Local Hour: The Ever-Inflammatory Dan Le Batard

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Can I get an honest appraisal from all people involved on and no sugar coating? How does

everyone feel about Trista's dog Ali being here? Pretty non-intrusive like compared to all the

other dogs could have weighed a second before you started some shit. I mean I I like dogs I guess,

but like my dogs. Yeah. So you I feel I feel that way when people show you pictures of their kids

I feel like that's how people feel about kids they like their kids they don't want to hear your

stories about your kids. But I tend to love all dogs especially dogs though that are this

non-intrusive. I'm the one who allowed the dogs in the office and there have only been a couple

of complaints. It's a mean mostly right? A mean is the one who complains the most about

dogs in the workplace and he believes it makes it a hostile work environment for him.

But what is the what is the appraisal from everyone here? Does anyone do we know if anyone here

has any objections that they have shared about Ali? Because Ali seems lovely.

You're first word. I mean it's remarkable. Oh my god you're first words trying to get people

in the office. And I was worried you might miss a step before you. But guest in this week Trista

someone say something bad about Trista. I'm not saying I'm not saying for anyone to say anything

dog climbing all over you before the show. Do you like that? That's weird right?

Not what I said. I didn't say any of that. You guys are putting all these words in my mouth.

I'm pretty good with words. The words that come out of my mouth. I'm generally aware of what

they are what they should be. So for the record. Are you an inflammatory guy by nature?

Yes. I mean look at him. I just want he's in flame. I just want honesty. I want honesty in the

work. You're like that little girl where she's smiling in the whole house is on fire behind her.

That's you. Juju always gives it to me straight. Juju what is the appraisal here? Have you heard

anything? What kind of feelings have you gotten from the room in general about the appearance of

Ali the dog? The silence works typically in an audio format. In Ju's defense he put on.

He pressed on. What is the fader down? That's usually where I would look first if someone speaks

in microphones on and the faders down on the board is probably. No you look like you look like you're

all over it. Faders up. Good start. So Juju's not going to be able to speak for the whole show or what?

So I go away for a few minutes and we're at war with Iran. Stephen Hawking is in the Epstein files

with photographs. The US hockey team has given up all of its goodwill in five minutes. Ruben

Baines. Arms are too short. Tyler Van Dyke's career is over as a quarterback. What else did I miss?

What else do you guys have for me that that changed while I was gone for a week? You were gone for

a week. You're just going to list everything. Things happen. I know things happen but these are some

substantive things that have happened. I appreciate the appraisal that things happen. I didn't have

Ruben Baines arms being too short. They were the same size. They were the same size all of last

season is what I'm saying. I saw him in the backfield all the time with those short arms. They

didn't get any shorter. You wouldn't put them as too short but you would put them in the same

tier as that's as big a story as war with Iran. All of that is in the same class of stuff. I put

all of that in the same place, especially Tyler Van Dyke's career being over. He went straight to

coach when I saw SMU gets new assistant former University of Miami quarterback. I thought it was Ken

Dorsey. I didn't think it was going to be Tyler Van Dyke. They actually have DRK as well.

Yeah, Tyler started a game for Wisconsin against Alabama was actually moving the ball quite well

against him in his first drive and then he just totally tore up his knee and you thought,

this will be the standard ACL thing. Then photos came out of his knee and recovery and it looked

jacked up. I know they usually say, Tyler Van Dyke had a successful surgery. His knee looked bad.

There were photos of him smoking cigars from the SMU locker room after they had defeated Miami

last year and it looked pretty jarring. I'm not surprised that his career is over. He was basically

on the staff as a coach in uniform for them. I imagine you guys talked plenty about everything

that happened with the U.S. hockey team but how are you guys feeling about inter Miami going to

the White House because now inter Miami is going to do that, right? Lionel Messi gets knocked down on

the court or on the pitch. I should say in Puerto Rico and now they're headed. These things,

these things cannot be done quietly anymore. They're not just photo ops anymore. It's side taking

now is what it is where it is that we've for the U.S. Olympic hockey team to do something it hasn't

done in nearly half a century and I remember what it was like the last time they did it and to give

the good will away that quickly, it's rare that I've ever seen a sports team of any kind do that.

