In case you've been traveling internationally and were planning to catch up on your DVR with the past two weeks of Miami Heat basketball, we'll save you the time: The Heat crapped the bed. Six losses in the past seven games — topped by another wrenchingly tight loss to Toronto this weekend — has turned playoff-seeding talk into lottery-ping-pong talk, and now Miami Heat Nation doesn't know what to do with its hands.
After four straight NBA Finals that stretched the Heat season into mid-June, this year's bastard of a campaign is about to go night-night before you finish all the leftover Peeps. So with two games remaining and only a mathematically improbable path to the postseason left, it's time Heat fans turn their attention to the most important site on the internet: the appropriately named Tankathon.com.
That's where you can see the reverse NBA standings, the ones that show the Golden State Warriors about 50 games behind the New York Knicks and Minnesota Timberwolves for another race: which team gets the most ping-pong balls in the draft lottery. On this wonderful site, the Miami Heat is currently the 10th best-worst team in the NBA.
The Heat will keep its first-round pick this year only if it's tenth or better; otherwise, the selection goes to the Philadelphia 76ers by way of the Cleveland Cavs, which they acquired in a little publicized sign-and-trade of a player named LeBron James in 2010. Finishing tenth ensures nothing, as the ping-pong balls can fall wrong for the Heat and the team's pick could be lower than tenth, but at this point there is nothing else to look forward to for Heat fans.
The good news, by all accounts, is that this is one of the deepest NBA drafts in years. A tenth selection in this upcoming draft almost feels like a top five in others. Hell, Kentucky alone is sending seven players into this year's draft; a player at tenth overall is sure to be talented. Adding a potential young player-maker to a roster that includes Wade-Whiteside-Dragic-Bosh-Deng-McRoberts is reason to be excited about the leap back into contention the Heat could make next year.
Until then, it's time for fans to bid farewell to the 2015 Miami Heat season. Goodnight, sweet prince.