Greg Cote’s Hot Button Top 10: Heat/Durant, Marlins’ dearth of top talent, Messi multi-tasking & more
Note: Greg Cote’s Poll Dance has the week off. Look for a new poll next Sunday.
GREG COTE’S HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (MARCH 2): WHAT IN SPORTS HAS GRABBED US THIS WEEK: Our Sunday Hot Button Top 10 notes column brings you what’s on our minds, locally and nationally but from a Miami perspective and accentuating stuff that’s big, weird, damnable, funny or otherwise worth needling, as the sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. Welcome to the 96th edition of your HB10:
1. HEAT: Miami wins second straight; might another run at Durant be coming?: Heat and club president Pat Riley went after Kevin Durant at least twice, missing out in 2016 and again recently amid the Jimmy Butler saga. Third time’s a charm? Phoenix is expected to trade Durant this summer, with Miami among landing spots in most speculation. One scenario from ESPN’s Brian Windhorst notes Miami has the draft capital and that the salaries of Andrew Wiggins ($28 million next season) and Terry Rozier ($26M) match Durant’s. Durant is 36 but remains age-defying excellent. Miami is 28-30 after a big 125-120 home win over Indiana behind Tyler Herro’s 29 points. Heat hosts Knicks Sunday evening.
2. MARLINS: Quantifying Miami’s abysmal lack of major-league talent: There are myriad reasons why Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA forecast gives the Fish a 0.0 percent chance to make the playoffs this season. Here’s more: ESPN’s Buster Olney ranks the top 10 players (plus honorable mentions) at every position, and the Marlins are shut out across the board. The one surprise: Not even ace Sandy Alcantara (who naturally will likely be traded in yet more cost-cutting) makes it among starting pitchers. Meantime the NL East-rivals Braves, Mets, Phillies and Nationals combined have 26 players ranked. Ten ranked players were guys the Marlins were too cheap to keep and star elsewhere in 2025: Luis Arraez, J.J. Bleday, Jazz Chisholm, Marcell Ozuna, A.J. Puk, J.T. Realmuto, Tanner Scott, Jorge Soler, Giancarlo Stanton and Christian Yelich.
3. INTER MIAMI: More early-season multi-tasking for Team Messi: Last week Miami swept two matches with Sporting Kansas City in CONCACAF Champions Cup first round with an MLS season-opening draw in between -- three games in eight days. Now: More of the same. Team Messi plays league match today/Sunday at Houston Dynamo, hosts Jamaica’s Cavalier FC Thursday in Champs Cup round of 16, then hosts Charlotte in MLS play next Sunday. Load management for Messi is critical, though he is expected to start Sunday. Oh, and you think opponents are a bit in awe sharing a pitch with Messi? Houston defender and fellow Argentine Franco Escobar has a large tattoo of Messi on his right thigh.
4. PANTHERS: Cats stay hot while awaiting Tkachuk return: Florida continues to defy the notion of a “Stanley Cup hangover.” The season after raising the Cup finds the Cats 37-24 and on three-game win streak after Saturday’s 3-0 whitewash of Calgary on top of a 4-3 win over Edmonton in a Cup Final rematch. Florida hosts rival Tampa Bay Monday.. Panthers are still are without star Matthew Tkachuk, who suffered what is thought to be a groin injury in the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. “We don’t need to hurry right now,” said coach Paul Maurice of Tkachuk’s status. The hope is he’ll return later in the regular season.
5. WNBA: Hootie Hoo! Unrivaled league nears playoffs with one team dominating: The inaugural Miami-based Unrivaled offseason basketball league comprised of WNBA stars ends its regular season March 10 and the Lunar Owls (team chant: “Hootie Hoo!”) are dominating at 10-1. League-co-founder Napheesa Collier of the Owls leads the league in scoring average and teammate Allisha Gray is four, with Skylar Diggins-Smith among other stars. League playoff semifinals are March 16 and the championship game the next day.
6. DOLPHINS: Well, at least Fins players love their workplace: The Dolphins earned the No. 1 ranking among 32 NFL teams in the annual NFLPA survey that asks players to grade their team in 11 categories such as nutrition, training staff, lockerroom and owner. Miami got A’s or A-pluses in every category and was ranked No. 1 overall in seven. That’s great, a big deal. But do fans care? What grade would fans give the team for a 8-9 season?