Give away that kind of good will, the best good will patriotism. It's the easiest good will in sports.

The easiest everybody, no matter how they feel about the flag, they can wrap themselves in it because

something silly happens in sport. Now inter Miami, your champion here locally, you've got locally,

you've got the Panthers are finished. That's a quiet end to a two time championship reign.

The heat are arguing with former legends, Dwayne and Bam are arguing about whether they are

or aren't a play in team. They are. Thank you, Tristan. Technically for now. They are and they

have been the last couple of seasons, but they're Dwayne and Bam are arguing about it. Bam is saying

that Calilware doesn't listen to Spowe, but he does listen to me. That's something that just

happens. That's strange. Is it not? Do you guys want to see where playing with Bam? Like they,

if where doesn't play, they're not very good, like statistically. I like the idea of where playing

next to Bam, especially when Bam comes out and says that where listens to him. So I like that

dynamic. If Bam is supposed to be a leader, he is the captain. I like the idea that they're next to

each other. If where listen to him also, I saw Barry Jackson put out this number a couple days ago

that when Calilware plays less than 15 minutes a game, the heat at least at that point were one

and nine on the season. My god. I thought it was worse than that. I thought it was like one and

15, but let's get bam. I thought this was interesting from Bam. I also, I was surprised by it,

right? Because Bam is being unfiltered, honest here. I don't generally find Bam to be that

interesting, but I thought all of this was hugely interesting. He usually doesn't say publicly

interesting things, but listen to what he has to say here about playing with Calilware.

But he wants to learn. He wants to figure it out. And you know, for Spowe, man, you just got

given the opportunity to make mistakes now. Sometimes the mistakes be crazy. But as you can see,

he's a talent man. He can get a double double with his eyes closed. And when you have that type

of talent and he's activated, you know, he doesn't do anything but help out, help out defense,

and big brother can make plays. He also said he doesn't listen to Spowe. He listens to me.

Like that, that, that sounds not there, but I was surprised to hear that sound. I go to the

workouts with him at 6 a.m. What is that saying out loud? I don't listen to Spowe or he doesn't

listen to Spowe. He listens to that. I think it means that Spowe is really tough on him.

Probably the same way that he was really tough on Bam, you know, seven, eight years ago.

Spowe's been talking smack about Khalilware since summer league. Khalil's first summer league

and just burying him over and over and over again. At a certain point, I think talents need to be

led in different ways. And Spowe does not care. He's going to continue to give Khalil a tough

look. And Khalil went to Oregon, transferred out of there because he didn't want Dana Altman

in his ear. So this is not new, I think, for Khalil. Well, I remember the very first time, the very

first time I ever spoke to Spowe as the head coach, what he made clear right away is I do not care

if the players like me. It's no part of my job description. Do the players like me. However,

when I hear the leader of this team for better or worse, that's the leader. It's not Tyler Hiro.

The leader on the court of this team is Bam out of bio. When I hear him say flatly,

young player doesn't listen to coach. I've never heard a heat player say it about their coach.

And I don't think that's good. Like I don't I don't think there's a way to frame any of what's

happening between Spowe and Khalilware. She could she could file it under tough love. That's the

most generous assessment. But if he's tuning out tough love, then it stops being loved and it's

just tough. Is him not listening to Spowe as Bam saying that as something that like does that

make Spowe look better? Is that make where look bad? I think it makes Spowe look bad.

Honestly, like at a certain point, you have to change the way that you coach. If somebody is

tuning you out and it's a a talent who is to the point where Bam is saying like this guy makes

plays. Yeah, that makes mistakes. He makes sometimes are crazy, but he's a young player. He's very

talented. He has all the tools. He's a seven footer who can do all these different things. Like

it behooves Spowe to adapt to a certain point. If you want to get the best out of your talent.

When he's listening to Bam out of aisle more than the coach, I think that's a bad sign.

