Every major news outlet is putting out its NBA power rankings this time of year. So far, the Miami Heat have received a pretty fair ranking from most outlets.
CBS Sports, NBC Sports, and Sports Illustrated have all released their rankings. Each of them has Miami in their top seven teams going into this year.
Well, the latest outlet to put out NBA power rankings is ESPN. They are arguably the biggest sports news outlet in the world, and they always release power rankings around this time of year.
Unfortunately, they don’t believe in the Miami Heat as much as some other outlets do. Though they don’t have them falling too far, ESPN ranks the Miami Heat as the eighth-best team.
This is the lowest ranking of note so far unless there are some outlets that have flown under the radar. The biggest concern for the Miami Heat according to ESPN is health.
"“The Heat have the kind of roster that would be tough to deal with in a playoff series. The question is whether the veteran-laden team can get to that point with the health needed to make a deep run.”"
While this may seem valid due to the high number of veterans on the roster, most of Miami’s core players have had fairly healthy careers. Hopefully, that doesn’t change this season.
In addition, some of the teams ESPN ranks above the Miami Heat may not deserve to be as high as they are. A couple of them in particular should definitely be lower.
The seven teams above the Heat are the Nets, Bucks, Lakers, Suns, Jazz, 76ers, and Nuggets. The two that immediately stick out as too high are the 76ers and Nuggets.
Philadelphia is dealing with a whole host of problems right now. Ben Simmons is clearly unhappy, and yet they still can’t find a trade for him.
Joel Embiid is a top ten player in the NBA, but he can’t do everything. The whole organization just seems like it is going to be a mess going into the season.
As for the Nuggets, this ranking would make sense if it wasn’t for Jamal Murray’s injury. That should definitely drop them down a few spots.
Regardless, it will be up to the Miami Heat to prove ESPN wrong. If everything goes their way, they could be a top-five team in the NBA this year.