3 Bold Heat predictions for this season that went terribly wrong
With the regular season coming to a close, we go over a few preseason Miami Heat predictions that went wrong.
With the Miami Heat opting to run it back with the same core once again heading into this NBA season, there were a lot of factors going into what this team could look like. They lost key rotation players in Gabe Vincent and Max Strus; essentially replaced by Josh Richardson and Jaime Jaquez Jr. Aside from those subtle pick ups, both Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro were poised to make significant progress in their development. Adebayo has helped up his end of that bargain, but season-long injury issues with Herro made him not as much of a factor as initially thought.
The team was showcasing early on similar ups and downs to last season, where the Heat just snuck into the playoff picture as the eighth seed but reached the NBA Finals.
The acquisition of Terry Rozier for Kyle Lowry and a first-round pick helped make Miami more top heavy in their core, but it even took some time for him to get adjusted upon arriving. With health and roster changes impacting the outlook of this squad all year, it made it tough to really make accurate predictions going into the season. Let’s look at some preseason predictions for the Heat that went wrong.
3. Bleacher Report predicts the Miami Heat will win more than 50 games
Before the 2023-2024 season took off, Bleacher Report predicted the Heat to finish with a regular season record this year of 53-29. There is no way they can even reach that 50-win mark at this point.
A lot of the standings struggles start with availability issues. The Heat are at the near top of the league in games missed and different starting lineups. Even when they went through that seven-game losing streak, tied for the longest streak since 2008, they never had a fully healthy roster to work with. A team that on paper may be the deepest team in the NBA hasn’t had the luxury to reach their full potential because of guys consistently being in and out.
Only recently has Miami been able to work with a fully healthy roster. April 5 against the Houston Rockets marked the first game everyone was available aside from one game at Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks shortly after the Terry Rozier deal.
When healthy, the Heat have a deep roster that coach Erik Spoelstra can utilize. Rare glimpses of that rotation showed that Bleacher Report’s prediction could have been accurate had health not been another legitimate problem.