NBA experts regard Heat as low playoff seed at best

There’s no question the Heat, with the addition of Jimmy Butler, has the team’s best in-hisprime player since the Big 3 era. But is Miami unquestionably a playoff team? I posed that question to a half dozen NBA people. Some feedback:

A veteran Eastern Conference

● scout: “I would bet on Miami being a playoff team, a lower seed. If they get to six, it would be a modest surprise. But they could just as well be ninth [and miss the playoffs]. Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Boston, Brooklyn and Indiana are clearly better than Miami, and Toronto is modestly better.”

Toronto is better even without

Kawhi Leonard? Remember, the Raptors were 17-5 last season when he didn’t play.

And even though Victor Oladipo might not be back from injury until December or January, the scout believes what’s left of the Pacers (Oladipo, Malcolm Brogdon, T.J. Warren, Myles Turner, Jeremy Lamb, Domantas Sabonis, etc.) is better than what the Heat has, though that’s a contention that can be reasonably debated.

So that’s six Eastern teams better than Miami, according to one scout’s opinion, though we’re not convinced about Indiana and Toronto. The only other three teams he could see competing for the final two playoff spots are the Heat, Detroit and Orlando.

Last season, the Magic won 42, the Pistons won 41 and the Heat 39. The scout said Orlando and Detroit are comparable in talent to Miami, but “Orlando still has no point guard and I don’t think they’re better than the Heat. I don’t see Orlando and Detroit both emerging past Miami” though he could see one of them doing that.

New TNT analyst and former ●

Heat coach Stan Van Gundy:

“They are at least likely [to make the playoffs] if not closer to a sure thing, presuming relative good health. To me, they would have been a playoff team last year but they played so long without Goran Dragic [who missed 46 games] so it really hurt them.

Dragic is an underrated player and people underrated the impact of his injury. Jimmy Butler is a [top 20] player.

“If Dragic or Butler goes down, it would change my estimation. Assuming relative good health, they are as good as anyone other than Milwaukee and Philly [and Indiana]. Boston may be a little bit stronger.

“Orlando had amazing health for their top six guys [last year]; almost nobody got hurt. Brooklyn is OK, but how big of an improvement is Kyrie Irving over

D’Angelo Russell? I don’t know if they’re a lot better.

Can Detroit get enough of a boost from Derrick Rose to elevate them? Atlanta maybe is a 10th team [in the mix for a playoff spot].”

ESPN’s Tim Legler: “I think

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they are a ‘fight to get in’ team. So I’d say borderline. The Heat are in that group with Orlando and Detroit. Possibly Toronto and Indy as well. They will be in that mix: five teams for four spots. I don’t think the Hawks and Knicks [are good enough to be] in that group. Got to be at 43 wins to get in this year.”

ESPN’s Amin Elhassan:

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“They’re a playoff team, but one of those where you won’t know you’re making the playoffs until there are two weeks left.”

He said Miami would probably land seventh or eighth, with talent comparable to Detroit and Orlando. If the Heat had acquired Russell Westbrook,

“they would fall three to six, behind Milwaukee and Philadelphia.”

Former NBA coach Sam

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Mitchell, now with NBA TV, has Miami as a seventh seed: “Butler is one of the top two way players in the league [but they] have to add something.” ABC co-lead analyst Mark Jackson said he’s certain the Heat is a playoff team, and ESPN’s Zach Lowe said on air that he could see Miami rising as high as third in the East.

CHATTER

Pass coverage remains a

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problem for Dolphins linebackers, as has been the case for years here. Jerome Baker has allowed 11 of 16 passes thrown against him to be caught, for 176 yards. Sam Eguavon has permitted all nine passes thrown against him to be caught, for 98 yards. Raekwon McMillan has been targeted only once and allowed that pass to be completed for eight yards.

So of the 26 passes thrown against Dolphins linebackers, 21 have been caught. Some things never change around here.

The Patriots used a fullback

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more than one-third of their offensive snaps last season, but the Dolphins staff doesn’t have enough faith in rookie Chandler Cox to play more. He’s had just 12 offensive snaps all season. …

Dewayne Hendrix, Miami’s best pass rusher in training camp, was released from the practice squad Monday to make room for offensive tackle Antonio Garcia, a Patriots thirdround pick out of Troy in 2017 whose career was briefly derailed by blood clots in his lungs and this season’s banned substance suspension.

UM has had several highlycoveted

● four-star offensive linemen on the roster this calendar year (Kai Leon Herbert, John Campbell, departed Cleveland Reed, departed George Brown Jr.) who couldn’t crack the lineup (Campbell started for a time) even though UM’s offensive line is deficient. So what’s going on here?

Manny Diaz said nationally “there’s no position with a higher bust rate” than o-line. He also said there’s no correlation between college performance and number of scholarship offers that a player receives (all four of the aforementioned received several offers from top schools). And Diaz said, in general, some of the reported offers players get aren’t “real” offers.

One continued problem:

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UM’s best pass rusher (Greg Rousseau, who has four sacks) continues to play limited snaps (just 22 Saturday) because the Canes aren’t sure how to use him without taking who they believe is a better run defender (Scott Patchan) off the field.