This has been a tough season to start for the Miami Heat, but it’s been that way for a lot of other teams as well. Some are self inflicted wounds, with injures and contracts that do not make sense, and not even to mention the Washington Wizards.
What the NBA is dong this year is an absolute joke. Washington has been postponing games for weeks and when Miami played them, almost their entire team had to sit out for a couple of games, in turn, helping to facilitate Miami losing back to back games against the Philadelphia 76ers due to covid tracing.
The Miami Heat have been met with cruel circumstances this season.
So let me get this straight, Miami has to lose almost all of their starting lineup because they played Washington? The Boston game against Philadelphia got canceled when they were schedule to play Washington.
Washington had players with covid and covid tracing but Miami still had to play them. After it got worse, Miami had to play with eight guys.
Plus, with a 72 game season, games will start to add up. The NBA put a lot of teams in jeopardy in this season without a bubble being in place and they’re picking and choosing what they say and what they do.
The NBA is making up rules as they go and it is screwing Miami. Miami likes to say “next man up”, which is a great mentality to have but this year I don’t know if that message will work.
Now, this is where the Miami Heat don’t get a pass in my book is this past offseason. Don’t get me wrong, I was on the bus with Miami getting Giannis Antetokounmpo in the next couple of years. That gives me no choice but to understand that Miami wasn’t going to give guy’s years in free agency to save cap space for 2021 and like I said, focus on Antetokounmpo.
I’ve been saying since the offseason deal, “why did Miami go out and sign Meyers Leonard on the first day of free agency?” I get Leonard is injured right now but even when he was healthy he wasn’t playing much to begin with.
I wanted Miami to get Serge Ibaka, as he went to the Los Angeles Clippers on practically the same deal, for two years and $19 million dollars. The only difference is that Leonard’s second year comes with a team option unlike Ibaka’s deal, which comes with a player option.
But still, wow! Ibaka only has a player option for 9 million?
You’re telling me Miami couldn’t have potentially moved Ibaka if they had needed to in order to make room for a deal, nonsense, as the Miami Heat could have traded Ibaka quickly. I don’t buy it, I just don’t.
The Moe Harkless experience hasn’t been great so far and Miami doesn’t have a starting four on the roster right now. Obviously, Miami thought he would take the Jae Crowder role and it hasn’t worked out.
To be fair, it was smart not to give Crowder the years he wanted. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Miami needs to make a trade for a four man.
Injury’s and Covid have really hurt Miami with Jimmy Bulter only playing in six games, Avery Bradley only playing in seven games and now, Tyler Herro, who has been out with a neck injury the past couple of games.
Look, I understand that injury’s are a huge part of the game but in today’s world when players aren’t playing and games are not being played due to Covid, having your normal injury’s on top of that puts Miami in a tough position from the start.
Miami are the reigning Eastern Conference champions but it seems like everyone is forgetting about them. Hopefully Butler and Bradley are back healthy and we look forward to Herro coming back from his neck injury.
Miami has to claw back into a playoff spot this year but the East doesn’t have a clear frontrunner in the conference yet. When everyone comes back for Miami, Miami just has to come out and win.
That’ll take care of everything.