The Miami Heat have not done a whole lot this offseason when it comes to improving the team’s roster. In fact, an argument can be made that the team got worse due to its failure to re-sign and retain veteran forward P.J. Tucker.
Though the Heat were rumored to be in the mix for stars Kevin Durant and Donovan Mitchell when they were seen as gettable via trade, nothing ultimately materialized.
Despite those outcomes, the Heat still have a “championship or bust” mindset heading into the upcoming campaign, according to youngster Gabe Vincent.
“I think we are in a very unique position,” he told Brett Siegel of Fastbreak on FanNation. “We brought a lot of guys back from this past season and I think our learning curve will be much less as a result. Already being comfortable and having the chemistry that we have with one another allows us to continue focusing on the bigger, championship-like goals that we have. We know what we are capable of and having that bad taste in our mouths from what happened this past postseason is just extra motivation. For us, our mentality this preseason is ‘championship or bust’ and we know that we have what it takes to get back to the NBA Finals.”
The truth is that the Heat have had a “championship or bust” mentality ever since they traded for superstar Jimmy Butler a few years ago. While the team has gotten close, including a trip to the Finals in 2020 and Game 7 loss in the Eastern Conference Finals last season, it has not yet won that championship that everyone in the organization is driving for.
Still, there is some potential for the Heat to get better based on the improvements of players already on their roster as opposed to additions of others around the league.
The first candidate to take another leap seems to be young guard Tyler Herro. Herro won the Sixth Man of the Year award last season and averaged 20.7 points per game. One more leap forward and he could easily be in the conversation for an All-Star Game invitation.
Moreover, former All-Star Victor Oladipo seems incredibly confident that he is fully healthy and on his way to a major comeback campaign. He believes he’s still one of the best players in the world.
As for Vincent, he served as a very valuable point guard last season, playing in 68 games and starting 27. He averaged 8.7 points and 3.1 assists per game on 41.7 percent shooting from the field and 36.8 percent shooting from deep.
He’ll likely look to take another step forward in his progression as well this season.
