With the post All-Star break NBA just starting, I have been fascinated with this NBA season. It really feels like a toss up as to who will win it all, as every team has questions this season that will be answered as we go further into the season and playoffs. Even with every team at full strength, I don’t think there would be a consensus champion favorite unlike past years when the Warriors ruled the NBA. With that said, I feel like the Heat are being greatly undervalued as NBA Finals favorites or even East favorites. This Heat team is the quietest title contender in the NBA.
Given this team has the best record in the East, and only the 16th hardest schedule left, it might be reasonable that barring injury this team could keep the 1st seed. They are currently tied with Chicago atop the East. However, Chicago has the 2nd hardest schedule remaining in the NBA and are battling ongoing injuries to multiple key players. Anyways, here’s me gushing over the Heat and why they are title contenders.
They’ve performed well in spite of being Undermanned
The addition of Kyle Lowry in the offseason cemented this team’s status as having a Big Three. They’ve managed to hold the number one seed in the East in spite of the fact that this team’s Big Three has played less than 20 games together. Keep in mind that Victor Oladipo who averages almost 18 PPG for his career has yet to play this season. Oladipo also signed a one year prove-it deal with the team, so I expect him to be hungry to try to earn himself some money this offseason. Also, a guy who brings toughness and depth to the team in Markieff Morris has only played 10 games this season due to his scuffle with Nikola Jokic. The team’s bench has performed admirably this season and it will get even deeper as the season progresses.
They’ve Acquired Much Needed Glue Guys
This team clearly needed some new role players after last season. I think it was clear that Trevor Ariza was pretty over the hill, and his numbers against the Bucks in their playoff series show this. Same thing with Iguodala, as both didn’t even combine to average 9 points in spite of the fact that they combined for over 40 minutes a game in that series. Those two are both out, and we now see Kyle Lowry and PJ Tucker, two guys with championship pedigree.
Lowry has been an awesome table setter for this team this year and is averaging the 2nd most assists of his career. Tucker is a point away from a career-high in scoring and is shooting the three-ball the best percentage of his career. Some of their pundits heading into the season claimed that they signed guys who were over the hill to invest this much into, but these two are performing admirably. These two glue guys are helping this team so much and I haven’t even needed to bring up how good defenders both of them are!
Their Player Development is up with the league’s best
Think of all the stories about the Miami Heat and player development. Tyler Herro was drafted in the late lottery, however, what he is doing is astounding as he is averaging 20 PPG in his third year and is the favorite for 6th Man of the Year award. Some even thought he should have been an All Star this year. Duncan Robinson went from undrafted to securing 5 year/$90 million.
Bam Adebayo is another success story. In High School, his nickname was Baby Dwight because him game relied on him being physical dominant against his peers to score. Given he isn’t as physically imposing enough to do the same as in high school or college, the Heat’s player development team has helped adjust his game to a more all-around style. He went from averaging not even an assist per game at Kentucky to averaging about 5 the last two seasons. He also handles the ball much more than he did in high school and college, so clearly this Heat team has made him a more dangerous all around player which is scary given his size.
Gabe Vincent and Max Strus are more examples. The two combined for 20 whole minutes against the Bucks in last year’s playoff defeat, now the two combine to average about 20 points per game, as they are both even more examples of how the Miami Heat develop players better than almost any team in the league. This team doesn’t just develop stars, they consistently are able to get players to far exceed expectations.
Every Title Contender in the East has their own concerns
The East is crazy stacked this year and it’s quite enjoyable. Most say the East has five title contenders in the Heat, Nets, Bucks, Bulls, and Sixers. All of these teams have various questions for the most part about how they will navigate through the Eastern Conference playoffs. What is also crazy is that we are guaranteed one of these five will be eliminated by the end of the first round of the playoffs! Let’s look at these questions for each
Nets – Lots of questions here, How will the team deal with the ongoing debacles of Kyrie? How will the team deal with integrating their new pieces from the Harden Deal? Do they have the necessary set of Big Men to go on a title run?
Bucks – Was their title run a fluke? If Kd’s foot was behind the line or if Kyrie and Harden didn’t get hurt would we even be taking this team as an actual title contender seriously?
Sixers – Will Harden and Embiid both be healthy for the playoffs? Will this team’s bench which ranks 27th in bench scoring come to haunt them?
Bulls – Most of the team’s star players don’t have deep playoff experience, and this team is dealing with a lot of injuries.
