MIAMI — For the sport of the moment it is all about the depth chart, NFL and NCAA teams delineating a definitive hierarchy. In the NBA, such depth charts are merely guesstimates, available nowhere other than, say, a personnel board in the general manager’s office. If even there.
For the Miami Heat, just shy of a month from training camp , the notion of a depth chart is nebulous, at best, at the moment. Backup center? At least an outline. Backup power forward? Only a smallball option.
Backup small forward? Sure, unless that same player is the backup shooting guard. Backup shooting guard? The options seemingly are only 30-somethings or the unproven. Backup point guard? Is there one? Of course, in a league where only five play at a time, depth also can be overrated.
Consider what the Boston Celtics fielded during their dominant run to last season’s NBA championship. For starters, there was the elite quintet of Jayson Tatum (pre-Olympic version), Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis and Derrick White — each with an All-Star case last season and each likely with one again this season. But then also consider a bench, with all due respect, of Al Horford, Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, Xavier Tillman and Luke Kornet.
Yes, a bench and a depth chart can matter. But a starting lineup matters more. Still, based on the lack of a player viewed on the superstar spectrum, depth will have to matter for what Erik Spoelstra fields this season.
Which means the Heat depth chart w.