Smith: With Bosh, Heat "Could've Been in Eastern Conference Finals"
The past is in the past but it's difficult for those close to the Miami Heat not to imagine what could've been had Chris Bosh not suffered a season-ending injury just after Pat Riley acquired Goran Dragic at the Trade Deadline. This emotion heightens with the NBA playoffs in full swing.
TNT's Kenny Smith, amid promoting a new reality show called Meet the Smiths (Friday nights on TBS), thinks the Heat would've certainly made the playoffs with the ability to make serious noise once they got there, saying they would've been a top five team in the East "if Chris Bosh doesn't get hurt." As for next season, Smith thinks Riley will improve the roster but it's difficult to project with so many unknowns and the season so far away.
"I don't think they're gonna stay the way they are honestly because Pat Riley is the master of finding the right person or the right people to kind of blend in," Smith said on the Kup and Crowder Show on WQAM. "So they will add something just like other teams will, so it's difficult to say that this team will be a Top 4 team [next year]. Like last year LeBron was here and he moved. So there's going to be movement that changes it but if Chris Bosh would have played this year down the stretch with Dragic coming over and Dwyane Wade, you guys would've been a five/four seed easily I thought. And I thought you could have been in the Eastern Conference finals and there wouldn't have been a fear factor playing Atlanta in the second round or the first round even. I thought they were good enough this year with Chris."
It's tough not to dwell on the what could have been but the Heat remain an intriguing team for next season in the eyes of many NBA analysts. Even if Smith's co-host in Charles Barkley thinks Miami won't even be a Top 4 team in the conference.
