Change is in the air. At least the air the Miami Heat will be breathing over the next week.
If ever there was a week to take stock as a measuring stick, that week is at hand for Erik Spoelstra’s team.
It starts Monday night against the Chicago Bulls at FTX Arena. Then, Wednesday night, it’s at the Milwaukee Bucks, followed the next night at the Brooklyn Nets, and then a home game on Saturday against the Philadelphia 76ers.
In each case, it comes against an opponent with a different roster than the last time the Heat stood as the opposition.
In the case of the Bulls, the play was the simplicity of adding backup bulk at center with Tristan Thompson.
With the Bucks, it was beefing up the depth, with Serge Ibaka, DeAndre’ Bembry and Javon Carter.
As for the Nets, it was upping the ante by adding Goran Dragic after the high-stakes trading-deadline additions of Ben Simmons, Seth Curry and Andre Drummond, with none of those three (or Kevin Durant) playing when Brooklyn visited (and lost at) FTX Arena on Feb. 12.
With the 76ers, it is the new look created by the all-or-nothing move for James Harden.
And then there are the Heat, looking much the same now as on opening night and at the trading deadline, with the upgrade hope the same as it ever was — Victor Oladipo and Markieff Morris waiting in the wings.
Typically, when a team decides it is go-time, the bolstering begins. But that also is measured against previous moves. The Heat took care of the upgrading in the offseason, with the additions of Kyle Lowry and P.J. Tucker. The approach was similar for the Bulls, with the August additions of Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso and emerging MVP candidate DeMar DeRozan. Heck, the Heat and Bulls even tampered in tandem (nice knowing you, forfeited second-round picks).
The Bucks largely stood pat then, as is a champion’s wont, with only the subtle recent additions, players hardly assured rotation roles.
Which brings us to the 76ers and Nets. These are completely different mixes than the ones that entered the season.
With the 76ers, Joel Embiid arguably has never been better. But we’ve never seen him alongside anyone quite like Harden (is there anyone quite like Harden?).
With the Nets, Simmons arrives as a welcomed perimeter defensive element on a team that doesn’t necessarily need him to shoot or score.
Most fascinating will be a potential climb by the Nets. Is there enough remaining time to move into a prime playoff seed?
“The challenge is forming the cohesion,” Nets coach Steve Nash said. “Whenever Kevin’s available, Ben’s available, Goran’s available, Joe [Harris] potentially being available, trying to get that cohesion and building a team that’s ready for pressure moments and playing in a playoff scenario, and at the same time, trying to win the majority of our games here so we can climb out of the play-in and put ourselves in a position to move up the ladder a little bit before the playoffs start.”
Nets general manager Sean Marks, the former Heat center, said at a team event at Barclays Center that he appreciated the position of having to play from behind.
“I think our biggest dilemma is probably going to be that cohesion, chemistry, the bonds that are formed,” he said, “getting as many minutes as we possibly can. And I don’t know how many games these guys are going to play together.”
The sentiment is similar in Philadelphia. What can Harden-Embiid eventually look like?
But as the league resumes for the stretch run of the playoff race, it is clear in the East that it is not the same as it ever was.
The first 60 or so games have delivered us to this point of rethinking.
For the Heat, the conference’s new reality is at hand, with the impending, consecutive games against the Bulls, Bucks, Nets and 76ers.
The standings offer one read of where Spoelstra’s team stands. The schedule is about to either confirm or complicate that.
