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Heat News: Stan Van Gundy offers sharp criticism of front office and more

Plus, the annual player rankings are out and one site offered a bit of a surprise.

By Wes Goldberg

Feb 23, 2023; Los Angeles, California, USA; TNT broadcaster Stan Van Gundy during the game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Feb 23, 2023; Los Angeles, California, USA; TNT broadcaster Stan Van Gundy during the game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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Some Miami Heat news you might have missed…

The Miami Heat aren’t good enough to compete for a championship, at least according to TNT analyst Stan Van Gundy.

When asked by the Miami Herald about the Miami Heat’s plan to run back the Jimmy Butler/Bam Adebayo/Tyler Herro core for a sixth straight season, the former Heat coach offered a fair bit of criticism.

“I really don’t understand what’s going on there,” Van Gundy said. “They’re really a win-now team, which I respect, and they haven’t put a roster around there that has a chance. I think they got lulled into a false sense of security by the run to the Finals two years ago. And it was a great run, but they didn’t have a great team, and they didn’t have a great year.

“That’s not a very good roster. To me, that’s a play-in roster again.”

Van Gundy explained that the Heat have lost more talent than they’ve acquired after their run to the 2023 Finals. Since then, Max Strus, Gabe Vincent and Caleb Martin have departed in free agency.

As the Miami Herald pointed out, the Heat “would counter that the additions of Terry Rozier and Jaime Jaquez Jr. qualify as improvements.”

According to ESPN’s annual top 100 player rankings, the Heat have four players who qualify in the top 86 of the league: Jaquez (86), Herro (76), Butler (28) and Adebayo (18). 

The surprise here? That Adebayo is ranked 10 spots over Butler. 

It’s worth noting that ESPN’s criteria are based on predicting how each player will perform this season. So it seems that most at ESPN believe Adebayo will pass Butler as Miami’s best player this season. You could make the argument, based on last season, that that already happened.

Meanwhile, the Ringer revealed their full top 100 player rankings on Wednesday. They have Butler still slotted as Miami’s best player, coming in at 19. But it’s close. Adebayo is ranked right after at 20. Herro is the only other player who cracked the top 100, coming in at 79.

ICYMI, our John Jablonka broke down the pros and cons of the Heat’s five-out offense so far this preseason. 

I also have my own observations from the Heat’s preseason win over the Spurs, where we got our longest look from the starting group.

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