7. HURRICANES: Spring football opens with QB Beck not throwing -- but close: Year 4 of the Mario Cristobal era kicks off Monday with the first of 15 spring practice days culminating with the April 12 spring game on campus. New QB Carson Beck still is recovering from an elbow injury incurred while at Georgia but may be ready to throw by mid-spring. “He’s not throwing yet, but he’s very close, so he’s taking part in all that he can do,” said Cristobal. “He should be throwing maybe in a couple of weeks or so.” Meantime record-setting departed UM QB Cam Ward isn’t throwing at this week’s NFL scouting combine in Indy, saying, “I think my five years of film shows everything I can do.”
8. NHL: League is having a moment, keeps 4 Nations momentum going: The NHL Stadium Series game Saturday drew 94,751 outdoors at mammoth Ohio Stadium as the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-3. Also in the wake of the hugely successful 4 Nations Face-Off tournament and Canada-U.S. title game, Alex Ovechkin has moved within 10 goals of Wayne Gretzky;s long-standing career record for most goals.
9. MEDIA: College football’s takeover of HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks’ franchise: Bill Belichick’s North Carolina Tar Heels are expected to be featured on HBO’s upcoming offseason “Hard Knocks” series. Other reports suggest the franchise usually centering on an NFL team turned to the colleges because no pro team wanted to do it. UNC and Belichick, former king of the Patriots dynasty, appeal to both worlds. But this may also signal Hard Knocks broadening its focus from the NFL.
10. POLITICS: Ex-NFL punter fired for anti-MAGA protest: Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe says he was fired from his job coaching a high-school freshman football team after he was arrested for an anti-MAGA protest at a Huntington Beach (Calif.) city council meeting. Kluwe was objecting at a meeting to the all-Republican council’s plan to install a plaque at the city library that supported President Trump’s Make America Great Again movement. (Kids, freedom of expression was once a thing in America. Look it up.)
THE LIST: HEAT TOP-SCORING SEASONS: Top 10 per-game averages in a regular season in Miami Heat history. Tyler Herro’s current 24.1 average would be 10th-best all-time for Miami:
30.2 Dwyane Wade 2008-09
27.4 Dwyane Wade 2006-07
27.2 Dwyane Wade 2005-06
27.1 LeBron James 2013-14
27.1 LeBron James 2011-12
26.8 LeBron James 2012-13
26.7 LeBron James 2010-11
26.6 Dwyane Wade 2009-10
25.5 Dwyane Wade 2010-11
24.1 Tyler Herro 2024-25
Heat players who have had 20-point seasons: Eleven different players have had 20-point season averages on 34 occasions. The breakdown 10 times--Dwyane Wade; 4--LeBron James, Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro; 3--Glen Rice, Alonzo Mourning; 2--Shaquille O’Neal; 1--Tim Hardaway, Chris Bosh, Goran Dragic, Bam Adebayo. Note: Herro’s total includes this season.
Other most recent stuff from me: Spoiled Miami Heat fans should embrace struggle of rare down season and cheer the fight // Heat is on McDaniel, Grier as Miami Dolphins enter what could be year of massive change // Previous HB10 // Poll Dance: Dolphins’ next Super Bowl // Must-win MLS season for Messi, Inter Miami a tough climb, as opening 2-2 home draw shows // 15 years later, Dolphins Cancer Challenge is the life-saving legacy of Jim Mandich // Rivalry! Politics! Power shift? NHL is ice on fire with U.S.-Canada in 4 Nations final // Young, low-budget Marlins open spring as biggest underdogs in Miami sports history // Colleges to pros, a revolution in sports is all around us // What Eagles win tells teams like Dolphins, plus Super Bowl winners & losers // Miami misses on Durant, but trading Butler brings gust of fresh air -- and Heat got plenty in return // Dolphins trading for Browns defensive star Myles Garrett would be boldness Miami needs // Amid Miami’s Butler drama, all-star Herro, Ware lead surge of Heat home-grown talent // Unprofessional Jimmy Butler quit on Heat, ruined his legacy in Miami // Hurricanes bank on QB Carson Beck to lead ‘monster jump’ to 6th national title // Our Top 10 biggest Miami/South Florida sports stories of 2024 // Pete Rose wasn’t perfect, but MLB’s endless lack of mercy followed him to grave // And my latest podcast:
