Miami Heat defensive struggles and Bam Adebayo

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Because I was just thinking about this this weekend because I had not realized that this show was this popular. It was the first television show that I watched with any regularity back when there were only three networks and it was on Friday night. You laugh, you think I'm the only one watching. One in three American televisions were tuned into that show. It was forty million people were watching that show at its height. There is what is the closest thing today that could come to that that's not the Super Bowl? Like what exists anywhere in our fractured fractured television landscape that would come close to being even half that NFL week seven. Marlins Baseball. Yeah, um okay. Any serious answers? Because uh sports outside of sports, is there such a thing? Is that time K-pop demon hunter ? Is that thing so dead? Is that time so dead that it's not possible given like what is the most watched television show right now? Because you have to appeal to everybody with network television, with free television. It almost can't be a streaming show because there are too many people in the country that don't have money and and just have the regular channels. Right. Like you you basically described it. We'll never have TV show ratings like that again for TV sho ws because there used to be three networks and that's it. And you either watch it or you turn the TV off. And now there's just beyond how many channels and how many streaming platforms are, there are so many more entertainment I mean look if I'm on YouTube or if I'm on TikTok or Instagram, I'm not even consuming produced content. But if you had to if you had to choose a modern day equivalent of cause I you know, Game of Thrones felt a little bit like this and that people had to watch it live, didn't want to watch it three days later. It was sort of appointment viewing, but I don't think I think HBO still, even Max, I think it's still too much premium television. What would be the thing today that would pass for what it is that that was? And what would that number be? It's it's not even 10 million, right? The Walking Dead had some of this, Yellowstone had some of this, uh, but i it wouldn't even be ten million, correct? It wouldn't even be a fourth of what it is I'm talking about. The Bluey episode with Mickey Mouse that was a crossover. I mean it had like 10 million viewers. Because all you ever saw got in trouble with the law since the day they was born. So they were getting chased around by somebody? Like what was this what was the story? They ran out of storylines really very early. I can explain it pretty easily, Tony . Uh they were in a small town in uh rural Georgia and they were kinda like good natured mischievous guys. They get in trouble, but not any real trouble, and they would kinda solve some mysteries and stuff but also there's a guy in town called boss hog he's kind of the boss hog of town he didn't like them and their their cousin Daisy worked at a bar yeah there you go did you did you see Tony? Did you ever see Smokey and the Bandit? It was all playing off of that conceit. No, did not see that conceit. We are playing young today. Purdue was a number one seed as her cousin of that JCP . Looks low. Looks like it's bad, Jack. It's bracket cats don't make a chart. Does Jeff M undi look just like the queen of heart? Does Adam Silver Look like a torpedo bag? Let's get Mars sent this back on track . Looks like his bad cat With a don't answer in front of you Does any Reed say don't mind if I do Ad am silver looks like a cute blue Or fly the bag of on your free When Timmy laughs on Tilly hat , that's how you know that looks like his mag ic Let me hear you say Slow Slaws It's like his back jack. Let's keep on doing it every year. So at that burst has missed the bond. Welcome to 10 years. Jeff Fisher looks like shotgun, fears and an escort track. If you say this game, the best I'll say the gag . Looks like his back chat. Northwestern is gone from the tournament. Jim Harbaugh looks like a casket salesman. Fairly Dickinson, 16 seed, repped by Mike McDaniel look like a college student on the full ride scholarship for esports. What a run. Looks like a bad joke . Put it on the poll, please, at Lebetard Show. Is there anything better in the history of sports than Duke choking. And I think it goes for the entirety of my lifetime. Like Alabama's a bit of a Johnny Cum lately in football. Uh Duke twenty years before that. Before Nick Saban, before Alabama football . Twenty years before that, everybody was rooting for Duke to choke. That team is good enough. It should be unbeaten. Like that team shouldn't have lost a game this season. That team has two