Game 81: Miami Heat @ Toronto Raptors, TSN, April 7, 12PM EST (High Noon) and brunch time out west...

[G__Deane]

New commericals with Danny Green and Kyle shilling for The Source and Google Mini
As long as it's not a new Go Daddy curse

[G__Deane]

With one game remaining in the regular season, the Raptors are the only NBA team with different leaders in total minutes (Siakam); points (Leonard); rebounds (Ibaka); and assists (Lowry)

Some of this can certainly be attributed to the fact that Kawhi only played 2/3 of the season but it's a pretty cool stat

[planetmars]

Miami to me seems like the Clippers East. Just a bunch of role players that play hard for a championship level coach. They don't quite have the cap space like the Clippers do, but should get there in a year or two. Question is would any star want to go there? Or will they have to settle for a B-level star and build a team with that player as opposed to around that player.

Neither team likes to build through the draft but seem to prefer to build through free agency. Miami has its beaches and is part of a non-tax state. Clippers are in Hollywood.

[Demographic Shift]

I dunno, it looks like Riley days as the smartest guy in the room, are over. He's overpaid replacement players like Waiters, Whiteside, JJ and Tyler Johnson (whose salary became Ryan Anderson). And the best player they've drafted & developed since Wade (2003) is probably Bam Adebayo (2017)..... 14 years to draft and develop a 'meh' player. A blind squirrel has better odds. Heat have become a perennial 7-11 treadmill team with not even a top 40 player on the roster and a cap situation that doesn't clear up until 2021-22, unless they fork over useful assets to dump salary in a trade.

I got more faith in Rilly than I do in a lot of gms in the association. Heres why...

Remember the old joke... Two friends get lost in the bush and as they nervously make tracks towards the road and safety. Along the way one guy brings up the story that bears can run up to 30 kmph. He then asks his buddy if hes worried that they can't outrun a bear. The punch line from the buddy is that " he is not worried because he can run faster than you".

Same for Reilly. He is faster than the litany of Ernie Grunfelds and Ryan McDonoughs out there. Lucky for him there aren't that many Masai Ujiri's.

Reilly paid back his debt these last two years. Painful but smart.
Wade and the legacy are now in the rear view . He will need this coming season to clean up his balance sheet. He only owes but one 1st rounder and its in in 2021. Theoretically that likely won't be embarrassing to him and the team.
This year (2019-20) he will take it in the chops. Knees to the nuts. He does have his draft pick though which will be a lottery pick.
But when this year is done he can unload Whiteside and Dragic and Ryan Anderson and free up close to 70M in salary room.

For the 2020-21 season he will still have the Heat culture. The Heat play a tough no holds barred game. Its who they are. Thats worth having.
He will have a pretty good chunk of money to spend on FA's that fit that culture he built..
He will still have a really solid guard in Josh Richardson.
He will still have a tough as nails Winslow and Adeybyo.
He will have whoever he gets in this years draft...
Another run is going to come out of South Beach in the next couple years.

Fuck Miami

[KeonClark]

I dunno, it looks like Riley days as the smartest guy in the room, are over. He's overpaid replacement players like Waiters, Whiteside, JJ and Tyler Johnson (whose salary became Ryan Anderson). And the best player they've drafted & developed since Wade (2003) is probably Bam Adebayo (2017)..... 14 years to draft and develop a 'meh' player. A blind squirrel has better odds. Heat have become a perennial 7-11 treadmill team with not even a top 40 player on the roster and a cap situation that doesn't clear up until 2021-22, unless they fork over useful assets to dump salary in a trade.

The Heat will always have one thing no other franchise has. (Sorry LA)

[Zak24gege]

What would you draw up? Why?

I'm saying every other coach would call timeout and run something. I don't care other than get all 5 guys on the same page. Same thing happened in Hornets game where on our last possession and a chance to go up 2 baskets, no timeout, Kawhi has the ball in same area and again they go iso and he misses on a contested 3. What happened after that, well it was insane. I'm not aware of the statistics, however, can only recall a single successful Kawhi end of game iso against Portland where he drove towards baseline and hit on a mid-range jumper. I do not recall a single successful end of game iso 3P play.

One concern is if we run a play, other teams will be able to scout it. Really, we only have 1 super secret play and if we use it our season is ruined! Well Mariano Rivera had only 1 pitch and yet is in Cooperstown. Any play can have multiple options / variations and / or counters depending on how the defence reacts. Also plays can be changed to present a different look.

A second concern is the need to make an inbound pass. There is a risk of 5 sec. count, steal, errant pass etc. We have also seen the defensive team commit a foul before the ball is inbounded. Ibaka was called for test vs DEN and more recently GSW lost a game on this call. Yes there are risks, yet practically all NBA coaches routinely call TO in this situation to set-up a play, make sure everyone knows the plan and their role and reinforce any key info etc.

Maybe the play is to run a iso. OK go for it...just set-up the play COACH.

[golden]

Wades last ride is better than Derek Jeters year long homage to himself if you want to compare two greats walking away from the game they have played since they were 5. Jeter had jackshit in his last ride but Wade still had something in the tank.

To me there is also the hint of good Irish Catholic boy Pat Reilly doing some penance for not paying Wade to end his career with the team that drafted him. He made a mistake. He knew it. Rielly fixed that and squared accounts with Wade with the farewell tour. Perception is reality and the Miami boss is again in the good graces of the movers n shakers, agents and players who wield influence in the NBA. Even at 74 Reilly is one of the smartest execs in the league. Wade will be gone and Reilly will again build a contender in Miami before he calls it day.

Pretty soon it it will be Fuck the Heat on RR.

