Jaquez at 18 too. Ware at 15. 

our high draft picks actually turn out worse than our mid round picks lol

Even Jimmy was #30 (yes ik the Heat didn’t draft him)

And Bam wears 13 and Tyler wears 14 lol

Wiggins:

Kawhi

It’s a lot easier to get stars on the high end of the draft. The Heat could’ve drafted Booker and went with Winslow. We could’ve drafted Maxey and went with Achiuwa.

See the sixers, they were notorious for tanking and all their high picks are either out the team or out the league

Heat culture is a meme but there’s a reason miami is randomly doing finals runs and making the playoffs despite being a 10th seed

He narrative has never really been that the top of the draft is the only place to get stars, just that it’s by far the most likely place to find them. Which is as true now as it’s ever been.

But it’s far less challenging to do it with a top pick. The spurs have built a contender without making any flashy moves or drafting a crazy diamond in the rough

And sometimes you can get the first overall pick and doesn’t turn out well!

:(

This is called selection bias. Of course you can get great players outside of the top 5. The odds are simply much, much lower. For every guy outside the lottery who ends up a star there are probably 30 who wash out of the league entirely.

Whereas in the top 5 it’s probably closer to ⁵⁰⁄₅₀.

Heat culture has been wildly successful. But the Heat have been leapfrogged by lots of teams that prioritized high draft talent over culture. Because the swiftest way to build a winning culture is via talent.

I always tell people this. Getting the no. 1 pick isn’t necessarily doing anything for your team. A lot of times draft picks leave or don’t work out. Warrior got their franchise player with the 7th pick. The Nuggets got theirs in the second round, Milwaukee in the late lottery. You never know who is going to be a super star.

A lot of times top picks that end up being good leave before the team that drafted them really does much.

I think the Wizards deserve a tank. They paid so many terrible contracts in the past 20 years, developed no young players, only showcased overrated stars, etc.

If any 2 teams deserve a true reset it’s Kings and Wizards imo

It’s very difficult to have good internal player development when you have a legacy of decades of losing

Nosferatu fuck face Henry Kissinger apologist silver isn’t gonna like it.

“It’s the wizards fault, they did this for the draft picks”

This is genius level of shifting blame

They’re a free agent destination but they’ve mostly worked with guys they drafted themselves. Their most notable guy recently was butler but a lot of his desire to join them stemmed from him playing with dwade on the bulls. Spo got a lot of value out of low draft picks and undrafted guys that no other team was paying attention to.

Most of the time I feel like players just use the threat of going to the heat as leverage to get a better deal from their own team or another team than actually going there.

Last big free agent heat have gotten is LeBron. You’re correct its easier and Jimmy had us on his preferred destination list, but we havent gotten a true big free agent in 10+ years

Miami has to resort to this BECAUSE they havent gotten any big name FAs to come over. Good weather and tax breaks are perks but dont seem to be as attractive as you make it seem.

When was the last time we’ve actually gotten a great free agent?

free agency is dead lol

When’s the last time they got a marquee free agent?

LeBron. It’s been 16 years.

Do they even get big time free agents anymore?

Their last big pull was over a decade ago and largely due to their top 5 draft pick colluding with his bff.

He’s a hardest path merchant.

Spo is a hardest battles merchant.

He runs towards the grind.

Fun fact: Since Pat Riley started coaching us, we’ve made the playoffs in ²⁵⁄₃₀ seasons. We’ve also made 7 finals, which means the Heat have been more likely to make the Finals than miss the playoffs in that span.

Unless there are cookies involved lol

And they’re competitive seemingly every year.

Any attempts they’ve had to swing for big free agents have failed miserably. I remember back in 2016 when KD was a FA, they cleared a ton of cap space to try to lure him over, thinking they had a chance since they were his hometown team. He refused to even meet with them

Lol what counts as a small market at this point? Because I would think the Wizards are pretty big market?

Is it basically just LA/NY/MIA/SF, maybe Houston, maybe Chicago?

The point Spo was making is they’re finding success with middle of the round picks.

DC is a big market: https://hoop-social.com/nba-team-market-size-rankings/

IMO. There’s too much money for guys to thumb their noses at this point. The Wizards just need to get the Org in running order the rest will workout simply because the parity in the league with the new CBA

Yes clearly the Wiz are a well run organization - the only reason they miss the playoffs all the time is bad luck

we have wiggins it’s ok

His only championship came from a number one draft pick.

He went B2B with him but yeah you are right

Yeah he only made 2 finals without LeBron. Please.

Daily comment about how tanking is bad without understanding how or why the lack of a level playing field leads to tanking

I mean your coach is saying it’s a valid strategy lol

Amen

That is the textbook definition of tanking, just building bad rosters that aren’t able to win games. Sixers used to do this by trading off any player who showed an ounce of potential, until they got their “chosen one”.

Why it’s such a big deal now is because teams like the Jazz, already have high-caliber players and are sitting them out purposefully to lose. That’s when the “19 year olds” excuse doesn’t work anymore.

That used to be what tanking was, not giving players nose jobs and calling them out for the season. Some of the rotations have been bad and they definitely are trying to lose, but the Wizards haven’t done nearly as much fucky Jazz/Pacers shit.

I can’t always tell if the Bulls are tanking, but Luka should go for the big 90 tonight

i think this all irked him to some level. Only ten years ago, you’d have a handful of really sentimental and saccharine sweet Grantland and Player’s Tribune puff pieces about Bam’s career up to this point culminating to this moment.

Instead, you have literal screeching from the New York and LA Times.

Wizards are playing chutes and ladders and rolling for chutes.

This is my issue with tanking. Spoelstra is right: the Wizards are doing the right thing for their team’s future.

BUT they are literally stealing money from fans. And that sucks.

I think a team should be able to declare a “rebuild year” and should be allowed to lose as much as they can.

BUT if they do that, they have to cut ticket prices by 50%.