What lessons can Raptors learn from improbable Heat run to NBA Finals?

It’s hard not to watch the Miami Heat and wonder — could the Toronto Raptors do what they’re doing?

On Monday night, the Miami Heat won their 12th game of the playoffs to advance to the NBA Finals, fending off a 3-0 comeback attempt from the Boston Celtics with a 103-84 Game 7 victory.

It’s been gruelling, ugly, and downright inexplicable at times, but the Heat are back in the NBA Finals for the second time in four seasons, and the seventh time since being founded in 1988.

But what can the Raptors learn from the experience? Could this actually be something they pull off in the next few seasons, or is that merely a pipe dream?

Here are three things the Raptors should learn from the Heat’s seemingly improbable rise to the Finals.

Undrafted players can be an asset

Miami features four undrafted players in their regular playoff rotation: Gabe Vincent, Duncan Robinson, Caleb Martin, and Max Strus.

As well, the team features Udonis Haslem, Haywood Highsmith, and Ömer Yurtseven on their bench, none of whom ever heard their name called on draft day.

The Heat seems tired of the “undrafted” storyline, but it’s been a clear component of the team’s success.

“That storyline is over. These guys have proven themselves and competitors and winning players,”  Spoelstra said after the Heat’s Game 2 victory over the Celtics.

Toronto, for now, has one of the NBA’s best undrafted players ever in Fred VanVleet, who’s spent his entire career with the organization since signing back in 2016 out of Wichita State.

The organization obviously knows the general idea of looking for untapped talent in a variety of different markets, but perhaps it’s time to truly develop a few of those players for the future in a meaningful way.

“A lot of those guys, it ends up being about the right time and the right fit, the right culture, and if the organizations value what you do [as a player],” Spoelstra said in response to a question from Daily Hive earlier this season about the importance of player development.

“We have a great respect for the Raptors… they have a commitment to development,” Spoelstra continued. “You see two players like [VanVleet and Pascal Siakam], you know that’s not by accident, that’s from a lot of intentional work going on behind the scenes, they’re perfect fits for this organization.”

The Raptors need to pick a clear path forward

If you look at the last two seasons, the Raptors aren’t really that far behind the Miami Heat when it comes to an 82-game span: they finished five wins behind them in 2021-22, and three wins back in 2022-23.

Had things gone a little differently at any point in the postseason for Miami— a play-in loss to the Chicago Bulls, or a more inspiring performance from, well, any of its favoured opponents, we wouldn’t be out here singing its praises.

But while Miami’s commitment to focus on winning in the present seems to have worked in its favour, it’s done little but blow up in Toronto’s face over this past season, as it’s currently without a head coach, and just about nobody knows how things will unfold this coming summer.

Toronto’s core group was the subject of many, many trade rumours this past season before the only player they traded away was Khem Birch as part of a package for center Jakob Poeltl.

Will Toronto trade a star player or two? Will they let VanVleet walk in free agency? Will they tank once again, or look to make a return to the playoffs?

It’s not quite clear where they’re headed, but that’s sort of the problem.

Miami, meanwhile, has undergone a massive roster overhaul since acquiring Jimmy Butler in a sign-and-trade in 2019 from Philadelphia and reaped the benefits of hitching their wagon to a star player of his calibre.

The Eastern Conference is wide open

If you look at the path Miami took to make the Finals, it’s been rather impressive: wins over the one-seed Milwaukee Bucks, two-seed Boston Celtics, and fifth-seed New York Knicks.

But it should also push forward a narrative that there’s hardly anyone unbeatable in this generation of the Eastern Conference.

The last five NBA Finals have featured four different Eastern Conference representatives, with the Heat being the only returning franchise.

Milwaukee has won five straight Central Division titles but has lost to lower-ranked seeds in four of its last five playoff runs.

Boston advanced to the 2022 NBA Finals, losing in six games to Golden State, but was one game away from being swept out of the Conference Finals this year by Miami. It might’ve staved off the embarrassing elimination but still found a way to get blown out in a Game 7 at home.

Philadelphia — a perennial preseason title contender — has still yet to advance past the second round of the playoff since 2001.

And then there’s Cleveland — which many picked as a dark horse to make the Finals following a blockbuster move for Donovan Mitchell last summer — which went out and won precisely one playoff game in a disappointing first-round loss to the Knicks.

You could do this sort of exercise for nearly every team in the Eastern Conference, but the point remains the same: there’s no real “top dog” right now that should be considered unbeatable.

If Toronto wants to commit to returning to being a true contender once again, no one in the Eastern Conference should really scare it right now.

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