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The Miami Heat season it started with a flop, which through propaganda became yet another witty move by that old fox Pat Riley.
Miami managed to lose a race in which it was effectively competing alone, the one for Damian Lillard who after deciding to leave the Portland Trail Blazers had specifically asked to be sent to Florida, and nowhere else. The punctilious of the Gm dei Blazers Joe Croninit is true, had made the operation more difficult but it is also true that Riley’s who didn’t want to lower himself to the level of an upstart, he scuttled it. The Heat were unable, or did not want, to put together the three-team trade that then allowed the Milwaukee Bucks to get Lillard, and in hindsight knowing that it would have taken so little for Miami to proceed can only disturb the fanbase. Which in fact is disturbing, and rightly so.
The Heat needed Lillard badlyas demonstrated by another difficult season for Tyler Herro, beyond the (good) numbers, and above all the bad series played against the Boston Celtics. The project of pairing Dame with the Butler-Adebayo duo and coach Erik Spoelstra makes so much sense that it would almost be worth it for Miami to hope that things between the former Portland and the Bucks don’t work out, to try again in the 2024 summer transfer market.
All season long, the Heat have basked in the illusion that the climb to the 2023 NBA Finals was repeatable. In reality, although truly a sporting feat, that climb was also promoted by two conditions that were difficult to repeat: Giannis Antetokounmpo’s injury in the first round against Milwaukee, and the sporting suicide of the Boston Celtics in the conference finals, with two home defeats in line at TD Garden.
Miami finished the season with 46 wins and lost in the play-ins to Philadelphia, and inevitably crashing into Boston. And it closed 21esima per offensive ratinga modest number that not even the arrival in the race of Terry Rozier was able to correct it. After the 2023 playoffs experienced as a protagonist, Caleb Martin he returned to earth, Nikola Jovic he managed to enter the rotation only after Josh Richardson’s injuries and the physical problems of Duncan Robinson, Jaime Jaquez and Rozier himself at the end of the season. Herro he played alone 42 games, Kevin Love appeared at the end of the race.
The impression for the Miami Heat is that the window that Butler, Riley and Spoelstra opened for the NBA title is closing. Is there still time to try?
2024-05-02 22:13:56
#Miami #Heat #offseason
