The New Big Three With Miami Heat
The Three Musketeers in South Beach. What this explosion of Miami Heat shooting means going into this season.
The New Big Three With Miami Heat
Last year, the Miami Heat’s playoff hopes were collapsed by one shot. Jimmy Butler playing all 48 minutes of game seven versus the Boston Celtics, not even taking a minute to rest dribbled up the court in the fourth quarter with less than 30 seconds left, pulled up from three, and missed it wide left. The season was over, and the Celtics had moved on to the championship.
The fact Miami had even made it that far was a miracle. Not only because Jimmy was basically averaging around 28 points in the postseason, a huge marker for him, but also the Heat were plagued with injuries in their 6th man of the year Tyler Herro, and veteran players like Kyle Lowry and PJ Tucker. We sat and waited in the offseason to see if Pat Riley, known for making ripples in the league, would make another free agency splash to pair with his stars in Jimmy and Bam Adebayo.
Well, for one of the first times he didn’t, passing on Donovan Mitchell and staying away from trades to acquire Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Why you ask? It seems like he believes in his squad, trusts coach Erik Spoelstra more than ever, and wants to see what his team’s got when they’re healthy as a core unit. That is exactly what they’re doing and it seems to be working. With them drafting a 19 year old kid that plays relative to Kristaps Porzingis once developed, Nikola Jovic from Serbia has a lot of promise and the franchise is excited about him.
They also found a gem this offseason by a man named Jamal Cain who has been balling out and even got a word of recommendation from Bam Adebayo, the Heat’s all star center saying “This is Jamal Cain, man,” Adebayo said in the arena hallway after beating Brooklyn. “Realize who this is. This is Jamal Cain. He’s going to be in the league for a long time..”.
But that’s the least of it. Last season there were some rotational issues. Was Tyler Herro ready for a starting role? Was Max Strus simply good enough? And what had happened to Duncan Robinson, the guy they gave a huge extension a season before until a recent rapid falling off to the end of the bench.
We Simply Saw Change
We saw the Duncan Robinson we all remembered unleash rapid fire threes here and there in Memphis to total 29 points in 29 minutes. The game after, we saw Max Strus unleash 24 points in 24 minutes with Duncan getting another 14 as well. And then in last night’s preseason game versus New Orleans, Herro got the start with the rest of the main squad and had a solid 23 points with a lights out early beginning to the first quarter where he was raining perimeter shots.
This creates true depth. This creates for Miami true opportunity, and posses a threat to Vegas and the plans they have for the Heat season because I’m not sure they calculated this vengeance from Heat shooters just yet. The Miami Heat are 5.5 point favorites against the Chicago Bulls on October 19 in their season opener at home which I would gladly cosign on taking that.
This Team’s Chemistry Is Too Fluid
My most optimistic takeaway from Miami is how fast they move the ball on offense, their transition is nuts. Other projections like them to win Southeast is -165, to win Eastern Conference is +800, and NBA Finals at +2000. Like I said everyone seemed shocked when Miami Heat GM Pat Riley didn’t pull the trigger to acquire more talent in the offseason and now I think he’ll soon run into a problem where he has too much to deal with!
Don’t be surprised if Miami sends one or even two of those perimeter guys to another squad to not only free up cap space, but add a potential veteran star asset depending on where they stand leading up to the playoffs.
Time to get excited about a new Big Three in Miami!
