Miami Heat: Should they tank or compete?
How did we get here? What do you believe is the biggest reason why the Miami Heat are where they are today?
Ebrahim (@iebrahim81): The same thing that fans love about Pat Riley is the same thing that has put the team in the predicament that it is in today. Attempting to stay relevant after LeBron James left for Cleveland, Dwyane Wade left for Chicago, and Chris Bosh unexpectedly was forced to retire, has been the biggest pain for Heat fans. It has led to horrible contracts being dealt out (to nearly EVERYONE on the roster) and an inevitable 8th-seed race year after year. With the way that the Golden State Warriors’ dynasty is built right now, it should’ve been clear ages ago that tanking was the best method of building a team, unless you had a top-10 player on your roster.
Nurse (@followthepen): A combination of the Big Three breakup and Pat Riley sipping his own Heat culture Kool-Aid has put the franchise in this mediocre team limbo. That was evident by the desperation signings of people that a sound-minded Riley would have never touched. For example, the fact that he questioned inking someone like Dion Waiters to a long-term deal for months–after only playing half a season–only to give him one anyway.
Rahming (@Boneman9000): Some of it is poor foresight by Pat Riley. Some of it is unfortunate health scenarios to key players like Chris Bosh (2015 & 2016), Justise Winslow (2016 & 2017), and Goran Dragić (2018). What resonates with me the most are the drafts from 2010-2014. In the summer of 2010, Pat Riley traded away the first-round pick that became Eric Bledsoe. Sure, the Big Three were coming together, but you can’t tell me he couldn’t have been nurtured into what he is now and either taken over after the Big Three or used as trade bait to get more firepower. In 2011 Norris Cole did help win a title, but they traded away the draft rights to Bojan Bogdanovic to the Indiana Pacers. Whoops!
The Heat retained zero players from the 2012 NBA draft while simultaneously getting caught up in the 76ers pick swapping nature that defined ‘The Process.’ 2013 brought the team forward James Ennis who was traded to Memphis a year later and is now on his sixth NBA team. 2014 Pat Riley was bamboozled into listening to free agent-to-be LeBron James by passing on Clint Capela, Bogdan Bogdanović, Joe Harris, Spencer Dinwiddie, Jerami Grant, and last but most certainly not least Nikola Jokić. There’s no way around it, the Heat front office’s most significant opportunity is selecting players via the draft. They’ve gotten better with picks like Richardson, Winslow, and Adebayo, but the jury is still out.
Mora (@moraivan): After LeBron’s departure and Chris Bosh’s health issues, the Heat were left struggling without any consistency in their lineup. With Wade’s departure to Chicago, they relied heavily on Goran Dragic. While that might have seemed like a logical solution at the time, it certainly hasn’t unfolded the way they hoped. Management holds some of the blame here. They threw themselves at an immediate fix by trading valuable assets for key players who were supposed to be game changers for the Heat but ended up falling short. Since then they have fixed draft issues with Richardson, Adebayo, and Winslow, but they still lack a true leader especially after Wade’s departure. Goran and Waiters will have to work for now, but they’re rushing to be relevant and continue their playoff run alive has buried them in a deeper predicament.
Campbell (@theboyro): The 2016-17 season was a season in two parts. It was heading toward a downward spiral at 11-30. Then the opposite happened. 30-11. Hope to make the playoffs without Wade. They failed. The players that were signed before that season were given multi-year deals. James Johnson finally got his long term insurance. Dion Waiters got the money he felt he deserved. These moves turned out to be huge mistakes. I understand why the Heat did it. At least the Heat would be in the middle of the pack in the East. That’s not good enough. Other mistakes were made and the end result was having the highest payroll in the league. Who would want any of these players and their expensive contracts? The Heat could only move Tyler Johnson and Wayne Ellington. That’s it. This season is already lost because the team is showing no signs of improvement. Next season, they’ll be able to move players who are in the last year of their deal, like Hassan Whiteside and Goran Dragic. 2016-17 was basically a gift and a curse
Wilson (@ksaidwhat): I wish the answer were simple when thinking about how the Miami Heat got here, but if you wanted to point to a “main” thing, it would simply be injury. On the Macro level, you have to first look at the Chris Bosh saga. First off, 2019-2020 or next year, would have been the last year of his 5-year max deal, meaning he would still be on the team , and he was producing. An All-Star at the point when he was sidelined with blood clotting, he would likely still be close to that level if he were still cleared to play. Second off, that deal not only took up space for a while, but it forced the organization to go into emergency mode. This is key because panicking can cause very rash and illogical decisions, that being some of the contracts currently on the Miami Heat’s books. On a micro level, the Miami Heat are just getting what you could really consider “fully healthy.” Goran Dragic returned recently after missing much of the season due to injury, and has quickly asserted himself, showing just how much his production was missed. Derrick Jones Jr. was another afflicted with injury. Just as his game was just really starting to blossom for the Heat, he went down with a knee injury that cost him several weeks right in the thick of the chase. If not for the Bosh Injury, I tend to believe the cap wouldn’t be as bad as it is now, where “bad contracts” could be seen as more an indirect reason. I also believe that if not for a few key injuries to guys this season, the Heat would already be in the playoff picture.