Giannis says Heat lack trust after 2-5 start

The Lakers loss opened a 5-game West Coast trip, and Giannis didn't wait long to say what everybody watching already saw.

Ira Winderman

@IraHeatBeat

Giannis insists "we’ve got to have some pride," with no defense for Heat in humbling 2-5 start. t.co/sAhfwwYamX "Right now we don’t trust one another. We’re not giving that extra effort."

That's not a guy blaming the refs or the schedule. That's the franchise's summer prize saying his own teammates don't trust each other on defense, 7 games into year 1. He also told reporters Miami just isn't playing hard enough, which is a wild thing to hear about a team whose whole brand is Heat Culture. Erik Spoelstra took his share of it, saying he has to do a better job getting this group to defend to its potential, and then he said the part that sounds aimed at the whole roster.

Anthony Chiang

@Anthony_Chiang

NEW: "Effort," "trust," "pride"? Heat searching for answers after surprisingly bad defensive start t.co/Tsc8vcO4lc Erik Spoelstra: "It can’t just be on paper, and it can’t just be reputation. It has to be backed up by real actions.”

Reputation is the right word. Miami paid a fortune for this. The Heat got Giannis and Bobby Portis from Milwaukee for Tyler Herro, Kel'el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis and draft picks, a deal reported June 23 and made official July 6. On paper, Giannis next to Bam Adebayo should be a nightmare to score on. In practice the Heat went big with their rotation and are still getting beat on the boards, which is the one thing a big lineup is supposed to guarantee.

And when a superstar on a new team sounds this frustrated this early, TV is going to go where TV goes. On FanDuel's Run It Back, Michelle Beadle asked if Giannis could be one and done in Miami, and DeMarcus Cousins didn't hesitate.

ClutchPoints

@ClutchPoints

Michelle Beadle: "Is there a world - could you see it where [Giannis is] one and done in Miami?" DeMarcus Cousins: "100%. It wouldn't surprise me to see him go back to Milwaukee. For some reason, my gut's telling me that anyway." 🤔 (via @RunItBackFDTV)

Cousins is going off a gut feeling, not reporting, and 7 games is a ridiculous sample to start packing Giannis's bags back to Milwaukee. But it's what happens when the guy you traded half your roster for is calling out trust in November. To his credit, Giannis also said he's confident they can turn it around and admitted they've got a lot to figure out.

Next up is the Clippers, and Giannis already put it on himself: after a whooping like that, you have to respond, and he says he tends to. If Miami shows up with the same effort in LA, the 2-5 stops being an early-season blip and becomes the storyline for the whole trip.