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Miami Heat Radio Broadcaster Tommy Tighe joins the show to talk about the Heat struggles and clinching a play-in berth for the 4th year in a row.
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00:00Tommy Tighe, how are you, good sir?
00:03Thank you so much for bringing in We Didn't Start the Fire with Billy Joel.
00:07That at least gets us off to the right start.
00:08I'm doing okay.
00:09How about you?
00:10Hey, you know what, Tommy?
00:12Now that I'm talking to you, I feel a little bit better.
00:14I'm not going to lie to you.
00:15I feel a little bit better.
00:18Now, Tommy, this time, if I'm reflecting upon my life, three years ago,
00:24I remember getting close to around where my son was born.
00:30And I was watching this Miami Heat team and this Florida Panther team
00:36claw their way back from an eighth seed all the way to overcoming obstacles
00:44and teams they weren't supposed to beat in one of the most historic runs
00:48in sports history, in my opinion.
00:52Fast forward to this year, we're in a similar position,
00:57but something tells me I am not going to be witnessing a miracle
01:03in these upcoming weeks.
01:05Tommy, what can you say about this team entering the play-in?
01:10Well, I'll put it to you this way.
01:11I wouldn't exactly expect the exact same type of run that you had back in 2023.
01:17But, Marcos, let's be realistic here.
01:19You can't give up and think you're going to drown just yet.
01:22I mean, you've got to at least think that you've done well in this position
01:25before in three previous times, that now that you're back there again,
01:29you know, you have the experience with a lot of your same guys
01:32to be able to do that.
01:33And I didn't think that much about their chances last year
01:35when they went into Chicago.
01:37They had lost all three games to them.
01:39And then they went into Atlanta, and they had lost both games
01:41in the building to that team.
01:42So I was kind of taking this with a grain of salt,
01:45but all of a sudden they came up and played those type of games.
01:47This team is capable every once in a while to surprise you,
01:51and hopefully that's the case there.
01:53They sure as heck didn't do that in last night's game,
01:55but I do get the feeling there's still something left in them.
01:58Maybe not for a remarkable run like you're describing three years ago,
02:02but I still think you're going to see better things
02:04than you saw in last night's game in Toronto.
02:06Now, Tommy, this team obviously played with injuries,
02:11has had a plethora of starting lineups throughout.
02:16And, you know, we're 70-something games into it, potentially 80.
02:20I've lost track of what game we're at currently.
02:22But I do know that it still feels as if this team is lacking chemistry.
02:29Is it the injuries?
02:31Is it Spoh constantly tinkering with the lineup?
02:35Or does this roster just not work well together?
02:38Well, let's put it this way.
02:39He's tinkering with the lineup for the first reason that you mentioned.
02:41It is injuries.
02:42I think that's the major factor with any team
02:44that has to struggle over the course of the season.
02:46We've seen so many big wins and some tough losses
02:49over the course of the year.
02:50And now you get to the point where, guess what it is?
02:53Game number 80 of an 82-game schedule.
02:55And you're just hoping for the best in these remaining three games.
02:58But I really don't think that much about what you're going to be doing right now.
03:01I don't see a team in the last two weeks of the season
03:04really picking up some steam and doing an awful lot to it.
03:07It's rare that it happens.
03:09Yes, it did happen three years ago.
03:10But, you know, you're going to have to go with what you hope can be the most,
03:15I would think, the most successful group that you've had
03:17over the course of the season.
03:18And that's tough to have because of these injuries.
03:21Hero's been out of the lineup.
03:22Heck, you go back to the last game before last night.
03:24You didn't have Powell for the previous four games.
03:26You didn't have Hero in that game.
03:28I mean, Jovic is out of the lineup for a period of time.
03:30So you just continue to have these things happen.
03:32Even when you think you're going to get healthy,
03:34something steps in and changes everything.
03:36So I think that's the major factor that you're looking at
03:39when you're looking at what you're going to get into
03:41in the next couple of weeks.
03:42But I just think that answering your question,
03:44I think that's the major reason that this team just hasn't been healthy
03:48for long periods of time.
03:49You can say that about an awful lot of clubs and they've survived it,
03:51but this team really hasn't.
03:54Now, Tommy, I see this team.
03:58I see the roster currently constructed,
04:01and I hear the echoes of run it back in my brain.
04:07I hear the cries of the Heat fan who saw nothing happen at the trade deadline.
04:15What is the Miami Heat's option for the offseason,
04:20and can they afford another offseason with no moves?
