Are the Miami Heat dropping the ball with their roster moves?
Could the Miami Heat front office be losing touch with the league?
It was all good just a week ago.
According to reports, the Miami Heat were on the verge of acquiring a star in Jimmy Butler.
Then, a week later, the team signed a deal that made Justise Winslow virtually untradable.
At one point in time, the hope for Winslow was that he would eventually grow into a two-way player like Butler or Kawhi Leonard. But unfortunately, three years in and not much has developed in his offensive game.
Though there were improvements to his 3-point shooting–from 20 to 38 percent–it would be hard to say that was enough to warrant the next two years of salary cap implications.
The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson maps it all out:
"“If Goran Dragic and Hassan Whiteside opt in next summer, the Heat already had $119 million committed to players for the 2019-20 season even before the Winslow extension. That figure now would approach $130 million with the Winslow extension, well above the projected $109 million salary cap for 2019-20….Meanwhile, Winslow’s extension also eats into the Heat’s salary cap space in the summer of 2020, when Dragic and Whiteside come off Miami’s books.”"
These are the types of moves that make it hard not to wonder if Pat Riley has potentially lost a step as team president; the last three years worth of decisions have stuck out as those of a team that does not mind a run at being mediocre.
And those are not just the random thoughts of naysayers or hard to please fans. The proof is in the roster.
Not only is the rotation starless, but it is overflowing with a glut of journeymen on inflated contracts. Which is certainly enough to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference, but not enough to compete with top teams like the current Boston Celtics.
In a way, the Heat fell prey to the double-edged sword of patience.
The organization did not have the patience to hold onto a few more draft picks and tank.
Right or wrong, it is not part of their DNA.
There’s also the possibility that they might have had too much confidence in their skills to cultivate and develop anyone within their system; ultimately resulting in many of those overpriced contracts.
With all due respect, the effort to improve has been there on the part of the Heat. However, the bad deals mixed with free agency—and trade—whiffs give new life to the question: does the Miami front office know what they are doing?
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It seems only time will tell.