Miami Heat Roundtable: How Far Will This Team Go This Season?

Miami Heat Roundtable: How Far Will This Team Go This Season – Noah’s Take

With the upgrades they made in the offseason, the Miami Heat will finish as the third seed in the East. That will put them up against the 6th seed in the first round.

Noah’s Take (@ndeckerbuckets)

Based on the struggles the 76ers are currently going through, the 6th spot seems like the right place for them. Assuming Ben Simmons is traded before the start of the NBA season, the 76ers will probably be worse than last year.

Even if they improve the floor spacing of their primary facilitator, their overall playmaking and defensive coordination will take a hit. The Miami Heat will match up well against the 76ers next year.

They will be able to outwork them defensively. In contrast to the 76ers loss of Simmons, the addition of Lowry for the Heat should help generate more three pointers for Duncan Robinson, along with better looks for Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.

The biggest problem for the Heat will be stopping Joel Embiid, but again and with their lockdown defense, they should be able to lower his overall impact on the game by forcing turnovers. The Heat will win that series 4-2.

In the second round, the Heat will likely face the second seed. This should be the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Heat and the Bucks have been big rivals in the playoffs for the past two years. For this third year, the Heat will have a slight edge.

The loss of P.J. Tucker will hurt the Bucks. The biggest reason the Heat lost the series last year was that they were exhausted after the short offseason.

Therefore, they didn’t closeout against shooters as well as they could have. As a result, players like Bryn Forbes had career shooting nights against Miami.

The Heat will be well-rested for this upcoming season, so this will not be a problem. The Bucks will have to outscore the Heat inside the paint.

Giannis Antetekoumpo’s dominance in the paint is what will make this series very close. The Heat can build a wall to stop him, but it might be at the expense of an open three point shot.

However, the Heat have enough collective talent on their side to outplay the Bucks’ superstar in a seven game series. The Heat will win 4-3.

In the Eastern Conference Finals, the Miami Heat will go up against the top-seeded Brooklyn Nets. The Nets had a superteam last year and they might have gotten even better.

The deadly trio of Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving form one of the most unstoppable offensive forces of all time. What the Nets lack in defense, they make up for in offense.

The Nets are the favorites to win the title this upcoming season. If the Nets are even slightly good at defense, they will win the NBA championship.

The Miami Heat’s defense will be tremendously better than that of the Brooklyn Nets. The only problem is that Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving are all essentially unguardable.

All three can create their own shot and Harden has shown that he is particularly skilled at involving other teammates, which causes an even bigger problem. The only way the Heat can defeat the Nets is by outworking them on defense and of course, that’s with a little luck on their side.

The Nets Big Three missed a lot of games last year. In particular, Kyrie Irving missed a lot of games for personal reasons.

The Nets are currently working out some issues regarding Kyrie Irving and his eligibility to play home games. If the Nets don’t put basketball first before everything else, they might be vulnerable.

However, they will probably settle all of these issues soon. As both rosters appear right now though, the Heat will lose to the Nets in five games.

We can hope for a miracle though.

Official Prediction: Eastern Conference Finals