5. Miami Heat
Speaking of the Miami Heat, they have followed up an eight seed season by finding themselves in the same exact seeding a year later. A lot of unfortunate circumstances led to this, but this core has been running it back for years and has enough experience to shock the world again. The Heat are a play-in team with an underwhelming 46-36 record as the reigning Eastern Conference champions.
However, their chemistry and cohesion has surely been building as the seasons have gone by. They have great veteran leaders in Jimmy Butler and Kevin Love. Development was also shown once again from guys like Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo. Newly acquired Terry Rozier was playing great basketball during the last few weeks.
This team has the talent, depth and coaching to surely make one last push headlong into the playoffs.
Miami may not statistically be a top-five East team, but they have earned a reputation to never be counted out once April comes around. “Playoff Jimmy” is defrosting and ready to prove he has another historical individual run left in him. With all the Heat postseason success from both Butler and the Heat over the years, they have shown that they can be trusted to turn that switch, unless proven otherwise.
With two Finals and one Eastern Conference finals appearance over the last four years, this roster has always been built for the playoffs. And they are more than capable of making a final push down the stretch.