Though the Miami Heat still have some roster work to do before they can actually call themselves ready to begin the year, the NBA, themselves, are beginning their ramp up to tipping things off. A huge part of that every year is the release of the schedule for the coming season.
With a few games that tend to trickle out days before the entire schedule is released, the whole thing was dropped on Wednesday.
While there is a lot to dig into when it comes to the Miami Heat, there is one thing that sticks out immediately about the schedule for the Heat.
Back to backs by team
— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) August 17, 2022
12: CHA, CLE, TOR, DEN, LAL, MEM, NO, NY, PHX.
13: ATL, BOS, DAL, DET, HOU, MIL, OKC, ORL, PHI.
14: MIA, MIN, BRK, IND, POR, SA, WAS.
15: CHI, GS, LAC, SAC, UTAH.
Being among a group of 12 teams in the league that have 14 or more back-to-backs, it could be worse—perhaps? At least they don’t have the 15 that Chicago, the Los Angeles Clippers, Sacramento, Utah, and the world champion Golden State Warriors have.
You have to learn to be optimistic, but here’s the realism of it all. For a team like the Miami Heat, it’s something of note and to keep an eye on.
Let’s talk about it.
Miami Heat: One of 12 Teams With 14 Or More Scheduled Back To Backs
The Miami Heat have experienced great success in the Jimmy Butler era, that can’t be denied. But they haven’t been able to win a title though, something else that’s undeniable.
Though you could point to a myriad of things, many of them fair and relevant, the one thing that has hindered them the most during this era of Miami Heat basketball is health and vitality.
When you look at their bubble run a few years back, it also applies.
A hobbled Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic, likely, prevented them from making that series with LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers a more hotly contested one.
It doesn’t end there though.
When you look at them being swept by the Bucks the following year, they were among the least rested teams in the league. With more time between the two parts of the bubble than there was between the bubble season and the next, the Miami Heat were also one of the last teams playing in the bubble.
Miami Heat: Health And Vitality Have Been A Bogeyman In Recent Years
To be clear, these aren’t excuses, they are actualities. Here’s the final synopsis of that particular year.
They got beat by a better team in Milwaukee and apparently so, as they would go on to win the whole thing, but to say the Miami Heat were fresh in that series would be a fallacy. Lastly, you point to Kyle Lowry and Tyler Herro, among others that were banged up, in last year’s playoff run.
There is no need to rehash it all, as the details are highly publicized. Plain and simple, this all matters when it comes to the Miami Heat.
That just means that there will be a lot of load management on guys’ bodies this year, especially for guys like Lowry and Butler, who ask and get a lot of their physicality and bodies.
Like every team, it will have to be treated with care and caution but the mere fact that it’s a conversation can only mean one thing—NBA hoops aren’t that far off.