So Miami really just rebuilt their squad in 1 offseason without assets and over the cap?

[bran muffin]

First, who cares about the draft picks?

It's a big deal for a team like the Heat, who have been better with the draft than they have been with free agency.

You clearly hating on the team bringing up random things that we wont have draft picks for specific years yet we are one of the best teams at utilizing their second round picks

Miami's ability to draft good players is precisely why I was harping on them giving up 2 first round picks and 7 second round picks.

They won't have cap room to sign any decent free agent after this season.

You realize we are going to have space for a max free agent in 2021 right?

I was talking about after this season. You are talking about after next season.

Winslow is 23 and locked up on a good deal through 2022
Herro is 19 and is on his rookie deal through 2023
Bam is 22 and is on his rookie deal through 2020 and then we will use bird rights to resign him
Nunn is 24 and is on rookie deal through 2020 and then we can resign him as a RFA with a cap hold of like $2M
Derrick Jones Jr is 22 and will likely be re-signed to a reasonable deal this offseason (my bet is it ends up looking like a great deal 1-2 years from now.

The Heat will have significant cap space for 2021 free agency and the above core will be an average age of 24.

Right now, those are all decent and promising young players. But it remains to be seen whether any of these guys will actually develop into stars. The Heat will need at least 2 of them to become legitimate stars if they are planning on attracting a major free agent in 2021. A 32-yr old Jimmy Butler with a bunch of "decent" players wouldn't cut it.

Like I already said, the Heat are in decent position. But I won't go as far as saying they are in "good" position just yet. It has only been 5 games. But the way people are talking, it's as if Herro, Nunn and Bam are already future All-Stars on rookie contracts.

[Maroko]

About Tyler Herro, when he heard the critics (he is white, look at his small wingspan, unathletic, can't defend,...)

[KingDavid]

They’re looking good atm but prior to this off season they’ve been run very very poorly for a while.

Acquisition and tenure of Lebron with a team calls for the team to mortgage their future. Future picks and young prospects are dealt away to acquire LeBron and build a contending team. It was only natural for the Heat to struggle dealing with the vacancy once he left--add on Chris Bosh taking up ~$30M in cap while being medically unable to play for a couple years and it was a rather precarious situation.

The Heat's rebuild post-LeBron is better than most team's rebuild once an elite superstar leaves them with nothing in return.

Not really they handed out a bunch of really bad contracts and kept themselves treadmilling for 5 years with very average players for 5 years.

They’ve had draft picks.

Um, should we have tanked? That's usually how you don't end up with stars. The contracts are high but pay attention to the off-season they all end at.

[Air Apparent]

riley usually never builds through the draft, but he better keep herro and nunn around instead of depleting squad and trading for giannis or something in the future

[Metallikid]

Bam and some of their other guys were already there last season and almost made the playoffs. Some of it is just natural progression by their players. Butler is obviously a gamer and Herro looks like a great pick. A few lottery teams have to be kicking themselves for passing on that kid.

They were a fringe playoff team.

Now they are the 3rd best team in the East along Boston IMO. If they do a Gasol-like trade to match Embiid/Giannis, i wouldnt be surprised if they beat one of the big boys.

How long have you watched basketball for?

[goodboy]

we coming

[GreatWhiteStiff]

Brandon Jennings averaged 25/4/5 in his first 11 NBA games. He was a future star.

A healthy Jennings could probably average 20/4/5 over the course of an nba season. He had a 20 PER, 110 Offensive rating season, just before injuries derailed him I think. And he averaged nearly 8 assists one year, without a lot of turnovers, but I digress.

[lakerz12]

Brandon Jennings averaged 25/4/5 in his first 11 NBA games. He was a future star.

A healthy Jennings could probably average 20/4/5 over the course of an nba season. He had a 20 PER, 110 Offensive rating season, just before injuries derailed him I think. And he averaged nearly 8 assists one year, without a lot of turnovers, but I digress.

He had plenty of time to develop into a "star" before any injuries set in. But he didn't. He was a solid starter. That turned out to be his ceiling.

OP is just throwing the word "star" around too casually. The much more likely outcome is solid starter. Which is still very good.

[NatiboyB]

Is Nunn the new Flip Murray?

[LofJ]

Nunn is the key to it all.

We signed him to a "3" year deal the last day of last season. So pretty much 2 years and a day. And that day matters because he is now a RFA the 2021 offseason (the big one) and the Heat have his bird rights. Bam will also be a RFA that offseason. It was honestly a move that thought ahead years and was very savvy.

So Dion/JJ/Kelly expire that offseason. Heat have Jimmy, Herro, Justise under contract. Bam and Nunn are RFA's who we could go over the cap to resign. And cap space (with pieces to attract players in that cap space). Its a good spot to be in.

Everyone is focused on Giannis, but Leonard, Lebron, George, Griffin, Gobert, Oladipo, Holiday, DeRozan, Hayward, Oubre, CP3, and Adams could all be free agents as well. It's not quite Giannis or go home the summer of 2021.

