If you take an immediate inventory of the Eastern Conference, you’re probably thinking that most of the teams presumed to be at the top are better than the Miami Heat, but that simply isn’t the case. Here are three teams that Miami will surprisingly be and finish the season better than.
You probably thought Boston would finish better than the Miami Heat, right? Well, that isn’t necessarily the case as they lost Kyrie Irving and Al Horford.
Combined with losing Kyrie Irving, an underrated loss for this Celtics team is Terry Rozier. Yea, they added Kemba Walker, but here is where it gets tricky.
Kemba Walker is an offensive machine when he gets going, but his defense leaves everything to be desired. He is neither the offensive player that Irving is nor the defender that Rozier is, plus and even if you can get past the volatility and inconsistency in his offensive game, some would say that he only had the scoring ability and outbursts in Charlotte that he did because of the lack of other options around him.
This would say that in meaningful games and on a team with other viable offensive options, he won’t be nearly as effective. The lack of firepower, experience, and a mere drop off in talent from last year should be a reason that the Miami Heat finish better than the Celtics this season.
When thinking about the next team in question, the team that Kyrie Irving joined in the Brooklyn Nets, the answer becomes a bit more simple. The biggest reason to believe that the Heat will be better than the Nets next season is that they will be without their best player in Kevin Durant for the entire season as currently estimated.