Rivers on where Heat stands. And a Butler update and what to know on major NBA TV changes
Former Philadelphia 76ers coach and new ESPN/ABC analyst Doc Rivers said Friday that the Heat needs to add another impactful player to win a title with this roster.
“Do I think they need another guy to get over the hump? I do,” Rivers said on an ESPN Zoom session previewing the season. “I think they have enough to make a run. But do they have enough to win it? I think they need another player, another closer, per se.
“It didn’t have to be Damian Lillard. There’s guys available. Dame would have been a perfect fit because Dame is serious about basketball and his conditioning. He would have been an easy culture guy to add to the Heat.
“My guess is Pat Riley and Erik [Spoelstra] are out looking [for] what’s another way they can improve their team. The thing about Miami, from what I know, is players don’t really complain about going and living in Miami. That part of it they have. They don’t complain about the taxes in Florida. That part they have as well. The next part is can they fit in? And can they acquire him? Because you have to give up something to get something. And that’s the problem right there for them.”
Rivers cracked that the way Miami is viewed, “every year, the Heat’s championship window has closed. Every single year, we say that. And then here they are, back. Their culture beats teams a lot.”
Rivers said Tyler Herro “has to be huge for them to make a run. He has to make that next step. Riley challenged him last year to make a step. Now he has to make a bigger one. And it’s going to be big for them.”
▪ Quick Heat news item entering Friday’s preseason finale at Houston (8 p.m., Bally Sports Sun): Even though Heat star Jimmy Butler did not travel with the team to Houston on Thursday, the team left open the possibility of Butler joining the team in Texas for Friday night’s preseason finale against the Rockets.
But the Heat said Friday that Butler will not join the team in Houston and will miss the contest after undergoing a dental procedure Friday morning. Butler missed all five of the Heat’s preseason games, but is expected to be ready for Wednesday’s regular-season opener against the Detroit Pistons in Miami.
“Do I feel like I need to get in a preseason game? Not really,” Butler said following Thursday’s practice. “I think I’m in great shape.”
Along with missing Butler, the Heat is also without Haywood Highsmith (left MCL sprain), Jaime Jaquez Jr. (strained left groin) and Josh Richardson (sore right foot) for the preseason finale. All four players did not travel to Houston.
MEDIA PLANS
ESPN’s NBA changes were more seismic than any in their history covering the sport.
Lead game analysts Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson were dropped as part of layoffs that impacted more than 20 familiar faces; ESPN reportedly owes Van Gundy a lot of money but can use that as a tax write-off.
Rivers — a former lead analyst on ABC — walked into that top spot again, paired with Doris Burke and play-by-play man Mike Breen on the ABC/ESPN lead team.
“With Doc Rivers, you have someone who’s fresh off the bench,” ESPN head of event and studio production Dave Roberts said. “Doc has done this job before, but more importantly, he has the type of insight that’s necessary.”
And “Doris has proven herself as one of the top analysts covering the NBA for quite some time. I’m looking forward to seeing her and the chemistry she already has with Doc Rivers. They’re close friends and they have a mutual respect for one another.”
Rivers and Burke were very conversational in their first preseason game together; they should be fine, together, and Breen’s work remains exemplary.
But the decision to move on from Van Gundy and Jackson remains head-scratching, because Van Gundy’s analysis was prescient and because they had achieved a type of comfortable, comedic chemistry that’s rare to find in television sports.
If ESPN preferred a new voice on its lead team, it could have at least offered Van Gundy or Jackson a role on its No. 2 team, as long as they needed to be paid anyway. There was talk of Jackson working on the No. 2 team, but he announced this summer that ESPN told him he was being dropped altogether.
I asked Roberts if the decision to dump Van Gundy and Jackson was mostly financial driven, or a combination of financial considerations and eagerness to try something different.
Roberts didn’t answer directly, but my sense is it was both.
“I’m not going to get into the budgetary evaluation process that led to any of the talent impacted by the recent layoffs,” Roberts said.
Also surprising was the decision to replace Mark Jones with Ryan Ruocco as the No. 2 announcer. Jones, a longtime Miami resident who also calls Sacramento Kings games, was bumped down on the depth chart.