unfathomable losses on its resume. J the same. North Carolina did the same thing to 'em that Yukon just did, where Yukon's one for eighteen from three and wins a game because they go whatever it was four out of five or five out of six from three at the end after starting one for fifteen. But I mean, you're a a veteran sports observer. Give me something that American sports fans enjoy. American sports fans enjoy more than Duke specifically choking. Not just losing, choking, up and down. You can put the pictures up of John Shire, you can put the pictures up of stunned people, uh, because you do not expect that game to go that way. Uh Braylon Mullins became a household name and became a household name for all time for taking that shot. A team again that started one for th for eighteen from three. What Cowboys doing anything bad. Anytime the cow anything bad happens to the Cowboys, everyone takes great delight. Man, I think Duke is even bigger and badder because the Cowboys, for all that they are, uh, they don't give off we're smarter than you. Uh they may give off our the fan base may give off that we're better than you, but not we're smarter than you. Yankees choking. When the Yankees choked in 04, that was like world-renowned, thank God the Yankees choke. Again, good nominees, but no school or no entity has what this thing does which is an elitist uh We're more educated than the people who are rooting for our demise uh we're Nobody's better than our idea. The the old you're gonna work for us one day or whatever, right? That's the crowd that Duke has. I'm trying to think. No, I don't know. I see the game you're playing. Harvard. Yes. It's it's the same. Yes, it's if Yale. If Harvard were good at sports, that's what it is. If Harvard were good at sports and they gave off that they were smarter than you, and at the end you're making fun of them because they look like they're not smarter than you. At the end there, when you've got two people down the court, two Duke Blue Devils down the court, you legitimately could have just thrown the ball up mu in straight in the air toward one of them and you would have had a better result than the one that you had. Dan, let me ask you this question because, you are obviously the elder statesman in the room. My memories of Duke start with Grant Hill and Christian Leitner, and that's where I learned to hate them. Really, Christian Leitner is what we're talking about. Pre-Christian Leitner. D peopleid hate Duke like that? It it was uh JJ Reddick, Christian Leitner, Gene Woj owski, Wojwojahowski, the slapping of the cord. Steve, excuse me. Yeah, Gene was the ESPN guy. Yeah, I didn't hate this Duke team all that much. I can't really put my finger on why exactly, but perhaps it's because they they're lacking the annoying white guy. I just love that we really showed Duke a lesson with those kids from Connecticut. Although stores, have you ever been to stores? Sadly. It's yeah, like Tony, explain what stores is like. Because people think Connecticut and think, oh yeah. You think Greenwich. Crunchy clubs, Greenwich, like sweaters around your shoulder and go, let's go uh play some tennis and that's not what stores is like. I love you know, the state of Connecticut had a great time there. When you get to Hartford, you hear Hartford, you're like, oh wow, and then you get there, you're like, oh wow. Ugh. And the stores? Not much better. Do you know how hateable you have to be as a franchise for people to like that Dan Hurley won? Yes. That's a good point. I was so excited to watch Dan Hurley have to react to Duke's whistle and that delivered immediately. I saw a video of him going head to head. Not lit uh not figure uh someone help me out with that word. It was uh yeah figure it wasn't it was an escort Sunday, so I don't want to venture too deep deep into that word. But yeah, he went head to head with an official. I'd never seen that before. He was pushing his forehead into the stripes forehead, kind of Dan Hurley was overjoyed and he's done enough winning recently that I don't believe too many people outside of stores and Connecticut are very happy for him. Uh loc ally here, uh the Marlins have started three and oh, and they've got a chance to start six and oh because they are starting with two of the worst teams I've ever seen in the last two years. I'm right. I'm I I'm not trying to diminish the Marlins best start in seventeen years. Uh the way they won yesterday was cool and exciting and they haven't started th they've only started They've won two championships. They've only started three and oh three times in their history, and the last time they did it was 2009. So doing it against anybody matters, but now they have the White Sox, and I'm not kidding you when I say the White