3 players most to blame for the Heat’s disappointing 1-4 start

The Miami Heat are coming off another Eastern Conference championship, which naturally set the bar high for the 2023-24 campaign. Thing is, the Heat were the No. 8 seed last season — 44-38, with barely enough offensive firepower to scrap their way to .500 in the regular season.

Now, Miami is 1-4. This was always somewhat inevitable. The expectations tied to Miami's finish last season were incongruent with the team Miami was for 82 games. A torrid Jimmy Butler stretch and an all-time 3-point streak catapulted the Heat to the NBA Finals, but there was no reason to believe the team improved meaningfully over last season's 44-win total.

In fact, the Heat got worse over the offseason. The roster is a year older. Gabe Vincent and Max Strus, two key rotation players, left in free agency. Once the Damian Lillard trade fell through, it was clear Miami would enter the season with a depleted supporting cast.

Maybe 1-4 wasn't the expectation, but nobody should have expected Miami to come out of the gates with the look of a first-place contender. There's plenty of time left for Erik Spoelstra's squad to turn its season around — we're talking about a five-game sample size here — but Miami is not a heavy-hitter right now.

The Heat currently rank 26th in offensive rating and 17th in defensive rating. A stodgy offense and milquetoast defense won't get you very far in the NBA. One has to imagine the Heat can improve, but how much the team can improve is up for debate.

Miami's 103-102 victory over the Detroit Pistons on opening night is the only barrier between them and 0-5. That being said, here are a few players who deserve the most blame for the Heat's early-season struggles.

3. Josh Richardson

With Vincent and Strus out of the picture, there was a real need for Josh Richardson to step into a productive role off the bench for Miami. The early — and let's stress early — returns aren't great. Richardson played the best basketball of his career for the Heat, but his years since that fateful Jimmy Butler trade have been rocky at best.

Now 30 years old, Richardson's days as a regular rotation player are waning. He made his season debut in Miami's loss to Milwaukee on Monday. He played 23 minutes, then saw his playing time spike up to 30 minutes in Wednesday's loss to Brooklyn. Across those two appearances, he is averaging 5.0 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 2.5 assists on .250/.143/.500 splits.

It's way too early in the season for hard declarations. Richardson only just got back from a foot injury, so there is an expected period of rust removal on the horizon. If any coach can restore Richardson to his former glory, it's probably Spoelstra. That said, there is reason for caution instead of optimism here. Miami's lack of point guard depth will inevitably mean Richardson is asked to shoulder ball-handling duties at some point. He will struggle. Richardson is at his best in a refined role centered on spot-up shooting, but even then his 3-point success tends to waver.

Richardson will hope to get back up to speed defensively. He has the length and instincts to provide a genuinely disruptive point-of-attack defense. He competes hard and he has that 'Heat Culture' spunk about him. Still, the offense has skewed negatively for a while and the Heat can't really afford another minus on that end of the floor.