Hall of Famers pushing Heat: ‘I would consider them the best team in the league right now’
A six-pack of Miami Heat notes on a Wednesday:
▪ There no longer should be a question about whether this team is viewed as a championship contender.
“The Heat, I would consider them the best team in the league right now,” Dallas coach and Hall of Famer Jason Kidd said after Miami’s 125-110 win against the Mavericks on Tuesday.
Excluding the LeBron James era, commentary about Heat basketball often focused on the team’s grit and defense and high effort. That’s a fabric of this team, but TNT’s Kenny Smith said there’s more to it.
“Talent,” Smith said Tuesday. “Just a high degree of talent. You can change the defenses. Erik Spoelstra doesn’t get enough credit for what he’s done, getting into the Finals two years ago and winning before when they were there before. The talent pool in Miami is super high.”
ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins said he won’t be surprised if the Heat wins the championship this season.
And TNT analyst and Hall of Famer Reggie Miller said: “I like Miami’s chances of winning the East because of their defense.”
TNT analyst and Hall of Famer Charles Barkley said: “Miami is for real. The Bucks are the best team in the East and everything else in the East is up for grabs between the Bulls, Heat. We don’t know what Brooklyn is going to do. Those are the three-four best teams in the East.”
TNT’s Shaquille O’Neal said: “You bring in two players that have championship mentalities and championships in Kyle Lowry and PJ Tucker. Then you bring in Markieff Morris and Victor Oladipo. We all know the culture of Miami, how they play and how they win. They are going to go really, really far. They’re going to have home-court advantage in the first round.”
▪ I asked new ESPN analyst and former NBA guard JJ Redick if he would surprised if the Heat beats the Nets and/or Bucks and makes the NBA Finals.
“Miami has done a fantastic job of building that roster this year,” he said. “They’ve got tough guys. They’ve got shooting. They’ve got depth. To win playoff series, you have to be able to play different ways. You have to be able to play different defensive schemes. Miami has the personnel to do that. They’re going to be a very tough out in in the East for sure. But I’m not making predictions eight games into the season.”
▪ Bam Adebayo is allowing the player he’s defending to shoot 28.1 percent (18 for 64), best in the league among frontcourt players (minimum 50 shots defended) and second best behind only Clippers guard Luke Kennard.
▪ Not only is Tyler Herro 25th in the league in scoring and first among bench players (at 22.4), but he’s eighth among all NBA guards in defensive field-goal percentage against.
Players he’s guarding are shooting just 34.7 percent (25 for 72).
Herro has four 25-point games off the bench this season. The rest of the NBA has six.
“He says ‘I’m as good as Luka [Doncic] and Trae [Young],’” TNT’s O’Neal said. “I believe it.”
There has never been a question about Herro’s work ethic.
“There comes a time in a young player’s career when there’s enough talk,” Pat Riley said before the season. “After a while, they get a little bit adviced out. You give them more advice, you got to do this, you can’t do this, watch this, watch that, you need more running, you need more this. He has been taught by his coaches everything he needs to know and he studied very hard, and he works hard at it. What Erik says about him is not untrue. He is a workaholic in trying to refine his game.”
▪ Power forward Precious Achiuwa is averaging 8.3 points and 8.6 rebounds and 23.5 minutes in eight games (all starts) for Toronto, and as we noted here, Miami could have signed Lowry to the same contract with cap space and not dealt Achiuwa. But by instead doing a sign-and-trade for Lowry, the Heat had the money to sign P.J. Tucker (Miami likely would have needed to sign a slightly cheaper power forward such as Jeff Green otherwise) and keep Victor Oladipo’s Bird Rights.
The decision to deal Achiuwa can obviously be justified because the value of Tucker can’t be reflected in a boxscore and because the Heat clearly has built this team the right way. Unless Achiuwa blossoms into an All-Star-caliber player, this was the right move.
Goran Dragic — who accompanied Achiuwa to Toronto in the Lowry trade — said last month: “If I’m honest, last year they [the Heat] put [Achiuwa] a little bit into a box. He just ran hard, set screens, roll, catch the lobs, rebound. “
▪ Even former Heat players begin to sound like Spoelstra, which is a compliment to the Heat coach.
“I want to be with the winners,” said Jazz center Hassan Whiteside, now with his third team in three years since the Heat traded him. “I have to prove that. I think I can contribute to a winning situation, but it’s up to me to show that. I led the league in multiple categories, but now I have to show that I can make an impact on winning and I want to be on that caliber of team. That’s why I signed with the Jazz.”
Spoelstra repeatedly told Whiteside how he — and everyone — is measured by their impact on winning and not stats. Spoelstra often echoes the same message in general terms in interview sessions.
Whiteside has spent time with Portland, Sacramento and now Utah since leaving the Heat.
Whiteside is playing for the $2.6 million minimum, now two years removed from the expiration of his four-year, $98 million deal with the Heat.
This story was originally published November 3, 2021 at 4:52 PM.
