The 2018-19 Miami Heat need to pivot for the future and the only way to properly do that is to embrace the tank
Through the first month of the 2018-19 NBA season, the Miami Heat have been quite disappointing. But, not only because of their 6-10 record. While that’s a big part of it, perhaps their biggest loss of the season was their whiff in their pursuit of Jimmy Butler.
Butler was the perfect target for Pat Riley and the Heat. He checks all the boxes. He was a disgruntled two-way superstar that actually wanted to be in Miami. Yet, in the end, Butler was traded to Philadelphia (which makes matters even worse) and not Miami.
And this was a major blow for this franchise. Even though they will never admit it, missing out on Butler will force this team to pivot once again. Instead of potentially being players in the Eastern Conference next season, or even this season to a certain extent, the timeline will move to 2021.
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Good luck trying to sell that to your fanbase, especially one that would probably prefer to tank at this point. And that’s exactly what the next pivot should be. Forget trying to compete and make the playoffs as a potential 6-8 seed and a first-round exit, this team should be trying to sell off their veterans in an attempt to land a top 8 pick in this year’s NBA Draft.
It’s not in Riley’s DNA – or his professional remaining timeline – to blow up the roster and start a rebuild all over. He’s not about that life. He’s never really done that before, either. Certainly not recently.
Although, it’s probably what’s better for the franchise moving forward. Trading players like Goran Dragic, Wayne Ellington, James Johnson and Hassan Whiteside, even for pennies on the dollar, should be what the Heat pursue over the next few weeks and months leading up to the NBA Trade Deadline.
And at the rate that they’re losing, if they were to pull off such deals, there’s no question that Miami would likely land a top 10 pick in this year’s NBA Draft.