Miami Heat Hot Topics: Bam POTW, a week full of wins

In our ongoing Miami Heat Hot Topics series, we’ll take a look at the past week of wins, both on the court and in the form of Bam Adebayo’s Player Of The Week award.

In today’s edition of Miami Heat Hot Topics, we’ll catch up on the stories we’ve written so far this past busy week here at All U Can Heat. Among our topics, Bam Adebayo won the Heat’s second straight Player Of The Week (following Jimmy Butler‘s win the week before), our NBA 2K20 simulations are undefeated thus far through four games, and the Heat piled up wins this week.

We also conducted a redraft of the 2017 NBA draft to see just where Adebayo would have gone, and needless to say he jumped up the ranks. Finally, Kendrick Nunn was off the board for Rookie Of The Year wagers when the season began, and now he has the second-best odds. We’ll track his progression from Summer League until now.

Without further ado, let’s get caught up on this jam-packed week.

Bam Adebayo named Heat’s second straight Player Of The Week award recipient:

The Miami Heat remain the reigning winners of the Eastern Conference Player Of The Week award. Two weeks ago Jimmy Butler won the honor, and last week Bam Adebayo took home the hardware. It might not be the last time the Heat claim that award (or others like it), and it probably won’t be the last time this season either player wins it.

Using NBA 2K20 to predict the Heat vs Knicks:

Our newest regular feature involves letting NBA 2K20 simulate that night’s Miami Heat game. We then break down the details here on All U Can Heat. We’re four games into this exercise, and the simulation has predicted each game correctly so far with the Heat going 3-1. Clearly NBA 2K20 is the predictive oracle we’ve been looking for. Keep checking back for this feature on game mornings, and we’ll keep putting it out for you.

The Heat are building a resume full of signature wins:

The Heat have built themselves an impressive resume. They have wins over the Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors, Houston Rockets, Philadelphia 76ers and the shorthanded but still fierce Dallas Mavericks. They’ve also handled most of the bad teams they’ve faced, like the New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons, beating them into the ground before the end of the first quarter. They’ve done what they need to do as a top three or four seed in the Eastern Conference, and more so.

Redrafting Bam Adebayo in the 2017 NBA draft:

Bam Adebayo went 14th in the 2017 draft, but it’s safe to say that in a redraft he would go much higher. In fact, it’s likely that at least two of the top three or four picks would have come from the late lottery. We went back in time and evaluated just where Adebayo would have gone in a redraft if each team had perfect information at their disposal.

Heat Rumors: Goran Dragic and Justise Winslow are the best additions:

While the Miami Heat are off to a great start this season, there are issues. Chief among them is the lack of depth they are dealing with thanks to injury and suspensions. Between Dion Waiters, Goran Dragic, James Johnson and Justise Winslow, the Heat have lost plenty of man-games thus far. While trade buzz has already begun, the best way for this team to be able to stock their depth will simply be Dragic and Winslow returning.

Kendrick Nunn’s Rookie Of The Year odds are soaring:

Kendrick Nunn started the season hoping for a shot at making the rotation. If he could do that, maybe he could make an impact and play some regular minutes. From there, the sky could ultimately be the limit. However, Nunn’s progression has been astronomical instead. He’s gone from being off the board at the beginning of the season to having the second-best Rookie Of The Year odds, and he’s earned that buzz.

Check back soon for the next installment of Miami Heat Hot Topics as we continue to recap the world of the Heat.