The Miami Heat made huge improvements to their roster this offseason in acquiring a superstar. Some think enough to break into the top 4 in the East.
The NBA season is right around the corner. Training camps will begin to kick off over the next week or so, media days will start to happen, and we will finally get a chance to see what this new-look NBA will be all about. Among the made over units that are apart of this new look of the NBA are a Miami Heat team that now has its resident superstar in Jimmy Butler.
While we here at AUCH believe that this Miami Heat team is a top team in the Eastern Conference, many question that belief. With the way that the league and specifically the Eastern Conference has been ravaged by injury, it isn’t that hard to see this Heat team finishing somewhere in the range of the top three teams in the conference.
We are not the only ones that are leaning that way though. ESPN’s Zach Lowe also prescribes to that sentiment. He said as much on a recent appearance with Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck on Beck’s The Full 48 podcast.
The conversation surrounding Lowe’s Miami Heat prediction started with a discussion on teams being the final versions of themselves and if they would be looking to make moves at some point this season. Lowe noted how he didn’t think the Heat would “stand pat” with what they have, that they would be looking for more to put around Jimmy Butler and specifically in the form of another superstar, and how the Heat are always in “win-now mode” until they are out of it.
As they continued to progress through the conversation, Lowe noted how he thought the Heat will “be better than people think this year”. After making that statement, it slowly moved to Beck asking if he thought the Heat would be “top four”, to which Lowe responding with a simple “I really like the Heat”.
Take from these statements what you want, but it sounds to me like Lowe thinks the Heat will crack the top four in the East. He didn’t say one way or another, which means that he is leaning that way, but giving himself enough room to be off a bit.
As mentioned here earlier and in previous pieces, we think the Heat will be better than at least three of the teams expected to be better than them in the East. Either way, to hear it from others around the NBA only further solidifies our outlook and take. This team will surprise most and we can’t wait to see it all play out!