So this is an interesting thing that she's bringing up here because I have talked to people who

are now in their fifties in charge of things. And they don't understand how the young people in

meetings are always in their phones. The young people, when you're having meetings about important

things, they have no reference point for these people who are 30 years younger than me. They're

in their phones and their choices to either ban it and lose them or adapt. And I think most people

listening this are probably saying Spowe doesn't need to adapt. Calilware needs to learn. The entire

pressure of the entire system is falling on Calilware to get better, no matter whether the

environment is supportive or not. But the best executives I know say to their young people, hey,

look, I understand the things have changed. I'm not going to do a hard and fast rule on your

phones. But please, in these instances, be paying attention. I need you to adhere to the general

outline of some rules that I'm going to change a little bit for you. But I don't see why

and how Spowe would change. Why would he? There's nothing. There's nothing in the culture of what

the Miami Heat are that would suggest to Spowe that he has to change, except that they're just a

playing team all the time. And he kind of needs that player to be great if the architecture of this

team is going to be such that they're not going to get him better players. Right. First of all,

Spowe, what have you done for me lately? Like I don't see no rings on the fingers lately. At the same

time, I think he should take the advice and the example from how Steve Kerr handle Kaminga.

Because Kaminga is good enough. If you put him in the right system, as you see, he's good enough

if you're willing to work with him, your irresponsibility in just trying to work with the with the

young gentleman, I think is kind of wrongly if I was on Spowe. Can't there be an argument made that

they've handled him exactly right this season because he's gotten better and better and now the

minutes alongside BAM are productive. Like he was struggling so much defensively in those matchups

with BAM because he was shot block chasing. And now those times where they're out there together

over the last four or five games they played together, they're like plus 80 when they're on the

floor together in limited minutes. So while I understand like Collelle has been frustrated,

there's also an argument to be made that they have handled him the right way because he has only

improved in the ways they've needed. Well, he's not being handled the right way if he's not

listening to his coach. If I've got BAM saying out loud, he's that he doesn't listen to Spowe.

Like he said, I want big fella out there. I feel like he listens to me and sometimes he kind of

ignores Spowe. I've banked so much equity with him throughout the summer. And then he later on says,

like, I feel like he gets better when he's out there with me. It's a semantics here. Yeah,

right. Like, well, but I think I'm going to take the opposite side of the semantics then it

sounds like you are. It feels a little bit like a throwaway line to be perfectly honest what BAM

is saying there. Like does he not listen to his coach sometimes? It definitely like I think it's

why he slipped in the draft and he's such an incredible town. Like there was a reputation that he

had when he was in school. And I don't even know the part that Trista just said about Oregon,

okay? So clearly there was a reputation of the player kind of feels a little bit like a throwaway

line from BAM. He's never offered that in the way of a throwaway line before. And I've never heard

someone say that about someone who's coaching the heat before. Like never going back to Kevin

Lockery. I've never heard it say, I sometimes ignores the coach, especially a player sitting there

fighting for minutes. Well, but I think while maybe it wasn't set out loud, I think we can all agree

Hassan Whiteside was likely not listening to Spowe all the time. Okay. And BAM didn't say so.

Right. Well, but, but maybe he's going to more. It was understood. It was understood. Yeah.

We all understood that he wasn't listening to Spowe. I want to get Mike's reaction to this

Barry Jackson tweet right here. Spowe said recently the heat is simply better than its record.

Riley said the Cavs playoff series isn't reflective of what this roster years for what this

roster is. For several years, key heat people have felt the roster is superior to the record. One

reason they've stuck with it wins like this against Houston and this season versus okay,

Denver, two versus the next versus destroyed Detroit fuel the continued internal belief in

this roster. I have no doubt that the Miami Heat believe in themselves. No doubt whatsoever.

And I have no doubt that it will play out the way that it has recently in which they're wrong

about the roster construction. And they'll they'll try to get an impact player outside of the lottery.

And we'll swing for the fences yet again in the offseason. And hopefully this time,

like we've been saying far too often recently. Hopefully this time they'll get it right.

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Just last week, I grabbed a six pack of Miller Light, said I was on my way, and next thing you

know we're arguing about rotations like we're on the coaching staff, yelling about a miss call,

and the games coming down in the final possession is one of those nights that you look around,

you take a sip, and you think, yeah, this was the right call. And my friendship's stronger for it.

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they sell beer. It's Miller time, celebrate responsibly, Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee,

Wisconsin, 96 calories, and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. Done lebertard. All these high paid

analyses. I don't want to mention names, TNT, ESPM, you know, oh yeah, they're there, they

cannot, they're not going to make it, you know, even if they win, if they lose it in Miami.

