Heat are fifth at The Athletic’s PR

Teams above:

1. Warriors

2. Bucks

3. Clippers

4. Suns

5. Miami Heat

What do we like?

At some point, you need to accept that the Miami Heat are an excellent team. People took their Jimmy Butler-led resurgence in the bubble season as a fluke. That felt validated for those doubters when the Heat crumbled the next season with roughly 20 minutes between the 2020 NBA Finals and the opening night tip-off. But Erik Spoelstra and the Heat bounced back last season and captured the top seed in the East. People still doubted. They dominated Atlanta and dispatched Philadelphia. People scratched their heads. Miami was one shot away from making the NBA Finals. Losing P.J. Tucker sucks, but this team is still one of the best in the NBA.

What do we question?

The Heat didn’t get better this summer from a personnel standpoint, and you wonder if their ability to plug in random role players for injured core players eventually runs out of magic. Spoelstra did a great job with it last season, and he generally does a brilliant job with his coaching staff of developing diamonds in the rough into effective role players. But this Heat team is going to need a lot more from its core guys to be available and be consistently effective (mostly Kyle Lowry and reigning Sixth Man Tyler Herro beyond his scoring).

One random prediction:

Bam Adebayo wins Defensive Player of the Year. He seemed to lose out last season because he missed 26 games. He’s going to have very stiff competition out there, and we may see a surging year from a Draymond Green campaign on its best behavior. But I think the Heat center will capture the award.

[Source](https://theathletic.com/3608925/2022/10/17/nba-power-rankings-season-opening?source=user-shared-article)

by Mulubrhan_