3 teams in the East that the Miami Heat will surprisingly finish ahead of

The Miami Heat are now a very different team than they have been over the past few seasons and this fresh new persona will carry them to the top of the East.

The Miami Heat knew that changes were needed after last season ended unceremoniously without a bid into the playoffs. The team was bereft of quite a few of the essential elements required for any team in the NBA to make a substantial run at contention, either in their conference or among the entirety of the NBA landscape.

Among the most important of these elements are star power, firepower in the form of scoring and shooting, and good to great chemistry amongst the locker room, team, and organization as a whole. The Miami Heat started by fixing the star power element as they did what was necessary over the summer to bring in Jimmy Butler, but the built-in benefit of that acquisition came in the form of additional firepower as well.

They continued to address the firepower issue simultaneously while they also sort of combatted what seemed to be like the biggest obstacle in the way of maintaining or developing great chemistry. As they acquired sharp shooting big man Meyers Leonard from the Trail Blazers, they shipped off the former number 21 wearing center of the Miami Heat who is not to be named, whom also often times found himself griping about one thing or another.

If you throw in the fact that they acquired Tyler Herro and KZ Okpala in the NBA Draft, what the Miami Heat were able to get done over the offseason should go a long way towards helping them get back to championship relevance and contention. This brings us here though, with these moves combined with what they already had on the roster, this Heat team should finish at or near the top of the Eastern Conference. Ready to leave a vile comment yet?