The Miami Heat officially begin training camp next week, but one thing is pretty obvious for the team heading into the start of the season. It's the painful reality that the Heat simply are not a serious threat to win the Eastern Conference this season.
Can the Heat embrace an underdog mentality and emerge as a feisty team in the East this year? Absolutely. However, even if things do play out somewhat perfectly for Miami this season, it'd be hard-pressed to envision a scenario where they finish in the top 5 of the East standings.
It's almost a certainty that the Heat are going to reemerge as a Play-In Tournament team this season, if they don't pull the plug on the operation before, pivoting to some sort of soft tanking approach.
And that may not be all that bad. It's a path the Heat have often avoided over the course of their franchise's existence, but it's one tactic that could certainly work this season with the right approach.
The 'gap' year has arrived for the Heat
Realistically speaking, all the Heat has to do to properly embrace this "gap" year, and potentially evolve into a team that is "soft tanking," is play all the young players. Miami has a strong enough young supporting cast that if they hand over the keys to them, even with Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo still on the floor, things will probably still work out in their favor.
It wouldn't be considered blatant tanking, and they'd absolutely benefit from giving their young core room to find their footing.
Of course, that leaves the likes of Norman Powell and Andrew Wiggins in a tough situation. Those are probably the two primary players who would have to be included in an NBA Trade Deadline move(s).
And cashing in Wiggins and Powell for maybe one net first-round pick, or two, would greatly help this team if they are indeed on the path toward landing a superstar player via trade in the future.
An ideal season for the Heat
In many ways, this is what an ideal season could look like for the Heat. Would it be nice if they made the NBA Playoffs and defied the odds again this season? Sure. Absolutely. There'd be some joy in that for the fan base.
But there's no question the route that is more beneficial for this team heading into the future revolves around a "soft tanking" approach this season, one that would include flipping some of their veteran players for future draft capital.
Whether the Heat will go down that route is an entirely different question.
Either way, one thing is for sure, there shouldn't be much expected from the Heat this season. And there's probably not much that will change that level of expectation in training camp or to start the season.