What matters more for Miami Heat, high floor or high ceiling?

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Welcome to FIVE on the floor, a daily insider show on the Miami Heat and the NBA,

featuring even Skolnec, Greg Sylvander, Alex Toledo, Brady Hawk, and others from the five

reason sports network. Also make sure to subscribe to Off the Floor for the most heat anywhere.

Welcome back to FIVE on the floor. Here's today's floor plan. I'm Ethan Skolnec.

If I'm Ethan J. Skolnec, I'm going to five reason sports. I got eternal bass. You can fall

on that eternal bass. Also on Off the Floor, of course, especially during games. On the stage,

Miami Heat get a win in Cleveland. They break a losing streak. They got another one coming up in

Cleveland on Friday. They're still in the middle of this play in Marass, Mess, whatever it is you

want to call it. Atlanta can't seem to lose. Charlotte's on the way up. Orlando is a disaster.

Although they do have a tanking team in Sacramento coming in tonight. That should be a win if it's

not Jamal Moses got to be out of there. That's really the only reason that the heat haven't

completely free-fold. Permanently the 10. They are in the eight spot. As we speak, they're trying

to get to the six. Philadelphia kind of depends if NBA plays Toronto. The heat have two games with

them left. Those will be up in Toronto if they lost the two games at home. I want to go through

a topic here real quick because Eric Spulcher said something last night. There were two players

that were really in focus last night. We covered this on the post game show. I know there was a lot

of talk about hero and Powell and we'll see if that can carry over to another game. They both

shot the ball well. I'm dubious about how long that's going to work, but it did work for one night.

The two players that were talked about the most are the one who you know, effort you're going to

get from him every single night and the other one who you don't. It's an interesting conversation

here about what type of player is more important to a franchise in the heat's position.

Is it the player who is going to bring effort every single night to the point, whether he's on

the bench or starting to the point that Eric Spulcher said, I can't take him off the floor in

Pella Larsen or is it the guy that when he's engaged, everything changes for the heat and he was

a plus 32 last night. Eric Spulcher likes the single game plus might as sample size, which Alex

Toledo hates, but he was a plus 32 last night in Kaleilware. For a team in the heat's position,

what type of player is more important because Pella can't get more gifted necessarily. I mean,

he's making the most of his gifts. It does seem like where can get more consistently engaged,

right? So is that where you would lean here? Well, I think in regards to Kaleil, you have to look

at the hospitality of, you know, his whole journey in the EPA. We don't have to pass that. We know

what it was before you got into the league, but you didn't start having any playing time until

like December last year. Didn't really get to see the flow of them until their first spurs game.

In Miami, the same game, Jim was still there. It was actually playing. He came in and changed the

game against, you know, the Winby Spurs then, and then ended up being the starter for the rest of

a way. Outside of like one game, it's open on this kind of, I guess, sin and myth. We changed my

focus. But I think, you've seen him. I mean, when you look at, you know, the totality of everything,

I mean, you know, Kaleil has had to open down season. Some of that has been due to, you know,

the inconsistency with the health, the roster on the starting line of, you know, Tyler coming back,

we can's going out all of those things, catching the groove, losing the groove and even having some

of the conversation of his modern things like that being a part of it. But a part of the reason why

Miami is six and three without them has a large part to do with Kaleil, especially during that time

when he got a nice lengthy text from UD. You know, I'll let it. So it's, it's very hard to say because

Pelle is exactly what you want in any player or any sport. Yeah. Go out there, give me your all.

Listen to what I'm saying. Be exactly what we need and want you to be on the court. Whereas,

you know, Kaleil has the extremely high upside. I don't think anybody as far as talent wise,

not skill wise, not anything goes talent wise. I don't think anybody else on the roster has more talent

than Kaleil. Well, Norm has kind of acknowledged that. He said that last night. He's like, it's all

there. And I guess see, some of this I think is attributable to the fact that he does have that

talent. So my guess is that over the years, things probably came easier to him.

Then they then they came to Larson or to some of the others on the roster to Norm,

including Norm and others who had to look, Wiggins had the talent from the beginning,

probably came easier for him than some of the others on the roster. And so there's a mentality

that's developed. But I guess this is the frustration of Heat fans is it's like, well, okay,

it's in there. We see it. I think the frustration of Heat fans is can't be greater than its

bolsters. It's in there. We see it. Why don't we see this all the time? And I know there have been

hiccups here. I know that probably something Spowe has done have not helped. Like, you know,

the inconsistent minutes and all of that. Like you mentioned, Kaleil played really well without

