Let’s check out the Southeast Division Dub Nation, a spicy part of the NBA this year. Last season, the Warriors split two with Miami, and only one of them still stings. The Heat took the first one 110-96 in November, against a Golden State roster so short-handed it looked like a Santa Cruz scrimmage. Then on MLK Day at Chase Center, the Warriors won 135-112, and in the third quarter Jimmy Butler came down awkwardly on his right knee and didn’t get up. Torn ACL, against the one team on the schedule
he’d most want to beat. Basketball has a mean sense of humor sometimes.
So here we are. Steph and Draymond are still chugging along, still making a way out of no way, with Jimmy in tow and working his way back. He told everybody at media day his testing numbers are off the charts and he’s ahead of schedule, which is exactly what Jimmy would say, and I believe him anyway.
And the man is happy here. You remember how he left Miami. January 2025, after a loss to Indiana, Butler stood at the podium and said the quiet part out loud: “I want to get my joy back.” Somebody asked if he could find it in Miami. He gave them two words, “probably not”, and a few weeks later he was a Warrior. Bad knee and all, he found joy.
Which makes this Heat summer kind of beautiful, because Miami turned around and became the place other stars go to find theirs. Giannis Antetokounmpo spent a year being dragged through every trade rumor on earth in Milwaukee and finally got out. Klay Thompson took a buyout from Dallas and signed with Miami in late August. Two guys who had soured on where they were, landing in the same building as Bam Adebayo, the one guy who never left. Riley went shopping in the clearance aisle of NBA discontent and came home with a two-time MVP and a four-time champion.
It wasn’t cheap. Miami sent Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis and three first-round picks to Milwaukee to make the Giannis deal happen. Then they spent the rest of the summer filling in around him with Klay, Tim Hardaway Jr., Bobby Portis and extensions for Andrew Wiggins and Pelle Larsson.
Now here’s the question I actually can’t stop chewing on. Are Bam and Giannis the greatest modern NBA frontcourt? Let’s be honest about who’s ahead of them. Tim Duncan and David Robinson are clearly first: two MVPs on one front line, with two titles together. Ben and Rasheed Wallace have the 2004 ring and enough technical fouls to fund a small city. And dammit I’m gonna put Draymond Green and Kevin Durant here too, two titles with Draymond at center and KD doing whatever he wanted at the four.
Call that the Banner school of thought. You want to be the best frontcourt, show me the rings.
Then there’s the Freak school of thought, and it deserves real weight, because nobody on that list was built like this. Giannis is a 7-footer who runs like a wing and finishes like a truck. Bam can guard all five spots, and last March he dropped 83 on Washington, the second-highest scoring game in NBA history. The AP summed it up in four words, “It’s Wilt, then Bam,” and I still don’t fully believe it. One of these guys can give you buckets every night; the other one gave you 83 in a single night!!!
The problem is space, which is why Klay matters more than his age suggests. He spent years spacing the floor so Draymond could run the offense from the elbow without anybody guarding him honestly. He’s done this job before, he’s just 36 now doing it in Florida humidity.
From where we sit, Miami’s in the East, so this team matters to Golden State twice a year and then again only if June gets weird. But those two nights are going to be appointment viewing. Draymond versus Giannis is one of the best defensive staredowns of the last decade, Klay walks into Chase wearing Miami red for the first time, and Jimmy gets another crack at Miami after his last meeting ended with that knee injury.
If you really want an answer on the best modern frontcourt, there’s one guy in Miami who can tell you from the floor. Klay’s about to watch Bam set a screen and Giannis roll to the rim, and he’s going to recognize the feeling, because he won four rings standing next to Draymond and two of them standing next to KD too. If Klay says this one’s better, Dub Nation, I want to hear it from him in March, after they’ve played.
