- 17 hours ago
Miami Herald Reporter Anthony Chiang joins the show to talk about the Miami Heat, and his initial instincts on LeakGate. How will the Heat fill up the roster if LeBron bows out of a reunion? What playmakers have come up in conversation? What stood out about Giannis Antetokounmpo at his introductory conference, and are goals aligned with the Heat? Will Eric Spoelstra be in a better spot this season? Tyler Herro's bitter exit, hostility with Bam Adebayo, and his imprint on the team throughout the years.
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00:00as we are uh waiting along here uh lebron james watch is going on right now and so we will
00:06talk
00:07to the great anthony chang of the miami herald anthony what's going on man how are you i'm good
00:12guys how are you good good man you schedule any live streams lately no thankfully i did not do
00:18that i am busy annoying bill simmons though apparently what what is that what like do you
00:23know that like he's all i think that's like one of those things like when you start getting him
00:27rattled all of a sudden he's like this is this is going to end up just being the worst summer
00:31for
00:31boston because lebron is going to end up in miami and i'm stuck here with paul george yeah a lot
00:37of
00:37things going in miami's favor this offseason um but i did wake up today i'm like what did i do
00:42like yeah just like what what did we do to you you know but hey it's the heat celtics rivalry
00:47i guess
00:48anthony i'm curious as to like
00:52what happens to you guys when you're always wrong we were just talking about this bill simmons
00:59his hot takes all summer have been so inaccurate at what point do you just or is it you just
01:06want
01:06the clicks and you don't care if you're right or wrong his audience is still big so i'm guessing
01:12that's all he that matters to him right you know he has one of the biggest is netflix he's
01:16that's on netflix you have to pay to watch it um so yeah it's been a off he's been off
01:22this off
01:23season but uh people are still watching i guess so all right let's go to monday night everybody goes
01:30crazy uh i saw your tweet the heat say that this whole thing uh was uh a possibility mistake that
01:38uh they had a press conference live stream schedule but what did you make of it as you're seeing this
01:44all
01:44unfold did you think there was smoke to it because i thought it was fake at first i had to
01:49see like
01:49nine screenshots like nah that's not real it's funny i was watching a show with my wife actually and it
01:56was the start of the episode and i'm i see this on twitter i'm like this can't be real i
01:59just assumed
02:00it wasn't real and then as the episode goes on i'm like she's like what are you looking on your
02:04phone
02:04i'm like i think there's this might be real like i wouldn't tell her what was going on she was
02:09kind of
02:09wondering why i was on my phone so much and then i realized this is real right but my first
02:15thing was
02:15this is a mistake it just doesn't make sense for it to be real knowing how the business works of
02:20why would the heat schedule a press conference a week later i mean this news gets out quick right
02:28it's not gonna right it's not they know this if so if a social media employee knows this
02:33we're gonna know this right for the most part so it really didn't make sense i thought it was just
02:38like most journalists covering this story i have a story written about you know lebron picking the
02:44heat i have a story written of lebron picking another team could someone mistakenly post that
02:50for the man i guess so it's in the system um hopefully that doesn't happen but it could right so
02:55you obviously try to it's unfortunate that this happened it was posted or it was live it made live
03:00by mistake um but yeah my first instinct was this is a this is unfortunate error by just
03:07the way news gets out and how they plan things you just saw it was like this is not even
03:12how they
03:13do stuff yeah it just it doesn't really make sense uh for the heat to know that foreign events and
03:20with the way lebron does things right uh the he found out in 2010 that lebron was coming to miami
03:25like a few minutes before he announced his decision the cavaliers found out he was going back to cleveland
03:31in 2014 a few minutes before he made you know that lee jenkins uh article story came out the lakers
03:37found out he was going there and you know whatever that was 2018 um a few minutes before that was
03:43made
03:43public too so it just lebron keeps things very close to the best until he's ready for the world to
03:48know
03:49so it didn't make sense to me that the heat would know they would know he's coming to miami
03:53they're gonna they're gonna create a template for the press conference on monday
03:57but we wouldn't know that that just didn't make sense to me okay yeah do you think tobin here's
04:02the do you think okay so here's the thing this is why i don't i don't think this is like
04:07the other
04:07time and the reason i don't first of all he's on uh there's no extra thing anybody's really waiting
04:14on unless we believe that whole he's trying to get anthony davis traded to one of these teams types
04:18of things i don't know man something seemed to change in the vibes after the yannis press conference
