4. Miami Heat
Although they lost out on Gordon Hayward, there are reasons for Heat fans to be hopeful. In fact, they will be the team to benefit the most from a weakened Eastern Conference.
After missing the playoffs by one game following a frantic 30-11 finish, the Heat decided to bring back their core of Dion Waiters, James Johnson and Wayne Ellington. To further address the need for a floor-spacing big, the team also went out and grabbed Kelly Olynyk from the Celtics and drafted dynamic Kentucky big man Bam Adebayo to develop throughout the year.
The Heat may not be the fourth most talented team in the East, but they will be a handful in the regular season due to their immense depth and nightly effort that’ll surely be good enough to beat a majority of the conference on any given night. After contending for Coach of the Year last season, Erik Spoelstra is armed with an endless supply of lineup combinations.
Last year, the Heat snuck up on a lot of teams once they got healthy. That won’t happen again this time around but what the Heat will be able to do is play a variety of styles to counter the opposition. Spoelstra will deploy big and small lineups (he has already said they might throw out a lineup of all 6’9” or more) without sacrificing offense or defense in either case. While the Heat don’t have a top name in the league, what they do have is a roster from top to bottom tailor-made for Spoelstra’s pace and space system.
If the Heat get even a similar level of production from players like Waiters, James Johnson and Ellington along with the return of Justise Winslow, further development of Josh Richardson, Rodney McGruder and Tyler Johnson to complement Goran Dragic and Hassan Whiteside, they’ll be a tough team to stop and should finish just slightly above the Washington Wizards.