The Miami Heat's season has been largely up-and-down. The team was projected to finish as a Play-In caliber team in the preseason. After a hot start, the team quickly came back down to Earth around the start of the new year and now, they sit as the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference standings.
Bleacher Report released an article, providing their updated win-loss predictions for every NBA team. The Heat's original preseason was 42-40. Their prediction from Dec. 1 was 49-33 and now post All-Star break, Miami is projected to finish with a 44-38 record.
"Time for an admission: We got a little too caught up in the hype when the Miami Heat surged out of the gates behind an innovative offense and an extremely fast pace," the article wrote. Miami was 14-7 when we made our Dec. 1 prediction, and that was as far over .500 as the team would get at any point this season - barring a remarkable run between now and the end of the year. The Heat are still hanging around .500, but they're not doing it with offense. After that eye-opening start, they're scoring at a clip below the league average. Fortunately, the trend of Miami posting a defensive rating inside the top 10 continues. The Heat are actually narrowly within the top five on that end and should be expected to stick there."
The Heat have posted this record largely without their best scorer from last season, Tyler Herro. The 26-year-old has been sidelined for the last month with a rib injury after missing the first month of the season while recovering from ankle surgery. However, there are multiple veterans who are helping carry this team.
"Bam Adebayo was an All-Star snub, teammate Norman Powell's scoring earned him an invite to the game and Andrew Wiggins continues to provide high-end play on both ends," the article added. "As usual, this team is well-coached, plays hard and has no interest in tanking. The Heat are a Play-In lock at the very least, but they're not going to threaten for a top-four spot like it appeared they might a few weeks ago."
The Heat didn't make any deadline moves, souring opinions regarding the rest of their season. However, if they can perform even remotely close to the first month of the season, they could be a sneaky playoff team.
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