In early February, Miami made a couple of moves that brought Andre Iguodala and Jay Crowder to the team. This move had a subpar immediate result with a 7-7 record until the regular season was interrupted. Then, in the bubble, coach Spoelstra made some adjustments to the team’s rotation and Miami’s level increased exponentially:
He removed the inefficient rookie Kendrick Nunn from the starting lineup; Crowder became the de facto main Power Forward of the team; Dragic was the starting PG and Herro was tghe first guard to come off the bench in the games.
All these moves worked extremely well and the Heat got to the NBA Finals. Unfortunately, with the early injury of Dragic and with Adebayo banged up, Miami was unable to be competitive against the Lakers in a 7-game series even though Butler carried the team to extend the series to a 6th game.
Maybe in order to try to make a big move in the next offseason (Giannis Antetokounmpo?), Miami had a quiet offseason. They lost Crowder in the free agency but they signed Maurice Harkless. While defensively both have similar skills, Harkless is a more reluctant 3pts shooter than Crowder and therefore, a worst floor spacer.
Avery Bradley was the other addition to the roster and his defensive pedigree could be important to improve Miami’s inexperienced backcourt rotation, if we exclude Dragic.
Continuity is the key word for Miami this season. Dragic and Butler proved in the playoffs that they can lead the offense well while Adebayo was one of the best defensive players in the league. It will be interesting to check if Spoelstra will continue to put Adebayo at the Center position with an undersized floor spacer PF or if he will start two legit bigs in the frontcourt.
Miami will fight for one of the first 4 seeds in the East and if Herro plays at the same level he did in the bubble, then the Heat could fight once again to be the best team in the East.