I mean, they calm you down, I mean, they lose it in Miami, they don't got a chance in Boston,

or they're going to have their ass, you know, one in Boston, you know, two guts. They were wrong,

they were, are they going to lose their job? No, are they going to get it caught in pain?

No, what are they going to do? Keep predicting what is the obvious. They're going to say,

oh, the nuggets are going to win. Oh, Denver, the altitude. And you know what? The heat

are going to win it all. This is the done lebertard show with this two guts.

See, that's the kind of stuff that bothers me is, is that, you know, sourced quote, because man,

back in the day, the heat of a bad loss, team looks like it's not a championship caliber team,

and Pat Riley goes in his office, he trades everybody, it's like, this is not acceptable.

Okay, and now it's now for the fourth year in a row, we're going to be a play in team,

but we think we're better than our record is. Like, that's, that's not, that's not Pat Riley.

That's it's a man getting soft in his oldies. What happened? I'm just listening to some of

the same stuff that we're never really talking about. Man, Kalo Ware was outstanding last night,

usually all our Kalo Ware conversations are like, hopefully this guy can put it together. That's,

that's how I know about Kalo Ware, because I haven't really watched much of them, because I'm not

watching much Miami basketball these days, because I don't think the teams got a chance at hell.

Everyone can see it, though, Mike, when he's out there, everyone can see both sides of it,

the extremes that he's a unicorn athletically, and he does a lot of dumb stuff.

Right. Well, that's Caminga. That's the same situation as, as Juju was saying about Caminga,

and now we see him thriving in his role, where you've got Dominique Wilkins screaming on the

broadcast like, thank you warriors for gifting us this unique talent. And I'm going to tell you this,

I wouldn't be surprised if this happened with Cleo Ware, and he thrived somewhere else.

I'm surprised it didn't happen, which is, I hear this, I'm like, that should have been Phoenix's

problem. It should have been Milwaukee's problem. It's not, I mean, Eric Spulcher is one of the greatest

coaches of all time. When it comes to Kalo Ware, I'll, I'll side with him on, on how to manage this

talent. You look back at this and wish that they traded wear for Durant? Yes. Yes, I do. I mean,

I was, I was saying that. Yeah. I, I'm not as bullish on where I understand why,

why there are aspects to his game that you're like, man, if this guy can put it all together,

but there are guys like that in the league. Look, if there was ever an instance for Miami to kind

of change its ways and adapt to a certain talent, that Michael Beasley had a lot of tools,

Michael Beasley is a tremendous score. They had him number two. They, they, they did the rare thing

where they tried to lose intentionally for a shot at him. And they capitulated on that too. So I,

I don't, I don't see like Kalo Ware is like sealing being like that kind of level. I just

thought he would be a piece. And I wish that they would develop them a little bit more. And quite

honestly, maybe stop dragging his name through the mud. So it was value can, can kind of stay high

because like, look, you cite Kaminga. There wasn't much of a market for him. And the, the player had

talent and he probably should have fetched more than what he got given what we've seen recently.

And he didn't because they mismanaged that just like the Miami Heat recently mismanaged

Jimmy Butler situation. So my trust in them to be able to maximize the assets that they do

have on the roster is kind of waning. Let me ask you this, though, as it relates to the things

that Zaz is pointing out about Pat Riley and his age. And what we're talking about is the

generational multi generational gulf between Pat Riley and players who are 20 years old and

Spowe and players who are 20 years old because Spowe, Spowe doesn't get to be the young person

anymore. The leaders of this team are young people. It's not Kalil Ware young, but it's,

does Tyler hero look to you in any way like something that represents Pat Riley? Is there anything

that Tyler hero is giving off to you that suggests to you that Pat Riley understands load management

and understands players not playing all 82 games. And it's just looking at Tyler hero and saying,

yeah, that looks like magic and cream to me. That, that looks like Larry Bird to me. Let's listen

to Tyler hero here talking about the back and forth with, with Kevin Durant, where they were

just calling each other names during the game. Nothing crazy. I know Kevin a little bit,

just competing. I feel like as a team, we didn't have an edge to us and we'll walk you or filly.

