The Miami Heat are having a wonderful season, as they currently hold the top seed in the Eastern Conference with a 48-28 record.

After acquiring veteran point guard Kyle Lowry, the team has rebounded well from a disappointing 2020-21 campaign that saw it go out with a whimper by getting swept by the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs.

Looking ahead to this year’s postseason, the Heat are certainly in the running for the NBA championship, but some feel they are missing that final piece to the puzzle.

What The Heat Lack And Have Been Lacking

In 2020, after finishing just fifth in the Eastern Conference, the Heat made an inspiring Cinderella run all the way to the NBA Finals.

They did so by upsetting the heavily favored Bucks, who had finished with the league’s best record, in the second round of the playoffs, four games to one.

Miami then defeated the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals before falling to a more talented Los Angeles Lakers team in the championship series.

That year, a problem the Heat had was that, due to an overall lack of offensive firepower, they would routinely fall behind early in games, requiring them to work very hard simply to give themselves a chance to win in the end.

That’s not a recipe for success.

This season, it is still a problem that threatens to come up again.

In recent contests against the Bucks and Brooklyn Nets, two potential playoff opponents this spring, the Heat got off to slow starts, especially on the offensive end.

Although Lowry has made a positive impact on Miami, he is averaging just 13.1 points a game and simply isn’t capable of giving the team plenty of juice in the opening minutes of a game.

Although third-year guard Tyler Herro has continued to show improvement, perhaps he is not ready to carry the Heat for long stretches against tough opponents.

Although he is averaging 20.8 points a game, while Jimmy Butler is putting up 21.2 points per game, the Heat currently lack a big-time scorer.

But looking forward, there is an All-NBA caliber player who could be a target for Miami and would help rectify this issue.

The Heat aren’t tanking to avoid the Nets.

They’re tanking to convince Bradley Beal that he’s their missing piece.

— Bryan Toporek (@btoporek) March 27, 2022

Advertisement

Enter Bradley Beal

Although Bradley Beal is having a bit of an “off-year,” he is still averaging 23.2 points per game for the Washington Wizards this season.

Last year, he poured in 31.3 points a game and was named to the All-NBA third-team, and the season prior to that, he was at 30.5 points a game.

Like I said. Heat need a Bradley Beal or Derozan type player

— Razor Rahman (@Dream_Chasers14) March 27, 2022

Beal has been linked to the Heat for the past couple of years, and those rumors may come to fruition this summer.

He can opt out of the final year of his contract, which would be next season, and become a free agent.

Since the Heat are over the salary cap, they would have to execute a sign-and-trade with the Wizards, which would beg the question of who Miami would have to give up to get the three-time All-Star.

This Heat roster is cooked bro.

We need to do everything we can to add Bradley Beal to this roster this offseason.

Any and everyone available.

4th quarters have been our achilles heel the past 2.5 seasons

Advertisement

— Ugg Lee, Ph.D (@_iGrizz) March 26, 2022

But if the price is right, Beal could help bring the Heat their fourth NBA championship ring.

The post Heat Missing 1 Top NBA Star That Can Take Miami To A New Level appeared first on The Cold Wire.

Source link