The Miami Heat’s opening night opponent is officially set.
And it’s not the Orlando Magic!
Giannis Antetokounmpo and the new-look Heat will square off against Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball and the Minnesota Timberwolves on Oct. 21 inside Kaseya Center at 7:30 p.m. EST. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN, ahead of Warriors-Lakers.
This is the first time since 2019-20 that the Heat’s season opener was against a Western Conference opponent. This is also the first time the two teams have ever met on opening night. Minnesota has won 13 of the last 15 meetings between the two teams, even though the all-time series is split at 36 apiece. The Heat dropped both games last season by 10 and 28 points, respectively.
Frankly, I expected the Heat to be playing either the New York Knicks or Philadelphia 76ers … not the Minnesota Timberwolves. It feels like a random Opening Night matchup, but one that pits two top-10 teams against one another.
The full 82-game schedule is expected to be announced later in the week. Last year, the Heat had just five nationally-televised games; they already have two scheduled between Opening Night and Christmas. With Antetokounmpo, I expect them to have at least 15-20 this year, if not more. But that’s neither here nor there.
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They may want Minnesota in more Eastern conference matchups in anticipation of the swap from west. Once the expansion happens. So heat vs timber wolves is a valid start
Miami did get a Christmas game so they are in the spotlight. Hope they go to the conf finals?
imo we have the best fc in bball greek bam wig port.bc unfort one of the worst in nba dav pelle dru timmy aint gonna cut it.love to get jrue holiday greeks old teammate.and a 2 g dd beal klay come on pat u old frt
This is an interesting observation. It is difficult to disagree with it pending completion of the Heat’s roster.
Eastern Conference 7th seed: Miami Heat (FANSIDED)
Yes, the Heat made one of the biggest moves of the offseason by being the team to finally pry Giannis Antetokounmpo away from the Bucks. At the same time, they utterly gutted their depth to pull that off and haven’t done much to build around him. Outside of Bam Adebayo, the Heat don’t really have a supporting cast to place around Giannis as they target the playoffs.
To make matters worse, Miami is extremely limited in salary cap space and has even more limited trade capital to work with.They went all in to get Giannis. It was a move that completely mortgaged their ability to develop a winning team around him. Essentially, the Heat turned into the Bucks.
Right now, Miami is basically the Giannis and Bam show. That will be enough to get them into the playoffs, though that path will likely go through the Play-In as per usual for the Heat. How things go from there is difficult to imagine, but it’s hard to see this version of the Heat as contenders without some serious upgrades to their depth.
“Outside of Bam Adebayo, the Heat don’t really have a supporting cast to place around Giannis as they target the playoffs.”
This is such a discounting of the players on this roster. Whether it be Mitchell, Wiggins, Portis, Pelle, or Hardaway, these are all solid complementary players to put around a dominant player like Giannis. There will be 2 more players added that should prove interesting and beneficial. Then there are the question marks of Jovic, Dru (offensively), Conwell, and Gardner. I’m sticking with my belief that they will NOT be a play-in team. Teams can take us for granted at their own risk.
I too do not believe the Heat will be a play-in team. I figure 6th place, at minimum. Depending on how several players perform and which players Miami ultimately brings in to complete the roster, my projection could be higher. It will also depend on how quickly the returning players mesh with the new players.
I am optimistic that we will see a marked improvement in Mitchell’s performance on both sides of the ball, the return of Jovic’s mojo, Pelle’s return with more muscle, confidence and an improved 3 point shot, Hardaway and Fontecchio becoming effective offensive sparks off the bench, Conwell and Gardner quickly developing into rotation caliber players and the 2-3 additional players Riley will be bringing in will have a positive overall effect on the team’s performance.
“Optimism doesn’t mean that you are blind to the reality of the situation. It means that you remain motivated to seek a solution to whatever problems arise.”
— The Dalai Lama —
Yes optimism is good. But, we will know more when the final roster is complete. Right now, sixth or even seventh seed seems pretty accurate, that’s if there are no more acquisitions.
But, that is where the optimism does seem valid. We will not go into the season without making at least another acquisition, and maybe two. There is no reason to worry about it or panic as our GM is doing exactly what he should at this time, having patience and waiting the other teams or players out, to get the best possible deal. At some point, even if it’s during training camp, things will sort themselves out as decisions will eventually have to be made.
BTW, that’s when some of these types of deals with these types of players go down, just before the games begin, as that’s what happened last year.
practice makes perfect rather have them in camp way before season starts 30
Me too, ideally. But, a lot of delaying tactics going on, waiting for teams or players to get desperate. They are operating on their own timelines.
do u think dd s waiting for the kawhi decision u put him with leonard barnes barrett quickley thats another tough team.man theres gonna be tough battles night in night out whos the weakest team in east it might be the tyler bucks.man what a punk he is still running his mouth,cant wait for that matchup
dont under estimate the port of miami.hes an all star type player.big and a bad ass can shoot it third best player on team imo
Wiggins is third best. Mitchell is fourth. Both are 2 way players. Bobby isn’t. He does well against second units. Not so well against starters, especially those with talented big men.
Miami was a winning team last year (+2.2 net) and is adding Giannis to a lineup of Mitchell-Larsson-Wiggins-Bam that was +11.2 in 420 minutes.
For the 20 most frequent 4-man lineups on Miami last year, the only ones that were negative all include players who were traded for Giannis:
Bam-Herro-Larsson-Mitchell -0.9, Mitchell-Powell-Ware-Wiggins -3.5, Larsson-Mitchell-Powell-Ware -6.3, Larsson-Mitchell-Ware-Wiggins -9.8
It’s the opposite for Milwaukee last year, they only had 4 of their 20 most frequent 4-man lineups outscore the opponent, all had Giannis, and the others all had negative net ratings.
“Miami lost all their depth trading for Giannis and didn’t improve/is the same as Milwaukee last year” is just one of the talking points this offseason, like last year how the Spurs could not contend and would struggle to make the playoffs with three guards who didn’t fit together.
What do you think is Miami’s projected win total and rank in East?
46 is their over under, which feels low.
Could see Miami, NYK, Boston, Philly, Toronto, Indiana, Detroit, Cleveland finishing in any order 1-8.
NYK and Indiana showed you can win in the postseason with a modest win total, 53 and 50 games, if you’re healthy and peak at the right time. NYK looked very rough around Jan. this past season and Mike Brown said he was never worried because the regular season is about experimentation and finding diverse ways to play that you may need later.
IMO NYK, Indiana, Toronto, Miami, Philly (have to include them with LeBron) have the highest ceiling but may not be the top seeds, like last year when Detroit and Boston used their depth and defense to win the most games.
Right now, I think it is Miami’s defense and Giannis’ scoring that is going to wins games. They could use another closer.
Wow, thanks Giannis!