Heat being overlooked months after winning East? ‘I don’t think anyone is sleeping on them’
The Miami Heat is the reigning Eastern Conference champion, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the favorite to win the East this season.
ESPN’s preseason power rankings has the Heat as the third-best team in the East behind the Milwaukee Bucks and Brooklyn Nets. In addition, the Heat enters the season with the fourth-best betting odds to win the conference behind the Bucks, Nets and Boston Celtics, according to BetOnline. And the NBA’s preseason survey of general managers released Friday predicts the Heat to finish third in the East behind the No. 1 Bucks and No. 2 Nets.
With 13 players returning from last season’s roster that finished just two wins short of an NBA championship, is the Heat being overlooked?
“I don’t think anyone is forgetting about Miami and the run that they had,” TNT NBA analyst Reggie Miller said this week on a conference call with reporters. “... They expected to win the East and challenge for a championship. I think Chris [Webber] and I, we could not stop talking about this while we were down in Orlando — the level of professionalism. Because I know Jimmy Butler gets most of the praise, along with Erik Spoelstra and Pat Riley. But it was a team collective effort on why the Heat was so successful. Whether it was Goran Dragic, whose untimely injury ... If Dragic isn’t injured, you talked about them making it a tough six games [in the Finals]. If Dragic is healthy and if Bam [Adebayo] is healthy, who knows? Who knows? But you know what, injuries happen and you give credit to the Lakers.
“But the level of team camaraderie that the Heat brought during the bubble, it’s no surprise. I don’t think anyone is sleeping on them.”
The Heat closes its two-game preseason schedule Friday against the Toronto Raptors in Tampa before opening the regular season Wednesday against the Magic in Orlando. Along with returning 13 players, Miami added veterans Avery Bradley and Moe Harkless in free agency along with drafting big man Precious Achiuwa in the first round this offseason.
The Heat lost forwards Jae Crowder, Solomon Hill and Derrick Jones Jr. in free agency.
“Who can win the East? We say it’s wide open, but Miami is a front-runner because of what happened last year,” Miller said. “Can they duplicate that? Because [the NBA’s Walt Disney World bubble] was a very unique situation. No travel, same arena, everyone is staying in the same bubble hotel basically. So it was a very unique situation. Now you’re adding in factors.
“You see, Tyler Herro was great. But he didn’t have to go into other people’s arena and shoot. Duncan Robinson was great. But he didn’t have to go on the road into other people’s arenas and do that. So your role players, their identity was a little bit self contained. Now, you add travel in and you add back-to-backs and all the other things, can your role players still have that type of success? Can the Heat’s role players still play like they played in Orlando now that they’ve got to get on a plane and venture out? But no one is sleeping on the Heat. I know I’m not.”
Fellow TNT NBA analyst Webber believes in the Heat, too.
“There’s no team I trust more than the Heat. I’ve said that for a long time,” Webber said on this week’s conference call. “... In this bubble-type situation, the teams that you trust the most are the most disciplined and the most talented. I think that anyone would be surprised if they said they expected Herro to come out and do what he did in the playoffs. I wouldn’t believe them unless you’re like a family member. Don’t get me wrong, that’s who he is now and he earned it. But it’s still almost like, it’s no disrespect, but you’re still getting used to this story of what the Heat does and who they are as a collective because you wonder what else do they need. Do they need a little more size? Well, no. They have Adebayo. You know that no team is going to outwork them or going to have more attention to detail. So I would not say that anyone is sleeping on them.”
TORONTO IN TAMPA
The Heat traveled to Tampa to face the Raptors on Friday.
Why? The Raptors have been temporarily relocated to Tampa because of COVID-19-related travel restrictions in Canada, and are beginning the season by playing home games at Amalie Arena.
“I can’t even imagine it. I really can’t,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the Raptors’ situation. “I don’t even know how that works with the families. It’s hard enough during an NBA season traveling and then you’re ‘home’ is not really your home. Yeah, the world is so much different. I think Toronto, their whole organization has handled it remarkably well making the best out of a really challenging and unfair situation.”
▪ The trade deadline for the 2020-21 season has been set for March 25.
The NBA’s Board of Governors also approved Thursday a plan to allow teams to expand their active roster for games from 13 to 15 players for this season as a response to the uncertainty that comes with playing during a pandemic.
The NBA coach’s challenge was also approved on a full-time basis. It was introduced last season on a one-year trial.
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 10:45 AM.
