Could it get even worse for the Heat?

This place has seen better times – Source: Pixabay

It doesn’t seem that long ago that the Heat were playing in the NBA Finals just about every year. It was only two years ago that this team surprised everyone by playing in the championship series once again, losing out to the Nuggets in the end. This shouldn’t be a bad team. But something is very wrong at the moment – and it could get a whole lot worse.

Things have been (not so) steadily declining since the trade deadline and now it could be that the Heat has a major fight on its hands to even make it to the postseason. That should be unthinkable for this organization but being part of the play-in tournament seems like it would be something of an achievement at the current time.

Miami Heat fans could be forgiven for concentrating more on college sports and the March Madness betting sites right now, as their team is starting to stink out the league. There are some very good local schools who have a real chance of winning the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament this year and that might just make up for the way the pros have been playing.

Some might say that it all started to go wrong when Jimmy Butler finally left the ball club. It is particularly galling that his move to the Golden State has been so successful, with the Warriors win streak now boosting them up the power rankings. But the problems with the team were here before Butler jumped ship – and keeping a player with his kind of attitude was never going to have a happy ending in the short or long term.

So, if we forget about Jimmy Butler for a moment, what exactly is going wrong with the Heat? It may be a symptom, rather than a cause, but the team just isn’t scoring enough points. There used to be a time in the 1990s when scoring over 100 points on a regular basis in the Eastern Conference was something of a rarity, but these days it is a necessity – and Miami has failed to beat the 110-point on far too many occasions of late. Add to that the team’s apparent ability to defend a lead and it is not surprising that Miami is looking less and less like a playoff team.

It is not only that Miami has been unable to keep opponents at bay. It is the scale of the comebacks by opposing teams that should be worrying everyone. Double-digit leads should not be lost at the rate that the Heat have been giving them away. Not only does that mean that the L column is stacking up, but it will also have a demoralizing effect on the players and fans. If no kind of lead seems like a winnable lead, then more mistakes are going to be made. It is a vicious circle and, at the current time, the Miami Heat doesn’t seem to know how to shake this off.

As for the players that have come in this season, it is a decidedly mixed bag. Mid-season addition Andrew Wiggins has been in and out of the line-up and is yet to stamp any authority on the court. The team has tended to actually put up better shooting numbers when he is off the court and that is not something that can sustain the team in the long run. Rookie Kel’el Ware has looked a little better and has come back from injury recently. Putting so much faith in a rookie is worrying though, even if he does seem to be striking up a positive relationship with Bam Adebayo.

The Heat has been woeful against the better teams this season and that should be a concern heading into the business end of the regular season. There is no way that Miami is going to tank so badly that a top draft pick is in the offing so, even with what looks like being a very good recruiting year, we cannot depend on welcoming the next big thing to the roster for next year. Sneaking into the postseason via the play-in tournament route might be a temporary boost but that then just means that either the Cavs or the Celtics will be waiting in the first round – if Miami gets that far. The way the team is playing at the moment, there is no way that the Heat is the surprise team of the playoffs again, so one series looks just about the limit for Miami.

To answer the question in the headline of this article, yes, things could still get worse for the Miami Heat this season. With potentially nothing to fall back on in the draft for next year (and not much beyond that either), missing out on the postseason would be a disaster. March has been a total washout for the Heat so far and if things don’t pick up soon, there is a very real chance that even making the play-in tournament would be too much of a leap.

There are some good players on the roster and there are some much worse teams in the league. But if the Heat doesn’t start to turn things around soon, it will be too late to salvage the season and a ball club that has made it to the NBA Finals seven times in the last 20 years will be watching the playoffs at home this year. There is still time to improve but it has to happen fast – and us fans have to hope that the magic of the postseason reappears for the Heat again this season.