Miami Heat: ESPN Power rankings have Heat as 14 overall

ESPN released its latest NBA Power Rankings. They have the Miami Heat as the 14th ranked team in the entire league and sixth in the East.

On Monday, ESPN released its latest version of an “NBA Power Rankings“. While the results may surprise some, it won’t be that much of a surprise to Miami Heat fans. While this team has the upside to reach higher than they were ranked here, the position that they’ve been ranked here would seem like the minimum expectation for Miami Heat faithful.

While there isn’t one author on the piece, it was compiled via the opinions of multiple NBA reporters and writers. This group was composed of Malika Andrews, Kevin Arnovitz, Tim Bontemps, Tim MacMahon, Royce Young, and Ohm Youngmisuk, all of ESPN.com.

To dive right in, they ranked the Miami Heat as the current 14th best team. This position is up quite a bit from the 22nd ranked spot that this same series of power rankings had them in their Post-Finals Power Rankings.

They noted that the Miami Heat have made “key additions” that include Jimmy Butler of course, Meyers Leonard, and seemingly-stud rookie Tyler Herro as well. Their “key subtractions” include Hassan Whiteside, Josh Richardson, and Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade. Here is an excerpt from the actual piece on what to possibly look for in this upcoming season’s team, in the words of Kevin Arnovitz.

"The Heat in recent seasons have generally been better than the sum of their parts, and for the first time in a while, they’ll feature an NBA star in his prime: Jimmy Butler. The union of the intense, workaholic Butler and the intense, workaholic Heat organization would seem to be an NBA match made in heaven. Miami will feature its typically stingy, well-prepared defensive schemes and likely cobble together some clever, unorthodox looks on offense to compensate for any lack of shooting."

Looking deeper into the rankings, the Miami Heat are the sixth-ranked team in the Eastern Conference. Ahead of them are the Milwaukee Bucks at No. 1, the Philadelphia 76’ers at No. 4, the Boston Celtics at No. 7, the Toronto Raptors at No. 10, and the Brooklyn Nets at No. 12.

While Milwaukee and Philadelphia both have strong and convincing cases to currently be ranked ahead of the Miami Heat, the others do not. Boston lost their best players in Kyrie Irving and Al Horford. While the team was arguably better without Kyrie on the floor or in the mix, he is still a top 20 player in the league and losing him may hurt them.

The loss of Horford should be a big blow as well, as although he didn’t necessarily fill it up every night, he made the right plays every night which include filling up the box score in other areas while being the steadying anchor on defense. Brooklyn added Kyrie Irving from the Celtics, but their other huge piece won’t suit up for at least a year.

Kevin Durant and his injury are seemingly being taken too lightly, but not in the context of what it means for him and when he will be back, just as far as how good this Brooklyn team can be without him. The Raptors just lost the Finals MVP and their best player in Kawhi Leonard. Although I think they will be better than a lot of people think they will be without him, I’m not sure if they’ll be a top-five team in the East good, especially in this first year of getting accustomed to playing without him and having to now figure it out with new rotations.

The Miami Heat being ranked number 14 isn’t actually a bad thing, it’s actually pretty respectable. They see the Miami Heat for their obvious value, while leaving room for improvement on the team and their behalfs. The Miami Heat should definitely be a top six team in the East this upcoming season, but don’t be surprised if they sneak into the top three or four conversation.