I dunno, it looks like Riley days as the smartest guy in the room, are over. He's overpaid replacement players like Waiters, Whiteside, JJ and Tyler Johnson (whose salary became Ryan Anderson). And the best player they've drafted & developed since Wade (2003) is probably Bam Adebayo (2017)..... 14 years to draft and develop a 'meh' player. A blind squirrel has better odds. Heat have become a perennial 7-11 treadmill team with not even a top 40 player on the roster and a cap situation that doesn't clear up until 2021-22, unless they fork over useful assets to dump salary in a trade.

[Demographic Shift]

I'm so confused at why the retirement tour is what bugs you SOOOO much lmao. Like get over it. Who the hell cares. The man is a damn good player (as you agreed to by admitting he's the 3rd best shooting guard of all time) and has had a very good career. If he wants to have a retirement tour I truly do not understand why that would bother anyone to this level lol

Wades last ride is better than Derek Jeters year long homage to himself if you want to compare two greats walking away from the game they have played since they were 5. Jeter had jackshit in his last ride but Wade still had something in the tank.

To me there is also the hint of good Irish Catholic boy Pat Reilly doing some penance for not paying Wade to end his career with the team that drafted him. He made a mistake. He knew it. Rielly fixed that and squared accounts with Wade with the farewell tour. Perception is reality and the Miami boss is again in the good graces of the movers n shakers, agents and players who wield influence in the NBA. Even at 74 Reilly is one of the smartest execs in the league. Wade will be gone and Reilly will again build a contender in Miami before he calls it day.

Pretty soon it it will be Fuck the Heat on RR.

[Superjudge]

Watched the 4Q again and the number of times Kawhi iso's ended up with nothing is scary. Like Lou states, Kawhi is a much better finisher than a creator off the dribble. Nurse continue's to sit on his hands like a good boy coach and let the players (really Kawhi) figure things out on end of game possessions.Someone commented Kawhi was forced to take a contested 3 because Johnson played tough D. Please watch that play. There was no attempt to drive by Johnson. Kawhi simply caught the ball then backed up towards center court and with shot clock expiring he came forward to let off the 3.

What would you draw up? Why?

[Superjudge]

LOL I'm cool. Just don't play like this come playoff time and we good

I don't worry, I'll be the first one on to the ledge in game one hahahaha

[GLF]

Duncan didn't have a retirement tour. He's an all time great, top 10 of all time. Somehow Wade gets one? lol.

Dirk is another one. He's a true all time great. Greatest Euro player ever. Dude won a championship without an all star on his team. I don't see him doing a retirement tour.

Wade will always talk about his 3 championships, reality is he was the Heat's 2nd best player in all of their 3 championships. He's a Scottie Pippen(which is not bad) not a Michael Jordan.

I'm so confused at why the retirement tour is what bugs you SOOOO much lmao. Like get over it. Who the hell cares. The man is a damn good player (as you agreed to by admitting he's the 3rd best shooting guard of all time) and has had a very good career. If he wants to have a retirement tour I truly do not understand why that would bother anyone to this level lol

[Zak24gege]

William Lou commenting on last play in regulation for Raps. Something I wondered about too.

"Unimaginative: Nick Nurse might have his reasons to not call a set play, but it’s unacceptable that so many possessions in crunch time come down to Kawhi Leonard dribbling and attacking a set defense. He can be a great finisher, but Leonard isn’t exactly James Harden off the dribble. He’s at his best when he catches it in the post, before facing up and attacking from the mid-range like Carmelo Anthony. The Raptors wasted a chance to end the game in regulation because Leonard dribbled for 20 seconds before clanking a contested three over James Johnson, and they simply can’t afford these mistakes when it counts."

Watched the 4Q again and the number of times Kawhi iso's ended up with nothing is scary. Like Lou states, Kawhi is a much better finisher than a creator off the dribble. Nurse continue's to sit on his hands like a good boy coach and let the players (really Kawhi) figure things out on end of game possessions.Someone commented Kawhi was forced to take a contested 3 because Johnson played tough D. Please watch that play. There was no attempt to drive by Johnson. Kawhi simply caught the ball then backed up towards center court and with shot clock expiring he came forward to let off the 3.

[planetmars]

Yeah I would have liked some variation on that final play.. even if some other team sees it, it doesn't mean we need to re-use it. It felt like that ISO Lou at the end of games a few years back. Early on it was awesome.. but after the ASG when everyone knew what was going to happen.. he kept bricking his shots.

[A.I]

I kind of disagree. Sure its the safe play, but that's fine. Sure you wanna mix in some set plays, some PnR, a couple other plays, which hasn't really happened, but its not a bad play.

Best way to approach crunch time shots should vary. Not always iso, not always set plays. If you set a screen against a good defensive team, chances are they'll double/help on Kawhi, make him pass out and recover in time to contest the shot on whoever takes the shot. As for set plays, I'll hold out to see what he does in the Playoffs. Nurse did run a beautiful set play for Gasol against the Pistons, unfortunately it didn't go down. I'm sure he has more of those. We'll see in the Playoffs.

[DogeLover1234]

William Lou commenting on last play in regulation for Raps. Something I wondered about too.

"Unimaginative: Nick Nurse might have his reasons to not call a set play, but it’s unacceptable that so many possessions in crunch time come down to Kawhi Leonard dribbling and attacking a set defense. He can be a great finisher, but Leonard isn’t exactly James Harden off the dribble. He’s at his best when he catches it in the post, before facing up and attacking from the midrange like Carmelo Anthony. The Raptors wasted a chance to end the game in regulation because Leonard dribbled for 20 seconds before clanking a contested three over James Johnson, and they simply can’t afford these mistakes when it counts."

I kind of disagree. Sure its the safe play, but that's fine. Sure you wanna mix in some set plays, some PnR, a couple other plays, which hasn't really happened, but its not a bad play.