Heat Hand Division to Hawks With Trade Deadline Inaction
Thursday afternoon's NBA trade deadline was a tale of two teams in the Southeastern Division. The Atlanta Hawks reinforced their rotation and shed dead weight while the Miami Heat stood pat.
Miami's inaction at the trade deadline was the latest example of the organization taking an ad-hoc approach to team-building. Despite having prime-Jimmy Butler, a player built for the postseason, not a single trade was orchestrated.
Team president Pat Riley opted to leave two roster spots open and test the buyout market further down the road. For the record, there has never been a buyout player who transformed a team into a championship contender - and a transformation is what Miami needs right now.
Miami is an excellent defensive team, but their bottom-five offensive rating acts like a weight tied to the team's ankle (not dissimilar to some of the team's signings in recent years).
Currently, Miami stands at 30-25 with a narrow lead over the New York Knicks for the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference. However, Atlanta is the team that will walk down Miami in the final stretch of the regular season.
The Southeast Division rivals face off in back-to-back games in Miami early next month, with the season series and playoff seeding hanging in the balance. Last year's gentleman's sweep/beatdown will not be lost on the rebooted Atlanta roster.
A showdown between Atlanta and Miami is inevitable. Only this time, one of the teams got better, deeper, and, most importantly, tougher.
