The Miami Heat are enduring a miserable free fall, with nine successive losses.
In the wake of Jimmy Butler’s exit, the Miami Heat have struggled badly. Their key acquisitions of Andrew Wiggins, Davion Mitchell, and Kyle Anderson have not been able to prevent their rapid slide down the standings.
The Heat are currently reeling with a nine-game losing skid, 4-16 after Butler left, and the team’s worst losing streak since 2008 under Erik Spoelstra.
This has been a testing time for the players, with Jaime Jaquez admitting nobody is enjoying the situation right now.
With the Heat falling down at a shocking rate, star players Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro find themselves standing in a depressing spot.
Both homegrown stars served as running mates of Butler for more than five productive seasons in South Beach. And with the star forward now savoring a new chapter in the Bay Area, the two instantly faced pressure to lead the franchise outside of Butler’s shadows.
As tough as it might be for them to carry and motivate the team, Udonis Haslem is optimistic that their ongoing situation is just a learning process for them to finally be the worthy faces of Miami franchise for present and in the future.
“Frustrated, disappointed, but obviously these guys understand they are getting a crash-course in leadership right now,” Haslem said in an appearance on NBA Today.
“Everybody in the locker room is watching them right now, and everything they want out of this is on the other side of doing the hard things.
“They got to get through the hard things to get to the other side.
“Once they get to the other side, it’ll be a little bit of sunshine, I know they can’t see that, but this is building them up for something greater.”
Upon their horrible stretch, the Heat are now at the final spot of the Eastern Conference competitive picture. With a 29-40 record, they are considerably locked for at least a Play-In bid.
There’s still plenty of time left for them to recover and finish the regular season on a positive note. Per Tankathon, the Heat holds the fourth easiest schedule left amongst 30 teams in the league.
“They still have 13 games left,” Haslem said. They still have a chance to go on a little run right now to get out of this.
“They got to continue to stay together.”