Sox two years ago and Colorado last year are two of the worst baseball teams I've ever seen. They've got them at home. They have a chance to start 6-0 because those are terrible teams. The White Sox lost all three games this weekend. Correct to Milwaukee. They gave up like eight runs yesterday in the eighth inning to lose. Yeah, but they got that Japanese guy though, damn. Ooh, Munutaka Murakami. He's a stud. He's at a homer in all three games, but they're gonna waste his career because the White Sox are a disaster. Marlon's probably gonna start with two series wins, might be five and one, might be six and oh, and then they head to the Yankees in New York. That'll be a fun little weekend series. Do you guys miss the days when Interleague was like a special thing that happened like deep into the season. Like, guys, we're gonna have NL teams. Play AL teams. Like, oh now it's just like yo, your third series of the year, you're playing the Yankees? You've cheapened. Yeah, the Yankees starting in in San Francisco was a little odd. Uh Jeremy, I don't know if we're at the point yet with the Marlins where we can just start counting games as dubs. But it was a really exciting weekend and yeah, they've had a friendly schedule here, but especially when it comes to you forecasting wins given what we saw yesterday from the Miami Heat and I'm sure we can I really don't know what you're talking about. We'll get to them in a second, uh and we will talk about that loss. That game was seventy nine, seventy-five at the half. It wasn't that long ago that the Heat were playing the Knicks in games that that was the final score in playoff games. 79-75 in overtime. That was the score yesterday at the half. But I want to talk about what Owen Cassie did yesterday because uh the Marlins ended up it's Casey. But uh let me know. I want to talk about what he did to end the game uh because he did he does a walk off Homer and I know all of his nicknames because uh because Tommy uh Tommy Hutton gave me all of his nicknames in trying to search for the emotion of talking about what the walk off sounded like. But let's go through some let's go through some calls here from uh announcers in both languages talking about how that game ended with a walk-off Homer. They had nobody on base. They got a double because uh Sonoa ends up hitting a ball in the gap and the the left fielder takes a bad track on it and then they get a home run to end the game. But let's hear some of these calls. He's trying to salvage the series. Casey swings. Casey hits it in the air. Casey the deep ride we're going home The rest of that you'll hear them go the maple masher, the big Canadian, big red . Uh I didn't is he an OG? Is he a ginger? Does he classify ? Oh no, no, yeah. He's a ginger. Maybe the Max Meyer? Max Meyer, half ginger. Interesting. Casey, ginger. Casey might be the second greatest left-handed hitting ginger of all time behind Freddie Freeman. 1-0 pitch. Casey launches. High in the air at the right. You can't make this up The Maple Master secures the sweep and for the first time since 2009 the Maryland start of year 3-0. How do you guys feel about the Maple Masher as a nickname? Oh, that's a good one, Dan. I don't think that the group, uh, look at a mean's face. Does a mean face You don't like Maple Masher? Does Amin's face give off to you that he thinks that's a good nickname? It's a placeholder. Like I like it as like, okay, this is what we'll do for now until we find something better. Big Canadian, terrible. How do you like big red? My daughter said baby ginger. He's giant. Ginger spice? She called him, so that's what I'm calling him. Why baby ginger. Also, it's a child that came up with it. Like that's let's not. Oh, that's terrible. She'll never do copy for us . 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It's so smooth, so delicious. That's the Cuervo effect. Keep it, Cuervo . D ebatard . But it's just his titties are sitting on the shelf that is his belly. Stu gats. He said titties in here. It like shocked me a little bit. I wasn't quite prepared for titties. This is the Don Levatar Show with the Stu Gats . Mike Ryan mentioned the San Francisco Giants and the Yankees playing. Are you aware that in the history of baseball there has not been a more anemic uh start to an offensive season than what the Giants did uh against the Yankees? The Yankees rotation is gonna be good this year, but the Giants got shut out in the first two uh games and had fewer than 10 base runners and then got uh had an outburst on the third day. They had a run. They got a run. That's the worst. That's the worst the seasons ever started offensively for a team to start with a couple of shutouts and they got their first two base runners of the season on. And then they just the rest of the time they got nobody else on base. Offensively, when the White Sox became the first team in baseball history to strike out 20 plus times and lose by double digits on opening day to the Brewers. 