Miami Heat should bring in a ton of regular season player awards
As the media begins pushing their votes for the All-NBA, All-Rookie, and All-Defensive teams, it seems the Miami Heat will have representatives in all three.
The Miami Heat have made the most of Jimmy Butler‘s inaugural season, but credit can be handed out to almost every member of this roster. Which makes it no surprise, that when the NBA bestows honors at the end of the season, this team will boast multiple recipients.
At the end of each season, there are five players selected to each of three rosters: All-NBA, All-Defensive, and All-Rookie. Each of those three rosters has separate tiers within themselves.
ESPN’s Zach Lowe is the most recent to publish his thoughts on the honors, and the Heat were represented in each of them. Butler made his All-NBA second team as well as the All-Defensive second team next to All-Star teammate Bam Adebayo.
It’s no secret the Heat alpha is worthy of All-NBA honors. Butler is the leading scorer (20.2 PPG) and leading passer (6.1 APG) for this 41-24 Miami team that’s surpassed all expectations. He’s also bearing 1.7 steals and posting a 108 Defensive Rating per 100 possessions.
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Adebayo’s rise to All-Star this year has been the most pleasant of South Beach surprises. He’s touching every area of the floor: 16.2 points, 10.5 rebounds, 5.1 assists, 1.3 blocks and 1.2 steals per game. Which should make it easy to understand why he’s been receiving All-Defensive love.
On top of that, Adebayo’s expected to finish as either runner up or the winner of the league’s annual Most Improved Player award. His lone competition is New Orleans Pelicans’ forward Brandon Ingram. who’s taken on the role of number one gun this year.
Then there’s the rest of this Heat roster. Aside from their in house developmental success stories, Derrick Jones Jr and Duncan Robinson, Miami’s also boasting some of the league’s best rookie campaigns this season in Kendrick Nunn and Tyler Herro.
Both were mentioned in Lowe’s column from Tuesday, with the latter earning first-team honors and the former making it onto the second-team roster.
Herro’s had his ups and downs, especially recently, but has still put together one of the better rookie campaigns Miami’s ever seen. He’s averaging 12.9 points, four rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game while knocking down 39 percent of his threes.
Expect Ja Morant to win the Rookie of the Year award, but look for Nunn to finish as the clear-cut runner up. The Heat’s starting point guard is averaging 15.6 points, 3.4 assists, and 2.7 rebounds.
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The success of this Miami Heat roster will no doubt be judged by their postseason results, but don’t ignore the allotment of talent Pat Riley has assembled in South Beach.
As this front office looks to campaign their legitimacy as a contending club to pending free agents, having the accolades to back it up will no doubt help in their quest for a third All-Star.