{"id":628143,"date":"2026-02-27T11:57:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T11:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/628143\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T11:57:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T11:57:15","slug":"is-play-in-again-as-good-as-it-will-get-for-the-miami-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/628143\/","title":{"rendered":"Is play-in again as good as it will get for the Miami Heat?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Q: At best, the Heat will be a play in-team for the fourth straight year and possibly worse, as the Bucks are close behind having won eight of their last 10 games. At what point does Erik Spoelstra and\/or Pat Riley take responsibility for this streak of mediocrity? \u2013 Joel, Fort Lauderdale.<\/p>\n

A: Never. As long as there is a next game to win, the Heat will take the approach that job one is to win that next game. The only way this team resets is for someone like Nick Arison or perhaps a different front-office voice to call for some type of retreat (literally and figuratively), where the team recognizes the benefit of taking a step back to get back ahead. Until then, all-in for the play-in.<\/p>\n

Q: Do you think the Heat getting embarrassed by the Sixers<\/a> backcourt will finally convince them of the value of tanking and getting a talent like VJ Edgecomb?\u00a0 (I know the answer is no.) \u2013 Jeffrey, Miami.<\/p>\n

A: Asked and answered. As addressed in the postgame blog<\/a>, the 76ers, who had moved well past the process, nonetheless stepped back last season, got lucky in the lottery, and now have a brighter future because of that. But with the Heat, it\u2019s a mindset, a stubborn refusal to look for any escape hatch. So the 76ers get the No. 3 pick last year while the Heat play on toward a likely No. 15 or later selection. It\u2019s a tale as old as time.<\/p>\n

Q: If the Heat finish in sixth place, so what? They are still at a middling talent level and shouldn\u2019t get excited about \u201chaving enough.\u201d \u2013 Michael, Port St. Lucie.<\/p>\n

A: Agree. As has been written before, it would be a bit sad if \u201cWe\u2019re No. 6!\u201d truly would stand as a Heat rallying cry. Look, Pat Riley\u2019s \u201cwinning or misery\u201d was a bit over the top when it came to championship or bust. But celebrating that you\u2019re in the middle of the NBA pack hardly comes off as a badge of honor. Now, if being No. 6 is part of a pathway to No. 5, then No. 4, and so on, that\u2019s another story. But it\u2019s not exactly as if the Heat have been trending in recent years. Remember, they finished No. 10 in the East during the regular season a year ago<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Q: At best, the Heat will be a play in-team for the fourth straight year and possibly worse,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,3879,7,165,189,3880,6,678,207,3817,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-628143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-76ers","8":"tag-76ers","9":"tag-ask-ira","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-miami-heat","13":"tag-miami-heat-blog","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-philadelphia","16":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","17":"tag-philadelphia76ers","18":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116142476257981559","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}