Typically, the first round of the playoffs is a weeding-out process, one with little impact on the direction of the league. Only when the NBA crowns a champion is the target set, teams then building to dethrone.
But the first round this season, like the pandemic-altered season itself, felt different. Statements already have been made, realities going forward already altered.
For the Miami Heat, the impact transcends being swept out of the first round by the Milwaukee Bucks.
Foremost, with three of last season’s final four shoved to the wayside, the season and the first round provided tangible evidence that the process can’t be rushed, that more than a 70-day break between seasons is needed, as the Heat, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, and, therefore, LeBron James, now stand only as spectators.
“From the moment we entered the bubble to now, it’s been draining,” James said after his first career first-round exit, “mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally draining.
“Every team has to deal with it, obviously. But with us and Miami going the long haul in the bubble and then coming right back on short notice to this season, it’s been draining.”
For the Heat, Celtics and Lakers it meant a season of injury-depleted, mix-and-match lineups. It did, as well, for the Denver Nuggets, last season’s other conference finalists, who managed to persevere through the absences of Jamal Murray and Will Barton.
“It has been a rather intense 14 months,” Heat President Pat Riley noted, his team left to take stock, already with an opportunity to take stock.
Such as:
— With the Washington Wizards advancing out of the play-in round only to fall in five games to the Philadelphia 76ers, the Bradley Beal speculation has resumed.
“Ultimately, I’m in control,” Beal said. “I think that’s my biggest thing. People are going to report whatever they want, but I know where my mind is and I know if it’s not coming from the horse’s mouth, then it’s going to be rumors.”
He continued, “I guess it’s going to increase a lot more this year with me going into the last year of my deal. But, for me, I’m just relaxing, resting my body and we’ll evaluate all that when summer comes.”
While Beal can opt out in the ’22 offseason, the NBA has become a place where the season before the final season becomes the time of change.
— In reviewing the playoffs, Riley took note of Damian Lillard’s play with the Portland Trail Blazers, noting, “God bless him. He has not won a championship yet, but it isn’t because he’s not a guy who doesn’t have it at the end of a game.”
The comment was offered in the greater context of the playoffs, and before the Blazers were eliminated. But, still, the comment also came hours before Lillard offered on social media a lyric from the late Nipsey Hussle of, “How long should I stay dedicated? How long ‘til opportunity meet preparation?”
But, in what already is an ever-changing offseason, that was followed by Lillard receiving input on the Blazers’ coaching search.
So, if the Blazers are not to move Lillard . . . then CJ McCollum?
— Another playoff participant Riley mentioned by name — again, in the context of the postseason — was Kawhi Leonard, when he spoke of Leonard missing a potential game-tying 3-pointer against the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night, “He’s been in that situation so many times and he’s made more shots than he’s ever missed probably in that situation in the biggest of moments.”
That, of course, coming while Leonard, a potential free agent this offseason, and the Clippers still stand on the brink of elimination against the Dallas Mavericks, even with Leonard’s Friday heroics.
— And then there were the Celtics, who already have blown up everything but the roster, with Danny Ainge resigning from the front office and Brad Stevens shifted from coach to management.
What stood as the Heat’s prime Eastern Conference rival now stands as something far different.
Those Boston moves came as Riley made clear that, at 76, he has no similar thoughts.
“As far as I go,” he said, “I’m ready to roll forward and try to make this team better.”
