Miami Heat: Promising future awaits amidst pending NBA Finals loss

Even in defeat, the Miami Heat has a promising future

To say the odds appear insurmountable that the Miami Heat will overcome a 3-1 deficit to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals sounds like a fair assessment of its current state of affairs.

Certainly not as the team remains short-handed without its starting point guard and facing a tandem of superstars arguably as dominant a pair as the league has seen since Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.

That said, though the remaining week looks to be a forgettable one, the season, at-large, has provided cause for optimism that a promising future awaits the franchise.

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The Philadelphia 76ers rebuilt its roster after several years of tanking and selected Joel Embiid to ultimately become the face of its franchise as a replacement to Allen Iverson, who played his last meaningful game for it in 2006. Embiid was selected in the 2014 NBA draft. Eight years separated the transition the team made between the two players.

The Toronto Raptors took five years to replace former team figurehead Vince Carter with DeMar DeRozan and the team finally formed its identity after point guard Kyle Lowry joined in 2012, three years after DeRozan.

Those are two examples to illustrate the challenge accompanying an average NBA franchise to transition from one building block to the next.

Dwyane Wade retired just last season and the Miami Heat replaced him in a SINGLE SUMMER with another Chicago-raised, Marquette product in Jimmy Butler.

If nothing else, that speaks to the competence of upper management in its ability to appraise talent as well as match that talent with the type of identity that it wishes to maintain.

Butler’s arrival doesn’t stand alone on that merit.

At the tail end of the lottery two years ago and just outside it last summer, the team snatched Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro to serve as the two cornerstones of its future.

To date, those same two players just outshined a Boston Celtics roster largely comprised of high lottery picks in the Eastern Conference Finals. If you’re one for hyperbole, this isn’t it.

The signature play of the series came in the waning moments of a game when Jayson Tatum had a clear path to the basket only to have the unforeseen pleasure of having his dunk blocked by the outstretched fingers of Bam Adebayo. Heat win.

That image could only be rivaled by one other: a box score. Tyler Herro with 35 points to secure a win and become the first rookie since Magic Johnson to produce such an impressive scoring feat in an NBA Finals match.

Rounding out the pie of optimism is Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.

In the second round of the playoffs against the powerhouse Milwaukee Bucks, Coach Spo instituted a strategy that left regular-season MVP and defensive player of the year Giannis Antetokounmpo a relative non-factor. Ironically enough, the Bucks lone win in the series came in his absence.

Against Boston, he employed a zone defense that crippled the team’s offense and that Celtics coach Brad Stevens had no answer for.

Finally, in these NBA Finals, after his second installment of zone defense proved to be a failed experiment against the Lakers, he adjusted to man-to-man defense while fronting Anthony Davis in the low post with the likes of smaller frontcourt players like Andre Iguodala.

Now, granted, that change hasn’t amounted to much by way of the win column. But Davis has been contained on the offensive end and the games have been considerably more competitive.

Let’s talk about the future.

Taking a step back, when you look at today’s NBA, even though the fad of “superteams” has somewhat morphed into an old-school, NBA Jam version of dynamic duos, movement across the league has never been more in vogue and real.

It goes without saying that stars want to go somewhere where they can maximize their bottom line, live comfortably, and win. There are a few more factors to consider however.

Because of where things stand in the salary cap and the growing costs that will continue to mount amidst the pandemic, the option of franchises adding a third “elite” banana via free agency is simply wishful thinking.

On a much lesser level, stars are also taking note of the backlash and minimization of accomplishment that has come with joining a finished product as Kevin Durant had fell victim to when joining the Golden State Warriors in 2016.

A much more forgivable offense to a player’s “brand”/”image”/”legacy”/”take your pick” would be to join a team on the rise as Kawhi Leonard did last summer, choosing to forego the Lakers invitation to team with Davis and James.

Kevin Durant took a similar path in choosing to defect to the Brooklyn Nets rather than stay with the Warriors. The Heat will have a considerable amount of financial freedom this summer to shop with only Butler, Iguodala and cap-friendly contracts (such as Adebayo, Herro, and Duncan Robinson) on its books.

And one would guess that if, and that is a big IF, Giannis Antetokounmpo (or any other star for that matter) decides the Milwaukee Bucks have maxed their competitive potential, is there really a more enticing franchise across the league for him to join at this point than the Miami Heat?

Beyond the allure of South Beach, it’s impossible to think Miami hasn’t set itself apart as being among the top free-agent destinations in the league after what it has accomplished this season.

All this is to say that the team didn’t stumble itself into the NBA Finals by accident or due to the unprecedented circumstances going on. This new chapter of the franchise is only beginning to unfold.

The last thing anyone should do at this point is discount how soon its next appearance in an NBA Finals will be. Nor how much better prepared it will be to avoid the same fate that awaits it now when that day comes.