Hubie Brown on what Heat must do in Finals. And Heat advocate Kendrick Perkins weighs in
ESPN’s Hubie Brown, the Hall of Fame coach and basketball savant, offered insight into Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson in this Tuesday piece.
Brown — the 87-year-old who isn’t working the NBA playoffs because he’s in an age group vulnerable to COVID-19 — had a lot more to say about the Heat in a phone conversation, which we will weave into columns during the next week.
With this Heat-Lakers Finals matchup, “there are a number of little questions to me,” he said.
Among them, from a Heat standpoint:
▪ “Can your key scorers stay out of foul trouble?” Brown asks. “It sounds easy until you say Jimmy Butler is going to play LeBron James and the two kids [Duncan Robinson, Tyler Herro] are going to be matched up with the best defense, with size, by experienced guards and small forwards [that Miami has faced with Danny Green, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Kyle Kuzma]. Can they score enough points playing them?”
▪ Brown worries, from a Heat perspective, about the Lakers’ frontline size.
“When you saw Anthony Davis, LeBron, Dwight Howard [against Denver], now it’s going to be interesting how you match up” knowing Miami has mostly played small in these playoffs, with Bam Adebayo at center and Jae Crowder at power forward.
“The zone is the key,” Brown said. “In the paint, instead of [Boston’s Daniel] Theis, you are going to have Howard and Davis and LeBron and JaVale McGee. Can you keep the key scorers you need to win out of foul trouble?”
▪ He said Miami “has not played against two shot-blockers yet, Howard and Davis and McGee. You have two [Lakers] shot-blockers on the floor at any time, and that changes a lot of things that have to be taken into consideration. If they play man, on the left side of the floor with a Davis and LeBron pick-and-roll, that is going to be major because Davis scores a ton of points on the left side of the floor.
“How do you rotate to pick him off if you don’t switch? Can you guard him in one and one situations without getting Bam in foul trouble? Davis is a top five talent.”
▪ Another big concern with Davis, James and Howard: “Can you keep these three guys off your defensive boards and from getting that second shot?”
▪ Brown said “the one thing you can do is hurt the Lakers in the transition game. So do you play fast and say you can score enough points? Do you slow down and make it a shorter game and then play a half-court game? Do you want to push harder because you can hurt them in the open floor or do you want to shorten the game?”
That will be one of Spoelstra’s most difficult decisions, Brown indicated.
▪ But Brown said of Spoelstra: “I don’t doubt at all that this coaching staff will come up with a great defensive game plan. You have to give the coaching staff credit to be able to develop this young talent. Nobody thought Robinson and [Kendrick] Nunn and Herro would be able to play like this.”
Brown said an acquaintance recently “was asking me, ‘How many Finals has Spoelstra been in? Three, four?’ I said five.
“I said when they won the championships, [Pat] Riley got the credit. The kid was coaching the team. He was overshadowed by upper management, by the three stars and yet he was the one coaching the team, making the decisions, making the game plans. And I am so happy for this young guy.
“He’s been a shining star for a lot of people in the league who appreciate coaching, preparation, player development. This guy and his staff have stepped up and done an incredible coaching job to get this team to this level. I’m just so happy he’s starting to get the just rewards throughout his profession.”
Brown, citing another point that explains why the Heat coaching staff is very good schematically, said “anybody can do” ball movement “but how many teams can consistently set the screens and run the perfect pick-and-roll for the role player [like Miami does].
“When you do clinics for coaches — and I’ve done that 40 years all over the world — can you get your three best scorers high-percentage shots in their best areas. And you’re seeing that with Miami. Yeah, it’s three-point shooting but also a dribble penetration in the paint, and that’s where they outworked Boston in that last series, from 15 feet to the rim and they scored time and time again, getting second chance opportunities on their dribble handoffs. Whether it was pick-and-roll or a staggered screen, they kept wearing Boston out.”
