From a standings viewpoint, one could argue that the Miami Heat are already a championship-contending team.
Looking at the Eastern Conference standings entering Saturday’s games, the Heat have the fifth-best record in the conference. It’s a little bit misleading though, because Miami remains just three games behind the best team in the East, the Cleveland Cavaliers. The second-best team—the Toronto Raptors—are ahead of the Heat by just one-and-a-half games.
However, the standings are two-fold. While the Heat aren’t far behind the best of the East, they aren’t far ahead of the middle-of-the-pack either. The Boston Celtics, the eighth-best team in the East, are just a game behind Miami.
From an overall NBA standings point of view, the Heat have the ninth-best record at the moment.
Up until a recent stretch of losses which saw Miami fall to the Brooklyn Nets and the Memphis Grizzlies, the Heat had the second-best record in the conference, and according to ESPN were considered the sixth-best team in the NBA.
Let’s not sugarcoat it, the Heat are a mystery team. You really don’t know what you’re getting from them. While Miami has defeated powerhouse teams such as the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Atlanta Hawks, they have faltered versus teams such as the Nets and the struggling Washington Wizards.
Following their 106-82 victory over a strong Dallas Mavericks team with a flu-ridden Dwyane Wade coming off of the bench, the question begs, are the Heat really an elite team?
Here are five reasons why Miami is not yet an elite team:
1. Inconsistency
On Friday night, Miami dominated a top-five Western Conference team in the Mavericks with Wade playing just 18 minutes due to flu-like symptoms. Hassan Whiteside had perhaps his most impressive offensive performance of the season in leading the Heat with 25 points on 12-of-16 shooting with 19 rebounds.
Miami, who is known for their defensive identity rather than their offensive prowess, held Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki to just 11 points on 4-of-14 from the field. Dallas was so bad offensively, that Wesley Matthews led the team with just 12 points.
However, the Heat recently lost two games earlier in the week to a team that has the third-worst record in the NBA, and another team who looks destined for a first-round exit in the Grizzlies.
At 19-13, Miami has defeated opponents that they should beat, but they’ve also lost to opponents that they should have defeated. The Celtics, the Detroit Pistons (twice) and the Charlotte Hornets are just a few lower-tier Eastern Conference teams that the Heat have struggled to defeat.
If you want to be an elite team in the NBA, you can’t be losing to lower-tier Eastern Conference teams.
Next: Lack of Signature Victories
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2. Lack of Signature Victories
It’s true that it’s only two months into the season, and the Heat have defeated opponents who are considered elite.
Those “elite” teams would be none other than the Cavaliers, Hawks, Raptors and Oklahoma City Thunder. However, the Heat defeated the Cavaliers without LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. That automatically “disqualifies” that victory from this category.
Miami defeated OKC in perhaps the best game of the NBA season so far, while they defeated both the Raptors and Hawks rather convincingly.
While those victories were impressive, it’s not enough—and it’s not necessarily the Heat’s fault.
Although the Eastern Conference is the stronger conference of the two this year, the Western Conference’s elite is still better than the East’s elite. With the exception of the Thunder, the Heat have yet to play the top four teams in the West, including the Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Clippers.
Miami will play both the Warriors and Clippers on their upcoming road trip in mid-January, and will play the Spurs in February. Depending on how well the Heat play on their West Coast road trip, we’ll have a better idea of where Miami is as a team compared to the rest of the league.
Next: Not Enough Offensive Output
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3. Not Enough Offensive Output
Depending on how closely you follow the Heat, some may be surprised that Miami has fallen off so much as an offensive team. The team ranks 25th in the league with just 97.3 points and 19.9 assists per contest.
The team’s leading scorer, Wade, is averaging 18.6 points per game. which is just the 27th-best mark in the league.
Simply put, this is an offensive-driven league. You’re not going to win an NBA championship, or come close to truly competing for a championship, until you establish that your team is capable of running a competent offense.
Next: Goran Dragic
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4. Goran Dragic
After signing a near-max deal worth $90 million over five years, Goran Dragic has been a major disappointment.
Dragic was viewed as the Heat’s center piece as they continued to move on in the post-LeBron James era. However, it’s not just that Dragic hasn’t been the team’s main offensive weapon, it’s that he’s clearly low on the pecking order.
The Slovenian point guard is averaging just 11.7 points and 5.3 assists per game. After being acquired at the trade deadline last February, Dragic impressed in 26 starts with the Heat during the 2014-15 season, averaging 16.6 points and 5.3 assists on 50.2 percent from the field.
However, that was in the absence of Chris Bosh. With Bosh back in the fold, Dragic hasn’t been aggressive on the offensive end. The 29-year-old ranks fourth on the team in scoring and fifth in free throws attempts.
In order for the Heat to take that next step from top-tier team to an elite one, they need their big signing to play like a big star.
Next: Lack of Team Identity
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5. Lack of Team Identity
I mentioned it earlier in this piece, and I’ll mention it again—what kind of team are the Heat?
Are they a top-tier team that has a solid record in the regular season, but you know will come up short in the postseason? Teams such as the Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies and Atlanta Hawks have fit this mold over recent years.
Are the Heat a team that can legitimately challenge the Cavaliers for Eastern Conference supremacy? Can they at least consistently win in the postseason versus the East’s best, despite amassing a 4-6 record versus the top eight teams in the conference?
No one knows what kind of team the Heat are, not even their own players, according to Wade after they lost to the Grizzlies on December 29th:
“We’ve had 30 games together and we ain’t figured it out yet,” he said. “We haven’t played together long enough to figure it out. Either this is gonna be our season or we’re gonna figure it out. Or we’re not. We’re a good team, and if we’re satisfied with being a good team then we’ll keep playing like this throughout the year. If we want to be a great team, we’ll put it together. There’s only one way to find out. We’re about 52 games away from that, so I don’t know.”
While it’s clear the Heat are good enough to get into the postseason this year, what’s not clear is how far they can actually advance once they do get in.
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