20 plus strikeouts on opening day. Let me hear the call in a different language. Ya se prepara otra vez. El empate está en segunda. Lanzamiento le tira y saco un batazo. Alto largo por el Royfield, que si, que no, que no, que sí . Adiós, Mamacita Linda Uh the rooster sound in the middle of the apparently Tony says in the sound he asked for it. Uh he he does ask for it, but if he had not asked for it, I would have accused everybody involved there of racism. Uh just for throwing a rooster into the call to uh to make to make it just a little bit cheaper. It's something that I would imagine that they do on the Simpsons, where the Spanish Bumblebee is calling the game, right? He just have a rooster right there, and then he called and then it would make the sound. It confused Jeremy and I before the show. We're like, wait, is this like someone's editing this in? It's a drop. I don't want to get uh too serious here with some uh something that people really have fun with, but to have as the greatest form of Hispanic representation anywhere, not not in sports media, but anywhere on national television, uh be Jimmy Kimmel's sidekick as as Guillermo? Guillermo's role? What do you mean? That's that's that's not the height of Spanish representation. That is the height. It's certainly on late night. Mario Lopez exists, man. We live in a world with Mario Lopez. I mean, do we not have a month's worth of uh Super Bowl halftime discourse? Andy Garcia's been on the show twenty-seven times. What about Domino? I'm talking about uh daily television show again, network television, the stuff we were talking about with Dukes of Hazard being on one out of three American televisions at one point. Network television still matters. I know we're trying to eradicate it, but it hasn't given up. It's it has not given up its strength just yet. That is not my voice. That is your voice talking to me, telling me what to do. I will be happy to let the inner monologue speak for me as soon as it starts representing my thoughts instead of yours. Like if you if you stop talking to me. I'm not gonna stop talking to you. I'll stop talking to you. I don't even speak for you and I'll I well then get a different voice to do that. I don't wanna argue with my inner monologue when it's not behaving as my inner monologue. Dan's on the street corner right now, just having an argument by himself. The inner monologue voice has to be my secret thoughts. Not you speaking for the audience. That's not what it is. That's not what it is. It's the inner monologue is my private doubts and thoughts. That is not just you saying whatever you want about Dukes of Hazard telling me I've got a rule as to how many more times I can reference it the rest of the year. That's not my voice, I can reference it as much as I want. It's the first television show I ever watched. I'm not out. You don't decide this! How did we land on Dukes of Hazard as a topic for today? Hey, you be easy. You get two more. Is it because Duke lost? Is that why? That's why. Yeah, you saw Duke Lawson. You were like, remember that show? How quaint. What a hazard that was to let that guy shoot that through. He's a writer. Duke. Hazard. It's gonna be a first take, like bottom third this week. A hundred percent. It is now. The Miami Heat have been playing uh bad defense for a couple of weeks when they haven't played bad defense in years. And I want to ask you guys a serious question about this. Did they break Bam by making him play that way? Like if we're load managing everybody and we're making everybody be careful with their bodies and he misses a game when he never missed a game for his calves and they they have limits. I mean you know this, right? This is a bit of a science. There are reasons that nobody plays forty-eight minutes a game unless it's in the playoffs, and there are reasons that nobody plays an entire second half. It's because the human body's limits make it so that they've deduced in basketball that they're diminishing returns when somebody gets so tired that they're playing all the time. So we'll never again have Will Chamberlain's number of playing all the minutes in a game. But I'm serious when I ask . There is no explicable reason that the Miami Heat would suddenly be bad at defense for the first time in fifteen years, and the last two weeks, they have been as bad at defense as all the teams that are trying not to win , that are purposely tanking. I uh I wish I trotted this takeout there, but you remember how like Bobby Abreu's uh production was never the same