Miami Heat 2017 Season Preview: Draft Utopia

Miami Heat 2017 Season Preview

The Miami Heat are still in a rebuild. Goran Dragic makes this a middle of the pack team though.

Chris Ransom follow @DraftUtopia Posted on 3/6/2016.

Miami traded for point guard Goran Dragic. That was a good addition. At the same time Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh both dealt wit season ending injuries. Wade nearly opted out for Free Agency before taking a 1-year $20-million dollar deal to re-sign with the Heat.

Miami has incredible depth as an NBA team. This Heat team has quality starters and backups at all the key positions.

Goran Dragic averaged 16.3 points per game, 4.5 assists per game, 3.5 rebounds per game, and 1 steal per game after becoming the Heat's starting point guard. Dragic has Mario Chalmbers as a sixth man in an effective backup role where he rebounded after struggling as a starter in 2014.

Dwyane Wade led the Heat with 21.5 points per game last season at shooting guard before suffering a season ending injury. His backup Gerald Green also gets double digit points per game with 11.9 points per game. Wade can get you 22 points on a consistent basis, but Green can get you 12 points per game as well.

Loul Deng averaged 14 points per game at small forward. Despite this, the Heat drafted Duke small forward Justise Winslow as his backup with the tenth pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. You have to love the depth the Heat have so far.

Chris Bosh played center at the beginning of last year before he got injured. Now Bosh is moving back to power forward for the first time since being on the Toronto Raptors. That's probably due to the emergence of Hassan Whiteside after Bosh got injured.

Chris Bosh averaged 21.1 points per game, 7 rebounds per game, and 2.2 assists per game before his season ending injury. Bosh's backup at power forward will be Josh McRoberts. Udonis Haslem who was last years starting power forward has been demoted to third string and it's about time Haslem got that demotion.

Hassan Whiteside averaged 11.1 points per game and 10 rebounds per game after Bosh went down. Whiteside showed teams he could be an effective double-double guy when Bosh went down. Playing next to Bosh will only make the Heat deadlier in the front court. Christian Anderson also known as the "Birdman" will be Whiteside's backup center.

There is no question the Heat will be a playoff team if everyone stays healthy. Injuries were the only reason why the Heat finished with the tenth worst record in the NBA last season.