So I was just trying to bring a little edge to it. I mean, we want the team responded. So we

are down 14 to four at the time, I believe. I was able to just get some fire going.

I feel like we're at our best when we got guys that hear that our own edge.

I think that's stuff that you have to say 60 games into a season that you're going to win some

of these home games when Houston is tired and traveling all over the place. Oh Jeremy,

yes, give me faces after you said you're going to sit it out after there are two losses and now

you've got a lot of opinions. You know what you did last week. Yeah, I know what I did. I lied.

I lied. This team is number one in the Eastern points per game. They're number one in the

East and defensive rating. They're number one in the East in rebounding because you have been

able to spread out the minutes between Kalawar and Bametabio. Now while the two guys play together,

you're playing really well, which unlocks a different level of ceiling for these guys because

you now Bam Roam on the wing. You have Andrew Wiggins playing the best season of his entire

career. And he was locked down over that stretch on Saturday. This team has potential to be better

than what their record says there is. And I think it would be wrong to just dismiss it because

we're talking about quotes from Spowe on Bam on Kaleil from a month ago, rather than what he's

been talking about lately, which is that effort is there. Oh, the going and getting rebounds is

there playing on the defensive end and having awareness and communicating in the zone is there.

This team is playing better. Okay, but potential to be better than their record is. What does

that even mean? So they're going to face Detroit in the first round of the playoffs. How do you

think that's going to go? They're going to get smacked. That's what I told Jeremy before we started

this show. And by the way, Detroit has the number one defensive rating in the East. Not the Miami

Heat. Not the Miami Heat. But you had to rating off. I just want to be accurate because Jeremy's

in accuracy. He says things. So I just don't think that this means anything. You take the heat

who are basically the play in team, you know, talk about Dremon is like, oh, it's the Golden State

Warriors invitation. That's what the Miami Heat should say about the play in tournament.

And you'd also know the thing about the old days is them the old days, man. Welcome to the

new century back to you, Dan. Thank you, Jude. In this new century, I didn't realize that there

is an ability to unlock a new level of ceiling. There's a multiple stories in this house.

I want to I want to explore this a little bit. The ceiling when coloe ware doesn't play

alongside BAM is different than the ceiling when he does play alongside BAM. I don't think that

that's a crazy thing to say. It's not a crazy thing to say, but you know what's crazy is we all

think and spoke keeps saying nah, like that's that part that part is a little confusing to me. We're all

like, yeah, this seems easy. Why don't they do this in the last two regular season games where

they play together. They outscore people by 66 when those two giant people are out there together.

But the coach keeps saying, nah, I'm good. I'm all right. I want to keep motivating him to be

better. I think that part's weird. I think we're not going to trade him under any circumstances,

but also not going to play him very much. It's like, what are we doing? What how is it possible that

I'm sitting here? Okay. And I'm listening to Tristan, Jude, you say, yes, Paul's got it wrong.

Paul knows less than us. And I'm like, I don't think that's right. I think he's got more information

than we do. And I think he probably knows a little bit about what he's doing. And I think maybe we

have, maybe there's something here we're not understanding. Is Kalewere worth any of this?

And I include the 20 minutes we've discussed. They're going to have Kevin Durand for him and

decided not to trade for Kevin Durand because they wanted to keep him. So they think so, but they

don't play him. Right. So clearly, they were wrong about that in the off season, which mean that

that goes back to the original point. Like it's not even like the superstars that they're missing

out on, it's guys that can help your roster and just dig yourself out of this weird purgatory that

Miami finds itself in. They'll play hard. There'll be a couple moments in the season where Jeremy

thinks we can win the East and we'll get into the play in and we'll hell we might even get into

the playoff. And then what happened last year? They got swept in historic fashion in the biggest

beatdown in NBA first round history. And I think that's kind of, I think that's kind of their fate

here. We know that they're not good enough. We know that they're not going to be bad enough. And we're

just going to keep with this plan and hopefully we can get the the whale in the off season. Rinse

repeat. What I remember about the last postseason is that that is where Zaz got a job with us because

it started not with the historic beatdown by Cleveland that represents a greater beatdown that

