The NBA was turned on its head this summer with numerous stars and superstars changing teams. Among the teams whose fortunes changed are the Miami Heat, and they made the cut in CBS Sports’ top 10 NBA offseasons.
The entire NBA was turned on its head this summer as a number of stars changed teams, and those teams’ fortunes were changed. The Miami Heat were one of these teams who had a tidal shift in their immediate fortunes as they moved on from Josh Richardson and Hassan Whiteside and brought in Jimmy Butler and Meyers Leonard, along with drafting Tyler Herro and KZ Okpala.
In their assessment of the top 10 NBA offseasons, CBS Sports measured the Heat and their summer accomplishments and found them worthy. While the obvious big winners of the summer were the LA Clippers, the Brooklyn Nets and the Los Angeles Lakers, the Miami Heat checked in with the ninth-best offseason according to CBS Sports’ Brad Botkin.
Botkin has the following to say about the Heat’s summer:
"Miami gets Jimmy Butler, a big upgrade from Josh Richardson, and it officially turns over its awkward center situation to Bam Adebayo after shipping Hassan Whiteside to Portland. Also, sometimes the deals you don’t do are the best ones, and by not getting too anxious on a deal for Russell Westbrook, the Heat hang onto the slice of cap flexibility they have coming to them starting next summer as some big-money deals finally start coming off the books."
Without a doubt the Heat are definitely on the outside of the top of the list, considering the huge wins of this summer for the Los Angeles teams, the Nets and others, but it’s easy to feel great about the offseason Miami has had.
They’ve upgraded talent, gotten more versatile, addressed weaknesses, brought in a new alpha dog and potential mentor in Jimmy Butler, and as Botkin mentioned, sometimes the best deals are the ones you don’t do and they avoided trading the farm for Russell Westbrook.
While the Miami Heat didn’t exactly go get LeBron James and Chris Bosh this summer, this has been one of Pat Riley‘s better offseasons thus far.