BAM in, you know, a few of those games. But he's also played better. When BAM has been healthy,

he's played better with BAM than he's played replacing BAM in a lot of those games, which is why

the Heats plus minus and on off numbers are not good when BAM is off the floor because

everything's BAM does that where doesn't. I guess, again, getting back to the debate here,

again, the question is who's more important. I think the majority of if you're looking for a team

to take the next step and get out of the middle, then where's development is more important than the

floor that someone like Larsen provides. But it's also going to keep you from getting to where you

need to go if you can't count on the guy to consistently do it. And I know there's been injuries,

the shoulder injury, again, the in and out. But I don't know how many times we've been through

this issue. I mean, it even happened in Summer League. Like in Summer League, he had no effort for

like two games and then Spowe called him out. And then I was there. He there was great effort

in the next two games. So he's not he's not incapable of it. That that's what I think is the

people. So I don't he's not a bad kid. Like nobody says that. Like he's not trying to perform poorly.

Spowe most misspoke about that earlier this season. But I don't think he meant that.

You know, you see the things he does in his off days. He's got varied interests. But I don't

think he doesn't like basketball. I don't I don't get that sense. So I just I guess I just don't

understand. Like he sees the reward when he locks in, right? Well, also to that thing. Yeah,

you brought up the shoulder injury. Yeah. We've kind of reached that point with Jaime with Nico

and Khalil, where injuries kind of may have hampered them, you know, in whatever way, especially for

in different ways for those players. But with Khalil, what we saw before the injury,

and you guys talked about it, even Zach Lowe, he got a mention from Zach Lowe, him and Bam,

had turned around the net rating. They had a very positive net rating. They were out scored

by 16 points when they shared the court together. Now of course, contextually, they played some bad

teams, but they were building and also they beat the Charlotte Hornets. But they were starting to

build and the Rockets. They were starting to build that chemistry and those impacted minutes

together. And Bam has even noted that Khalil plays better when he's going to court with him in

those five games, in the five-game win streak that they had before you enter the shoulder,

Khalil had 18 offensive rebounds. I had 13 steals, and I believe he had 17 or so blocks in five games

on doing that stretch. So it's going to be an up and down thing, especially, like you said,

you have guys that talented who maybe didn't get the, I'm going to outwork you along with my talent.

For some guys that never comes up, for some guys that come later because they have to

re-probe around those things. And so I think to answer your question,

it's probably easier to find another penalty than Khalil, but the concern, the risk factor is

the inconsistency. Like you said, he's not like a bad person. He's out in the streets doing whatever,

or you know, whatever, like you talk to the coaches, I talk to the coaches, anybody who has

opportunities to talk to the coaches. And even the players, he dates back to being a sponge,

willing to learn everything that kids love. All right, we'll get back to the episode here in

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I do think it's interesting that Spulster has been so open about what he wants publicly. He's been

so open publicly about it. It seems like a message again that he's trying to instill privately,

but he's emphasizing it more publicly. What's funny about that is that he used Yovich as the

example for where in the offseason. And that hasn't worked out very well. He talked about Yovich's

professionalism. I'm not saying Nico has been on professional, but I'm just saying he was using

Nico as a barometer. And then Nico ended up getting the extension. And then it's been a disastrous

season for him. I think it's a little bit easier to do it when he's like pointing to someone like

Larson who's making sort of game-turning plays night after night after night. But the other thing

I took from it, and I'm curious for your thoughts on this, is that Larson went to the bench,

right? We know that's been an issue for Tyler in the past. We know it's kind of been an

issue for more of late, right? It's been an issue for other heat players. Pella has been a starter,

more than he's not been a starter this season, right? He goes to the bench and he was

arguably their most impactful player during a period of time where they basically got control of

that game back against Cleveland. And I do think that there's a message in there that

Tulsa is trying to send that like wherever you're getting your minutes, I don't want to hear it,

like just do what Pella just did. It seems like he's committed now to this starting lineup of,

I don't know how long, but the three-guard starting lineup of Mitchell Powell and Hero,

along with Bam and Wiggins. I don't know what you feel about that lineup, although I have,

you probably have similar thoughts to mine. But if that's the case, it does feel to me like he's

trying to take more of all hands-on deck approachier and basically saying to guys you may end up

coming off the bench, you better play the minutes like him. Yeah, I think, you know,

spoiler disjuncture, especially because of the very chaotic season they've had,

you know, without the whole Jimmy Trump last year, you're just trying to find something that works.

