The Miami Heat are good. They have 6 players who are all legit NBA starters with stars at the top and players who are improving as their depth. Jimmy Butler is having another great season, Tyler Herro is having a bounce back year, and Kyle Lowry is still an awesome player. They have had injuries to key players and will continue to get guys like Bam Adebayo back. The Heat are a really good basketball team, let’s see what Miami's ceiling is.
The Heat have championship DNA on the team, coach Erik Spoelstra, point guard Kyle Lowry, and power forward P.J. Tucker are all champions and they just went to the NBA Finals 2 seasons ago so they have been there. They need Duncan Robinson to start shooting the 3 pointer better, 35% is far less than the 45% and 42% he averaged the last 2 seasons. They have no shot at winning the East if Duncan Robinson is only shooting 35% from 3 point range. P.J Tucker is shooting the 3 ball extremely well at 46% for the season, which is a surprise after he shot 34% last season. Tyler Herro has had a monster season off the bench for Miami, 20.3 points per game on .42/.38/.86 shooting splits in 33 games with 10 starts. Finally Butler is having a monster season averaging 23.2 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 5.4 assists this season. They need to get Bam back but let’s talk about Miami's chances in the Eastern Conference.
The Heat are in a class with 4 other teams in the East, the Bucks, the Nets, and the Bulls, everyone else is below those 4 teams. As a result, Miami, by process of elimination, should get to at least the second round. However, that is not always the case, as sometimes teams can pull upsets or injuries happen, but let’s assume for now those 4 teams are in the second round. I think Milwaukee and Brooklyn are above Miami and Chicago. However, if the Bulls get the top seed in the East, which they have right now, that would set up, potentially, Bulls vs Heat and Bucks vs Nets, which would allow the Heat a real chance to win the East. I believe the Heat can beat the Bucks OR Nets, but not both. They can grind out a 7 game series forcing and pray that Jimmy can put them on his back and steal the series. I think they have a better team than the Bulls do, I think they have more proven postseason winners than the Bulls, and I think they have who would be the best player in that series, so I think they would beat the Bulls, but they are not on the same level as the top 2 East teams. I do believe the Heat can win the East with a couple of lucky breaks but my best guess would be a second round exit for the Heat.
The Miami Heat are one of the best run organizations in the entire NBA and they have a really good team, but I don’t think they are as good as the Nets or Bucks. Their run to the 2020 NBA Finals was one to behold and was really fun for Heat fans and I think they could have another nice run in 2022 but I don’t think they get through the Eastern Conference.
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