In the season-opener, the Miami Heat looked like a complete mess of a team without an identity.
After not making any huge moves during the NBA offseason, it's completely surprising to see the Miami Heat's performance on opening night against the Orlando Magic. Actually, it's not. It's something that pretty much everyone could see coming from a mile away, except the front office. Ironically enough, that's the same front office that is led by Pat Riley, who the Heat's court was named after during halftime of their season-opening disastrous loss.
Nevertheless, putting the offseason aside, the Heat was not just bad on opening night against the Magic, they were exceptionally bad to the point of disastrous. In fact, through the first two nights of the NBA season, the Heat was the only team that didn't score at least 100 points. The argument could be made that they put on the worst performance of every team in the league in their opener.
Jimmy Butler was nowhere to be found for the Miami Heat
Miami was a mess for most of the night. The team's leading scorer was Terry Rozier who finished with 19 points on 5-15 shooting from the field. Jimmy, who is entering this year with a huge responsibility on his shoulders, finished with three points on 1-8 shooting from the field and was a game-worst minus-30 when on the floor.
In defense of Jimmy, he wasn't the only star player who had a bad night. Bam, who is largely expected to take another step forward in his development, finished with just nine points and five rebounds on 1-5 shooting from the field. He was also a minus-30 when on the floor for the Heat.
Overall, the Heat were outclassed by the Magic. Could it have been a bad game for the Heat? Absolutely. But, at the same time, this is the exact way the Heat have struggled each of the past two regular seasons. At this point, it's more likely that this is who the Heat are rather than just a blip on the radar.
Either the Magic are the best team in the league or the Heat are that bad. And if I had to guess at this point in the season, I'm pretty sure I'd lean toward the idea of Miami being that bad. With everything surrounding this team, there's a chance it could get worse before it gets better. And that's a scary possibility for Heat fans.