04:25Well, I can't go into that, to be honest with you, Marcos,
04:29because I can't speculate on that type of stuff.
04:31I really don't know.
04:32I'm not really a fan of the franchise.
04:35I'm the kind of guy who works for the franchise.
04:37So with that in mind, do I expect there are going to be changes?
04:42Well, there's always going to be changes.
04:43You kind of get that feeling.
04:45Now, do you get the whale that everybody wants?
04:47Well, there might be a whale coming out there.
04:49I won't name names that begins with certain letters,
04:51but I just get the feeling that right now, once you've done something
04:55four consecutive times and only had success that first time in these last three,
05:00sure, you're going to be thinking in your mind,
05:01what did Bam say last year?
05:02The guy with the gray hair up in the office is going to do something about it.
05:06I do get the feeling the people in charge have looked over every possibility they have.
05:10I don't know about running it back.
05:11I don't know if that's the right thing to do,
05:13but I don't know if it's the wrong thing to do.
05:14There's going to be changes.
05:15I would have to think that that's the position they're going to look at.
05:18But, yeah, I can understand the frustration of everybody out there
05:21when you don't play the way that you think you're capable of playing
05:23and you've run into problems with Orlando, Boston, and Toronto this year
05:27and lost 13 of your games.
05:28I understand that you haven't beaten either of those teams
05:31and you might end up with them if you get to the playoffs.
05:33That's the unfortunate thing over the course of the season.
05:35The three teams have handled you this way.
05:37You've done well against certain clubs and some teams have had your number
05:40and that's just the way that it is.
05:42But as far as looking into the future,
05:44my future is I think it's tomorrow night against Toronto.
05:47Tommy, when you look at –
05:50Welcome back, Leroy.
05:51Hey, what's happening?
05:53I had a little situation with my dogs.
05:58I'm sorry.
05:59When you look at this team,
06:02and I've done this now for the last couple years,
06:05and I've said to myself,
06:08part of the problem with this basketball team
06:13compared to all the other teams is they haven't had a consistent lineup
06:19in three years.
06:21And we keep hoping from year to year that we're going to get 30 games
06:27where Spoh has a lineup where he can work, you know,
06:33who's coming in, who's staying in, who's starting.
06:36It changes every week.
06:37I would almost be willing to bet if you say who's had the most missed games
06:45of anybody in the league the last probably three or four years collectively,
06:51the Heat are probably one of the teams that have the most man hours lost
06:56due to injury.
06:58How do you fix that?
07:00How do you fix injuries?
07:02You play professional football.
07:04I think that would be a better question to ask you.
07:06Well, I mean, well, let me put it this way.
07:09I don't mean how do you fix the injuries.
07:11How do you keep going back to the same thing,
07:16knowing that this is the situation with your team?
07:19Like, we keep hoping the last three years we have hoped,
07:23okay, so-and-so is healthy this year.
07:25He's going to give us a run.
07:26Boom.
07:26Somebody else gets hurt or this guy gets hurt again.
07:29At what point do you say maybe we have guys that we can't rely on to be healthy?
07:37And I know it's a tough question because, again, you work for the Heat,
07:41but I'm just saying just as a general idea that maybe, like,
07:47we're waiting for something that we're just not going to get.
07:51Well, I just get the feeling that the unfortunate thing in sports is this.
07:55You want to be awful or you want to be excellent.
07:57And Oklahoma City has been both.
07:59And Philadelphia has been in at least one position.
08:02If you're mediocre in the middle of the thing
08:04and you're always in the 15, 20 range, that's what you don't want to be.
08:07Miami's been, you know, never in the bottom part.
08:10They've always been striving for the top,
08:13and they try to get there as much as possible.
08:15Do you change the entire time?
08:17I mean, who do you go after to try to change what you want to do is the case.
08:22I don't know of a name out there of a guy that has not been hurt.
08:26The Michael Jordan era of playing 82 games is long gone,
08:29except for maybe one kid who plays for the Wizards who likes to do that every year.
08:33But I just don't know where you're going to get these other people out there.
08:37When you're in a position with a salary cap like the league is,
08:40and certain teams, you know, you don't have the number one pick ever
08:44or the top five pick ever,
08:47it's tough to really find those type of players that you're talking about
08:50when you're getting them from certain spots.
08:52Yeah, Kawhi Leonard, Giannis Attentacupo were guys that were picked 15th.
08:57You got lucky there.
08:58He'd have not gotten that lucky,
09:00even though they've had a guy like Bama DeBio
09:01probably exceed what a lot of people thought he was going to have.
