rules. I understand

what happened. It is what it is. But that game was too good. And that comeback was getting too

close for it. Oh, it is a free throw. And it's over. Yeah. And I know how much.

Yeah, I was going to say, I know how much you in particular love foul and free throw talk on this

podcast. I know it brought you great joy to have that be the end of the game and thus any conversation

point in this segment. But no, I think to that point, Steve, well, actually before I get there,

let's talk about it to the game. Incredible game. And like there were so many swing

possessions in this one. Again, Kelsey Plum and Brandon Stewart ultimately stole the show in

this game. But like watching Kiki Irving on the offense of glass in that matchup was incredible.

I was like, oh, man, so if somebody finishes like you, what you mentioned on the last on the

preview pile, we had with miles is like, well, the finishing can kind of be up and down. But like,

her work on the offense of glass was very important. And I think that helped kind of keep

fans of a float when we get to the second quarter and they felt like the miss were beginning to

find the beat on what they want to do. Kelsey Plum, okay, a little bit more ball pressure into

these ice rubs, a little bit closing the gap a little bit more when we do have to switch against her

etc. Now again, she ended with 40. So like, she eventually got right back to answers. But like,

watching them kind of piece through that was fun on the fans of side. And then for the miss,

a reek egg, um, while they once again, big shot after big shot after big shot, Atlanta Smith,

once again, big shot after big rebound, after big finish, like her versus the smaller group

of when fans of it pretty much all guards is like, yeah, I'm just going to deep seal and take in

these like turning hook shots and somebody's face. The face kind of got me. I was like, you're bigger

than them. But like, either way, she was able to win those advantages enough as she was huge on

the glass. And I one thing I wrote about was that in the first quarter slash early second quarter

stretch, where is 2418? Fanta because of what Kelsey Plum was able to do. And then you get

Atlanta Smith shot, Atlanta Smith boards, Atlanta Smith dime, so a cut in our reek egg on the wall.

I just like, you just need those to kind of keep you afloat before you start gets back. So you

got enough of those some key drops from Alicia Gray in this one. Veronica Burns defense in that

second quarter. I thought was huge. And then you get to the end of the game where fans are making

this comeback. And it's like, man, maybe Kelsey Plum is just going to render all of this move.

Like, maybe it just does not matter what the miss that been able to put together this season

in the playoff run. And through the first like three and a half quarters of this game,

because you get to Atari scores like, oh, it feels like Mr about to make their run great close

and thirded. And the fans were like, nah, and Kelsey Plum in particular is like, nah, now two

year other point is generally less of a deal for me. Like, hey, don't foul. You know what I mean?

If you don't want to get into the free throw, but like, I certainly wouldn't mind if they shift

this. And so the question I wanted to toss to you, Steve is like, how would you like this to be

handled? Because I've seen a couple of, I've seen Miles Kia Stokes also threads. If you follow

her there, like she suggested, hey, if the other teams near the target score and you commit a shooting

foul or you're in the bonus or something, instead of it being free throws potentially ended,

you lose a point whenever you commit a foul. Like, do you think that is a way to balance it or

do you have any other ideas aside from what we currently have with free throws potentially ending?

I mean, I just do like the one on one tournament. If it's literally in that one specific scenario,

do you get a second that second foul? Next one you got free throw. That's on you. That's on you.

I asked it, but check, check ball. Check ball. I respect it. I felt for Tiffany Hayes in that moment.

Very well designed. We're going to go cross-screen into an inverted pick and roll for it for

Brianna Stewart. Tiffany Hayes slides in to try to take the charge. It like she got to the spot first,

but because she's kind of like leaning in and slashing, bracing herself for Stewie's layup,

she's not in legal position. It was the right call, but it's just like, I don't. I understood

it was correct, but I didn't love it. And then it feeds until your point. Like, oh, now this is

also just ending on a potential free throw, but like heck of an effort for Tiffany Hayes on that one.

And her reaction, I think everyone kind of dealt with what they're giving the call.

And you can hear her very loudly on the broadcast, how? I beat her there.

What do you mean that the call has been overturned as she's getting to take the free throw, but either way,

great game, great season, Brianna Stewart has added yet another trophy to the case. She has

literally won everywhere Steve. Also Brianna Stewart finals MVP. I want to add that in as well,

but she has literally won everywhere. It's kind of crazy when you write it out, but fun season nonetheless,

fun season nonetheless. And with that, thank you for listening to and or watching this episode

of The Dunker Spot. If you haven't already, please subscribe, Apple Spotify, RIP Google,

Stitcher, Podbean, wherever you get your podcast, you can find us, subscribe to the Yahoo NBA YouTube

channel. If you haven't already fun pods and some fun content coming your way next week. So be

on the lookout for that. You can follow me on socials at the Kaya's NBA. You can follow Steve on

socials at Steve Jones 20. And with that, we will catch y'all next week.