This. The Heat could definitely use another player to initiate offense and probably a depth big as well. Curious to see what Spo comes up with.

Yeah Giannis is basically the best playmaker on the team which is a problem

lol, compare Davion Mitchell to jrues assists stats the year the bucks won.

Next yall are gonna say they just don’t have that X factor

someone like Jakucionis

How good is Davion Mitchell as a playmaker?

They’ll probably aquire a playmaker via deadline

Yup and depth at C

Even with Fontecchio????

Live by the 3, die by the 3.

Weirdly enough I feel like they could use Ben Simmons. Passing and defense for when Giannis sits

How so? Davion Mitchell is a past first PG, Giannis is a great playmaker, and Bam is good at it for a center.

Oh no we aren’t an absolutely perfect team!! Every team has holes

This was always the case though.

That and defense. You need 2 way players. Spot up shooters are great for Bam and Giannis but if their spot up shooters are unplayable in the playoffs because they can’t defend, there goes the spot up shooters advantage. Works well during the season but in the playoffs that’ll get exposed

I would too, I think they’re being severely underrated. They have only made good moves in this off season and at least on paper look like a much better team

Giannis hasn’t had a full season in forever. Even though he was a monster in the few games he played last year, people just forget. I’d imagine he’s coming into this season fully rested and healthy for the first time in a really long time.

He’s going to be something else.

cleveland is really good imo. had time to gel. id say ny, cle, and philly are in the top tier. then everybody else. sure philly hasnt gelled yet either. but its god damn lebron

I’m just worried about his health. Dude’s admitted his knee hasn’t stopped hurting since the ‘21 finals, and the greatest predictor of a future calls strain is prior calf strains. It’s also a messy team that was sort of thrown together and those teams tend not to succeed in their first year

Klay is streaky but if you’re leaving him open intentionally that means the Heat have already forced you into making uncomfortable tradeoffs defensively

The east seems strong on paper and that roster is not as good as Knicks/Pacers

They are switching to not enough play making now lol. For some reason they can’t admit this team looks good

I mean yeah? Bam and Giannis will have to play a lot of minutes together.

Isn’t the starting backcourt Davion Mitchell and THJ?

I actually am more concerned about the defense. I wonder how it’ll work. On paper it looks nice but we know Spo loves his zone and I wonder how Giannis will look in a zone defense. I can see a scenario where it is good when certain guys are playing but as soon as we dip into the 2nd unit it falls off massively. On off numbers could be real interesting with this team. Bobby Portis might be cooked as a player (especially in the playoffs). And the wing depth behind Wiggins isn’t the best.

Why do people keep bringing up stats like this

Yeah no shit everyone shoots better on open threes

32% on 5.5 a game.

His release is slow, he can’t make contested jumpers, and he can’t attack closeouts. Teams can still sag off pretty easily knowing they can just rush him once he catches it. Bam doesn’t space the floor anywhere near as well as guys like KAT. Similar phenomenon with Embiid

That being said, shooting isn’t the heats biggest problem. It’s that giannis is the only guy on the roster who can dribble. Giannis is def good enough to handle 40 USG% and carry the heat to competent playoff offense, but I don’t think he’s durable enough

37.6% on wide open 3s (closest defender 6+ feet away). So I mean, I guess he could shoot league average if literally unguarded but any mediocre close out and he’s shooting 20% on open 3s (closest defender 4-6 feet away)

Bro if your back up point guard is your biggest worry with a team with this many strengths you’re doing good

Agreed. That is the big issue.

Rumor, though, is that Lavine is going to be targeted at the buyout deadline in order to get him at a cheap enough option.

Look at the guard play of every team thats made the conference finals in the past few years. I fear that Davion Mitchell and Dru Smith aren’t gonna cut it.

2026: Brunson Hart Fox Castle Harper SGA Williams Wallace Caruso Mitchell Harden

2025: SGA Williams Wallace Haliburton Nembhard Brunson Hart Edwards Conley NAW

2024: Luka Kyrie Holiday White Haliburton Nembhard Edwards Conley NAW

Davion Mitchell averaged 6.5 assists per game last year.

davion averaged 6.5 assists last season and it was closer to 8 b4 herro came back into the lineup

Davion is quite underated tbh. They need a ball handler off then bench maybe but the starting unit has enough with Giannis and Davion

replying to ur edit, davion had 28/6/4 in the play ins against the hornets after bam got taken out. i watched the game and he stepped up in case u think im just box score watching lmao

Lol

Tons of perimeter defense and playmaking.

