by Couper Moorhead
HEAT.com
Having a stake in the NBA Draft Lottery while the conference finals are getting underway isn’t exactly an enviable position to be in. Four teams are still playing for a title while everyone else is preparing for the draft, free agency and, effectively, next year. But there’s still plenty of good that can come from the evening, especially for a team that is only stopping by for a layover.
That figures to be the Miami HEAT’s plan, at least. Nobody within the organization planned to be here when the year began, but a likely playoff team just couldn’t fight off an injury plague that left them on the outside looking in on the postseason.