Crowder’s absence being felt by Heat

It is, of course, way too simplistic to suggest that the reason the Miami Heat are struggling to find their way in the Eastern Conference and the reason the Phoenix Suns find themselves flourishing in the West is because of Jae Crowder.

And yet the linkage is there, Crowder leaving the Heat in the abbreviated offseason for the security of a multiyear contract with the Suns.

So as the Heat’s wheel of lineups has spun, the Suns have found themselves with the very type of frontcourt stability the Heat discovered in last season’s playoffs with Crowder.

The irony: At the time Crowder took the Suns’ three-year, $29.2 million contract, the expectation was the Heat would hold off on an extension to Bam Adebayo in order to maximize their 2021 cap space. Thus the large, one-year offer to Crowder.

Then Adebayo wound up getting his five-year, $163 million extension, followed shortly thereafter by Giannis Antetokounmpo removing himself from the 2021 free-agent market with an extension of his own.

Crowder, in his comments to Phoenix media at the start of camp, said he thought that was how it was going to play out with Adebayo.

“I expected that, to be honest, sooner than when it happened,” Crowder said.

Which is why, as the Heat have cycled through Moe Harkless, Meyers Leonard, Andre Iguodala and Kelly Olynyk in the power rotation in a bid for put together their first winning streak of the season, it stands all the more perplexing why more wasn’t done to retain Crowder.

That’s not to say that Crowder is an ultimate difference-maker but rather that he appreciates such is not his mandate. With the Heat, it was to support Adebayo and Jimmy Butler.

With the Suns, the goal is to complement Chris Paul, Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton.

But it also is not as if it came down solely to a choice of Heat or Suns.

“The process was chaotic,” Crowder said, signing with the Suns less than three weeks after he and the Heat came within two victories of a championship.

“Fourteen teams called. Fourteen teams threw a contract and I just had to sit back and absorb it all in. And once I got a phone call from Chris and Devin, those guys made a strong pitch.”

When the Heat acquired Crowder in last February’s trade along with Andre Iguodala and Solomon Hill from the Memphis Grizzlies for Justise Winslow, Dion Waiters and James Johnson, the focus was on how Iguodala could add his playoff pedigree to Erik Spoelstra’s mix.

Instead, it was Crowder who solidified the Heat’s playoff run as the starting power forward.

The irony is that he wound up with more than five months to acclimate because of the COVID19 pandemic shutdown. With the Suns, he has been part of the organization for all of seven weeks.

That, he said, is the advantage of a career that has included stops with seven teams.

As for the Heat, a bit less chaos when it came to the timing elements with Adebayo and Antetokounmpo and this season’s wheel of power forwards never would have been set in motion — with the Heat’s loss the Suns’ gain.

RICK SCUTERI | AP Jae Crowder is setting a tone for the Suns, just as he did for the Heat.