Preview of the 2020-21 NBA season over Miami Heat. Data, results from the previous season, a look at their roster and future free agents, the objectives of the course, the player to watch and a forecast on the franchise.
Miami Heat
- Balance 2019-20: 44-29 (5th East, qualified for playoffs).
- Coach: Erik Spoelstra (13th season in the team).
- Most important free agents in 2021: Kelly Olynyk, Maurice Harkless, Duncan Robinson (RFA), Kendrick Nunn (RFA), Andre Iguodala (team option).
Template
- Market movements: renewal of the entire hard core of the squad (here all the movements).
- Backcourt: Goran Dragic, Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro, Kendrick Nunn, Avery Bradley.
- Frontcourt: Duncan Robinson, Andre Iguodala, Bam Adebayo, Kelly Olynyk, Meyers Leonard, Maurice Harkless, Udonis Haslem, Chris Silva, Jr., KZ Okpala, Edrice Adebayo, Precious Achiuwa (draft).
- Dual contract: Gabe Vincent.
This is how they face the season
Fifth in regular phase. Scourge in the Eastern playoffs and runners-up in the NBA. What are these Miami Heat: one point ‘and followed’ O ‘and other’? Flower of a season or serious aspiring to repeat?
The truth is that if during that regular season Sietemesina became a revelation team, fewer were surprised by each of their ax blows in the postseason, because during the previous months, despite finishing fifth in the table, they had been gaining the fame of an orderly, solid team , balanced and with enough offensive talent to brand the project a ‘winner’.
Defenses win championships. The Heat did not fulfill that maxim of John Gregory by a miracle, but they showed us that even in this NBA obsessed with gathering stars, you can build a team that to stand in a Finals, does not need a Big Two not a Big Three. Just a great head coach, notable players (multipurpose and role-playing) with an excellent capacity for sacrifice… and a leader.
Rarely has a concept as abstract as ‘leadership’ become so corporeal and allowed us to establish such a direct connection between it and its importance when it comes to winning. Jimmy Butler is a good player, yeah he’s a great two-way, yes, it has gonads to make Portugal pregnant, yes…. but above and above all, he is a leader. And that has made the Heat what they are. A great team with its captain and helmsman.
And while Lakers or Clippers, to be more contenders They’ve still shaken their squads wildly, what have they done from Pat Riley’s offices to prop themselves up? At the moment, do not bite on James Harden’s hook. If they do, forget this prior. You will have to redo it whole.
If not … more wood to the stake. Avery Bradley and Moe Harkless. Few shots but they shoot to hit. Along the way, yes, he has had to release an important piece, Jae Crowder.
These Heat lacked financial margin to sign, so they have focused on using their rights Bird to reward two of the architects of this incredible season: Dragic and Adebayo. The first is past and, we all hope, a little more present. The injury to the point guard in the Finals killed a large part of Miami’s options, and now we only hope that he will stretch the gum and prolong this second youth as long as possible, because the Slovenian is classy. Bam Bam is that brutal success of the Draft 2017 (pick 14th) who is now All-Star and from now on will be one of the most followed interiors in the League, with the ability to do everything and spare string (23 years!) To improve and add resources (that shiver) to his arsenal .
Bradley is the dreamed profile to strengthen defense and attack with a stroke of the pen, Harkless will do the work of Crowder, and Nunn, Herro and Robison have little reason to think that their stripes should not increase in hierarchy in this course to start.
Olynyk is in the best moment of his career, Precious Achiuwa is an athlete taken from 20th place in the Draft, whose defense will fall like a glove in this team and for whose basketball immaturity and some lack of control on the court, there is all the institutional culture and the Spoelstra magic to proceed with rapid evolution.
In a sentence. What are these Heat? They are more of the same; but this time, everyone already knows. And that, more than certainty, commands respect.
The player to watch
Tyler Herro. The Klay Thompson that he can become and everyone expects him to be. The rookie he was not a shooter. It was so much more. Impudence, clutch, poise, dedication, confidence, order, humility, talent, charisma, versatility …
All this has been Herro in just one year, and precisely for that reason the Rockets would minimally consider giving Harden if he arrives in the package in exchange. There are not a few fans of the Florida team who, even with La Barba as a prize, remain firm in their instincts and affirm, emphatically, that “the kid is not touched.”
NBA 2020-21 Miami Heat preview, prediction
Elio Martínez, director of nbamaniacs, will give a personal and subjective forecast on what he thinks each franchise will do during the season in the NBA 2020-21 preview.
What version of Miami will we see during the regular season? I think it will be better than last year and that forces me to place them on the podium at the conference because that is why they were champions of the East just two and a half months ago. In May 2021 I think they will appear in the playoffs with the second best record in their conference.
Previous team analyzed: Oklahoma City Thunder. Next team: Houston Rockets.
(Cover photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
