With the Miami Heat’s season done, it’s now time to move into the offseason in preparation for next year. There are only two right options for their 20th draft pick.
The Miami Heat were ousted by the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals. That hurt a lot.
Why though? Why were the Miami Heat bounced in six games to a team that had more top-end talent, but less throughout, and simply wasn’t a better team than they were?
Well, that’s the first answer. This battle was totally about quality over quantity.
If you were to make a list of the top 8 players in this series, one and two would go to the Lakers in LeBron James and Anthony Davis. However, numbers 3-8 would then all be Miami Heat players.
Again though, the quality of their top-end talent overwhelmed that of the Miami Heat. Well, not completely overwhelmed, as Jimmy Butler was able to be the best player on the floor for either team for at least two games this series.
So then, once you have Jimmy accounting for that at least twice, why were they better? They simply had more size and assault options on the rim and painted area.
The Miami Heat were dominated on the glass, they were outscored in the paint, and outplayed at the rim when it mattered the most. They didn’t have enough functional size to contend with what LeBron, AD, and Dwight Howard could do at the rim.
That is exactly where we are going next. The two issues mentioned above completely inform their plans moving forward.