Miami Heat: Thanking Goran Dragic In A Look Across His 7 Seasons
By Max Marshall
Miami Heat: Goran Dragic accepted being ‘the man’ after Wade’s departure
The 2016-2017 season was a tough season for Miami fans. That summer, Wade and Miami’s front office (Pat Riley) could not agree on a deal.
Wade moved back “home” to Chicago. Dragic did not sign up for this when he was traded to Miami, nor when he re-signed with Miami.
It was him, Whiteside, Winslow and Josh Richardson. The rest were a bunch of misfit toys, if we are being honest.
Miami went 11-30 for the first half of the season. I really thought Dragic would ask for a trade or that Miami would look to trade him at the deadline.
Nope, Dragic was nothing more than a pro and handled it beautifully. In the second half of the season, Miami went 30-11 and was one game away from making the eighth seed of the NBA Playoffs.
Must Read. How are they ranked so close to Dwyane Wade all-time?. light
Dion Waiters and James Johnson played the best basketball of their careers. Dragic didn’t think these guys would be his teammates when he signed with Miami but like I said, he just dealt with it.
You could definitely make the argument that Dragic should have been an All -Star that year too, just for clarity.
That summer and for the 2017-2018 season, the Miami Heat elected to run it back with the same team. This meant giving big deals to Johnson and Waiters.
I’ll be honest with you, that season did not have a lot of memories or exciting things happening. Beside Dragic making his first All -Star team, there wasn’t a ton.
Waiters, who Miami re-signed that summer, was still having ankle issues from the previous season and had to shut it down for the rest of the season at some point mid-way. On February 8th of that season though, Cleveland traded Wade back to Miami.
Besides Wade coming back to Miami, that season was just another season in my book. Miami was the sixth seed going against the third seeded Philadelphia 76ers.
But, one of my all-time favorite moments is when Dragic slapped Ben Simmons upside the head. Also, in Game 2, Wade single-handedly won Miami a playoff game again.
They eventually ran out of gas early though. Miami loses in five games in that series.