any that there's been in the playoffs. And the last one was by 60. I think the last game they

lost by 60 and just started their vacation. But right before that, they beat Atlanta in a game

that ended up with Zaz securing this particular job and Pearl Jam tickets. But the thing that I

want to get to that Jeremy just did there and I don't know if he's trying to trick me or he's

trying to trick himself. I don't know what he's doing because it's one thing to say last week after

they lose two in a row that he's not talking about him anymore and then they beat Houston at

home and he's like they're they're back in the game. No, but this is what I want to know. When you

say because Trista corrected you on the defensive rating, but when you say their number one in points

scored and you're using that bogus stat of points when their pace is faster than everyone and

they're about 14, 15 or 16 and offensive efficiency, you know better about which number to use. Why are

you using points instead of efficiency? Is it to trick me or is it to trick yourself? It's to trick

you and the pace being number one is maybe more noteworthy. Yeah, but I can't trust you on any

stat now because that's what has changed this team from last season. What a liar. You've turned

into number one in points, fifth in defensive rating. They know how to slow down overall. They know

how to slow down other teams. They rebound as well as anybody in the conference. I'm just telling you

like those underlying numbers when you ask why do they believe in those things? That's why because

you could see a team that's different in terms of what it was from last year. I'm not saying

the result is going to be any different. They might lose in the first round, but it's a different

roster in terms of who's playing. It's a different structure in terms of the way that they play

offense. It's a different team and everybody wanted this overhaul. They acquired an all-star guard

and they're playing things differently. It is what it is.

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Don Lebatard.

Stugats.

This is the Don Lebatard show with the Stugats.

You say it is what it is, but I think one of the things that always gets lost in the discussions

about these teams going back to even LeBron, Dwayne and Bar.

Spose whole thing is defense. It's not offense. His whole thing is defense and bam and

wear out there together, harm them defensively and hero being out there with them.

Harms them defensively. He doesn't care about anything else. He doesn't care if they go out there

and they go over 20 for three as long as they're spacing the floor because all he cares about is

are we playing hard defense? Because it's one of the only things he can control and make better

than other teams. How hard are we playing on defense?

We've had in the history of this show stretches with very middling teams. Panthers,

perpetually five points out of the final playoff spot. Miami Hurricanes. This is going to be the year

and then they'll lose like three ACC games. Miami Dolphins. We've been doing that one for a couple

of years. With all those teams, you usually have the point to go, including the Marlins,

whenever they do their peaks and ballies thing. You could always go to the front office.

Managers got to go. GM's got to go. They got to shake things up. That conversation never

surrounds a Miami Heat. We are never saying anything like, has Spoloss is touch? I mean, not being

able to develop and reach this young man. Usually that falls on a coach, not here. You made the

point, but no one's saying like, well, should we consider shaking things up over here? They keep

telling us that they want to get a superstar. They keep failing. Should we get somebody in there

that is good at this? That's better at this? Never a conversation around the Miami Heat. I

understand why, but us as content creators, I do find them being such a challenge to talk about

locally because the top line of this franchise totally off limits in terms of holding accountable.

There's only one other time I've seen it happen and it's when Shula was doing all the winning and none

of this engulfed Shula until Jimmy Johnson's available. So unless you're going to show me future

pop out there, unless you've got something out there where people are looking at it and saying,

that's available. Oh, is Brad Stevens available? Can we get him? Like, unless you're saying,

there's a guy, the only time it ever happened to Shula was not only that Jimmy Johnson was available,

but Jimmy Johnson was sitting there in the keys saying, that's the job I want. I'd like to have

that job. And then all of a sudden, you can turn it over. That's in the history of South Florida

sports. There's never this kind of stability. And I do think that Zaz and everyone in here would

acknowledge that while Juju and Trist are comfortable saying, yes, I suppose probably got this one

wrong. Nobody saying supposed to be fired. Like, no one's going to say that. There's no one in

this market who's going to say out loud, get this group of people out there. But there is an

embarrassing moment, though, that I can point to Chris and Jeremy attend the event. Pat Roddy was

like, I got the Harpoons. I got the way. Can't talk a big game like that. I got a guy. I told

to get it. And he gets it. And he didn't. So it's just your rough look, your grandpa,

yammering. I mean, that was a Thanksgiving. When he did that that night, I was like, that's either

going to age fantastically or horribly. And we see how it aged. I mean, look, usually to get

drastic change in approach because we keep batting our head against the wall thinking that we're

going to expect something different. And look, maybe on the eighth time we bat our head against

a wall, a yana sense at the combo will appear on this roster. But usually to get the kind of change

that we kind of want to see, we have proven commodities here. And I don't know if the answer lies

in them. Now, I'm not saying fire spoke. And I'm not saying Pat Riley. I think both those guys

lifetime contracts here, I understand I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth a little bit.

