Originally Posted by
Pelicanidae
Yeah but that's exactly what I'm talking about. We're not trending up, we're trending down right now, and losing games at home; and worse than that, losing highly winnable games. Like I said, if we lose to Boston at home next game, we'll be 1-4 in our last 5 games. That's trending sharply down.
Before the schedule eases up, there's still some rough stuff to go through: Houston, Milwaukee, OKC, Boston, Indiana, all before all-star break. Those are all very realistic losses, and if that kind of thing happens we won't be 4.5 games behind. We'll be 7 games behind, or 8. Would it still be possible to make up that gap before the end of the year? Mathematically, sure; Miami started the 2016-17 season 11-30 and finished up 30-11 and almost made the playoffs; it's always possible to go on a crazy run and close up big gaps quickly. But that would require a different set of priorities to the ones I personally think we should have if we're 7 or 8 games out of 8th with so few games left to play.
And yeah, I'd expect the team itself to try their best to win every game. I don't think any team actually takes the floor trying to lose, or at least, the teams that do are extremely rare. But it's possible to take the floor trying to win, while also prioritising development over sure-fire vets.