2021-22 Miami Heat: New and Improved

Leadership

Coming off arguably the best season of his career, 5x NBA All-Star, Jimmy Butler, seeks to ignite a new fire under his Heat teammates in the 2021-22 season. Averaging career bests in steals, rebounds, assists, and field goal percentage last season wasn’t enough to pull Miami past the 2021 NBA Champion Bucks.

Also coming off a strong season, Bam Adebayo tallied career highs in points, assists, and steals in 2021. As the young center continues to grow, look for his leadership alongside Jimmy Butler begin to flourish, giving opponents a terrifying two-headed defensive beast to matchup against.

New Faces

The Heat signed a flurry of new faces to begin the 2021 NBA season. These additions include:

• Kyle Lowry
• P.J. Tucker
• Markieff Morris
• Omer Yurtseven
• D.J. Stewart Jr
• Marcus Garrett

Signing three NBA champions from the past three years (Lowry – 2019, Morris – 2020, Tucker – 2021) brings the Heat much needed experience and championship mentality.

One signing Heat fans should be excited about is 7’0 center, Omer Yurtseven. In five Summer League games, Yurtseven averaged 22.4 PPG, 11.2 RPG, and 2.4 BPG in 29:33 MPG.

New Mentality

Since bringing in Jimmy Butler and drafting Bam Adebayo, the Heat have honed in on being a defensive prowess on the court. These new signings take that to the next level.

To start the season, facing a starting lineup consisting of Lowry, Butler, Tucker, and Adebayo is terrifying in itself. Throw sniper Duncan Robinson in the mix and it’s a recipe for disaster. Then, once you think you get a break from the turmoil, in comes Markieff Morris and Omer Yurtseven. Marcus Garrett, currently on a two-way contract with the Heat, might get his share of minutes with the second unit as well.

Garrett, 2020 Naismith and ESPN.com Defensive Player of the Year out of Kansas, could be another sparkplug for the Heat’s bench to keep opponents at bay. Having impressive defensive bouts of 13 games with 2+ steals, 6 games with 3+ steals, 3 games with 4+ steals, and a game with 5 steals in 2021, Garrett could be another cog in the machine.

Kansas guard Marcus Garrett is signing a two-way deal with the Miami Heat, his agent Mike George of @onelegacysports tells ESPN. Garrett honored his college rep as a tenacious defender in summer league.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 2, 2021

Eying a November return, 2x All-Star, Victor Oladipo, could join the mix, bringing another All-Defensive Team member into the mix, making an already scary defensive unit even scarier.

Rotation

Erik Spoelstra could look to go a couple different ways with the rotation of this team. To start the season, expect the first and second unit to look something like this:

Starters:

PG: Kyle Lowry
SG: Duncan Robin
SF: Jimmy Butler
PF: P.J. Tucker
C: Bam Adebayo

Second Unit:

PG: Tyler Herro
SG: Max Strus
SF: KZ Okpala
PF: Markieff Morris
C: Dewayne Dedmon/Omer Yurtseven

Predictions

This Heat team has the ability to hold opponents below 100 PPG. If they can stay healthy, the Heat can come out a top three seed in the Eastern Conference and hold a shot another finals run. This also depends on if Adebayo, Herro, and Robinson all take their necessary steps forward next season. If young guys can continue improving through the season, this team can be scary for any opponent.

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