after that home run derby because he he just fell in love with swinging for the f ences. I I thought to myself, I'm like, this is so random for bam to be this guy, number two in a single game. And he's like his whole thing is unselfish basketball. I was wondering if him going for 83 would mess with him any kind of tiny bit. And it's as good a theory as I guess any right now is that you know he kind of maxed out right there and it's taken him a while to get back to that rhythm. The previous theory is always well Tyler Hero's back and they're hunting him and when he's on the court they tend to be worse at uh at defense. I get that too, but you look at the at the box score. Somebody named Kobe Brown had 18 points and somebody named Micah Potter had 21 points. You're messing with me. He crushed them in the first Micah Potter . He made everything. And he had nothing to do with Tyler Hero because he's 6'11. That game was 79-75 at the half. Uh Indiana uh their demise has been precipitous. Uh do they do they have the most injury minutes logged or the injury lo games lost to injury of anybody in the sport to go from the final to as bad to go from the finals to as bad as they are. I mean, um you you have to chalk that up to injure. Yeah, no, it's it's one of it's not just that Halburton's out for the year. They started the year, everybody's hurt. Nemhart, McConnell, Siakam. They were all out. And that really laid the groundwork for what could have been a season of hey, we're gonna scrap and we're gonna fight to guys, there's nothing left here. The crazy thing is, yeah, I think they're number one. I know Oklahoma City's up there too, believe it or not. The best team in the league is has one been one of the most injured teams this year. Pacers should be fine though. Like their what they did at the deadline. It kinda reminds me of like remember that year David Robinson got hurt and just the Spurs were terrible and it ended up with Tim Duncan. Yeah, and then they just went on their twenty year run. I think the Pacers are built for a long time. But you know, they were losing because they're bad and let's get Bob Bill out here. And then their general manager became the coach. Remember his name? What was his name? Something Popovich. Greg, I think. Greg Popovich. Uh Charlotte got exposed a little bit over uh the weekend, I would say, when Boston goes in there without Jalen that was without Jalen Brown, right? Uh Boston goes in there and smokes them. And also the seventy Sixers went in there uh at something resembling full health and also uh beat Charlotte. I would I would say that nobody in the playoffs wants to sh see Charlotte or uh Atlanta. I I but but you always want to see . Atlanta's like 16 and 200 red hot Atlanta. The the Hornets, look, again, I'm I'm gonna I know it sounds trite and overdone, but again I will point out. Look at their roster. Tell me who they're comes with sage wisdom and clutch playmaking in a playoff situation. None of 'em. They're a bunch of children. And it's they're fun and they're exciting. And man, I can't wait to see where this goes. But they're going to go into the playoffs and they're going to play a team, either the Pistons or the Celtics, or the Knicks. And they're going to find out, like, oh wow, there's another level of basketball above what we've been doing. That's wild. Like Celtics is one thing, but for you to give Detroit wisened playoff status, or for you to even give the Knicks wisened playoff status, even though I know they've played for two years. They played meaningful games in the playoffs. It is a little crazy for you to cite those teams as the veteran playoff team. Yeah, and they were an insane shot that went to the scoreboard and backed down against the Pacers from going to the NBA Finals. If they would have won that game, there's a good chance they win the East and they go into the NBA Finals. Like they're super battle tested. Also, a guy with seven bucks still has more money than a guy with none. Like that's yeah. Oh, you only got seven bucks. You're broke. You got zero. That's what the Hornets are. They got zero. And this is gonna be a nice learning experience for them in the playoffs. Now, Atlanta, different story. Atlanta's got some guys. Atlanta's got some vets, and Atlanta we can tie their turnaround to a very specific event on the calendar, which is they got one guy up out of there and they brought in a couple of of veterans who've been around the block, and this has changed basically what we're seeing from them. Quinn Snyder is an experienced coach. He's been around the block versus Charles Lee. This will be his first playoff as a head coach. Like that all of these things add up and I know people don't want to believe it. You want to say what I see on