I know it’s the Heat, so in all likelihood we’re going to sneak into the playoffs and make some noise but this is brutal.
Our sole win so far was against a vastly inferior Pistons team at home and we barely squeaked by them after choking a sizable lead.
We then had tough games with critical players out against the Celtics, Wolves and Bucks. I’m not surprised we lost all 3 considering the circumstances and quality of those teams.
That being said, losing at home against a depleted half rebuilding Nets team missing 3 starters is one of those things that teams with absolutely no fight do.
The season just started and I don’t want to overreact but this isn’t a normal season. Miami had a cinderella run to the finals but that was fueled in large part by ridiculous unsustainable shooting variance. After losing to the Nuggets the directive was simple- get better basketball players.
With that in mind our offseason protocol was correctly understood by anyone with a brain to essentially be Lillard or bust. We failed spectacularly at that and the two other teams in the conference that are a threat to Miami directly got better as a consequence of Lillard being traded to someplace else. To make matters worse we operated as if it was a given that Lillard would be acquired. There were moves that could have been made and players that could have been signed if acquiring Dame was not the sole objective.
With Jimmy Butler at 34 years old how much longer can he sustain his elite level of play?
I also have no way of telling this so I’ll be the first to concede that it is pure speculation but I can’t imagine the entire offseason of speculation could have been good for the locker room and general cohesion. All of our role players must’ve known they were on the trade block and guys like Herro being singled out in advance as a trade piece in all likelihood has had some sort of effect. I think the team might be too proud to admit it but world class athletes definitely have egos and that plays a role in situations like this.
This is pretty bad guys. I would not assume it’s just early season foibles. Mickey Arison is a dangerously cheap motherfucker and Riley vastly overestimated his negotiation position and we are seeing the fruits of that right now.