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Paul Pierce says Miami Heat aren’t contenders with Damian Lillard

Vendetta Sports Media / NBA / July 16, 2023

Paul Pierce says Miami Heat aren’t contenders with Damian Lillard

Paul Pierce, Rachel Nichols, and Tracy McGrady discussed on Showtime if the Heat were legitimate contenders with the hypothetical addition of Damian Lillard.

“You put them together, they won’t make it out of the first round,” Pierce said.

Is somebody still butthurt that the disappointing Celtics got bounced in the Eastern Conference Finals by Miami? Also, who cares what Paul Pierce thinks about the current state of the NBA? This is brought to you by the same guy that claims he was better than Dwyane Wade.

Pierce makes one cogent point in this take, saying, “A lot of this had to do with their depth and guys playing way above their pay grade… those guys were averaging 20 points on Boston, we ain’t ever see them do that.”

He’s right–the Heat drastically outperformed expectations in this year’s playoffs. They were very reliant on their role players outperforming expectations and massive outlier shooting performances to get to the finals.

But Pierce seems to miss the point. With Lillard on the roster, Miami won’t hit those same skids and struggle to create offense with ease. Miami won’t have to rely on guys outperforming expectations because they’ll have one of the best offensive players in all of basketball on their roster.

Let me throw some numbers at you to justify why.

Lillard ranked as the third-most efficient isolation scorer in the NBA last season and was the sixth-most efficient pick-and-roll scorer in all of the NBA last season.

Additionally, Lillard recorded the most efficient 32 points-seven assist season in NBA history, with a true shooting percentage of 64.5 percent. Lillard propelled the Blazers’ offense to an offensive rating of 120.3 when he was on the floor last season. For reference, that rating would rank as the best offense in all of the NBA.

To summarize, he’s one of the best offensive engines in all of basketball. Behind him, Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler will propel Miami to once again being a top-ten defense. So, you’ve got a top 10 offense, a top 10 defense, and three top-25 players in basketball.

Simply put, if Damian Lillard joins the Miami Heat–not only are they title contenders, but they also deserve to be recognized as the title frontrunner out East.