No news might be good news for the Miami Heat moving forward.
The sleepy malaise of summer has swamped Miami Heat fans with fear.
Two years removed from a salary cap spike that saw everybody get a piece of the pie, Miami hasn’t made a notable roster move four days into the free agency period, leaving Heat Nation stuck in an expectational rut.
Ask any tangentially invested Heat fan and the logic behind a slow free agent news cycle is simple.
Say it with me now: “Miami has no money”!
The financial deficit has the Heat roster frozen with improbabilities. Making a case to acquire Jimmy Butler or run it back with Wayne Ellington is plain as day, but the logistics behind adding to an already $118 million roster is the hard part.
But life isn’t as bad as it seems, at least in South Beach.
Miami doesn’t have to contend with Wade leaving again, and the team is structurally proficient enough that when healthy, they can run toe-to-toe with the NBA’s best.
Given Miami’s current affliction – no superstars, no money – it might feel like the darkest days are ahead. But being saddled with salaries and young pieces might be the preferred set up for Miami success for years to come.
New team, who dis?
During the transition from 1980’s NBA expansion team to 2006 NBA Champions, the Miami Heat were hit with a ton of bricks. Shaquille O’Neal, whose veteran savvy was instrumental in securing the title, quickly became dead weight.
Initially, O’Neal fell victim to a left knee injury, missing 35 straight games in the 2006-07 campaign. The injury signaled the start of O’Neal’s falling out of grace with Miami. At 34-years-old he was unable to continue the 20 points, 10 rebounds narrative that supported the Heat’s title dreams.
By February 2008, O’Neal was offloaded to the Phoenix Suns, leaving Miami with the organization’s first post-title rebuild. For the first time since 1990, Miami failed to win over 20 games, tying the franchise loss record with 15.
Compared to the current silent treatment, 67 losses is a heavy dose to swallow.
Tanking put the Miami Heat in the running for one of the NBA’s exciting new rookies in the 2008 draft class. The Chicago Bulls were locked into taking Derrick Rose, the hometown kid, leaving Miami with arguably the best value player: Michael Beasley.
How wrong was that?
While Miami dodged a bullet in skipping the eventually injury riddled Rose (which arguably might not have happened if not for coach Tom Thibodeau), getting Beasley did little more than bide Miami’s time until they could sign Chris Bosh and LeBron James.
Beasley’s nonchalant work ethic and general waywardness never justified the No. 2 pick, at least not in hindsight. His stats and performances paint a disparate picture, especially against later draft selections Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love. A member of the 2009 All-Rookie team, Beasley was the shortsighted outcome that topped off Miami’s 2008 tank-a-thon of which the Heat have nothing left to show.
No James, no Bosh, and not even Beasley.
In the 10 years since drafting Beasley, Miami has made 12 draft selections. None were as high as Beasley at No. 2, almost an outward admission that team president Pat Riley would never upend his team secure a lottery selection.
Instead, Miami has become a bastion for player development over the last decade.
The short, sweet epochs, ushered in by O’Neal and then James and Bosh, left as quickly as they arrived, satiating the Heat fanbase with short lived parades and banner ceremonies. Sure, championships are forever, but Miami is currently well removed from revisiting the mountain’s peak.
But with a chipper, spry core locked down for the foreseeable future, Miami might be in the best place the organization has ever been. No longer beholden to notions of which All-Star to snag and for how long, the Heat are the masters of their own time frame.
In under two months since the NBA playoffs, Bam Adebayo has remolded himself into a form worth capture by the finest Greek sculptors. And Derrick Jones Jr. has pushed a similar story, shining as one of Miami’s bright spots in the 2018 Summer League.
Of course, there is no shortage of hype around Justise Winslow, Josh Richardson and Kelly Olynyk. Their combination of playmaking, defense and scoring establishes the Heat with the building blocks for competitive basketball for years to come.
Miami is not the team for gossip; rumor and hearsay have no place on South Beach. The Heat have bought into a new era of basketball, defined by a sense of loyalty to the organization and the potential to be great for longer than any one roster piece dictates.
Next: Miami Heat 1-on-1: Time to trade Goran Dragic, before he declines?
Free agency with Miami might not become the Twitter-storm or Godfather report Heat Nation was looking for, but rest assured, Miami is moving forward.