Miami Heat News

Touched down in Philly.

Landed in Philly and got straight to work

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Calvin Booth credited Michael Malone with developing Peyton Watson and Christian Braun. He said the championship required alignment between them. He said Malone deserves another head coaching job. But he was also honest about the bind he was in. Former NBA GM and coach Flip Saunders, Booth said, used to talk about the difference between idealistic and realistic. Front offices are idealistic. Coaches are dealing with reality every day: the pressure, the decisions, the knowledge that a losing streak could end their career. Booth admitted he was probably too idealistic in expecting a coach under that kind of pressure to execute a long-term development plan, especially for a first-time GM without a track record. “I have to take accountability whatever way that narrative grew legs and my part in it, I've learned from that,” Booth said. “There's such a weird paradox with NBA coaches. They're in the midst of the lion's den. They're dealing with players, some of the most formidable size-wise and ego-wise in the world, and they're managing them. Those guys buy in. And then these coaches have to report to a general manager who maybe doesn't have the gravitas they do. I just think it's a human nature thing.” Even with that awareness, Booth doesn't think the outcome was a reflection of how he handled it. He thinks he managed it better than most would have. "You could put 100 GMs in my position," he said. "I don't know what, three or four of them do as good as I did." My full conversation with Calvin Booth goes deeper into his time with the Nuggets, Jokic, his basketball philosophy, the upcoming draft, and many more subjects. Check it out on the latest episode of The Kevin O’Connor Show.

A moment he won’t forget 🥹

Payton Pritchard is averaging over 20 points on 50/40/90 ever since the Simons trade. What a major talent for the Celtics. Reggie Miller's comparison to Caitlin Clark is a big compliment, not an insult!

Payton Pritchard is averaging over 20 points on 50/40/90 ever since the Simons trade. Reggie Miller's comparison to Caitlin Clark is a big compliment, not an insult!

Payton Pritchard is averaging over 20 points on 50/40/90 ever since the Simons trade. Caitlin Clark should not be insulted by the comp!

Since being fired by the Nuggets, Calvin Booth is consulting with college programs, helping coaches navigate the transfer portal. But when I asked if he wanted to run an NBA team again, the measured answer couldn't quite hide the want underneath it. "Nobody's entitled or owed an opportunity to run an NBA team. There's 30 jobs. All those guys in their own way deserve to be in that seat," he said. "I'd be foolish to say that for the right scenario I wouldn't be willing to work for somebody." Booth built a championship team, drafted a pipeline of players now contributing across the league, and left behind a roster framework that another front office executed. Booth said not a single owner has called. “My door wasn't knocking down with people waiting to hire me. That's where this whole thing got blown out of proportion,” Booth said. “If you look tangibly at what I did — my win percentage, what I drafted, working with a coach like Coach Malone as a first-time GM — I just don't know how my door isn't knocking.” My full conversation with Booth goes deeper into his time with the @Nuggets, Nikola Jokic, his basketball philosophy, the upcoming draft, and many more subjects. Check it out on the latest episode of The Kevin O’Connor Show.

Calvin Booth believes four factors converged to cost him his job with Denver. First, the Nikola Jokic effect: when you have the best player in the world, everything else gets taken for granted. Second, the friction between a tenured champion coach and a first-time GM. Third, ownership. Booth believes the Kroenke family, for all its success across sports, doesn’t place the same value on front-office executives that other organizations do. And fourth: “I think I just made it look too easy.” He elaborated: “Anybody that’s really good at something, when they make it look easy, that was really, really hard to get to. [It took] a lifetime’s worth of playing basketball, coaching basketball, having conversations, scouting, for me to go in there right away, assemble a championship team, win a championship.” My full conversation with Booth goes deeper into his time with the @nuggets, Jokic, his basketball philosophy, the upcoming draft, and many more subjects. Check it out on the latest episode of The Kevin O’Connor Show.

It’ll be very funny if Kuminga puts up numbers like this the rest of the year

True. Peterson looks like Ray Allen out there. Both a good thing and a bad thing I guess. I’m still hopeful we’ll see more of the on-ball dominance be displayed in high school.

FINAL: HEAT 117, Bucks 128 Powell: 26pts, 6rebs Adebayo: 18pts, 9rebs Wiggins: 16pts, 8rebs, 5asts Herro: 14pts, 6asts Ware: 14pts, 8rebs Larsson: 10pts, 6rebs, 5asts

FINAL: HEAT 117, Bucks 128 Powell: 26pts, 6rebs Adebayo: 23pts, 18rebs Wiggins: 16pts, 8rebs, 5asts Herro: 14pts, 6asts Ware: 14pts, 8rebs Larsson: 10pts, 6rebs, 5asts

Final from Milwaukee

Tyler got UP there

The pass + the finish😮‍💨

Up by 4 heading into the 4th

Y'all seeing the Warehouse rn?!😳

Wiggs on both ends 👀

Too easy for Pelle💪

45 found a hole

Poetry in motion

At the half