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MIAMI — The rumbling you are hearing is the tank rolling into South Florida, to arrive on Monday night at Kaseya Center in the form of the Philadelphia 76ers, having shut down Joel Embiid, Paul George, Tyrese Maxey, and anyone else who might get in the way of losing, reverting to The Process of again coveting draft-lottery chances.
It’s the same sound that the Heat will be hearing when they roll into New Orleans on Friday night, where the Pelicans have decided that there is no need to have Zion Williamson and CJ McCollum get in the way of losing, putting the two on ice the rest of the way, as they, too, try to increase lottery odds.
In a vacuum, that would seem like a net gain for the Heat in their last-gasp battle to maximize seeding for the play-in round.
It is not.
Because the teams the Heat are battling for play-in seeding also are facing how-low-can-you-go lottery capitulators, such as the Chicago Bulls still to play the 76ers, Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards; such as the Atlanta Hawks still to play the Utah Jazz, Brooklyn Nets and 76ers; such as the Orlando Magic coming off games against the San Antonio Spurs and Wizards.
As in opponents so far down in the standings that they only can win by losing.
Think of it as New England Patriots coach Jerod Mayo having the temerity to win his team’s final game of this past season and therefore cost his team the chance at a top pick … and immediately getting fired.
NBA tankers know better, which is why many currently are fielding lineups of ushers and vendors.
Unlike the NFL, the NBA has attempted to dissuade such heavy-handedness when it comes to losing on purpose with the random-but-weighted lottery, to at least mitigate some of the race to the bottom.
The difference is that in the NBA, with only five starters, unlike the NFL with 22 on both sides of the ball, a high draft choice can immediately be franchise-altering.
In turn, what the NBA has been left with for weeks has been teams bailing on the season as if skydiving without parachutes, to get to the bottom as fast and forcefully as possible.
Which brings us back to the Heat — but in a different light.
For years, and even this year, a constant during the team’s Pat Riley era has largely been a refusal to tank (with 2008 and … Michael Beasley an exception).
But a few years back, at the NBA’s league meetings, the Heat did offer up a proposal to mitigate and perhaps even eliminate the tanking.
The approach was this: Allow the standings to play out over the first 50 games of the regular season, with the bad teams falling to their level and the injury-plagued teams enduring their suffering.
And then … put everything in reverse, in terms of the lottery race, for the regular season’s final 32.
The Heat’s proposal: Lottery standings would be determined by losses in the first 50 games and wins in the last 32.
As an example, the Heat offered up, “So a team that has 40 losses in the first 50 games and 10 wins in the last 32 would have 50 points. A team with 25 losses in the first 50 games and 15 wins in the last 32 would have 40 points.” The math would only pertain to the lottery, not the actual standings.
The point being that when football is over, when the trading deadline is past, as the NCAA Tournament winds down, when the focus is back on the NBA, teams would have incentive to win.
As in those upcoming games for the 76ers, Pelicans, Wizards, Jazz and Hornets against the Heat and the teams they are battling for play-in seeding.
Would Maxey summarily be shut down if winning would benefit the 76ers’ lottery chances? Ditto for Williamson and McCollum for the Pelicans? Or even Khris Middleton for the Wizards, Lauri Markkanen for the Jazz, LaMelo Ball for the Hornets?
Imagine a lottery team having to — gulp — win in order to maximize lottery seeding.
Imagine an entire NBA incentivized to win to the very end of the season, the playoff teams for playoff seeding, the lottery teams for lottery seeding. Imagine, then, the best players playing their hardest, the best coaches coaching their hardest.
Yes, it would mean the teams in the greatest need of lottery fortune not necessarily being at the front of the lottery line. But is it truly more sporting to foster capitulation?
Or NBA Commissioner Adam Silver could instead offer refunds for every one of these games when one team simply isn’t trying, rebate advertisers who have committed to sponsorship of such non-competition, give back money from the television deals.
That is not going to happen.
But there can be a better lottery way.
CANDID REACTION: Even in the unfriendly confines of TD Garden, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra offered a smile Wednesday night when asked before his team’s victory of having coached several Celtics in his role as an assistant with USA Basketball. “I mentioned to all of the Celtics from that summer, I hated myself for actually liking them,” Spoelstra said. “And then admitting it, I hated myself even more.” Spoelstra said the experiences left him with nothing but respect for Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White. “Just quality human beings,” Spoelstra said, “great competitors, great basketball players.” With possibly more coming, if the Heat can possibly work their way to a No. 7 playoff seed. “You never know what could happen,” White said after Wednesday night’s loss to the Heat. “I mean, us playing Miami in the playoffs would not surprise me because it happened every year I’ve been here. We’re just trying to control what we can control and when we figure out who we play, we’ll be ready to go from there.”
