jordan’s heat bløg

Crazy stat from second round: The Heat’s bench combined to outscore the Knicks’ reserves 183-90 in the series.

Heat's depth has been a big strength. Miami has outscored opponents by 14.7 points per 100 possessions when Jimmy Butler is off the court in the playoffs.

— Anthony Chiang (@Anthony_Chiang) May 13, 2023

btw happy birthday dude

thank you i appreciate that. go heat.

this can be cross posted to the celtics thread

Most conference finals appearances for “stars” since 2020 (updated)

Butler + Bam 3
Tatum + Brown 3
LeBron + AD 2
Jokic 2
Giannis 1
Luka 1
Kawhi + PG 1
Curry 1
Paul + Booker 1
Durant 0
Irving 0
Embiid 0
Harden 0

— Five Reasons Sports 🏀🏈⚾️🏒⚽️ (@5ReasonsSports) May 14, 2023

hb j0rdan S, salute to one of the greats

hb jordan!!

something i've been thinking about the last few days is to what degree should spoelstra be considered an elite playoff asset (for lack of a better term) on par w/ some of the top players in the league? i.e. how many players left in the playoffs would you take over him if you were trying to win a 7 game series?

jokic, bron, davis, tatum, butler are givens. would you take spo over jamal murray? jaylen brown? i think you could go either way on those. if heat fans had to give up spo or bam i don't think there would be much of a debate. once you start getting into pure role players even great ones like horford, brogdon, gordon etc i don't think those guys are more valuable than spo in a 7 game series, tho it would kinda depend on the make up of your team and your other available options as a coach yada yada this is just a fun thought exercise

spo or trae young? spo or jalen brunson? julius randle? for a playoff series i think you'd take spo over anyone on brooklyn's roster, minnesota's roster, atlanta's roster. spo or ja who you taking to win you a 7 game series?

it's kinda fun to think about but ultimately i feel like spo (in the playoffs) is on the level of a second or third team NBA type player? would def be on the level of an all star reserve type of guy (top 20-24 players instead of top 15 players). spo prob makes something like $9-$10m per year which is a crazy steal if he has the approximate value of a $30m-ish player. and there's no supermax escalators for when he finishes third in coach of the year voting

the thought experiment requires the coach matching up against the other coach, its like you have six players on the court instead of five, so if spo is worth as much as a borderline allstar how much is the other guy worth, it kind of falls apart idk, but trying it out nevertheless just based on nothing on a game to game basis the best coaches are prob worth like a solid starter and the worst are scrubs, then theres longer term stuff like player development team cohesion etc thatre a bit murkier and not totally the product of just the head coach but are prob worth more than in game coaching

if im the heat would i trade spo for anothny edwards? sorry erik youre moving to minnesota buddy

would i trade him for kat? no but i hate kat

i then who replaces him i guess, celtics had to cut udoka but found a better coach just hanging out on their bench

i’d rather have spo and max strus than edwards and chris finch for this upcoming series against boston. maybe i’m crazy! would boston fans be more worried about the heat? i feel like no. for the regular season the calculus is much different. but i feel like we see how much coaching matters in every game in the playoffs, a great coach can effect the totality of the game in a way that rivals the truly elite players. of course a hot night from i.e. brunson can render that moot so there is some level where a third team all NBA/all star reserve type player just rises to a level that a coach simply cannot hit by function of not playing in the game. a great great game from a horford or brogdon type prob gets there too. it’s a permeable line & everyone will see it differently but i still don’t think ppl account for how good spo is when they’re talking about how the heat are back in the ECF. they essentially have 3 all stars on their roster imo

I think coaching is mostly overrated in all sports. Gimme that GM. It's mostly about the talent and luck.