04:25where pat's dropping the whole land the other plane thing and then you see the betting lines
04:31are all changing so while like yes i do believe lebron keeps things close to the vest i also think
04:36there's something to like the commissioner annoyed him maybe this was a decision they thought they were
04:41gonna make in the weekend because we all thought it was happening after the world cup and now he's
04:45having a spite week so now everybody has to keep that plans seem to have maybe changed on the date
04:52so i don't know it's it i think all this stuff is like innocent like i don't think that there's
04:57like some nefarious thing behind anything here but i could see this being one of those things of
05:03being like hey we're putting this off because i'm not letting adam silver have the the word on when i'm
05:08making my decision i'll make my decision when i want to make my decision and so bad's like all right
05:12we'll keep it under wraps rich paul's very chummy about pat riley on the podcast this week i don't know
05:18man there's just been a lot of stuff billowing over the last few days every day what i'm just
05:22telling you dude that's how i feel he's smiling like i smile at you bless your heart i want to
05:28pinch
05:28your cheeks i can't help how i feel anthony this is his thing and i'm like hey lebron has been
05:37a master at controlling every aspect of his correct life yeah right and he'll go on and say somebody
05:45knew somebody and i'm like no dude he's really good at that and if it were true i'm not saying
05:53he would change his mind but he would really be pissed off if it leaked before he had a chance
06:00to release it when he wanted to sure sure and and and and i i think tobin you maybe you're
06:07right
06:07maybe he was ready to make a decision and adam silver's comments bothered him and he said i'm
06:12gonna delay this but and that may be the case i don't know i don't know what lebron is thinking
06:15at this point but um i don't think the heat would know i just don't think he would have informed
06:20the
06:20heat already i think if that's the case lebron knows his camp knows but the heat don't know so
06:27i think it's the heat preparing for the possibility of it happening um you know and we there's not a
06:33secret the heat think they have a chance at lebron like that's that's obvious right so that's not news
06:39but that's them being prepared for the scenario um is it strange that it was a week before that
06:46they made the video yeah that is a little strange but i i really believe this was a a very
06:51innocent
06:51mistake it's just unfortunate that it happened and i will say this like i agree the vibes changed tobin
06:58after that press conference but how much of that is because of the prevalence now of these prediction
07:04markets and all that stuff where if that if we didn't have that these days maybe it would feel
07:10different right now but the fact that here's such clear favorites has has really changed like the tone
07:14of everything i think it definitely does dude prediction markets are super like and the thing is
07:19they're only volatile about that stuff because you know like i'm doing reads for kalshi on the station
07:26and like most games and stuff like that stuff doesn't swing that much but rumors oh my god they're going
07:32like it's a roller coaster at all points the fact that on sports books it started swinging a little
07:38bit down that they they're a little bit more reasonable with that stuff so i don't know if
07:43they're trying to keep up with the joneses or what that that also was like i it opened my eyes
07:49a little
07:49bit because yes kalshi and they can definitely be swayed by rumors because people are going out there
07:55they're they're they're not bookmakers that's that's the thing is those things are swung a lot by people
08:00right um but i don't know i don't know what to make it if they don't get lebron i know
08:06you did a
08:06piece on this this week uh what are like the what's the stuff that's maybe still out in the ether
08:11for the
08:12heat to fill out the roster because the roster is not complete um is it a de rosen is it
08:17a bradley
08:18beal like what are the the the final pieces that they may sniff around yeah i mean you name two
08:25of
08:25them right derosen bradley beal there's always clay thompson the heat of interest in clay but yeah you
08:30know that's a little bit more complicated because he's under contract with dallas you would need a
08:33buyout from dallas at some point that might happen right i mean dallas is going to try to trade him
08:37but if they don't find a trade they could buy him out you know late in the offseason i wouldn't
08:42be
08:42surprised by that um well so russell westbrook is a name um that has come up there's gave vincent who's
08:48available like i think the one thing i caught my caught my attention on thursday the day of the
08:53press conference was pat saying that thing well this was this was at the press conference and also
08:59with his interview with dan levitard they need a playmaker um and everyone says they need shooting
09:05and i do think they need you know another shooter that would be good for them especially with yannis
09:09and bam to provide space but they do need a table setter and that's why lebron would fit so perfectly
