Miami Heat team president Pat Riley recently declared that in his mind, he believes that his team are “close” to building a championship team.
Boston Celtics legend Paul Pierce does not seem to agree, and he explains why.
“If the Miami Heat is close, that means every team in the NBA is close,” Pierce claimed recently on ESPN's “The Jump,” via Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. “I don’t think they’re close. Let me tell you when you’re close. You’re close if you have a top five player playing on your team. That is the main ingredient. I say this and I’ll always say this with the exclusion of the Detroit Pistons who won in the early 2000s.”
Pierce went on to belabor his point. According to the former NBA champ, the Heat do not have the right pieces in order to be considered as legitimate contenders.
“Think about the contenders today: the Lakers, who have an MVP candidate, Milwaukee, with Giannis [Antetokounmpo] an MVP candidate. Houston Rockets, with James Harden a top five player. Those three guys are top five players. The Clippers; they got Kawhi [Leonard] and Paul George, a top five and top 10 player,” he added.
“Those are the only four teams I believe that can win the championship this year because that is one of the main ingredients. You can go back as far as 20, 30 years and see every championship team or team that has been a champion has had a top five MVP candidate on their roster. No disrespect to Jimmy Butler; he’s good but he’s not on these other guys’ level.”
Fair argument for Pierce right there. Then again, Riley said that the Heat were close. Which may mean than he has a few more major moves brewing. Who knows, maybe one of those includes the addition of a “top player,” as Pierce put it.
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