a Tuesday night in March is weighs more than what I've seen in a on a Saturday night in April. But it's real . It is a real thing where if you haven't gone through it as a group, like not like oh a couple of our guys are untested. As a group we haven't gone through it. The thing that I'm laughing at, and you're not wrong in anything you're saying, but what I'm laughing at is after going all in with the playoff experience of the Knicks and Pistons, you then hit me in the face with battle tested Quinn Snyder as a playoff coach. I mean Quinn Snyder, been to the playoffs how many times? In Utah and and Atlanta? And loses almost every time I can remember. His experience is losing in the playoffs, like all the time. What's winning in the playoffs for you? I mean Boston Boston is the one tested team. And I I'll say the Knicks. I I will also say the Knicks because the Knicks over the last two years, it's not much of a sample, but over the last two years they've done more winning than they did in the previous 20 combined. So the the Knicks count. But I I I'm not asking. Philadelphia would count too, actually. I'm not asking for examples. I'm asking you what what qualifies as playoff success for you? I you gotta get out of the second round. For me. Yeah, yeah. And Philly does not count. Okay, but uh Paul George's experience in the playoffs is not unlike Quinn Snyder's experience. Paul George made it to an Eastern Conference final. The whole thing about the process is it it hasn't an appearance into the conference final. I'm gonna tell you guys right now, I would rather have a guy who's been to the playoffs seven times and one and lost, right? One games, lost games, one series of lost series, than a guy who's never done it before. Because you there's a part of this where you just don't know. Like these people just don't know what's waiting for them. And I obviously Charles Lee has been assistant coach uh on some very good staffs. And so he's been in the playoffs before. But it's different when you move over those six inches and sit in that different seat. And now you're the one who's got to make the calls. You're the one who's got to uh call the timeouts or say we're pressing here or say hey we're not fouling up three whatever it's a lot different than when you're just sitting there and giving suggestions with a clipboard. Folks listen up DraftKings Sportsbook the number one sports book for live betting is built for March. The tournament is unpredictable, but the rewards are guaranteed. And DraftKings is delivering some of the most generous rewards in the market. New to DraftKings, bet just $5 and get $200 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app now and use code Dan. 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Know your sleep score with Apple Watch, iPhone 11 or later required. Protein is now at Starbucks, and it's never tasted so good. You can add protein cold foam to your favorite drink or try one of our new protein lattes or matcha . Try it today at Starbuc ks. Punctuate this segment with what is your strike three call. Well strike one would be strike and then you stand up and you give a good point to the right. That's the same for strike three. But strike three, you get down low, you got your hands behind the catcher. Alright, the right arm goes up into the air. Yeah! And then you finish it with the punch. The right arm flings way up into the air. I wish I could see that. The audio's great. This is the Dan Levitar Show with the Stu Gats . What do you do with the fact that the Miami Heat have all of this playoff tested stuff that you would like to cite as experience that matters. Uh I would not like their chances right now against Charlotte. I would not like their chances against Atlanta. And now they've lost. What is it now? Seven out of eight? We said that they had we had uh seven games to test them and they lost all but one of them. And then as soon as they won the Cleveland game, Cleveland eradicated them with another one of those fifty we're gonna be up by fifty points and hit you in the head and you're gonna have no chance against us come playoff time. I feel like I have to make this clear because there will be people in the audience say, yeah, tell 'em Dan talent matters in the NBA. You you can't take us and have Spoke coach us, the the eight people in this room, and we'll we'll we'll fight. We'll be in the No, talent matters. They have three All-Stars for whatever that's worth. They have three All-Stars. It's not worth much. Okay, but that I know that Norm Powell is a one time all-star. I know that Tyler Hero is a one time all-star. Bam Atabayo is a top what? Sure, top twenty-five, I'd say. Yeah. But that's that's like first of all, Hero and Powell are kind of they negate