09:14um with miami on this roster um i don't know if there's there's not another player really like
09:20him out there that's still available i mean the rosen can do some of that the other four or five
09:24assists a game last few years so there's some you can do some of that but lebron is more of
09:29a two
09:29guard though yeah i mean yeah he's more of a two guard but he can he can have the ball
09:34in his hands
09:34he could draw fouls he could draw double teams and pass out of double teams like he he has that
09:39in his
09:40game but lebron is one of the best passers you know in the league obviously so um the heat it's
09:48crazy to say because lebron is 41 years old but they kind of need lebron to complete this roster
09:52this season they really do um because there's not really another option like him out there
09:57what was the most uh what was the thing going back to that press conference that like stood out
10:01about yannis like it were the things that we were like either personality wise or goals or anything
10:08that just you found the most interesting out of uh last thursday he was charming i was like this
10:14this guy i mean i didn't obviously oh boy he won the press conference i'll say it say it oh
10:22i love dude
10:22i love the way he says shut that like i'm like oh i love that say that again and this
10:27is what i do
10:29every day oh i hear you guys enough to know i know i know totally i mean i know libra
10:35what you deal
10:35with i know what you deal with um don't you have a fake goran dragic you're gonna do a fake
10:40yannis
10:40not i did a little bit of that yesterday because uh because hockman was disrespecting goran so yeah
10:44he was like brother you come here we're hippie you know come to sun you love it and then i
10:50have niko
10:51jovic's mother as well but i'm not i'm too chicken to do that in front of him at media day
10:55okay that's
10:56probably smart um to go back to your question i i i think just how hungry he was and how
11:02determined he
11:03seems to be yeah he's motivated of energy yeah he's motivated you could tell like that's he's
11:09coming here to try to win a championship almost it's a different circumstance as lebron in 2010
11:14because yannis has already won one but it's almost that same feel of like where can i go
11:19to that they're gonna put me in the best position to win a title it might not be the first
11:24year right
11:24but over time where what organization is going to put me in the best position and it seemed like
11:30that's one of the reasons he was attracted to the heat so um that that to me you know it's
11:35not
11:35surprising because it's you know he's a superstar still in the prime of his career obviously wants
11:39to win a title but just how desperate he seemed how that was his that's kind of his number one
11:43priority you mentioned like that's why i'm here um that was that that caught my attention for sure
11:49last week you think spo is going to be in a better spot this obviously you get an mvp like
11:54that's that's
11:55big but like i feel like he he fought the good fight last year of like young team i'm gonna
12:00change
12:01the offense i'm gonna try and make the most of it but this feels more like a team that's that's
12:07cut
12:07of his cloth like veterans defense grizzle like i feel this feels more in the identity of the head coach
12:14yeah definitely it's a more experienced team right it it's gonna lean on its defense i mean this should
12:20be a top five defense it i mean i'd be unless unless they're injuries i don't see how this is
12:25not a top five defense um they're gonna be really good on the end of the court um and yeah
12:30you have
12:30players you can rely on night in and night out you know that yannis is gonna get you 25 a
12:35night at
12:35least bam is gonna do what he does 20 and 10 pretty much every night like you have these guys
12:40that you
12:40can rely on um and again it's not last year was one of the youngest teams that he'd have had
12:44in a long
12:45time right um so i i definitely think this is i don't want to say it's gonna be an easier
12:50season
12:50for eric spolstra but he definitely has more at his disposal this year you think he has more guys
12:56you can rely on yeah i do i think it takes some of the pressure off of yes right where
13:00he's not
13:00we've seen it when jimmy was here bam is best as a number two offensive option he's that those were
13:05his best seasons right right and i think that is going to help him being the number two guy instead
13:10of
13:11you know the the go-to guy on offense like he was pretty much last year for most of last
13:16season
13:16um having yannis attracting extra defenders and all that like that's going to help him and also
13:21defensively how much a band have to do defensively last year um just to cover ground for other guys
13:26like having yannis next to him that is gonna that is gonna unlock a lot no more only twins yes
13:34with tyler they can i ask you like real quick i understand like everybody's frustration with tyler
13:45right but nobody has ever said that tyler was a bad player the problem was he was never available
13:54why is he so bitter when he leaves when he should understand that yeah nobody has ever ever ever said
14:07anything about your ability to play basketball yeah i think some of it has to do with just being