09:05Tyler Hero, probably about the same type of player that you expected him to be.
09:09That's the tough part out there, Leroy,
09:11unless you're able to find, you know,
09:13if you're allowed to have a boatload of money like the Dodgers do,
09:16and you're allowed to go out and get five or six guys
09:19and slip them into your lineup,
09:21hey, you've got the best chance of winning.
09:23Right now you're playing within the rules,
09:25and that's the unfortunate thing that you're in
09:27when your guys get hurt.
09:28They've made changes when you look on the periphery,
09:31but that's just the way that it has to be
09:33because it's the position you've been placed in
09:35with the money that you have.
09:36So basically it's just this team has been snake bit with the injuries,
09:42and it's an unfortunate thing,
09:44but it's just happened more here than in most cases
09:48because I would really love to see this team for like 30 games,
09:53just 30 games where you can give me, you know, some help
09:56so you can actually, Spoke can actually work the lineup,
10:00Spoke can actually see what everybody can do.
10:03And I don't think I can think of a time where he's had a full roster
10:08for more than 20 games.
10:11Not going back since 2023, when Jimmy got hurt in 24 in the playoffs,
10:15after that I can't think of the same thing in these last couple of years.
10:18I'm with you.
10:19I look back to that, and you had a heck of a run for an obvious reason.
10:22You were healthy.
10:23The only guy who got hurt was Tyler,
10:25and you played exceptionally well without him in the lineup
10:27because all your role players are able to click.
10:30And you know this as well as anybody, Leroy,
10:31or being in sports like you have been, you know,
10:33once those guys start playing like that,
10:36it's hard to stop a team like that.
10:37And you're looking on the other side, you say,
10:39how is X, Y, and Z able to play like that?
10:42He comes to your team next year, he's awful.
10:44But these Alex Taruso type players end up playing in the finals.
10:47They just fit in so well.
10:49That's what that Heat team was able to do,
10:51and a lot of those guys stayed healthy.
10:53Jimmy goes out.
10:54What happened last year is just, you know,
10:56it's not worth even going back and talking about.
10:59But I'm with you.
10:59If you had a possibility of having this roster
11:02with everybody out there starting in training camp,
11:05it'd be a much better team.
11:06There's no question in my mind.
11:08But unfortunately, that's what sports is all about.
11:10And it's been tough for this team this year,
11:13being snake bit like they have with so many guys
11:15in and out of the lineup,
11:16that it's nobody's fault.
11:17It's just something that happens.
11:20Tommy, can you do me a favor?
11:22I keep sending emails trying to get Mike B's job,
11:25and for some reason, they seem to have blocked me.
11:28I'm not sure what that's about.
11:31If you could just talk to somebody.
11:34And who are you sending these emails to?
11:35Because I'm not getting them.
11:38Bernie at Heat.com.
11:39I'm not, for some reason, he's not responding to any of my emails.
11:43I don't know if he's got a lot.
11:45Well, Tommy, I want to thank you for joining us.
11:47Marcos, you're still in the running, to tell you the truth,
11:49because they haven't named anybody just yet.
11:51They're really taking their time on this one
11:53to make darn sure they picked the right guy
11:55because it's so tough to get somebody like Michael B again.
11:58Is it crazy that he's been around for so long
12:02that you kind of take it for granted
12:04and just expect him to be there?
12:06And then you're like, now that you've got to replace him,
12:09you're like, I don't know if we can find anybody
12:11to replace this guy.
12:13Well, think about it.
12:14What's the kind of person that you want, male or female?
12:17And I don't mean pick male or female right now.
12:20I'm just saying, whoever that person is, male or female,
12:23who steps into that spot,
12:24do you want them to say, stand up and make some noise?
12:27Do you want them to say their own catchphrases
12:30or dos minutos?
12:31Those are legendary things that in every kid
12:34has said every one of them that roots for the Miami Heat
12:37for the last 30-something years.
12:39Now what are you going to do?
12:40When the next guy comes in there,
12:41is that first game, is there going to be an awful lot of pressure
12:43for him to do that?
12:44Or do you just say, oh yeah, I missed the other guy
12:47and then this person, whoever it might be,
12:49just steps right in and takes over,
12:51however he or she might sound.
12:53Yeah.
12:54I want someone to do Scooby-Doo impressions.
12:57I don't know how that'll work.
13:02Tommy, thank you for joining us, of course.
13:05Always a pleasure to hear from you.
13:07Thanks, Tommy.
13:07Good luck, fellas.
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