Does anyone think Spoelstra would have pushed the Sixers over the top in Gm 7?

no of course not. but might he have pushed them over the top in game 6? entirely possible! he may have figured out a way get embiid a single touch in the final 5 mins of that game. the heat clinched on the bucks in large part bcuz spo called three plays in the 4th quarter that got butler touches right at the rim and he got 7 points out of those including an and 1 that prob flipped the game. bam & butler had to make great plays sure but spo was as instrumental in that equation. the gap between spoelstra and bud in that series was larger than the gap between anyone on the bucks and his counterpart on the heat

I think Spoelstra is a good coach, I just wonder how much affect it has. My feeling is it's like 60% talent (GM), 20-30% random (execution by players), 10-20% coaching.

It's hard to argue though when you see the Heat do what they do.

10-20% of the recipe is significant. agree that some of spo’s in game play calling and strategy have been crucial this post season

I’m with lagoon on this one, you have to consider the fact that the value is relative to other coaches for one thing, and also a lot of the value coaches bring is more long term than short term. having the best coach is probably closer to having the better 8th guy on a postseason roster

I do think it’s pretty hard to argue there’s a better coach out there than spo though

he may have figured out a way get embiid a single touch in the final 5 mins of that game.

― J0rdan S., Monday, May 15, 2023 3:58 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

tbf he did touch the ball a number of times he just didnt try to actually do anything with it

this is an interesting conversation although i think coaches are much less plug and play than players....like some of the things that matter about spo are that he's been there forever and has this infrastructure around him that seems to work in lockstep with how he coaches. i'm avoiding saying heat culture but i think just extracting spo from miami and dropping him in philly or wherever would blunt some of what makes him successful

where does pop fit into this (besides being too old to really count)

https://www.theringer.com/nba/2023/5/19/23727949/jimmy-butler-dreadlocks-media-day

lol i had never heard that one from spo. “Sometimes, the psychotic meets the psychotic.”

Real Sideline Story: how @JColeNC helped @Calebmartin14 get off the sidelines and become our X-factor pic.twitter.com/1on4Jcjp9q

— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) May 20, 2023

why are j cole and caron butler old friends…

🤫 pic.twitter.com/kLASYzQtGv

— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) May 30, 2023

OFFICIAL: We have waived Caleb Martin

🔗: https://t.co/KHzg3DlIJ0 pic.twitter.com/Jxj7YueOO2

— Charlotte Hornets (@hornets) August 7, 2021

congrats to The Heat of Miami - rootin for you guys

❤️ #HEATCulture pic.twitter.com/h1FOFQgwnG

— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) June 16, 2023

overall this is sweet but it's killing me that he says "the undrafted" the way they say "the unsullied" on game of thrones

Top 10 distance runners in the NBA for 2022-23:

Bam Adebayo - 248.6 total miles
Mikal Bridges - 235.6
Jayson Tatum - 234.8
Max Strus - 232.5
Caleb Martin - 230.2
Domantas Sabonis - 225.6
Jaylen Brown - 224.7
Harrison Barnes - 219.9
Jimmy Butler - 219.7
Anthony Edwards - 218.8… pic.twitter.com/6nPlX33WVW

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) June 28, 2023

i made this point during the playoffs but bam's stamina & energy is really underrated as a skill. the number of bigs who could run the most miles in the entire league and then be banging w/ jokic in the finals as if it was mid-january is an extremely small list. and then to do it w/ the skill that he showed in that series (22/12 on 45% shooting)... it might be a nonexistent list beyond bam. i know he isn't a better basketball player than embiid & bam couldn't be the no 1 option on a contending team but i really do think that if your goal is to win an NBA title he's prob the second most valuable center in the league bcuz he's going to be bringing it in round 4 the way everyone else does in round 1. and when you get that deep in the playoffs that fact alone carries a ton of weight, and it comes with w/ an extremely high level of activity and skill on defense... it might be as important as being able to put up 30. sabonis was third team all NBA which was cool and all the kings had a great season but there's now way i'd take him over bam if i'm trying to win big & i can't think of any other center except for draymond who would even really merit discussion

jordan, talk me into "tyler herro, starting PG for the san antonio spurs"

i… don’t know if i can do that. he’s prob not a point guard unless it’s running a second unit but i do think he would be a really nice fit there with vassell, keldon & sochan. he’s a true 3 level scorer and an elite shooter and can do it off the dribble, he would bring an element they don’t have

i think PG is more nominal, just as a "lead guard" i guess. playmaking by committee kinda thing with sochan, vassell, herro, wemby. trying to think abt if miami wants dame, they may have the spurs as an option to turn herro into picks which can be flipped to portland.

