Heat eager to see how healthy roster stacks up vs. stronger East: ‘We just all want to be healthy’
The Boston Celtics are bringing back the roster that won the NBA title last season. The Philadelphia 76ers landed nine-time All-Star forward Paul George this summer to form an All-Star trio that also includes Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. The New York Knicks traded for Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns this offseason to add to an already talented roster anchored by Jalen Brunson. The Milwaukee Bucks are entering their second season led by the duo of eight-time All-Stars Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
As the Miami Heat opened training camp opened Tuesday in the Bahamas at Baha Mar, all the Heat wants for this season is improved health.
“We just all want to be healthy and win ball games,” Heat three-time All-Star center Bam Adebayo said at media day Monday.
With the top of the Eastern Conference growing stronger and the Celtics’ championship core remaining intact this offseason, the Heat brought back most of last season’s roster that entered the playoffs as the No. 8 seed and was quickly eliminated in the first round by the Celtics.
The only new player who the Heat added in free agency this offseason on a fully guaranteed standard contract is veteran guard Alec Burks.
“You sound scared,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Monday when a reporter ran through all the roster upgrades made by East contenders this offseason. “You have to be about it and our guys are about it.”
The fact is the Heat believes it has the guys, if healthy, to compete with the East’s best. While the Adebayo-Butler build hasn’t yet resulted in an NBA title, Heat brass will point out that this pairing has helped produce three Eastern Conference finals appearances and two NBA Finals appearances in their first five seasons together in Miami.
Another fact is the Heat wasn’t healthy last season, contributing to its disappointing early first-round playoff exit. Those season-long injury issues led to ...
▪ The Heat set a new franchise record with 35 different starting lineups used last regular season. 18 different Heat players started at least one game.
▪ No Heat lineup logged more than 200 minutes together last regular season. In comparison, the Celtics had two lineups that played more than 300 minutes together.
▪ The Heat’s leading trio of Adebayo, Butler and Herro was limited to just 27 games together last regular season, with the team posting a 14-13 record in those games.
▪ After the Heat added Rozier through a trade in January, injuries limited the quartet of Adebayo, Butler, Herro and Rozier to just 10 games together (5-5 record) last season. This four-man combination also didn’t play in any playoff games together last season, with Butler and Rozier missing the Heat’s entire first-round playoff series against the Celtics because of injuries.
“Two things,” Spoelstra said when asked how the Heat can prevent things from getting stale as it enters season 6 of the Adebayo-Butler build. “One, we haven’t done what we set out to do. That’s the most important thing. How does anything get stale if you haven’t accomplished what you want to accomplish?
“Secondly, we haven’t had what we want to look at. The group has had no chance to even get to that point. We’re still looking for the innocent climb with a lot of these guys. I’m not going to give you headlines about starting lineups or rotation or anything like that. But I am definitely intentional about seeing what Terry, Tyler, Jimmy, Bam looks like. I’m not talking about who’s going to be fifth or whatever. But we need to get those guys out on the wood and see how that group can really complement each other and really lift this whole group up.”
In the limited time that four-man group of Rozier, Herro, Butler and Adebayo was on the court last season, this lineup outscored opponents by one point per 100 possessions in 118 minutes over their 10 games together. The Heat’s hope is that relatively average number grows more dominant when the Rozier-Herro-Butler-Adebayo combination is able to log extended minutes together — potentially as part of the Heat’s opening night starting lineup based on Spoelstra’s hint on media day.
“I think we’re all self-motivated and then you see all this talk about everybody doubting us,” Rozier said. “I think that can do nothing but bring even more motivation to us. I think we’re all excited and ready to get out there. Everybody knows that this team didn’t get to play too many games together. With a healthy team, we feel like we’re capable of doing a lot.”
According to SportsBetting.ag, the Heat is tied with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers and Orlando Magic for the fifth-best odds to win the East this season at 20-to-1 behind the Celtics (3-to-2), Knicks (3-to-1), 76ers (4-to-1) and Bucks (6-to-1).
“Good for those teams,” Butler said of the East getting better around the Heat this summer. “They’re gearing up for another season just like us. We got better, as well. So whenever we come across those dates on the calendar, we’ll see how we match up.”
Rozier added on the Heat being overlooked by some in the East: “Underdogs, however you want to put it — it doesn’t matter. We still got to play those games and get between those lines with whoever, so I think we’re all ready for it. It doesn’t matter what anybody labels us. We’re ready for the season.”
Ready to again prove it’s one of the East’s best teams regardless of what outsiders think.
“Everything can look however you want it to look on paper,” Spoelstra said. “Boston can say whatever they want to say, they’ve earned it. They beat all of us and they were crowned. So they can feel however they want to feel going into the season. With that said, you still have to earn it. It’s a new season, new year. There will be a bunch of teams that are gunning for that title. Our guys like that world, where you have to earn it and you have to take what you want out of this league and you can’t be afraid of the competition. You can’t be afraid of proving it between those four lines. That’s the type of competitors in our locker room.”
This story was originally published October 1, 2024 at 9:33 AM.