SPEAKING TOUR: A game before that victory in Boston, Spoelstra found himself in Washington, where the pregame questioning focused on the Heat’s successful developmental program and how the league-worst Wizards could emulate. Asked about what the Heat look for in developmental talent, Spoelstra responded, “Somebody that wants to get better. Somebody that isn’t scared of what we’re about. And probably a lot of what we’re about is overexaggerated. If a player wants to really truly explore their potential and be willing to be coached to achieve that potential and beyond. Another way of saying that is ambition.” And if a developmental prospect lacks ambition? “That’s not really our kind of personality,” Spoelstra said.
TO THE MAX: Should the Heat make the playoffs as a No. 8 seed for the third year in a row, it would mean a matchup against the No. 1 Cleveland Cavaliers and against former Heat forward Max Strus. The Cavaliers have made clear that the Heat’s 2023 free-agency loss has been their gain. “I think when he came here from Miami, we all saw just like shooter, shooter, shooter. But you’re seeing a complete player, a guy who really does anything to win the basketball game, whatever it takes,” Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchelltold Cleveland.com. “That’s a guy you’ll go to war with every day of the week. So no, he doesn’t get enough credit. I don’t think he ever will, and I don’t think he cares. He knows that we value him and how much we value him.”
SUCCESS STORY: While it might not have gone the way Kendrick Nunn envisioned after his 2019-20 breakout season with the Heat and subsequent free-agency contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, there still has been a significant payoff for the undrafted guard. Nunn, 29, this past week signed a three-year extension to remain with Panathinaikos Athens in Greece that will pay $4.5 million per season, highest in the EuroLeague. Nunn is coming off a 37-point outing against Monaco, giving his team homecourt advantage for the EuroLeague playoffs. Of the extension, Nunn told BasketNews, “It just feels good to have the support of my teammates, my coaches, the front office. It gives me even more confidence.”
2. Times in the Heat’s 37 years they’ve had a season with at least a 10-game losing streak and six-game winning streak, the exact run that ended with Thursday night’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. The Heat in 2001-02 had a 12-game losing streak and a six-game winning streak on the way to the Eastern Conference finals. The Heat have never had at least a 10-game losing streak and at least a seven-game winning streak in the same season, something they could have accomplished Thursday before they were done in by Ja Morant‘s buzzer-beating jumper.
Continue reading...
It’s the same sound that the Heat will be hearing when they roll into New Orleans on Friday night, where the Pelicans have decided that there is no need to have Zion Williamson and CJ McCollum get in the way of losing, putting the two on ice the rest of the way, as they, too, try to increase lottery odds.
In a vacuum, that would seem like a net gain for the Heat in their last-gasp battle to maximize seeding for the play-in round.
It is not.
Because the teams the Heat are battling for play-in seeding also are facing how-low-can-you-go lottery capitulators, such as the Chicago Bulls still to play the 76ers, Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards; such as the Atlanta Hawks still to play the Utah Jazz, Brooklyn Nets and 76ers; such as the Orlando Magic coming off games against the San Antonio Spurs and Wizards.
As in opponents so far down in the standings that they only can win by losing.
Think of it as New England Patriots coach Jerod Mayo having the temerity to win his team’s final game of this past season and therefore cost his team the chance at a top pick … and immediately getting fired.
NBA tankers know better, which is why many currently are fielding lineups of ushers and vendors.
Unlike the NFL, the NBA has attempted to dissuade such heavy-handedness when it comes to losing on purpose with the random-but-weighted lottery, to at least mitigate some of the race to the bottom.
The difference is that in the NBA, with only five starters, unlike the NFL with 22 on both sides of the ball, a high draft choice can immediately be franchise-altering.
In turn, what the NBA has been left with for weeks has been teams bailing on the season as if skydiving without parachutes, to get to the bottom as fast and forcefully as possible.
Which brings us back to the Heat — but in a different light.
For years, and even this year, a constant during the team’s Pat Riley era has largely been a refusal to tank (with 2008 and … Michael Beasley an exception).
But a few years back, at the NBA’s league meetings, the Heat did offer up a proposal to mitigate and perhaps even eliminate the tanking.
The approach was this: Allow the standings to play out over the first 50 games of the regular season, with the bad teams falling to their level and the injury-plagued teams enduring their suffering.
And then … put everything in reverse, in terms of the lottery race, for the regular season’s final 32.
The Heat’s proposal: Lottery standings would be determined by losses in the first 50 games and wins in the last 32.