two good performances from jaquez & jovic in summer league yesterday, though against a lakers squad whose best players are jalen hood-schifino and max christie

21-8-3 for jovic on 7-12 FG, 2-4 3PT, 7-12 FT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ec_kUn-oQE

he's added a noticeable amount of bulk in his upper body. still need to see him on the floor w/ real NBA players but he looks like he can hold up physically now. could see him having a gallinari type frame in a few years. if that's the case he looks like he'll be a rotation player at worst. he shot 35% from three in the g league this season and he looks like he will be able to credibly stretch the floor, the form on his shot is good. he also has great feel for the game, he should be able to put the ball on the floor against a close out and make the right pass including directly for assists. he showed some euro step finishes at the rim in this game, we'll see how well he can finish at the rim against real NBA players. he still doesn't look like a great athlete to me but i think he's going to be a very good offensive basketball player. if he can bulk up and hold up in the post it at least gives him a role on defense though i don't think he'll ever be able to move his feet very well. he was also one of the youngest players in the league at 19 last year, he just turned 20 last month. he's actually younger than brandon miller and the thompson twins. the fact that you can see the work he put in to get stronger is encouraging. the heat's g league team gets guys prepared to play in the league. i'm high on him, i think he has the potential to be not necessarily a 6th man of the year type player but a good 7th man who could prob start for stretches if needed. thinking of guys like olynyk, gallinari, kyle anderson

22-3-1 for jaquez on 8-15 FG, 3-7 3PT, 3-3 FT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH8s7cMK8Bs

jaime played as advertised. he looks like, for lack of better term, a basketball player. he's actually a good athlete when he can get some runway to jump -- he had two dunks in transition in this game including an and 1 poster on one of the lakers' centers. you see his lack of athleticism in the halfcourt though, i think taller guys who he can't bully will be able to guard him bcuz i don't see the same elevation when he only has a few steps. but he also showed an ability to hit the 3, he hit one from the wing coming off a screen on an out of bounds play and from the corner. he shot 39% from three as a sophomore but was down to 31% as a senior. maybe some of that was bcuz he had the ball in his hands more as he got older and was shooting less catch and shoot threes, because i thought his shot looked pretty good in this game. will def be watching his three point numbers going forward bcuz if he can shoot 35% (primarily off catch and shoot) and finish in transition that gives him a baseline way to contribute. he also showed some passing and off the dribble ability -- not too many assists but you can see a few good hockey assists in that video. he also made a nice one legged fade away from floater range off pick and roll as a ballhandler. he's another one where you have to see how it all translates against NBA athletes but he appears skilled and smart and there is some athletic pop there in a certain context.

if i'm portland i want jovic in a dame deal, he'd give them a guy on scoot & sharpe's timeline who can be a wing or big and he's plays in a way that wouldn't detract from their development

i think the heat will prob want to keep jaquez bcuz of his age. if he can match up w/ nba athletes it looks like he can contribute this year to some degree and they'll need to have some cheap guys playing

he was a guy I was really hoping would fall to denver, just seems like nugget and a baller

i have exactly one friend who is a college basketball nut (do not understand these people), mostly he just loves pac-12 sports (do not understand these people), and the only question he asked me about the draft was "who got jaquez from ucla"