Ruocco will be paired with Richard Jefferson and JJ Redick; those three impressed ESPN executives late last season, including their call of Game 6 of the Heat-Knicks playoff series.
“Ryan Ruocco has unlimited potential and is already an excellent play-by-play announcer,” Roberts said. “The few games that Ruocco, Redick and Jefferson worked together, I saw a fun team, an energetic team, and a team with chemistry.
“You can’t fake chemistry, and when you find chemistry that actually matches with the quality of the product, then it’s an opportunity that I would not pass up. I think it’s important that there is a clear established No. 2 team.”
When I asked Roberts why he opted for that team over pairing, say, Jones with Jackson on the No. 2 team, he didn’t answer directly.
ESPN retained legendary Hubie Brown — still extremely sharp mentally at 90 — and hired former Warriors general manager Bob Meyers. They will fill out ESPN’s game analyst depth chart, working with either Jones or Dave Pasch.
“Hubie and I had great conversations [this summer and he] feels good,” Roberts said. “He knows more about basketball than I’ll ever know.”
Myers — the front office face of the Warriors championship dynasty — also will appear in studio on the ABC editions of “NBA Countdown.”
Myers is “a very unique talent,” Roberts said. “As an executive, his track record speaks for itself. He’s a difference maker in terms of just his insight and his ability to relate to people… He’s a tremendously insightful and smart human being.”
Another major change: Malika Andrews, who has capably handled hosting duties on the weekday “NBA Today” since Rachel Nichols’ departure, will replace Mike Greenberg as host on all coverage of the playoffs and the Finals and most regular-season games.
“She just turned 28; she has one hell of a bright future,” Roberts said this summer. “I have nothing but the utmost confidence in her abilities, and she’s already proven that she’s a hard worker.
“Probably long after I retire, I suspect Malika Andrews will be the face of NBA programming here at ESPN and on ABC.”
Andrews and Adrian Wojnarowksi will be the only cast members on both the ABC and ESPN studio shows.
Roberts wanted two different pregame presentations. Andrews and Wojnarowski will be joined by Myers, Michael Wilbon and Stephen A. Smith in studio on ABC games, and by Kendrick Perkins, Richard Jefferson and Chiney Ogwumike on the Wednesday and Friday ESPN games.
While Turner has had more than two decades of stability in studio with Ernie Johnson Jr., Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal, ESPN’s studio has been a revolving door.
“I have nothing but the utmost respect for what they do, Barkley, Shaq, Kenny Smith and of course Ernie, we both serve the NBA in very distinctive ways,” Roberts said.
“We’re not Turner. I don’t want to be Turner because I know we’re not Turner. It’s not our brand and it’s not our mission because we have a different menu of programming and content across all kinds of platforms.”
One other notable ABC/ESPN development: Because the writer’s strike (which ended a few weeks ago) and the ongoing actors’ strike have created programming challenges for the major over-the-air networks, ABC will fill Wednesday nights in January with NBA games.
None of those Wednesday ABC games will involve the Heat, who received two ABC games: Heat-Knicks at 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27 and 2 p.m. on Feb. 11 (Super Bowl Sunday) against Boston.
On Christmas night, ESPN will carry 76ers-at-Heat opposite a Baltimore-San Francisco NFL game on ABC.
As for TNT, the continuity continues; there are no changes at all in the network’s NBA announcer lineup.
BALLY CHANGE
If you don’t have cable or satellite service (or subscribe to a carrier that doesn’t carry the Bally Florida networks), there’s another option to watch Heat and Panthers games:
Bally has launched a Season Pass option for Bally Sports+. The cost is $124.99 for all Bally Sports Sun programming, including 71 Heat games. It’s another $124.99 for all Bally Sports Florida programming, including 70 Panthers games.
There is also a $29.99 per month bundle available for all programming on both networks. There’s no bundle option for Season Pass.
Miami Herald sportswriter Anthony Chiang contributed to this report.
This story was originally published October 20, 2023 at 1:24 PM.