Davion was one of the best pure PGs last year, Giannis is a playmaking helo star, Bam has been the offensive hub on finals teams.

Davion, Wiggins, Bam, Giannis, Pelle, Dru Smith are all borderline elite defenders.

Just need a shot creator even then we got Bam, Wiggs, THJ, Pelle.

Davion Mitchell is basically a Lowry-Lite, which got us to 2 ECFs and 1 Finals.

Gabe Vincent was our starting PG in the 2023 run.

Rumors say its Zach Lavine at the buyout deadline to get him cheap enough to not go over the apron.

I mean, Davion Mitchell is a fantastic Lowry/Smart esque player, which has been proven to be a championship caliber player archetype.

SG is a defensive weakness, but that’s it.

Yeah, Giannis and Wiggins as the Forwards will be terrific! Mitchell is one of the best defensive PGs too

Huh? We have one of the best defensive starting 5s in the NBA. Davion, Wiggins, Giannis, Bam are all premium defensive players at their positions

Not interior defense though. Bam and giannis can shut things down there.  Wiggins can be an excellent 1-1 defender and was key in stopping jaylen brown in the 22 Finals.

explain this one to me cuz imo the biggest weakness is perimeter shot creation

but as for defense we have multiple elite poa defenders, mulitple switch defenders and a defensive hof head coach thats know for designing elite defensive systems. most of our projected starting lineup are plus defenders that we can mix and match with our bench to maintain our defense

Davion, Bam, Giannis, Wiggins is super versatile defensively. I get the bench kinda sucks on D, but there will be a lot of lineups utilizing the premier defenders in with the bad ones.

Defense? You tripping. You gotta Giannis Bam Wiggins Spo and Off Night. Why are you worried about defense

Fascinating. That doesn’t make sense to me at all. What makes you think the defense won’t be good?

The Heat are probably gonna be a top 10 defense next year. They’re probably the best interior defense with Bam and Giannis, and Wiggins is capable of making an all-defensive team on the perimeter, and Mitchell is at least a slight positive defensively which is all you can ask of a guy who’s 6’.

Huh? They’ll be fine on defense.

Ha! Clownshoes!!!

last season the heat shot at 58.0% true shooting

klay shot at 54.1% true shooting last season, 56.2% for the last 5 seasons

bad news for you is that adding him actually makes your shooting worse.

having giannis and bam on the back line helps a lot, and wiggins is an underrated defender that can play at an elite level

Andrew Wiggins over the last 3 seasons has been the #1 SGA defender, holding him to 13PPG and 39% FG when guarded by him. Big reason why we beat the Thunder last year despite being ass.

He was our #1 Perimeter Defender last year and he did a great job. He’s only 31.

Bam is a so-so rim protector but a switchable demon on the perimeter. When Giannis and Bam are on the floor together, one of those guys will be on the wing and the other will hold down the backline and they are both versatile enough to trade those responsibilities. Perimeter defense or any type of defense really will not be a weakness for this team. I’ll agree with you on playmaking. Could use one more guy there but I’m curious to see how Spo addresses that. I think there’s some potential for guys to take a step but we’ll see.

Nah, the starting 5 is solid in both areas, the bench does have those issues though. Klay adds more shooting but he isn’t going to help them much in other areas. They could either avoid injuries and be a top 3 seed and a serious contender or be fighting for the playoffs at the end of the season if Giannis doesn’t play 65+.

This team is not a bunch of old guys, only “old guys” in the rotation are klay and hardaway jr. Everyone else is in their prime or younger. Crazy how so many of yall just post dumb inaccurate stuff so confidently.

He’s #2 in the league actually according to ESPN. Provided in the link on this post.

Which is why I included the second source to explain more in detail. The Heat have terrific shooting depth at all levels.

The Heat now have the best rim scorer in the league though lol. They’re not going to totally rely on 3’s. It’s about having multiple options and counters when a defense takes away one thing. Defense has to pick their poison. If they want to wall off the paint to Giannis, they have to cheat off some shooters who can make them pay. That’s the whole point.

dont believe in the team all u want but for the love of god if i have to hear “they dont have enough shooting” one more time imma…not do anything but its annoying lol

Lol build a wall……bro are you stuck in 2019. Building a wall hasn’t worked on Giannis in years.

What makes you skeptical?