each other, right? Because the the aforementioned uh redundancies between the two of 'em. But then on top of that, like when you look at the overall structure of this te am, you still got guys like Pelo Larson playing major minutes. Again, that's great. He's played well, but at the same time, it's like it says a lot that that guy can come in and immediately be or work his way to being a starter. When you look at some of these other teams and the talent level that they're starting with, it's much higher. It's the same story I've been talking about for what, since 2022, whatever. Like the Miami Heat are roster built on. Okay, but one of the things that we have been saying for the better f part of four or five years now is some form of they have to get a player better than Bam, and then they got Jimmy Butler who was better than BAM, and then we said they've got to get a player better than Jimmy Butler. What you're presently saying is giving credence to what Ethan Skolnick of Five Reason Sports says when he sees them play the Spurs and he says Miami doesn't need one player, they need three. Yeah, that hurt . No, no, that he's not talking about depth. He's talking about they in order to compete with San Antonio. To be what San Antonio is, you need to have three players that can match their three players , and you've got one that can play with their three guys. But how do you match a guy who's a generational player? Like, oh yeah, we're trying to get to those guys. It's like, well, they they have that guy who's a unicorn. But what I'm saying to you guys is do you agree with that assessment? Because if you agree with that assessment, then you're you're woefully, painfully behind in a way that can't be overcome. So let me put it this way. If Stephon Castle played in Miami, he would be the what player for them? Best, second best I what where would he rank? The best or the second best, depending on how you manage the defense. He wouldn't be the best. He'd be the second best. He he's a I'm v don't he? We're both castle guys. But you're both castle guys and he's got a that's a good system for him. It's very Miami like. But when I see what happened with Struce and Gabe Vincent and I saw and furthermore when I see where Bam and Tyler Hero were drafted and what they became and that this guy was drafted top five, not top not top fifteen, top five. Like he's a he's he's a more skilled player based on Again, I would say that if he came to the Heat, he would not be their best player. Neither would De'Aaron Fox, neither would anyone on the Spurs roster, not named Victor Banyama. He's the that's the only guy. I was like, oh yeah, he's clearly better. So you can't tell me, oh, the Heat need three players. If we're saying, hey, if you get me someone better than Bam, so Bam doesn't have to be your number one, you're already in a good position. Damn, Jimmy Butler had them in conference finals every other year. Like it's not overly complicated what's happening to the Miami Heat. We we saw, even though they made it to the finals twice, to win a championship, they needed a player better than Jimmy Butler when Jimmy Butler was on the roster with Bam Auto Bayo. So they need to add a Jimmy Butler and a player that's better than Jimmy Butler to get to the places that this franchise always claims it wants to go to. I think if if in Denver man, I don't I don't know how good of a player you would have to add because of cause of Jokic. But I wonder if Tyler Hero was the current Tyler Hero back then. Would that have made a difference? Maybe. Maybe, maybe, maybe that series wouldn't be as lopsided as it was. Same thing in the bubble. If those guys were healthy, I wouldn't even say it give me a different version. Give me healthy guys, and I would have given them a chance. And that's one of the examples, then where you're like, hey, we're not as talented as them, but maybe our coaching can close that gap. The bubble was interesting because it's the best Anthony Davis has ever shot in his life. Like the reason the Miami Heat lost that series beyond not having Gorin Drag Drogic and Bam Atabayo available is that uh did was Anthony Davis shooting like forty percent from three that entire bubble. Don't get about Jay Crowder though. Jay Crowder was amazing. Miami was just top to bottom deeper too. Look, it's it's the same thing. Like they're they're not good enough. This is usually I get jealous hearing you talk about Charlotte and Atlanta because this is usually the point in the calendar where you s where Heat fans start talking about the Heat that way. They're rounding in a form, you don't want to play this team coming out of the play-in, they're gonna do it again, and they're not in that conversation right now. They seem like they got