[prime1time]

Tyler Herro future star? Kendrick Nunn future star? How about they play more than a couple games first.

[dc]

Tyler Herro future star? Kendrick Nunn future star? How about they play more than a couple games first.

Yeah, definitely need some sample size. Also, it didn't take long for people to go from calling Fox/Hield the next great backcourt to now being overrated the entire time. Everything is recency bias.

That being said, the Heat have a good track record of developing unheralded guys that surprise people and end up sticking around in the league. People forget (because of the Spurs' success) that the Heat are the team that discovered and developed Bruce Bowen.

[prime1time]

Tyler Herro future star? Kendrick Nunn future star? How about they play more than a couple games first.

Yeah, definitely need some sample size. Also, it didn't take long for people to go from calling Fox/Hield the next great backcourt to now being overrated the entire time. Everything is recency bias.

That being said, the Heat have a good track record of developing unheralded guys that surprise people and end up sticking around in the league. People forget (because of the Spurs' success) that the Heat are the team that discovered and developed Bruce Bowen.

I just don't understand jumping straight to assuming that they'll be star players. Why not good role players? Or great role players? Not many stars in this league. Very unlikely that either of them become stars tbh. Not to say that they can't, but let's see how things develop.

[Black Mage]

I'm going to rain on this parade, Miami has played Grizzlies, Hawks (twice w/out Trae) T-wolves and the Bucks. Of those teams only the Bucks were expected to be anything special this year and they have come out of the gates slow and their defense has been bad. Let's wait until teams settle in and Miami actually plays someone before crowning Herro and Nunn.

[Illmatic12]

Nunn is the key to it all.

We signed him to a "3" year deal the last day of last season. So pretty much 2 years and a day. And that day matters because he is now a RFA the 2021 offseason (the big one) and the Heat have his bird rights. Bam will also be a RFA that offseason. It was honestly a move that thought ahead years and was very savvy.

So Dion/JJ/Kelly expire that offseason. Heat have Jimmy, Herro, Justise under contract. Bam and Nunn are RFA's who we could go over the cap to resign. And cap space (with pieces to attract players in that cap space). Its a good spot to be in.

Everyone is focused on Giannis, but Leonard, Lebron, George, Griffin, Gobert, Oladipo, Holiday, DeRozan, Hayward, Oubre, CP3, and Adams could all be free agents as well. It's not quite Giannis or go home the summer of 2021.

Ehh.. problem is no one around the league expects Kawhi or PG to be available. They can re-sign for the 10yr max to stay in Los Angeles.

So when you really look at it , take away Giannis/Kawhi/PG and none of those other players you named will likely be max-worthy players in 2021. Any team that uses a max slot on Blake, Derozan, Hayward or ~40yo Lebron, CP3 etc is just locking themselves into purgatory.

A lot of these teams like the Heat who are lining up for max cap space in 2021, are just setting themselves up for a repeat of 2016 and will end up handing out a bunch of bad contracts.

[Hindenburg]

Let's say you put prime Wade on this Heat team do they become title favorites? Better than a healthy Clippers squad?

[Buzzard]

the Miami process is much quicker than the philly process

1. show pictures of women on Miami beach to free agent
2. sign the player

South Beach. I have been there several times. Topless beach was right off of 8th street. If I was rich, I would retire there. Right on the beach.

[Air Apparent]

Let's say you put prime Wade on this Heat team do they become title favorites? Better than a healthy Clippers squad?

not favorites, but in the east he could take them deep for sure

[goodboy]

lol prime wade would be automatic finals and the title.

[zgope1]

I'm an immensely proud fan of the Heat. Not because we are all of a sudden contenders, but because we have almost boringly practised what our robotic but brilliant coach has preached since Bron left.

Before going 30-11 in 2016-17 he said what the team has since shown. "We have an organisation-wide commitment to player development".

The fallacy with tanking is that your young assets look less attractive if your team stinks.

We're not that much better than last year in a real-world sense. Last year we had some injuries, struggled in the clutch and just missed playoffs. Probably a regression from the year before.

The big difference hasn't been Jimmy though. It's been getting getting rid of Hassan. It's not that he's bad, it's that he and Spo are very incompatible. One of Spo's flaws is he has a complex playbook. You need to make a lot of reads to execute on both ends. It just doesn't suit Hassan. He has to play a simple style.

This is the most compatible team Spo has had for his style of coaching. Millions of back screens, bigs running multiple DHOs. Different and complex defensive schemes that adapt to all matchups. This team is very high IQ. He's finally back to getting a 1+1 =3 result from his players. He hadn't done that since 2016-17 second half of the year. Difference between now and then is Jimmy. When the complex stuff gets shut down you need a killer to take you home.

There's overwhelming evidence that the organisation is very well-run but imperfect. That's good enough for me.