Things look bad for the Heat front office. Your main in-season acquisition is an old Trevor Ariza who is well past his prime and was never an elite scorer. You traded away your best 3-point shooting big for a player with bad knees who might not even be able to start next season and will be looking at a big financial commitment in the offseason (15-20M/yr range at a minimum). You held on too long to players that are either ending their contract and are going elsewhere (Robinson), or have stuck around long enough where their value has completely dropped (Precious, Herro). They've been very stingy in the trade market for years, this offseason that will have to change if they expect to do anything.
There isn't even a guarantee of a lottery pick lol The only thing we have guaranteed at this point is 4 picks higher than #31, and a team option for Bradley In exchange for Harden, and our 2023 2nd
If we analyze trades like that, Boston got nothing for KG and Paul Pierce, too... Forthnately, we aren’t idiots, are we?
We’ll see That Nets team was an abomination that won just 1 playoff series, KG and Pierce were cooked and the team instantly fell apart to become the worst team in the league Now compare that to the modern day Nets, no longer in New Jersey, now in Brooklyn, there team isn’t an abomination but the favorites to win the championship, 2 MVP top 5 level players, another top 20 guy in Irving, much better ownership, much better front office I have little faith that those picks will be significant, If I had to bet, I think the team will rebound through FA once Harden/KD get old. I think the team will look prestigious being a NYK team that has won a recent championship
I can’t believe the heat were heralded geniuses when they got dipo without giving up Robinson or Herro lol
All the mocking of culture is odd to me when they've been such a successful franchise under Riles. They had plans and their plans blew up. I think they've been scrambling ever since Giannis committed to Milwaukee. The smart move was of course to trade for Harden and I'm not sure why they did not. I think they really talked themselves out of that decision, I know the rumored deal would have had them giving up a lot so they might have felt they were giving up too much of their team for a player they simply didn't trust...but the reason they didn't trust was because they bought into all of the narratives that the media sold around Harden for years and years. that's their mistake, ah well. I think they've been relying so much on the idea that they were getting Giannis that when it didn't happen they entered an 'unsure' phase of what to do with their team and now they are where they are I guess.
I think they bought into more of their own Herro hype than whatever has been said about Harden. I honestly think Tilman would have had Stone sent Harden to Miami if Herro was coming back in return. I'm still a Herro fan and thinks the kid will be a good player for years to come but this is almost like when Mark Cuban deemed Roddy Beaubois untouchable 10+ years ago.
A whole lot of people were talking about the bucks giving up too much when they actually went all in for holiday and adding all their FA acquisitions. It looks like this team got a whole lot of what it was missing vs the heat last year. Must be nice to go all in and let the pieces fall. At least you know the bucks went for it regardless if they come up short or not
