00:0015 minutes of heat that's brought to you by Doral Kia, home of the Pricito, our lowest price.
00:06Visit them at Doral Kia or DoralKia.com. Ira got a question. Ira Winderman in the Sun Sentinel got
00:13a question that's very relevant to the conversations we've had on this show about
00:18Bam and Tyler. And I wanted to share his thoughts with it because we've talked about it ad nauseam.
00:27The question is, I'll ask you straight up, Ira, do you really believe either Bam Adebayo or Tyler
00:33Hero are true franchise cornerstones or max players? And if you do, can you please help us
00:41fans to understand that? Because the results and the stat lines sure don't support it.
00:47And that was written by Channing Crowder in Davey.
00:54Boy, the guy gets a Starlink internet connection and all of a sudden he's firing off emails to
00:59Ira. I lie on my name to Ira emails. So Ira responds this, no, and have not said otherwise. Bam
01:08Adebayo
01:09does not have the offensive arsenal and Tyler Hero's defensive issues preclude that. Also consider
01:16that in the 30-team NBA, little more than a handful or two of teams have such players. But also,
01:24don't confuse the contract issue. At some point, every team winds up somewhat overpaying to keep
01:32their talent in order to augment. The Heat at times might have stars, but no, they don't have
01:39superstars. At the moment, you probably would put SGA, Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Wembanyama,
01:48Luka Doncic, and Cade Cunningham in that class with times that you could also consider near that group
01:56of superstar players to be Anthony Edwards, Kawhi Leonard, Jalen Brunson, Donovan Mitchell, and Jalen
02:02Brown. A cornerstone is a player who is considered an all-star every season. Bam has not been that.
02:10Tyler has not been that. Norman Powell has not been that. But also, Ira writes, understand that at least
02:1820 other teams are searching with it still not certain or proven that the likes of Cunningham,
02:24Brunson, Mitchell, and Edwards are capable of leading the way to a title. So in that regards,
02:30the Heat are hardly alone. So just kind of understand what Ira's saying. I don't think
02:37there's any argument that Bam or Tyler or Norman is a superstar in the league. They're not. But a
02:44cornerstone, and he points out a cornerstone should be a perennial all-star, and these guys aren't that
02:49either. But he does say 20 out of 32 teams are essentially holding on to players, hoping to
02:57augment those players with actual superstars or the tier just below superstar level. So it kind of is
03:06in agreement, I think, with what we all say about Bam and Tyler. Now, your point, I think, more often
03:14than
03:14not is, hey, get rid of Bam. He's not your superstar. And Solana's point more often than not is,
03:21no, no, no, you need a guy like that to build around and augment. And I think Ira's essentially
03:27saying the same thing. Hey, you need a Bam, but make no mistake, he's not a superstar and probably
03:34not even a cornerstone. He's Draymond Green. Well, he's not Draymond. Well, you know what?
03:41He's Chris Middleton. You say that like it's a negative. Like, Draymond was wildly
03:47instrumental in that. But if he was the only person on Golden State, if there was no step
03:52in clay or KD, Draymond Green is doing what Bam is doing. Draymond's a one. They're scoring 42 points
03:59a night. But Bam's more talented offensively than Draymond Green is. But I don't disagree with
04:06your notion. Yeah. Like if Bam's your best player, I mean, the results speak for themselves.
04:11Like either a playing team. Yeah. And they have been. Yeah. And that's what it is. But they need,
04:16you need those guys. When I say just get rid of people, I'm just saying like, we have to do
04:20something different. Can Bam be a Scottie Pippen? Yeah. Well, go get us a Jordan and then we'll see
04:26Bam Scottie Pippen. But it's, it's so difficult to do so. Like, that's what I was saying. Right.
04:32What I was saying is there. So the elite superstars, SGA, you're not getting them.
04:38Jokic, not getting them. Giannis, maybe. Wembenyama, Doncic. No one could get Doncic,
04:44right? Oh, the Lakers did. And Cade Cunningham. But so rarely do these guys become available that
04:51it's very difficult to do what Heat fans want them to do. And they were very close. I don't know
04:57what
04:57level you would have put Dame Lillard in when he was coming off the great seasons in Portland,
05:03maybe on the elite, just below the super superstar. But they were close to him. They felt like they
05:12were close to Giannis or close enough to be in the conversation, but it's incredibly difficult
05:17to get someone like that. And Jimmy Butler, by the way, while great, was not that level.
05:24No. He played at that level in the two playoffs. In the playoffs. He's the overachiever.
05:31In the NBA bubble, he played at that level. And in the 2023 run, he played at that level.
05:38In 2022, when the Heat lost in game seven to the Boston Celtics, they had a better team
05:43overall around him. And they shut the lights out from three. He didn't necessarily have one
05:48of those superstar caliber playoff runs. But yeah, he was never. And throughout his entire career,
05:55he was never a superstar. He just never was. And that's when it comes down to the decision to make
06:01like this Tyler contract. We there's no there's no way I'm comfortable giving Tyler $200 million
06:06again. Well, they aren't either. By the way, they didn't they didn't do it after like the year to do
06:12it would have been last year because he was an all star because Pat Riley challenged him the same
06:18summer. He challenged Jimmy Butler to stay healthy like, hey, you've got to be out there. And the
06:23year to do it would have been after he stayed healthy and was an all star. But they didn't do
06:28it.