a long way to go. The funny part about this roster versus years past is this is like a really young roster, and they actually have more upside talent than they've had in several seasons . The problem is is that upside talent is young and very inconsistent. Kaleware and Caspar Siakachonis are really talented young kids who were just first round picks, but Kale Ware from one game to the next is an entirely different pla But Norman Powell is an overachiever, right? An overachiever who's an all-star this year, in part because of what the first 15 games were for this team when they were catching teams off guard offensively. And now him and Tyler really equal one all-star because each of them are in and out of the lineup and they're not all-stars when they're on the floor together. So you have a team that is more talented and younger than it's been in years past, but their inconsistency, particularly defensively, becomes the paramount issue. I know this would have taken a lot of guts and a lot of cojones, but why didn't they try and move Powell at the deadline knowing that they had max value on him? And then on the backside, it's like, what are you going to do to try? You're already got Tyler, you can't keep Powell knowing that they're the same guy. Why not maximize value there? It was a transition year. I mean the reality is is this team no, this team started hotter and gave people hope off the top and Norman Powell's a free agent. Yeah, that's it. You look at he's a free agent and you go into next season where you have Norman Powell as a free agent that you say get something. A sign and trade is a possibility with Norman Powell to get him somewhere else and get you either assets or another player that is strong where you're moving for a player that makes more sense with your roster. You'll have Hero on an expiring contract. If Andrew Wiggins opts in, which you expect at $30 million, he's an expiring contract. The whole narrative going into this season was hold on for a year because this upcoming offseason, you'll have more assets than you've ever had in terms of draft picks over the last 15 years, and you'll have more cap flexibility. It's just the disappointment of that seven game win streak, people like me getting all hyped up, and then now you've seen it come crashing. Even that, even without like this big picture planning, Norm Powell as an impending free agent, not quite as like You don't think you can get a first round pick for him as a final piece somewhere so that you can strengthen your offseason package because you have more picks. We were told that they would uh that Giannis would stay in Milwaukee because Miami would have more to offer this offseason. You don't believe that they could have lured a number one for an all-star? What at the br at the the tra trendde deadline what worth does being an all-star have if that can't get you a first round pick for an all-star for a contender looking for scoring and a final piece? I mean like this is the hard part. You know, when I worked in a front office , we didn't care about stuff like that. We cared about the player. Wait, we evaluated the player. What does he do? How does he help us? What needs does he address of ours? Whether he was an all-star or not, that's for the press conference. Maybe that's to sell to your owner. So I remember when we traded Boris Dion Roger Bell for Jason Richardson and Jared Dudley. And we had to sell him on Jared Dudley. We're like, this guy's gonna help us. I don't know. Because he just never heard of Jared Dudley. So he's just like, I don't know. But like the thing that pushed the deal over the finish line for us was and Jason Richardson is a dunk contest champion. And for our owners like, wow, so that means that parties, I can say this guy's a dunk content. Like that was all it was all about. But like in terms of those accolades actually meaning something to us, it doesn't mean anything. I mean though, there is a slight difference between dunk champion and all-star. But it's all just rhetoric, right? Like, unless you're talking about someone who goes to the all-star game every year. Okay, to me that's an all-star. Unless you're talking about someone who's all NBA every year, okay, that's one of the best players. But if we're talking about someone who had a great year, and Norm Powell had a great year and he had a great year last year too, probably should have been all-star last year. But again, if I'm a team that's acquiring Norm Powell, I'm ac quiring him for all the basketball reasons and for the needs that he addresses of mine. Not because like, well, let's see his rec- Ooh, his basketball reference says all-star. I think he's an all-star the way that Jamal McGlure was an all-star. Don't do that. Don't do that.