When every season kicks off, some teams we didn’t expect to do so well get off to a great start. And then there are teams we expected to contend in their conferences again falter at the starting line. That’s the nature and rhythm of the league.
Whatever the reason whether that’s a team takes longer to mesh, to get in shape, injuries or whatnot, this season has the additional “distractions” of a global pandemic and Covid-19 protocols that resulted in a stunted preseason and cancelled games. And that definitely contributed to sloppier play.
Still even with these factors, we expected the Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors and Houston Rockets to be doing much better than they have 10 games in. Here’s our most-disappointing teams of the season thus far.
Miami Heat (4-6)
Last season’s NBA finalists and runner-ups didn’t have much time to rest before the next season was upon them. Still, the Heat maintained most of their key players only losing out on Jae Crowder and Derrick Jones Jr. Yes those two were visible role players last season, but that doesn’t justify the Heat’s 4-6 record to kick off the first ten games of Miami’s 2020-21 schedule.
Yes, Jimmy Butler has missed four of those ten games, but with Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo, Goran Dragic, Duncan Robinson and the strong Heat culture should have them better than a team that doesn’t look as if they’ll come close to the NBA post season.
Toronto Raptors (3-8)
The Toronto Raptors aren’t playing in Toronto, much less Canada, so they get a little bit of a break for starting the season with a hugely-disappointing 3-8 record through the franchise’s first 11 games. Just not that much.
That type of start is what we expected from the 2019-20 team that ultimately surprised us. Even the best sports betting sites in Canada would not have predicted such a dire beginning of the season for the Raps. That’s because they have basically the same roster as last season. Headlined by Pascal Siakam, Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet, the Raps lost six of their first seven games on their schedule before splitting their next four games. They’re a far cry from their 58-24 record and second place Eastern Conference finish last season.
Houston Rockets (4-6)
Ok it’s not much of a surprise that the Rockets are a hot mess; sitting at 4-6 as of this post considering the moping and drama surrounding an out-of-shape James Harden this season.
Even with the extra pounds, the bearded-one played in the team’s first three games on the schedule and didn’t miss a beat; scoring 44, 34, and 33 points. That ability to score at-will was apart of the frustration because after that hot start, Harden grew disinterested; never reaching more than 21 points in his next five games on the Rockets’ schedule and looked visibly unhappy.
Even with former all-stars John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins as teammates, Harden’s wants and disrespect toward his own teammates clearly became a huge distraction for a team that needed to mesh with their superstar. Even so, that doesn’t change the fact that we expected much more out of this re-tooled Rockets team.