06:28And I think, you know, that's eye opening to give you an idea of whether or not they want to
06:32give him
06:32that money. He's not getting the supermax extension from the Miami Heat. But but Hawk,
06:37I want to read this to Crowder because you're always telling me, you know, trade Bam or Bam's
06:44not that guy. And I'm not disagreeing with you. But but listen to this that Anthony Chang had it
06:49this morning in the Miami Herald over the last 15 games. The Heat has outscored opponents by 14
06:55points per 100 possessions with Bam Adebayo on the court without Adebayo on the court. Opponents
07:03have outscored the Heat by eight points per 100 possessions. That's a 22.7 point swing with Bam
07:11compared to when he's not on the floor. That's what I'm always telling you. Okay, fine. He's not
07:17able to go get you 35 every single night. I'm not arguing that he can't. And he's not the most
07:22talented
07:23offensive player. But he is so important to the Miami Heat and the system they run defensively
07:30and what they do offensively that sometimes it doesn't show up on the box score everything he's
07:35doing on the floor. He's their most important player. And when you have a guy like that doing
07:40that, by the way, with Drew Smith getting minutes with Tyler Hero missing time with Norman Powell not
07:47on the floor. Like think about what he would do with Giannis Antetokounmpo. Yeah, no. So I'm with
07:56you. Bam is a piece of a championship team. But he sets good picks. He can he can he can
08:02push he can
08:03push defense weak. He's a good weak helper. Who's the best weak side defensive helper in NBA history?
08:09Who's the best picker in NBA history? Like the I understand there's things he does that he's he's
08:14great at. We talked about before he's never won defensive player of the year. He's probably never
08:18going to win defensive player of the year because he's 10 years in. He should have won defensive player of
08:23the year.
08:23I mean, if you have a vote, please vote for him.
08:26Oh, yes, defensive player of the year. Get you a vote for him and vote for him.
08:31He does like you talk about these intangibles and these PRs and these point differentials per hundred possessions.
08:38I understand he's good. You don't have to go that deep when you have a monster, when you have a
08:44dog,
08:44when you have a Luka, when you have those guys, you don't have to go that deep into stats PRs
08:48to say this is why we're winning.
08:50That's why we're losing. No, but you have. I'm only pointing this out because, yes, he's not the monster.
08:56He's not the one. He's not the superstar. I'm not arguing that. But to give up Bam to me doesn't
09:02make sense
09:03because if you do get the one, if you do get the Giannis and I know we're sick of talking
09:09about Giannis,
09:10but if you do, then you don't need five other guys. You've got the one and you've got the perfect
09:16number two,
09:17the perfect number two, who, by the way, doesn't need the ball. Remember when LeBron and Wade got together?
09:22Who's going to take the final shot? Who's going to have the ball in their hands?
09:26None of those questions matter because Bam's going to say, I don't care. I'll take care of what I got
09:30to take care of.
09:30You go be the number one scorer. He's the perfect complimentary player.
09:35But what if that superstar, what if that guy we talked about, those seven, eight people in the world, that
09:40can be it?
09:41If that's Bam leaving. So it's whoever that superstar is and then it's Kalil Ware now.
09:47I would like that over Bam and somebody.
09:50That's always been my point. That's always been my point.
09:53Like you can't let it preclude you from getting a superstar.
09:57Be great if you can team them with one, but you can't let it preclude you.
10:02But I don't think it does preclude them.
10:05I think the heat.
10:06Well, it has.
10:07No, I think the heat, and that was my point at the deadline.
10:10I think the heat's at times stubbornness to not let go of guys like Tyler, like Norman Powell, like Andrew
10:19Wiggins.
10:20Some of the guys that could have brought them in some more draft capital because that's the name of the
10:25game now in terms of acquiring top talent.
10:28They don't hit free agency anymore. To me, that precludes the heat more than keeping Bam out of bio.
10:35And listen, you can figure out a way to keep him and get a superstar.
10:38You're going to get no argument out of anyone here.
10:41As we sit here today and Alejandro Jr. asked you about the Bam out of bio years, what are you
10:48telling him?
10:49He'll have his, I don't care what ends up happening.
10:51He'll have his number up in the rafters one day.
10:53Okay, I'll put any amount of money you want on that.
10:57Yeah, that's a given.
10:58What's the best thing? I can speak about LeBron. I can speak about D-Wade. I can speak about Chris
11:04Moss. I can speak about Shaq.
11:05I'm not trying to move the goalposts in terms of what the expectations are here.
11:09It's title or bust. I get that.
11:10But I also am willing to say, okay, they didn't win NBA titles, but they had a four-year run
11:15where they went to three Eastern Conference championships and won two of them.
11:19Eastern Conference finals and won two of them.
11:21And I'm not just going to dismiss that like it doesn't matter.
11:24I'm not saying that that should be good enough.
11:25That's one of the best blocks in Heat history. Maybe the best block in Heat history.
11:29I'm going to give that shirt to Alejandro Jr. I still got it in my closet.
11:33Get a tattoo next to his name that says 17 and a half over under.
11:37I'm just a little.
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