Former Boston Celtics center Kendrick Perkins has his NBA title favorite for the 2021-22 season, and it’s not a team many have at the top of their own lists of contenders.
After their 13-point drubbing of the Brooklyn Nets at the Barclays Center as a betting underdog, the Miami Heat are Perkins’ pick to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy in June 2022.
Miami bolstered their roster over the summer by bringing in championship-winning veterans like Kyle Lowry (w/ 2018-19 Toronto Raptors), Markieff Morris (w/2019-20 Los Angeles Lakers), and P.J. Tucker (w/2020-21 Milwaukee Bucks).
Those moves have paid off, as the Heat are off to a 3-1 start and have inspired confidence in prominent NBA media figures like Perkins:
Dem Goons from Dade County are going to have to the BEST defensive team in the NBA this season that’s why I got them as my dark horse to win it All!!! Carry the hell on...
— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) October 28, 2021
Miami, of course, handed the Boston Celtics an Eastern Conference championship series loss in September 2020 during the NBA’s bubble postseason from the Lake Buena Vista bubble on Walt Disney World’s Wide World of Sports complex.
Falling short in the NBA Finals, the Heat proceeded to fail to run it back in 2020-21, being swept in the first round of the postseason by the eventual NBA Champion Milwaukee Bucks. That inspired sweeping offseason changes that brought in win-now veterans known for their defensive intensity.
Miami already owns victories over two teams with better championship odds than them in Milwaukee and Brooklyn this season, and takes on the Celtics November 4th at the FTX Arena in South Beach.
Whether Perkins’ early pick for the NBA Championship holds up remains to be seen, but through four games, it certainly looks like a reasonable choice.
Then again, we still haven’t made it out of October.