NBA playoffs are only three days old. There’s still time, but the Celtics delivered a humbling 20-point drubbing in Game 1 in Boston, and did so by burying the Heat under a wave of 3-pointers. The Heat’s defense was stretched too thin trying to defend the arc—Boston tied a franchise high with 22 makes from the 3-point line—and there was not much evidence that the Heat can slow the Celtics’ high-powered offense
Oh, and Jimmy Butler is all but certain to miss the entire playoff series with a knee injury, yet another hindrance for the already hobbled Heat offense.
Should the Heat bow out of the playoffs in the first round this year, after last season’s magical run from the play-in to the NBA Finals, it might finally be time for president Pat Riley to get serious about changing the star landscape of the team. The Butler-Bam Adebayo-Tyler Herro trio may well have gone as far as it can go.
As ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said recently, “I think Miami will be in a position again to use the assets they have to go out and get another All-Star-level player that maybe connects more on the timeline of Bam Adebayo and his age.
At Bleacher Report, they’re suggesting adding a new star to the mix, a player who is on the same career trajectory as Adebayo, who needs to take the reins as the team’s future cornerstone. That player: Pelicans star Brandon Ingram.
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