When LeBron James decided to leave the Miami Heat in favor of the Cleveland, many believed the Heat would rebuild. Instead, they re-signed both Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, brought back Mario Chalmers, Udonis Haslem and Chris Andersen and then agreed to a two-year, $20 million deal with former Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers’ forward Luol Deng.
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Jabari Davis of Basketball Insiders believes the Heat can be “highly competitive next year,” but obviously, most of it depends on health of Wade.
"Miami should be highly competitive next year. I do think we’ll see an overall improvement in the East next season, but not so much that it would put MIA out of the overall picture. Much of it will depend on how healthy the team is. Wade needs to be able to play 70 games next season, because even though I like the idea of Bosh returning to a top option, they no longer have the ‘Ultimate Eraser’ (LeBron) to permit another 53-game yr from Dwyane. Not sure they are a Finals team, but I do think they will be highly competitive and obviously have guys with the “no-how” to get it done if they get a favorable playoff seed. We shall see."
Bosh averaged 16.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1.0 blocks and 1.0 steals per game while shooting 51.6% from the field, 33.9% from three and 82.0% from the free trow line. Wade went for 19.0 points, 4.7 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 54.5% from the field, 28.1% from three and 73.3% from the free throw line. Deng averaged 16.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.0 steals per game while shooting 43.1% from the field, 30.2% from three and 79.1% from the charity stripe.