So I don't think at this point he really cares about Eagles. I don't think sometimes he does play

a little bit politics when the concert's starting line up, but I think at this juncture,

he's just trying to find something that works, that can get them into the playoffs,

or at least out of the play-in. But you do have guys like Bella, like Jaime and even Andrew,

who do so much of the intent of with the little things that keep you going. And I think,

to Brady's created last line-on post-game show, it's just probably easier for him to stagger,

norm, and Tyler when they're starting together instead of having to close quarters with him,

you know, stuff like that. Yeah, I think that's fair. I think, again, this is

putting them together so that he can avoid putting them together. If that makes sense,

and I'm with Brady on this, if they both just shoot a lot of threes and play off of each other

and they're shooting well, they probably will produce enough offense. I don't know that it's

going to make up for what goes on on the other end, but they can't be in there and not shooting a

high volume of threes. It's the only way to go three for two. I mean, if you damned, if you

damned, if you do damned, if you don't, I mean, even Koop, shout out to Koop, brought it up on Twitter

that the heat had took the, I think the least amount of attempts in the paint that they had

all season. Right. And they were out shooting Cleveland. And Cleveland was also shooting Portland.

So it was a perfect storm for them, but it's like, how many, how many games are you going to get

like that? Not many. Right. So it's like, I think it is still a very, very big risk to have

Tyler Norman Port together with Davion. That's my issue. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if it's great

even without Davion, but I'm saying it's not Davion's fault, but it's not. When you put Davion out

there with the two of them, you're just tiny. It feels like the lineup, if you've got...

You're also, you're still small, too, because you, you have bam and Andrew, and Andrew always

six seven. So it's like... Right. So, so, so the other option is either you play Yaka Chona,

which is a little bigger than Davion, but that doesn't completely solve the problem. Or you, if

you're going to play hero to power together, you play them in the back court, and then at least you

get Larson in, who's bigger than Davion. So at least you've, you've gone up about five inches

there. It's still not going to make you a big team, but when you play the three of them together

with Wiggins with Bam, that's probably the smallest team that's trying to compete in the entire

NBA. And that we've talked about it. It's just, it's not sustainable. You have to bomb from

three every game. So, Brady's point is not that this is the best solution. Brady's point is that

if you're going to do this, then you need to shoot a heck of a lot of threes. It's the only way to

compensate for it, and it still might not. And they caught a Cleveland team. They caught a lot of

teams on second nights back to backslately. But they caught a lot of goals. Yeah, this one they

actually got, but that one they did. Do you think now, Larson, I think, is going to get extended

now, although I think there's a little bit of hesitation on extending anybody after what happened

with Yovic, but it looks, I think probably Larson and Hock is they're going to look to do something.

Would you go in the next season and think, Pell is probably going to be a starter for him?

My starter, I don't mean necessarily starting the game. I mean, Pell says he prefers to close,

which is what a lot of guys say, and I think it's what most guys really, the guys who are winners,

care about that. The guys who are winners care about that. The guys who want to hear themselves

introduced in the starting lineup, it's different. I've always felt like I always lean towards

the guys who say they want to close the game, because that's winning time. That's when it matters.

And that's what Pell says. Others on the heat have said that as well. Do you think we're going

to go in the next season regardless of what they do with Larson is going to be a core guy for them?

Feels like it, right? Yeah, I feel like he's going to be a core guy. I can't necessarily say

he's going to be a starter, because you just don't know what the team is going to look like

next season. Like they can very well be in the lottery. They can move up to the top four,

they can stay at the 13th spot. If they get there, they could go into the playoffs and finish

around the 16 to 18th spot. They could knock on wood. I know a lot of people are hoping for it.

They could make some trades. You know, all the things that starting spike, it would

be totally different. I think regardless, Pell is like we take of the shame, the UD,

you know, the Jank policy, those very, very important blue guys. Blue guys are super, super important,

right? They're easier to find than high, high on the talent guys.

But blue guys are super, super important because they make a break whether you're going to win

the championship. Well, I don't even want to say it, but if they got y'all this, Pell would look

good next time, but I don't want to give them to that. Listen, man, listen, man, listen,

let me tell you guys, people out there, I mean, guys is in six, but all of you people out there,

okay? There comes a time when they're a person that keeps teasing you, they don't have a go out,

which you don't ever answer your texts or ever answer your call. Are you in my phone?

Are you on my phone? They send you emojis, right? They don't never really send you comments.

Listen, stand up for yourself, okay? Let go. It's good advice. Stand up for yourself. I will just

say that. I've learned the art of saying no recently. Let go, the man plating your face, let go.

I'm with you on this, by the way. Anyway, one of the few things I am, follow up on our discord

eternal bass. Also, check out obviously all the podcasts that he does with us. He'll be on

some post-game shows. They're kind of soon. Greg is going to be back Friday night. He's back

from work trip. So he's going to be handling the hosting on Friday night. He in Cleveland again,

and then Monday night, I'm going, I'm going to be away for a couple of days taking my daughter

to Universal. So the rest of this crew will be handling us. Oh, we know how that's going to go. So

y'all go ahead and watch the mock drafts with the Dale and Matt. No, that's what's happening.

That's what's that's what's everything. Everything's going down the tubes. Anyway, have a good one.

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