The Miami Heat added another dangerous shooter this summer, but the move doesn’t exactly change the outlook for Boston.
Klay Thompson landed in Miami on a two-year, $11.48 million contract after being bought out by the Dallas Mavericks, and even if he’s no longer the version of himself from his prime, he still brings real value. Thompson shot 38.7% from deep on 7.7 attempts across two seasons in Dallas, and for a Heat team that needed more spacing after trading Tyler Herro and losing Norman Powell in free agency, that kind of floor-stretching is a clean, low-risk bet.
The bigger buzz in Miami, of course, is Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Heat won the sweepstakes for him this offseason, and it’s not hard to understand the excitement. When he’s healthy, he remains a top-five player in the league, and he should give an already nasty Miami defense another gear.
Still, none of that should push the Celtics into panic mode.
Boston should still enter next season as the better team, even with all the offseason noise around Miami’s upgrades. The Heat also added Tim Hardaway Jr. and Bobby Portis while parting with Herro, Powell, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, and Kel'el Ware. The Celtics, meanwhile, brought in Paul George, Mitchell Robinson, Chris Cenac Jr., and Mike Conley, while losing Jaylen Brown and, as the source puts it, Nikola Vucevic.
There’s plenty of criticism around Boston’s Brown-George trade, but the roster still has plenty going for it. The Celtics improved their center depth, Jayson Tatum is now clearly the No. 1 option, George looks like a strong fit in Joe Mazzulla’s system on paper, and the team should be expecting real growth from Payton Pritchard, Hugo Gonzalez, and Baylor Scheierman.
Miami’s setup, on the other hand, still raises questions. A Giannis-Bam Adebayo frontcourt sounds fun in theory, but it also creates a tricky offensive fit because both players do their best work in the paint. That could create problems for the Heat, even if the combination is terrifying for reasons that don’t necessarily help them.
And Miami hasn’t exactly been rolling lately. Since its 2023 NBA Finals run, the Heat have lost in the first round twice, including to Boston in 2024, and they missed the playoffs last season after a Play-In loss to the Charlotte Hornets.
Boston has also handled Miami well in recent seasons, losing to the Heat just once since the 2023-24 season. In the regular season, the Celtics are 10-1 in their last 11 games against Miami.
So yes, the Heat are solid. They should be in the playoff mix next season, and Spoelstra is still Spoelstra.
But even with Thompson in the fold and Giannis headlining the roster, it’s still tough to see Miami as a true championship team. The Celtics may not be playing in June, but they should still feel better about where they stand than the Heat do.
In Other News...
Former Celtic Weighs In On What Really Drove Jaylen Brown Trade
Nikola Vucevics brief stop in Boston gave him a front-row seat to a Celtics team still trying to balance star power, cap pressure and a roster that never really stood still. In a recent interview, the former Celtic said he did not sense any player conflict around the club, even as he admitted he was surprised when Jaylen Brown was dealt to Philadelphia after nearly a decade alongside Jayson Tatum.
Vucevics read on the move was less about locker-room tension and more about the realities of team-building. With Brown and Tatum both carrying massive contracts, Boston had a difficult path under the NBAs salary rules, and the front office ultimately chose to send Brown to the 76ers in a package for Paul George and draft picks. [Read more 🡒]
Celtics Fans May Owe Shaq A Rethink After That Boston Run
Shaquille ONeals time in Boston has long been easy to dismiss as a late-career stopover, the kind of short stint remembered more for its novelty than its value. But one season with the Celtics in 2010-11 was more useful than it often gets credit for, as he still gave the team real minutes and helped it function well when he was available alongside the core pieces around him.
The catch, of course, was availability. Injuries kept ONeal from making the kind of consistent impact Boston hoped for, and the Celtics never turned that run into a title. Even so, the numbers from the games he did play suggest there was more substance there than the usual nostalgia allows, which may be enough to make some Celtics fans look back on that chapter a little differently. [Read more 🡒]
Hugo Gonzalez Just Made Bostons Rotation Debate A Lot More Interesting
Hugo Gonzalez finished his rookie season with the Celtics having played only limited minutes, but he did enough in that stretch to give Boston something to think about heading into the summer. His athleticism stood out, and the numbers suggested he had a positive effect on the team's offensive rating when he was on the floor, even if the rough edges were obvious in areas like shooting and finishing.
Brad Stevens has already pointed to Gonzalezs strength and long-term potential, and the young wing sounded encouraged by how much more comfortable he felt with the NBA game as the season went on. For a Celtics roster that is always sorting out the back end of the rotation, Gonzalez has at least made the conversation a little less straightforward than it looked a few months ago. [Read more 🡒]