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The Miami Heat have retooled around Jimmy Butler in NBA free agency for a shot at winning the franchise’s fourth championship. Heat general manager Andy Elisburg made a big move with the acquisition of free agent guard and champion Kyle Lowry from the Toronto Raptors.
Elisburg had plenty of major decisions to make and he had to let go of many of the Miami Heat’s most reliable players, including Kendrick Nunn, Goran Dragic and Andre Iguodala. In their place are three players with championship experience and one with zero NBA experience in undrafted rookie D.J. Stewart.
After the smoke has cleared in NBA free agency, how does the Miami Heat’s depth chart look like at this point?
Miami Heat’s biggest acquisitions
Kyle Lowry
The Miami Heat did a sign-and-trade this offseason to nab one of the best point guards in NBA free agency. Kyle Lowry was highly coveted by various teams, but the Heat won out in the end.
Lowry is a 15-year veteran with extensive playoff experience and won a championship with the Raptors in 2019. The six-time All-Star averaged 17.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 7.3 assists, and made 39.6 percent of his shots from 3-point range, the third-highest mark of his career.
Markieff Morris
In the 2020 NBA Finals, Markieff Morris played for the LA Lakers and played a pivotal role in defeating the Miami Heat. This time, he plans to share his championship experience with the team that he helped defeat just a year ago.
Morris is a 6-foot-9 stretch four who played heavy minutes during the Lakers’ 2020 title run, but had a minute-boost last season when LeBron James and Anthony Davis suffered major injuries. Though he played 19.7 minutes with averages of 6.7 points and 4.4 rebounds per contest, the Miami Heat need his services for just about 15 minutes a game on average for him to be effective.
P.J. Tucker
The Milwaukee Bucks brought in P.J. Tucker by midseason of the 2020-21 campaign to help them contain the best wingmen in the game. He did his part beautifully and it resulted in the Bucks winning the 2021 title and the first of his career.
Don’t let his meager production fool you (3.7 points, 3.9 rebounds). Tucker’s value is in the playoffs, where he guards the best player from the opposing team on a nightly basis. Even if the Miami Heat will have to sacrifice a bit of their offense when he’s on the floor, they know exactly what he brings to the table defensively during the playoffs.
Miami Heat Depth Chart
Let’s take a look at the Miami Heat lineup as the team is presently constructed:
Their starting lineup featuring Kyle Lowry, Duncan Robinson, Jimmy Butler, P.J. Tucker and Bam Adebayo, is one of the best in the league. Their bench will get a boost once Victor Oladipo returns from last campaign’s season-ending surgery. If Oladipo comes back as good and athletic as he was prior to the injury, he could be the x-factor that propels the Miami Heat into the upper echelon of title contenders.
Also Read: How much is Jimmy Butler’s Net Worth in 2021?
But ultimately, the Big 3 of Lowry, Butler and Adebayo is the key to the success or failure of the Miami Heat. Not only are they a handful for opponents offensively, the trio are very good to great defenders in their own right with Butler being one of the best two-way players in the game.
This lineup has excellent 3-point shooting with Duncan Robinson at the top of the Miami Heat food chain. He and Tyler Herro are arguably the lite version of the Golden State Warriors’ Splash Brothers. If Herro develops into the fringe All-Star that he was projected to become last season, he could make the Heat the team to beat in the Eastern Conference.
Overall, coach Erik Spoelstra is the one who makes this Miami Heat team go. If he can find a regular rotation that he’s comfortable with next season, it would go a long way into the players finding a level of comfort with their roles on the team. This would also address much of their problems with consistency on a game-to-game basis.
Expect the Miami Heat to be a much more convincing title contender next season than they were last campaign. Don’t be surprised if they shock the world by making it to the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals where anything can happen.
