The Miami Heat are in a strange place. In sports and especially the NBA, there is an old adage or belief that describes where they are.
You’d rather be on one side of either extreme, as opposed to being in between. In example, a team that is capable of winning a title or a rebuilding team is better than being a team that’s only good enough to fight for a play-in to seventh seed on a yearly basis.
Being in the middle can put you in a position where you can never get out of that cycle, as you’re too good to actually acquire the talent needed to get better, but not good enough to substantially win. Just one example of how it could look and though it doesn’t look like that here for them, the Miami Heat are caught squarely in the middle.
To be fair, it’s kind of like purgatory, so to speak. In the aforementioned example, leadership doesn’t want to give up on quality talent that has shown an ability to compete but also knows that they will never or very rarely compete at the highest level.
The Miami Heat can compete at the highest level, as is, but still may seek to add a high-level guy. In waiting for it to happen though, where’s it leave them?
For the Miami Heat, they don’t want to actually cash in chips to acquire depth or smaller tier pieces to make them better, while there are potentially seismic acquisitions still out there to be made. That’s where they find themselves.
And it’s evident on multiple fronts. The Kevin Durant situation is at a stalemate.
You haven’t heard much on Donovan Mitchell front, though you will continue to hear the mere instance brought up because you’ve heard it for what seems like a couple years now based on Utah not winning, the Dwyane Wade correlations and connections, along with the ever-present connection to Miami Heat big man, Bam Adebayo.
Not only does the intermingling of it all prevent them from going about normal business, with potential salary cap and roster mechanics to consider on potential big moves but if they want or have to execute another deal to improve, they can’t, haven’t, or don’t even know it yet based on waiting for that potential “big” opportunity that may never even come.
Who knows how it will end up. However, it’s a tough game to play and you just have to trust that Pat Riley and the crew will deliver regardless—one way or another.