▪ Brown noted Heat “upper management came through, [not only] got Jimmy Butler, but halfway through the season realized they needed more and picked up two 6-6 kids — Jae Crowder and Andre Iguodala — because this gives them defensive toughness to play the wings and guard. So management steps up big for you with these two incredible additions halfway through the season.”
▪ And this is what’s so striking to Brown about the Heat’s evolution this season: “I said to a number of friends yesterday, ‘I am going to give you some names and give this thought: ‘Kelly Olynyk, Meyers Leonard, Kendrick Nunn and Derrick Jones.’ Four of the top seven guys for over half the season and they didn’t even play [for much of or all of] the Eastern finals.”
“How many teams could change course and stream halfway through the season and then come in with two outsiders [Crowder, Iguodala and make it all work]?”
Brown said he misses calling the games.
“ESPN made the right decision, like Turner did with Marv Albert,” Brown said of both networks leaving home two signature announcers because they’re in an age group vulnerable to COVID-19.
“I watch every night, but when you’ve had the opportunity do as many Finals as I have on television or radio through the years, going back to CBS and ABC, you enjoy the competition and you miss the competition and the camaraderie of your television team.”
Mark Jones (Brown’s usual ESPN TV partner) and Doris Burke did excellent work calling games in the bubble. But Brown is an NBA treasure (much like his friend, the late/great Jack Ramsay), and ESPN said he will return next season (or as soon as COVID is under control).
This would have been Brown’s 17th consecutive Finals on TV or radio; Burke — who has become more assertive in these playoffs — is filling in for him on the ESPN Radio Finals broadcasts.
Brown said a couple of other interesting things about two Heat players that we’ll run in the next week.
THOMAS, PERKINS WEIGH IN
▪ NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas says this Heat team reminds him of his 2004 Detroit Pistons that beat the Lakers, 4-1, in the NBA Finals, despite the Lakers having more star power.
“Their culture is very similar to what we had in Detroit, believing in your system and teammates. I look at what we did when I was with the Detroit Pistons. The top player on the team [Butler] making the most money is allowing everyone else to grow.”
Thomas said back in February, “we were in Chicago for the All-Star Game. UD [Udonis Haslem] said, ‘I want to introduce you to Bam because he understands and he gets it’.
“What that meant is you can trust me, I’m consistent and a great teammate. Bam, Butler, those guys get what being a team is all about, not the glorification of an individual.”
Nevertheless, Thomas said: “I got the Lakers winning in five. They’ve got the two best players in the series.”
.▪ Kudos to ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins for predicting Heat success in postseason.
He said this week that Adebayo is now a “top three big” in the league and beyond his defensive versatility, there’s “nothing Bam can’t do. Dominating the paint [in Game 6 against Boston], he looked like a baby Shaq with some Giannis [Antetokounmpo] skills coming up court, Europstepping.”
But Perkins’ faith in the Heat winning ends here. “They’re not a massive underdog. I have this series going six or seven. I believe the Lakers will come out victorious. LeBron and Anthony Davis are the best duo since Kobe and Shaq.
“But let’s not underestimate them goons from Dade County. They are going to push the Lakers. Erik Spoelstra is going to throw that zone out there and he knows ways to mix it up to have other teams doing things outside their comfort zone. [From a Lakers standpoint], I’m worried about Spoelstra more than anything. He’s the best coach in the league.”
▪ Other picks: Former Heat forward Caron Butler has the Lakers in six; ESPN’s Amin Elhassan picks the Heat in six.
▪ ESPN’s Jeff Van Gundy — who calls the Finals games on ABC with Mike Breen and Mark Jackson — said for the Heat to have a chance of winning, “they’ve got to keep the Lakers in half-court [offense]. The Lakers are devastating because of defense that turns into offense. They’re guardable in half court. I don’t think you can discount what Miami is capable of in the Finals.”
▪ Fox Sports Sun will have 90-minute pregame shows and extensive postgame shows for every NBA Finals game, with live interviews and commentary from Eric Reid, John Crotty, Jason Jackson, Ron Rothstein and Ruth Riley-Hunter.
This story was originally published September 30, 2020 at 10:07 AM.
