External expectations for the Miami Heat are…how shall I put this…about as uninspiring as they can get. The quick read from the outside of this club is that it won’t be great but also won’t be brutally bad. In other words, it’ll once again get stuck in the Association’s dreaded midsection: not good enough to contend, not bad enough to get great draft lottery odds.
And, apparently, this oversight isn’t just a team-specific thing, either. ESPN’s Chris Herring and Kevin Pelton recently ranked the 14 newcomers they’re most eager to watch during the upcoming season, and only slotted new Heat swingman Norman Powell into the No. 9 spot—trailing the likes of, among others, Nuggets forward Cameron Johnson, Lakers center Deandre Ayton, and Knicks coach Mike Brown.
Huh? The article references how Johnson produces at a similar rate to his predecessor, Michael Porter Jr., notes how Ayton was bought out by the 46-loss Trail Blazers, and somehow fails to mention that Brown was fired by the Kings last season. Yet, all three are more worth watching than Powell, who was the second-leading scorer on the fifth-seeded Clippers and still cost the Heat almost literally nothing to get? Come on.
Sleeping on the Heat is almost always a regrettable move.
Look, there are legitimate reasons folks are sleeping on Miami, but there hasn’t been enough said about the Heat’s chances to surprise everyone. Again. While they’ve failed to advance beyond the first round of the playoffs the past two seasons, they still have three Eastern Conference trips and two treks to the NBA Finals to show for the past six seasons.
Exceeding expectations is sort of what they do. And while Jimmy Butler played a vital role in that success, so too did Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro and best-in-the-business head coach Erik Spoelstra. Miami still plays the same brand of relentless defense that propelled those lengthy playoff runs, and its offense could be sharper with the improvements made to this roster.
Which brings things back to Powell. Even if you aren’t a believer in the Heat, you’d have to admit that turning Kyle Anderon and Kevin Love into Powell was a masterful front office move. Powell put himself into the All-Star conversation last season (21.8 points on 48.4/41.8/80.4 shooting), and he looks like a hand-in-glove fit for this group as an efficient play-finisher and tireless worker.
And, again, the cost to get him was less of a clearance price than the final days of a going-out-of-business liquidation sale. This wasn’t turning the productive-but-overpaid Porter into the similarly-productive-but-more-reasonably-compensated Johnson. It wasn’t signing Ayton off the scrap heap and hoping for the best. It wasn’t circling around to Brown after seemingly having no direction (or at least no realistic plan) for the search to find Tom Thibodeau’s replacement.
This was a genuine heist on the Heat’s behalf, and they deserve more credit for it. Then again, at this point it’s sadly not surprising to see folks underselling this franchise. Here’s to hoping those same folks are comfortable eating crow, because that might be on the menu if Miami outperforms expectations thanks in no small part to the wildly discounted deal for Powell.