But inside that room, maybe Nick Harrison gets a little bit more power. Maybe we say, you know what?

This isn't going to go the way that you want it. Well, but what makes this isn't going to go

the way that you want it? What makes you different? What makes you think that's not already so?

Nick Harrison is Pat Riley's boss. That's not something that people know, but it's so. It's been so

since the beginning. Well, the reason why I don't think it's so in that it's that we've just

continued to tread water. I haven't seen the drastic thing that really surprises me out of this. In

fact, every season for the last four seasons, I've been able to kind of accurately forecast how it's

going to go. Can you imagine Nick Harrison, former ball boy firing Pat Riley? Like,

could you imagine Pat Riley getting anything other than how he wants to go out period? Well,

I will respond to your question with another question. Can you respond? Can you really wrap your

head around Pat Riley ending his time down here with a six year whimper of not being able to

deliver a superstar? Well, he does the postseason press conference and he goes up to Chris Cody,

saying, I got the hard puns. We've been doing this every year now and it's starting to sound borderline

cookie when you keep failing. Well, but this is the thing though. I just, I'm going to move off of this

subject, but you saying six years of failure when there are two finals appearances in there is not

six years of failure. We broke her to peace, steel. You no longer get to mention the NBA finals against

the Denver Nuggets. And I will not mention that Cooper flag was taken with our draft pick.

Like, let's rule that that's been a wash because you can have that as an example of it working out.

And I got a very shiny, more recent example of, thank you. I'm not going to ignore two finals

appearances in six years when it's something that I can't even say of Denver. Thank you.

Who's got the best player in the world? And they haven't been to two of them last six years.

Championship. Yeah, they got the championship. Miami does not. They got the championship.

And you'd have ruled out. We've all like put the Dallas Mavericks in our rearview mirror and

they were at an NBA finals for more recently. That might be Pat Riley's standard either when

the championship or its failure. It's not my standard. My, my standard is not second places of

failure. My standard is not I'm better than all of the teams, but one and therefore I'm a failure.

What is Pat Riley's standard? That's the standard. It's winning the misery. No, I just said that

that's Pat Riley's standard. He put it there for you. It's why it's your standard. It's not my

standard. I'm not going to say two finals appearances in six years is a is a failure when when's

the last time Sacramento was in the finals? When was the last time outland Atlanta was in the final?

It's funny that you mentioned the NBA finals because they also made that from a plan.

The standard here as it has been even with that finals run has been playing and that's okay.

The last few years play in is where it has been and I will grant you that it tricked them when

they beat the honest into believing it a little bit more. The same way that it tricked them the last

year of Deon Waiters and Hassan Whiteside that they went 33 and 13 down the stretch and then

re-sign Deon Waiters and Hassan Whiteside because they thought they had to run that back because they

had a good second half of a season. Too many commies. If you like first you last then I'll remember that.

This is a bit exasperating to me because I would just ask the all of you like seriously if you

finished second place competing against the world would you feel like a failure?

Like I know we do this around here bronze medal and silver medal that's first and second loser.

I know we do that around here but if you finished second in the world at anything would you be a failure?

Yes. Do you know how different the world was when they finished second?

They're not finishing second. They're finishing tenth. What are we doing? Stop saying they were

runner up when they're tenth. You were saying this when they were second. No but even when they finished

second they came out of tenth. They're the standard is tenth in east. Oh so now the regular season is

the standard. They even went even your shiny finals appearance was born out of the play-in. They're

the standard is tenth. One of their shiny finals appearances. Also they never had a shot. In either one

of these finals they were never in that. Do not say that about the bubble. That is not true.