As an example, the Heat offered up, “So a team that has 40 losses in the first 50 games and 10 wins in the last 32 would have 50 points. A team with 25 losses in the first 50 games and 15 wins in the last 32 would have 40 points.” The math would only pertain to the lottery, not the actual standings.
The point being that when football is over, when the trading deadline is past, as the NCAA Tournament winds down, when the focus is back on the NBA, teams would have incentive to win.
As in those upcoming games for the 76ers, Pelicans, Wizards, Jazz and Hornets against the Heat and the teams they are battling for play-in seeding.
Would Maxey summarily be shut down if winning would benefit the 76ers’ lottery chances? Ditto for Williamson and McCollum for the Pelicans? Or even Khris Middleton for the Wizards, Lauri Markkanen for the Jazz, LaMelo Ball for the Hornets?
Imagine a lottery team having to — gulp — win in order to maximize lottery seeding.
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Imagine an entire NBA incentivized to win to the very end of the season, the playoff teams for playoff seeding, the lottery teams for lottery seeding. Imagine, then, the best players playing their hardest, the best coaches coaching their hardest.
Yes, it would mean the teams in the greatest need of lottery fortune not necessarily being at the front of the lottery line. But is it truly more sporting to foster capitulation?
Or NBA Commissioner Adam Silver could instead offer refunds for every one of these games when one team simply isn’t trying, rebate advertisers who have committed to sponsorship of such non-competition, give back money from the television deals.
That is not going to happen.
But there can be a better lottery way.
IN THE LANE
CANDID REACTION: Even in the unfriendly confines of TD Garden, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra offered a smile Wednesday night when asked before his team’s victory of having coached several Celtics in his role as an assistant with USA Basketball. “I mentioned to all of the Celtics from that summer, I hated myself for actually liking them,” Spoelstra said. “And then admitting it, I hated myself even more.” Spoelstra said the experiences left him with nothing but respect for Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Derrick White. “Just quality human beings,” Spoelstra said, “great competitors, great basketball players.” With possibly more coming, if the Heat can possibly work their way to a No. 7 playoff seed. “You never know what could happen,” White said after Wednesday night’s loss to the Heat. “I mean, us playing Miami in the playoffs would not surprise me because it happened every year I’ve been here. We’re just trying to control what we can control and when we figure out who we play, we’ll be ready to go from there.”
SPEAKING TOUR: A game before that victory in Boston, Spoelstra found himself in Washington, where the pregame questioning focused on the Heat’s successful developmental program and how the league-worst Wizards could emulate. Asked about what the Heat look for in developmental talent, Spoelstra responded, “Somebody that wants to get better. Somebody that isn’t scared of what we’re about. And probably a lot of what we’re about is overexaggerated. If a player wants to really truly explore their potential and be willing to be coached to achieve that potential and beyond. Another way of saying that is ambition.” And if a developmental prospect lacks ambition? “That’s not really our kind of personality,” Spoelstra said.
TO THE MAX: Should the Heat make the playoffs as a No. 8 seed for the third year in a row, it would mean a matchup against the No. 1 Cleveland Cavaliers and against former Heat forward Max Strus. The Cavaliers have made clear that the Heat’s 2023 free-agency loss has been their gain. “I think when he came here from Miami, we all saw just like shooter, shooter, shooter. But you’re seeing a complete player, a guy who really does anything to win the basketball game, whatever it takes,” Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchelltold Cleveland.com. “That’s a guy you’ll go to war with every day of the week. So no, he doesn’t get enough credit. I don’t think he ever will, and I don’t think he cares. He knows that we value him and how much we value him.”
SUCCESS STORY: While it might not have gone the way Kendrick Nunn envisioned after his 2019-20 breakout season with the Heat and subsequent free-agency contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, there still has been a significant payoff for the undrafted guard. Nunn, 29, this past week signed a three-year extension to remain with Panathinaikos Athens in Greece that will pay $4.5 million per season, highest in the EuroLeague. Nunn is coming off a 37-point outing against Monaco, giving his team homecourt advantage for the EuroLeague playoffs. Of the extension, Nunn told BasketNews, “It just feels good to have the support of my teammates, my coaches, the front office. It gives me even more confidence.”
NUMBER
2. Times in the Heat’s 37 years they’ve had a season with at least a 10-game losing streak and six-game winning streak, the exact run that ended with Thursday night’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. The Heat in 2001-02 had a 12-game losing streak and a six-game winning streak on the way to the Eastern Conference finals. The Heat have never had at least a 10-game losing streak and at least a seven-game winning streak in the same season, something they could have accomplished Thursday before they were done in by Ja Morant‘s buzzer-beating jumper.
Continue reading...