14:15constantly in trade rumors and i know that's the business right right i think some of that you know
14:19every off season dealing with that and you know seeing fans say oh i hope they get damien lillard
14:25which means tyler's gonna be traded i hope they get kevin durant which means tyler's gonna be
14:28traded i hope they get james harden well that means you know tyler's gonna be traded so i think some
14:33of
14:33that added to some of the bitterness on the way out um but yeah i agree it is unfortunate because
14:37tyler
14:37is you know i know some fans might not want to hear this but he's one of the best two
14:41guards in
14:41heat history you just look at what he accomplished here right he had a very successful heat tenure you look
14:47at
14:47where he was drafted he exceeded expectations he made an all-star team he was a sixth man of the
14:53year um it is unfortunate with the way it ended that you would hope that over time things kind of
14:59you know thaw out um and we're able to look back with some positivity at his time here but yeah
15:04i think
15:05some of that is just the trade all the trade rumors he was a part of it was kind of
15:08relentless
15:09for him ever since he was drafted i found it and it was interesting because you know i know it
15:14was
15:14reported by you and barry about the whole uh maybe like hostility towards bam because he was
15:21taking care of the thing i found always strange about that with with him jimmy i kind of got a
15:26little bit more because he was you know that's jimmy like that's his personality but it's not like
15:30bam's contract kept tyler from getting his contract him not playing kept him from getting his contract so
15:37i just i think that's just a strange perception to have all of it like i know everybody wants to
15:42make their
15:42their their their bread and want to be secure and things but i just i find it weird that any
15:48hostility was held towards bam and i think that's probably why it got as crazy as it did in vegas
15:55because i think he probably what did i do like you you know like i didn't i didn't uh i
16:00didn't take
16:01anything away from you you didn't play yeah and bam vouch for him all the time right like bam was
16:06defending him and supporting him and i think that was probably why bam you know this this is just uh
16:12guessing here because i haven't talked we haven't talked to bam since this incident but um i would
16:17imagine that's why bam was so upset it's like what what did i do you know what did i do
16:21like we and
16:22and you know this tobin just from being around the team we don't know we don't see them 24 7
16:25but just
16:26by being around them bam and tell her were close like they seemed like they had a pretty good
16:30relationship so i'm sure that kind of just seeing that on social media bam was kind of surprised probably
16:36and was like what what is this like why are you doing this to a random fan that we don't
16:41know
16:41and you're telling him this talking about me so i would imagine that's what kind of bothered bam
16:45the most just that's human nature um yeah it is surprising because those two guys were did seem
16:50to have a pretty good relationship during their time together uh what did you feel of the uh end of
16:55love island did you like the season or did you think it was garbage i actually thought it was a
16:59fine
16:59season i at first i was like it's a little boring but as soon as the uh casa more started
17:05that's when
17:06things got good so from there i would say it was i you know i i will even say this
17:11might be a
17:12hot take but i i think it was overall better than last season i actually would agree i think i
17:18think
17:18there is something to it because i think last year was like a one a one person band i think
17:23it was i will
17:24say though if you're looking for something to binge pretty strong uh season of love island uk on disney
17:29plus so you might want to you might want to throw that out once once uh lebron finishes his decision
17:35you can relax what love island i'm telling you the uk season you're not a family you're not a fan
17:41no no he's gonna be because he's uh he's held up on arm surgery right now he's gonna need stuff
17:45to binge
17:47you're gonna get into it you're gonna get hooked just watch a few episodes you'll be no i my wife
17:51watches it and i out of my periphery and i'm like this is stupid not for me this is stupid
17:59this is stupid like like like it's called love island and you got people crying right like are you
18:05serious you've been together 12 seconds you're crying over something like there's no tears in love
18:12island you cry with love i mean love is you know emotions that's like going to a club having a
18:18couple of drinks and then the girl would leave with you you cry we had heat island in las vegas
18:24got very contested las vegas was interesting this year this off season has been interesting
18:29yeah for a lot of different reasons so it's uh definitely kept all of us busy and here we are
18:34dolphins camp is about to start in a week and we're still talking about the heat and lebron so
18:38um we'll see anthony appreciate it man go follow anthony chang's work uh at the miami herald
18:44always appreciate your time man and uh thanks for joining us thanks guys have a great day all
18:49righty appreciate it
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