The Miami Heat have shown to be one of the toughest ‘outs’ in the bubble when fully healthy. Here’s why though, a likely ‘Bubble Awards’ snub is just fine.
The Miami Heat are one of toughest teams in the bubble, a team with just as good a chances to do something special as anyone in the NBA bubble, and one of those teams that are starting to look and feel like one of those “you don’t want to see them in playoffs” type teams.
That’s just a fact. Ask any opposing coach, player, general manager, or fanbase, and they’ll tell you, the Miami Heat are a pesky and fiery bunch. It’s the Miami Heat Way and what this culture was built on.
That’s what we have been able to conclude over the last two weeks or so. What we found out to be 100 percent factual on Monday, no conclusions or assumptions needed, is that they will indeed be handing out NBA Bubble Awards and naming players to All-Bubble Teams.
Per NBA: The NBA announced today that it will name the Kia NBA All-Seeding Games Team and the Kia NBA Player of the Seeding Games to honor top performers for games played July 30 – Aug. 14 during the 2019-20 season restart at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) August 11, 2020
It’s really simple and straightforward from this point, but here it is anyway. The Miami Heat probably won’t get any of these awards and that is alright. It’s so because that is on-brand, for both the Heat and the NBA hierarchy.
Let’s start with the less important one, the hierarchy. In recent years, since LeBron James left to return to Cleveland before joining Los Angeles, the NBA, the NBA community, and media have seemingly forgotten about Miami.
Up until they beat almost everybody that was put in front of them to start this season, they rarely got any mention or facetime on national shows dedicated to sports and specifically, the NBA. They did what the Heat do, they kept banging until they made you pay attention.
The Miami Heat likely won’t bring home any seeding game ‘bubble awards’, but that is quite alright. Here’s why.
That’s how them being snubbed would be on-brand there. As mentioned though and as that is the least important of the two reasons here, you file that in the “it is what it is” category and keep fighting.
The most important reason or interpretation of it being on-brand here is how that reflects on the Miami Heat. When looking through their box scores and statistics from the bubble, you start to notice something.
Although you have players that you know are going to show up each and every night to contribute in some major way to the team’s fortune, almost every night has seemed to feature a different guy for the Miami Heat.
We have had Kelly Olynyk nights, Jimmy Butler nights, Goran Dragic nights, Tyler Herro nights, Duncan Robinson nights, and of course Bam Adebayo nights. On any given night, any Miami Heat player could step up and be the go-to guy on the business end of the floor.
I say “business end” relatively here, as most awards and accolades are geared towards offense, where oftentimes the teams that can get key stops are the teams that win at the highest level. Again though, for the Miami Heat, that can be a different guy on any given night.
That’s how it’s on-brand for them specifically and relative to their own philosophical approach as a team and as a franchise. The Miami Heat are a “us over I” type of franchise, which means that although you have certain players that are clearly better than others, no one player’s purpose or mission is bigger than the team’s purpose or mission.
Every team of any sort tries to live and operate by that mantra and/or creed, but the Miami Heat truly lives and operates by it. They have all contributed equally to the success that they have managed to have this season as a whole and to that which they have achieved in the bubble.
The awards haven’t been given out yet, but it’s likely that the Miami Heat and their players will be on the outside looking in whenever they are handed out. Again, that’s alright.
The Miami Heat have truly been an all hands on deck type of team in the bubble, as they always typically are, and that bodes well for their title hopes. I wouldn’t have it any other way. But that’s why a likely Miami Heat ‘Bubble Awards’ snub isn’t a bad thing at all, and again quite literally, on-brand.