Are we going to just say oh because Goren Drogish's ankle was limp and bam was out there and it

was and we were a game away from a game away. All right. Okay. Well there was also what about the

Denver series? Kind of funky. It's also kind of funky. He wore a head with under with under a

minute to play game five on the road. We're coming back to Miami for game six. Fools gold is a

thing. Fools gold is a thing in sports. Just got to box out Bruce Brown one time. I bet you

the Cincinnati Bengals thought that they were going to be running stuff in the AFC. Things happen.

The Patriots feel today like a failure. They're not. I'd kill for that roster construction. A

superstar that I know is going to keep me relevant for ten years and get me one of those lottery

tickets. Yeah. This is not the Patriots. It's a Patriots in that they used to be a regular part

of the conversation. Patriots went away. They got bad and they built they were they totally

reshaped the roster and brought in some new blood. Yeah. Maybe they should be the Patriots because

a Patriots had Bill Bellet check someone who won plenty over there and wasn't living up to his

own standard and they brought in some new faces and look where they are now. Second place over

the course of the weekend. I don't know how you guys received this news because some of this stuff

obviously in sports no matter how securely you think you've built something. It can be

undone by something like the health of Chris Bosch. So I saw this weekend that Chris Bosch

mentioned that he just woke up in his own blood and that it was a life or death circumstance.

I think I can make the argument on behalf of what Chris Bosch's game is that if he had stayed

healthy he'd still be out there shooting jumpers from the perimeter. I don't know how. Maybe

he's a little too old for that but he could have been playing like many of the last ten years.

He could have still been playing as the centerpiece of this team and I believe would have been

better than any of the players that they have if he had stayed healthy over those ten years.

He'd have been on that team and still effective when Jimmy Butler was here like that had been fun.

I mean he would have been better than Jimmy Butler. I think he's a better player than Jimmy Butler

is even though he's one of the few who had zero as a great player zero points in a game

in a game seven because because LeBron and Dwayne got all all the usage rate. When you think of

Chris Bosch and excellence like in the history of the Miami Heat where do you place him

because I think he's better than Jimmy Butler and I think he's better than BAM and I think he

and it's no slight on either Jimmy Butler or BAM. Where do you put him in the pantheon of greatest

heat players there have ever been? He's certainly better than BAM. I don't know that I would say he's

better than Jimmy. So I think with Bosch we're talking we're talking top six or seven. The reason I

say he's better than Jimmy is because I saw what he was doing solo with Toronto finishing is an

8 seed and he too could have put up 40 and 50 points a game if he was getting all the ball handling

the way that Jimmy was getting the ball and would have been an unstoppable thing as the primary

number one but they would have been a seven or an 8 seed. Yeah but like what Jimmy did in the playoffs

you know that Milwaukee series and and certainly in the finals against the Lakers. No we already

established the playoffs. The playoffs don't matter the regular season was where it's at. Like I

think people may not want to hear it today all right but like Jimmy's ahead of Chris Bosch.

Oh of course Bosch. Yeah he's I think he's even outside of that Tim Hardaway Lanzo morning

shack run. Wait he's definitely behind a Lanzo. Yeah is he behind Tim Hardaway? I think he's above

Tim Hardaway. Okay look crossover. I think you nailed it. It's like six six sets. That's where we

are with this basketball team. Rushmore season. That's where you're at. What happened to you so the

Houston you win. You beat Houston by 10 and you go right from you with Kevin Durant. Come on.

What did Jeremy announced last week after their two losses? Did he say before? Yeah before I

said don't let the heat win two or I'm going to be really annoyed on Friday and they didn't and then

they lost both games and I said hey my bad I won't do that anymore and then they beat Houston on

Saturday. I'm all the way back in. I'm citing pace defensive rating. Oh man we have two in a row

against the nets right you're going to say it. So real disgrace. They won a couple there. They won 15

games. Don't let me win. Don't let me win. Give us wrong facts. That was a rough one.

Oh man. Sorry. Not first but second in defense of rating by a percentage point. My bad.

Also you saying first in the league and points per game when they're 15th and offensive rating

is really really dissing anyone. Pace matters. Trista. Pace matters. Different team from last year

guys totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally different. Totally