After a bad and inconsistent start to the regular season, the Miami Heat are dangerously teetering on the edge of disaster.
I don’t think many understand the complete gut punch it was that the Miami Heat missed out on Damian Lillard.
For the past few offseasons, the message from the Heat’s front office to its fans has been that it was eventually going to land another superstar opposite of Jimmy Butler. And all they needed was for a disgruntled star to choose Miami. And at the beginning of this summer, it appeared that the heat’s time was finally here.
After making the NBA Finals twice in the last four years, it appeared as if the Heat were finally going to land their final piece of a possible championship puzzle. The stage was set for Miami to be one of the bigger winners of the offseason. And when the Heat essentially passed up on the opportunity to trade for Beal, hope was lost.
Just a couple of weeks later, that decision made sense. Damian Lillard, a much bigger fish, had finally demanded a trade—and only to the Heat. The stars were finally aligning for Miami. This was their offseason. This was the big splash that the front office had been alluding to.
However, as history now knows, the Heat didn’t land Lillard. To add injury to insult, he was traded to one of the Heat’s rivals.
With Beal and Lillard gone, it seemed as if the Heat’s chances of landing a star had disappeared as well.
It was a gut punch of all gut punches. The writing was on the wall.
In the days leading up to the start of the season, the Heat’s stock was trending low. The overall expectation was that this was a team that was going to take a big step back. And through the first five games of the season, those projections seem right.
In fact, I’d say that at 1-4 to begin the season, the heat is teetering on the edge of disaster. And if something doesn’t flip quickly, things could get really ugly in Miami.
This quote from Bam Adebayo pretty much sums up everything right now:
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