NBA Daily: 2022-2023 Season Preview #27 – Miami Heat
By Reylan Loberternos
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 11 Oct 2022
In this limited 30-part series, we shall be discussing each team’s latest developments, current roster, and future prospects in the upcoming 2022-2023 NBA season. For every team, we will examine bit-by-bit the important aspects that may shape its progress and provide a rough projection of how it will fare vis-à-vis its previous year’s performance and versus the rest of the league.
MIAMI HEAT
2021-2022 Season Win-Loss Record:
53-29
Depth Chart:
PG – Kyle Lowry, Gabe Vincent, Dru Smith
SG – Max Strus, Tyler Herro, Victor Oladipo
SF – Jimmy Butler, Duncan Robinson, Caleb Martin
PF – Nikola Jovic, Haywood Highsmith, Udonis Haslem
CE – Bam Adebayo, Dewayne Dedmon, Omer Yurtseven
Injury Updates:
No significant injuries.
Head Coach:
Erik Spoelstra
Headliners:
After securing the Sixth Man of Year award last season, Tyler Herro signed a $130 million contract extension to stay in Miami for four more years. Although he started in only 10 instances, he played the second most minutes and scored the second most points for his team on a nightly basis in 66 regular season games. He normed 20.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 4.0 assists, shooting 44.7% from the field and 39.9% from deep.
Although he’s more than capable to be the team’s starting shooting guard, he’s however expected to reprise the sixth man’s role, which he does so well. He will be joined by Victor Oladipo, Duncan Robinson, Caleb Martin, and projected starter Max Strus to form a deadly wing rotation for Miami.
The Heat selected 19-year-old 6’11” forward Nikola Jovic with the 27th overall pick in the recent NBA Rookie Draft. He is tall, very skilled, and has a mature game for his age. Jovic should add length and versatility to the Heat’s rather thin frontcourt depth.
When the Heat went after Toronto Raptors legend Kyle Lowry after a remarkable run as arguably one of the franchise’s All-Time greatest players, it was with the hope that the veteran point guard would duplicate, if not surpass, Goran Dragic’s magnificent performance during their runner-up finish in 2020. Kyle Lowry’s performance this past season, however, left a lot to be desired.
In his first season with the Heat, his scoring dropped to 13.4 from 17.2 points a season ago. His postseason performance was even worse at only 7.8 markers, 3.3 boards, and 4.7 dimes. It was largely due to the hamstring injury he sustain during their first round series against the Atlanta Hawks, which caused him to miss multiple games in each series of the 2022 NBA Playoffs.
Now in his second season with the franchise, Kyle Lowry is expected to bounce back with a much better performance. His health and that of two of its main stars Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo will be the Heat’s primary concerns going into this upcoming season. Butler only played 57 regular season games last season, while Adebayo played one game less.
Jimmy Butler’s three-point production and shooting efficiency have actually dipped considerably ever since he wore the Miami Heat uniform. From averaging close to 200 shots attempted from deep per season and connecting about 35% of them, he’s only tossing about half of what he used to, while making only around 24% of them.
This may be largely due to both an increased role and better shot selection, as manifested by his better field goal percentage these past two seasons for the Heat, which have also been the best in his career, thus far. Butler was particularly impressive last postseason, where he averaged 27.4 markers, 7.4 boards, 4.6 dimes, and 2.1 steals, while only committing 1.5 turnovers per game before bowing to the Boston Celtics in a tightly contested Eastern Conference Finals series.
Although Bam Adebayo’s production has improved over the years, there is also a concerning pattern of fewer regular season games played since he played all 82 of them in his sophomore season. During the recently concluded 2021-2022 NBA season, he only played a career-low 56 regular season games.
If the franchise hopes for a deeper playoff run, as they did during the bubble/lockdown season, it has to keep the trio’s health in check. They’re all high-usage players and are the team’s best defensive weapons.
Erik Spoelstra got the nod as the league’s best coach in an annual survey conducted among the league’s General Managers. His leadership and coaching will once again be tested, as they try to find the same formula gave them a surprise NBA Finals appearance a couple of seasons ago.
Comments are highly appreciated. You may send them to reylanloberternos@yahoo.com.ph and you may follow me @reylan_l on twitter.
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