Inside The Heat

Has The Miami Heat's Championship Window Closed?

Sports Illustrated writer Howard Beck doesn't see the Heat finishing in the top four in the Eastern Conference
Shandel Richardson|
Has The Miami Heat's Championship Window Closed?
Has The Miami Heat's Championship Window Closed?

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Last year the Miami Heat were one shot from making the NBA Finals. 

After a quiet offseason, some are questioning if the Heat can keep pace with the rest of the Eastern Conference. Sports Illustrated senior writer recently tackled the subject during an debate with SI writer Chris Mannix. Here's what Beck had to say about the Heat: 

“Listen, I love what the Heat have done in this mini era since acquiring Jimmy [Butler],” Beck said. “They’re tough as hell, they share the ball, they do all the little things to win games. The problem is, they have to do all of that at the highest possible level, every night, because they just don’t have the firepower of the top-tier teams. And there’s a hard limit on how many games — or how many playoff series — you can win if you don’t have an elite scorer or two. The Heat don’t. They can’t match Giannis [Antetokounmpo] or [Jayson] Tatum or [Joel] Embiid or [Kevin] Durant, or even Donovan Mitchell. And with the rise of the Cavs (and potentially the Raptors), I don’t see the Heat cracking the top four in the East again with this core. Butler is 33, with a lot of hard miles on him. [Kyle] Lowry is 36. The clock is ticking. That run to the Finals in 2020 was inspiring and memorable. But that was their peak. I just don’t see the Heat finding the elite scorer they need to make another run before these guys are done.”

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Shandel Richardson covers the Miami Heat for Inside The Heat.

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Shandel Richardson
SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star. TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com You can subscribe to our YouTube channel here Follow all of our Miami Heat coverage on Facebook here

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