Former Washington Wizards point guard Gilbert Arenas — who played 11 seasons in the NBA and made three All-Star teams — recently ripped the Miami Heat for lacking talent on their roster.
“Have you seen the talent over in Miami, man?” Arenas began. “Hell yeah, they that bad. That’s a YMCA team down there. We all can play for them.”
Former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco said back in October that he believes he could come off the bench for the Heat, who are fresh off an NBA Finals appearance.
While the Heat haven’t exactly started the 2023-24 regular season off with a bang, they have been one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference to this point. The team’s 14-10 record on the season is good enough for the sixth-best record in the conference at the moment.
Plus, the Heat are riding a two-game winning streak, with both of their wins coming against the Charlotte Hornets.
The Heat beat the Hornets by two points on Monday, but the second matchup wasn’t as close. Miami won by 11 points at home against Charlotte on Wednesday.
Fortunately for the Heat, after playing two straight games against the Hornets, they will now play another subpar team twice in a row in the Chicago Bulls. The Heat will take on the Bulls on Thursday and then again on Saturday. Both games will take place in Miami.
Miami will have a great chance to extend its winning streak to four games, seeing as how the Bulls have a 9-16 record this season and have lost six out of their last 10 games.
The Heat picking up two more wins against the Bulls could go a long way toward helping them climb up the Eastern Conference standings. Miami is three games back of Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks for the No. 2 seed and four games back of Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics for the top spot in the conference.
While the Heat may not be a team full of household names like the Celtics and Phoenix Suns, they have a star duo in Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo and a solid supporting cast around them.