Bill Simmons showed some major love to the Miami Heat despite the fact that the public has dismissed the team after it failed to trade for Damian Lillard this offseason.
Simmons believes that the Heat will be fine even though they missed out on Lillard and lost Gabe Vincent and Max Strus in the offseason.
“[44½] is an inexplicable over/under to me. I think there’s a lot of disrespect to a Heat team that I’m warning people about every year. They lose Max & Gabe & don’t get Dame & the natural instinct is to write them off. ‘We’ll they’re fucked.’ I think they’re fine” – @BillSimmons https://t.co/Tm61VPwVbk pic.twitter.com/UvX1WgInrr
— Dru (@dru_star) October 18, 2023
Simmons also believes that Tyler Herro could be in for a big season after being dangled in trade rumors all summer.
“I think Herro – I love every single quote I’ve read from him from the past two months – he’s f—— pissed that he was in trade rumors all summer,” Simmons said. “I think he is the No. 1 chip on the shoulder guy in the league right now.”
The Heat made the NBA Finals last season without Herro playing in the majority of the playoffs (he was injured in Game 1 of the first round against Milwaukee), so the team may be even better if he can stay healthy this season.
During the 2022-23 regular season, Herro averaged 20.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game while shooting 43.9 percent from the field and 37.8 percent from beyond the arc. That’s some great production, and he shouldn’t be overlooked by anyone since he is a former Sixth Man of the Year award winner.
If Herro can play at that level in the postseason, Miami may not be worried at all about losing Strus and Vincent.
Simmons believes that Miami’s projected win total that he mentioned of 44.5 games may be a little too low.
He pointed out that Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo are back and that the team could have two solid young pieces in Nikola Jovic and Jaime Jaquez Jr.
“I think this team’s going to be pretty good,” Simmons added. “I think – to me – this is like a mid-to-high 40s for me. And I didn’t even really blink.”
The Heat have won at least 44 games in three of the last four seasons, and they won 53 in the 2021-22 season to earn the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Miami has the playoff success with Butler on the roster (three Eastern Conference Finals trips and two NBA Finals trips in four seasons) to be considered a contender for the NBA title this season.
While there are certainly going to be critics of Miami’s offseason moves, Simmons doesn’t seem to think that the team will take a major step back in the 2023-24 season.
