The Miami Heat appears to be on a collision course with another Play-In Tournament appearance, and unless they're able to go on an insane run down the stretch, this season will naturally be remembered as a colossal failure. Perhaps most disastrous, the Heat have emerged as one of the more irrelevant teams in the Eastern Conference.
Having lost six of their last seven games, the Heat are currently sitting in the 10th seed of the Eastern Conference standings, and are two games behind the 6th seed, and three games back of the 7th seed.
On the surface, that may not seem like an end-of-the-world circumstance, but considering that there are only eight games left in the season, the Heat is quickly running out of time to make up ground. At this point, you'd imagine that they'll have to win between six and eight of their remaining games to even have a shot at avoiding the Play-In Tournament.
With how they've been playing recently, though, that seems like a highly unlikely proposition.
The Heat have made their own bed of mediocrity
But Miami has no one to blame but itself. The front office has put them in this exact circumstance. After electing to run it back after last season's embarrassing first-round playoff exit, it should not come as a shock that the Heat are trending in that same direction.
Sure, the Heat added a talented rookie (Kasparas Jakucionis) and took a flier on a scoring machine (Norman Powell), but none of those moves truly moved the needle at all this season. They failed to address team needs at the NBA Trade Deadline, and even decided to double down on this roster by choosing against embracing the role of a seller.
With the way things have trended recently, that looks like a huge mistake.
In fairness, the Heat did struggle mightily with injuries pretty much all season long, but I don't think that's a real excuse.
Even when the Heat have been healthy this season, they've been wildly inconsistent.
Can the Heat muster any late-season magic?
I suppose the only saving grace is that the Heat are finally healthy and, theoretically, do have a chance to prove the naysayers wrong over the final stretch of the season.
But, again, it's going to take an insane run over these last eight games for the Heat to flip the narrative of this season. If I had to put a tangible goal for how the Heat can turn this season into a positive, it'd certainly revolve around a first-round playoff upset.
Aside from that, it's difficult how this season will be remembered as anything but a huge misstep.