Miami Heat: 5 takeaways from 2017-18 NBA season

Following their playoff elimination at the hands of the Philadelphia 76ers, here are five takeaways from the 2017-18 NBA season for the Miami Heat.

When it was all said and done, the completion of the 2017-18 season for the Miami Heat was all too inevitable.

The Heat ultimately finished in sixth place in the Eastern Conference with a 44-38 record, and were bounced 4-1 in the first-round of the playoffs by the up-and-coming Philadelphia 76ers. While a return to the postseason was admirable following a one-year absence, the shortcomings in their roster composition became glaringly obvious in the heat of a playoff setting.

Whereas the Sixers had two legitimate next-level players in Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, the Heat were more or less stacked with a bunch of good role players. This clearly is not going to cut it in both the short and long-term.

Over the course of the regular season, the Heat finished 20th in offensive rating, seventh in defensive rating and 17th in overall net rating. In other words, the Heat were good, but not great. While they had some impressive wins against some of the better teams in the league, the Heat also managed to drop 11 games to teams with 29 wins or less on the season.

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Naturally, plenty of soul-searching and decision-making is going to be required after such a disappointing finish to the season.

However before looking too far forward, here are five takeaways from this past season.