Miami Heat
The 2020-21 Miami Heat season can be defined by never quite finding their way, swept out of the first round by the Milwaukee Bucks.
What did we learn?
The Heat never reclaimed their bubble magic.
Especially offensively where they struggled all season long.
At the beginning of the season, they were ravaged by the protocols, missing Jimmy Butler for the majority of the first month. Kind of a big deal.
Players were constantly in and out of the lineup. We had to re-familiarize ourselves with Gabe Vincent (WHO HE!?) and we quickly learned who Max Strus was.
Bam didn’t level up like we hoped and thought he would. The numbers are actually there, but the numbers don’t do as much when it doesn’t lead to winning. Bam was still really good. Expectations are everything.
Dragic looked like he lost a step, and The Dragon is 35 years old now with 12 years already in the league. His flourishing in the bubble might have been his last roar. Kendrick Nunn played more effectively and even shot better than Dragic. Nunn finally put last year’s bout with the coco behind him.
In hindsight, it was easy to see that Jae Crowder was even more important to this team’s success in the bubble than we realized. There was way too much of Andre Iguodola and Trevor Ariza, playing almost 50 minutes per game between them, shooting a combined eight 3’s per game at 34 percent.
The word was out on the real shooters. Duncan Robinson and Tyler Herro both regressed although Herro much more than Robinson, who still shot 40 percent from 3 on 8.5 attempts per game. (It’s pretty unbelievable that those numbers were a drop from last season.) Herro looked like the next big thing in that Eastern Conference Finals against the Celtics, but he seemed out of sorts for most of the season, perhaps asked to have the ball in his hands a bit too much.
Jimmy Butler did have an amazing stretch where he was doing it all, filling up the box score, stuffing the staff sheet, trying his damnedest to get the Heat where they needed to be at the end of the season. The Heat went 18-8 over the last 26 games. Here come the Heat, we thought, ready to make another run in the playoffs. For the season, the Heat were 33-19 with Jimmy Beans in the lineup.
But the Milwaukee Bucks were out for sweet, vicious revenge, squeaking out a classic nail-biter in Game 1 and never looking back, putting the Heat out of their misery with a clean sweep.
The key ingredients are still here, though. If you have Jimmy and Bam, you have a fighting chance.
And the thing about magic is that sometimes it can be found again.
We also will never put it past Riles to make a sudden marquee summer splash.
If you listen closely, you can hear him now laying those rings out on the table.
_____________________________________
Did our preseason Over/Under prediction hit?
Over 43 wins. Bam, Herro and Dunc Rob are just getting started.
Heat 2020-21 Record: (40-32)
Nope, our preseason Over/Under prediction did not hit.
_____________________________________
What’s Next?
The Heat have extreme cap flexibility this summer because they thought they were going superstar chasing. (They still might be.)
Duncan Robinson and Kendrick Nunn are both restricted free agents and the Heat have a $19.4 million team option for Dragic and a $15 million team option for Iguodala. Both seem like steep paydays for players in decline, but the Heat like to take care of their own which is better news for Dragic than it is for Iggy.
Victor Oladipo is an unrestricted free agent and a tricky one at that. Dipo got hurt in April after just four games with the Heat. He would have helped them offensively for sure, but his injury history cannot be ignored. Dipo and the Heat have long been linked, kind of like Jimmy once upon a time.
The draft pick cupboard here is completely barren.
Jimmy Butler is eligible to sign a 4-year, $181 million extension that would pay him to the sweet tune of $50 million in the 2025-26 season when he will be 36 years old.
_____________________________________
Favorite Heat Highlight from the 2020-21 Season:
Haslem checked in to his first game of the season and was immediately ejected for trying to fight Dwight.
UD is the realest.