New chapter means a new venture as a @JaiAlaiLeague team owner. Honored to be part of a sport with deep-rooted history here in my city and to me personally through memories of my dad. Excited to be doing it for Miami, for the players and for the fans around the world. #OG ⚓️ pic.twitter.com/45lbWij0Tq

— Udonis Haslem (@ThisIsUD) August 7, 2023

https://x.com/currypistonn/status/1704326458619969941?s=46&t=delhXlmZBYazm252j4iaFA

pat riley

forget which pod it was, maybe hollinger/duncan, but they had riley pretty high up on their GOAT front office rankings, deservedly so

yeah hes obvs one of the very elite alltime basketball geniuses

it was hollinger and duncan, the whole discussion was a rare miss from them though. they came down to buford/pop vs. riley/elisburg but kept hemming and hawing about how it was hard to separate buford and pop's contributions.....not sure why the same couldn't be said about riley/elisburg since elisburg is always regarded as the best cap person in the league.

they also barely nodded at danny ainge who built a championship team, a second championship contender, and is having a successful-so-far third run at it in utah. his teams have achieved way more actual success than morey or presti or ujiri.

i agree it was really odd that ainge only warranted a passing mention. i thought he was a no brainer name that got raised in these discussions

the heat vs spurs debate was interesting. probably no right or wrong answer. the spurs were forerunners in international scouting and style of play -- they basically ended the heatles w/ a more modern style of basketball than the now rudimentary version of small ball the heat were playing at the time. the heat also changed the entire league, likely forever, in putting the heatles together. and i think when you see the way a lot of these superteams have gone subsequently, you have to give the heat a lot of credit for keeping that together for 4 years and getting to 4 finals. especially given that lebron tried to stage a mutiny 3 weeks into the whole thing.

i think in terms of the concept of culture, the idea that the success of a franchise flows from the top down etc ... the heat really loom large over that entire worldview, and it's basically the dominant way that the media covers the game now. certainly ESPN nowadays. and bcuz of riley's history it's easy to situate it w/in a historical context. i think that's a complicated/controversial legacy for a number of reasons. but you can get why nate duncan, given the nature of his coverage, sees it the way he does

damn... its true tho

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F6lxo4EXwAAedSo?format=jpg&name=large

is herro cousin greg

w/ the dame stuff finally behind us these are two potential heat trade moves that i'll be keeping an eye on as the season goes on

1. paul george

impending free agent w/o a contract. i've never gotten the sense that he is as hellbent on playing in LA in the same way as kawhi. if they have another year where they're floating between the 5-10 seeds or whatever i could see him being available. clippers have also repeatedly been seeking out guards (bones, kennard etc) in recent years, and in terms of draft equity they're back to having their own future picks to trade but they're far from having an asset war chest -- by my count they could trade two firsts and two swaps which is a nice start but they'll need to add to that if they want to make a really big swing. for both of those reasons i think the herro + picks package could be intriguing here

2. the nets

i think there was smoke to the stuff about the nets being a herro team in a blazers-heat three way deal. they also just weren't in on dame at all apparently and i haven't seen their name brought up in relation to jrue at all. so despite having a potential ready-made role player roster they don't seem to be trying to compete at the top of the east this year. if they're floating in the play-in ether i could see the two teams looking at some sorta finney smith & royce young trade that allowed the heat to keep herro and add around their roster. i also like the idea of a bigger trade that involves one of those guys + cam johnson and brings herro back to the nets w/ picks but that seems more far fetched

https://x.com/mikeascotto/status/1708964078293512355?s=46&t=delhXlmZBYazm252j4iaFA

the one thing i really disagreed with in the tyler herro value wars was the idea that he’s on a bad contract, because of the cap spike and some of the deals that are being given out now. the heat getting herro at 4/120 means they have him at market rate at worst but potentially at value

that link is to the vessel 5/146 news…

one thing with herro is that he ended the season injured teams really dont like to trade for guys who arent demonstrated healthy, if he comes back and starts ripping it up takes a step forward hell get a lot more interest