No. 6: The Miami Heat
Schedule Score: 1
As far as teams making a turnaround after a star player exit, the Miami Heat are right up there with the Pacers and Mavericks in quick turnaround time. With Miami capitalizing on some tumultuous Jimmy Butler pairings with the Sixers and Minnesota Timberwolves, and salvaging the wreck that was Andre Iguodala’s relationship with teams not named the Golden State Warriors, the Heat have made themselves a dark horse championship contender.
That contendership status, though, isn’t helped at all by their schedule. The Heat are the other team in this list to face four of the top three teams in either conference, and in a horrible double decker of bad luck, not only do they face those four in back-to-back-to-back-to-back games, but those are their first four games of the return. Talk about a tough stretch.
Still, Miami will almost certainly find a way to exit that four-game stretch with at least one win, and carry that into a back half of easily winnable games, meaning it’s entirely plausible to see Miami go 5-3, and be on a hot streak going into the postseason.