Pat Riley made the necessary additions to the Miami Heat this offseason to make them legit title contenders. They have high aspirations, and with the roster they have, they are completely warranted.
Kyle Lowry will help boost this team to the next level as Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo continue to improve as a duo. At this point, their biggest concern is beating the rest of the conference’s powerhouses.
The East got a lot better this summer, with teams like the Chicago Bulls beefing up their rosters. On top of that, the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks are also still at the top of their game.
Let’s take a look at some of Miami’s best competition this season. First up, the Brooklyn Nets and their stacked roster.
Miami Heat conference roundup: Brooklyn Nets
Latest News
The Brooklyn Nets made a flurry of moves this offseason, but before getting into their additions and subtractions, let’s look at some of the latest news surrounding the team.
Their biggest win this offseason was re-signing Kevin Durant to an extension. He inked a four-year, $198 million extension to stay in Brooklyn for the foreseeable future.
On top of that, it has been reported that the GM of the Nets, Sean Marks, is confident that more deals will get done. He believes that the team will be able to sign Kyrie Irving and James Harden to contract extensions before the season starts, too.
That would be great for Brooklyn, but not so good for the Miami Heat. It seems like Brooklyn’s big three is here to stay in the NBA.
Miami Heat conference roundup: Brooklyn Nets
Key additions
Starting off with Brooklyn’s offseason, they managed to add some solid pieces this summer. Despite having a top-heavy roster in terms of salary, they still added some decent players.
Patty Mills was their big offseason signing, and he’ll be able to provide some great backup point guard minutes. They also signed James Johnson and DeAndre Bembry in free agency.
In addition, Brooklyn managed to retain Blake Griffin and Bruce Brown on very cheap deals. Griffin took the veteran minimum, while Brown accepted his qualifying offer, and both could have made much more on the open market.
The Nets also made a move on draft night. They traded Landry Shamet to the Suns in exchange for Jevon Carter, a defensive-minded point guard who can shoot well.
Lastly, they added a few solid rookies through the draft. They took Cameron Thomas, Day’Ron Sharpe, and Kessler Edwards, while also signing David Duke to a training camp deal.
Key subtractions
The biggest blow to the Brooklyn Nets this offseason was losing Jeff Green. Instead of returning, he chose to sign a two-year deal with the Denver Nuggets.
Green played an important role with the Nets last season, especially in the playoffs. He was able to provide some center minutes for them while also providing solid defense and shooting.
Outside of that, they also parted ways with Landry Shamet. As mentioned, they dealt him to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Jevon Carter.
Other than that, they also lost Chris Chiozza, Mike James, Tyler Johnson, Timothe Luwawu-Cabbarot, and Spencer Dinwiddie. None of them played particularly large roles last season, though.
Miami Heat conference roundup: Brooklyn Nets
How the Miami Heat stack up
The Brooklyn Nets have an amazing roster, but the Miami Heat actually made some solid moves to counter it. They added great defensive pieces that will help deal with the offensive prowess of the Nets.
Starting off with PJ Tucker, he showed an ability to guard Kevin Durant pretty well in the playoffs last year. Some people say he was unsuccessful, but context is very important.
Durant is one of the best scorers in the history of basketball. Stopping him from getting buckets is impossible, so it’s all about making those buckets as difficult as possible.
Tucker held Durant to 45.5% shooting from the field and 30.8% shooting from deep when he was on Durant in the Bucks’ series vs the Nets. In the first two rounds of the playoffs, Durant shot 54.6% from the field and 50.0% from deep.
Based on those numbers, Tucker did a pretty great job guarding Durant. He’ll help out the Miami Heat in that regard next year, and should absolutely be assigned with guarding Durant this year.
As for the rest of the roster, that leaves Butler, Adebayo, and Lowry to guard Harden and Irving. That means one of them won’t have to worry about guarding a superstar.
Having one of those players, likely Adebayo, available to help on defense will be great. They match up super well with Miami on that end.
Past that, Miami’s bench might not be as talented as Brooklyn’s, but it’s not bad. As a whole, they match up with Brooklyn much better this year than they did last season.