Dolphins, Heat, UM and all the rest: The 2023 state of Miami sports, with grades on each team | Opinion

Here is our annual (on years we remember to do it) state Of Miami sports for the new year, in which we grade each of our teams based on the shape they’re in right now and for the near future.

We identify the big seven as the Miami Dolphins, Heat and Marlins, Florida Panthers, Inter Miami soccer and Miami Hurricanes football and men’s basketball. We like to do this each January because all of the teams are either currently playing, just finished their season or are about to start.

Teams are listed by grade, from high to low. At the end we also have quickie grades from the teams just outside the Big Seven:

▪ MIAMI DOLPHINS: Overall grade: B-plus — Fins had a third consecutive winning regular season for the first time since 2001-03 and made the playoffs for the first time since 2016 before falling 34-31 in Buffalo — nearly fashioning the biggest upset of the playoffs despite being down to a rookie third-string quarterback. Mike McDaniel, even with demerits for clock management, proved to be a bright coaching hire, and Tua Tagovailoa in Year 3 proved when healthy to be worthy of an extended contract, leading the NFL with a 105.5 passer rating. The ’when healthy’ is a large caveat, yes, given Tagovailoa’s two concussions this season, but if Miami has found its QB, there is a chance this decade will be the beginning of new glory days.

One year earlier, the Dolphins were in upheaval. Team owner Stephen Ross had fired Brian Flores, and continuing franchise doubts about Tagovailoa would later lead the NFL to find Ross guilty of tampering and make Miami forfeit a 2023 first-round draft pick for the improper wooing of Tom Brady. That upheaval has been replaced with fresh hope. It is fragile because it depends on Tagovailoa’s health, but it is real hope nonetheless.

▪ CANES MEN’S BASKETBALL: Overall grade: B-plus — Two seasons ago some fans were calling coach Jim Larranaga spent. His Canes finished 10-17, UM’s worst season since 1994. Well, last season the comeback coach of the year went 26-11 and reached the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. Presently his team is 15-3 and ranked No. 17.

That’s 41-14 since some were shoveling dirt on his career. Nobody thinks Larranaga, 73, is too old now.

▪ MIAMI HEAT: Overall grade: B-minus — The Heat is South Florida’s best-run pro team, but this is now the 10th season since the club’s last NBA championship, and current fortunes ( a middling 24-21 record entering Wednesday night) mark a sharp downturn from just last year, when Miami reached the Eastern Conference finals.

Miami’s 108.9 scoring average is the lowest in the league, and the Heat has lost the second-most man-games to injury. Even when healthy, though, there is the sense the triumvirate of Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro might need an added star to challenge in a power-packed East led by a better-than-ever Boston and also Milwaukee, Philly and Brooklyn. We grade this team on a tougher scale. The Heat under the auspices of coach Erik Spoelstra is our only team we expect to compete for a title every year ... and this season has thus far underwhelmed.

▪ INTER MIAMI: Overall grade: B-minus — Sharp progress last year followed two rough first seasons, and Miami approaches its fourth year in MLS — season opener is February 25 — with expectations greater than ever for David Beckham’s club. Inter Miami finished 10th of 14 Eastern teams each of its first two seasons, winning 19 matches while tying eight and losing 31. Last season the Herons made big changes and finished sixth, going level at 14-14 with six draws, and made the playoffs, albeit with a quick exit. Now coach Phil Neville digs in for this third season with a further-improved roster that added Venezuelan international striker Josef Martinez, a former MLS MVP.

We can’t know when or if Miami might actually sign Lionel Messi someday, the long-rumored eventuality. Can’t be sure, either, if the new stadium will be ready by the March 2025 target date. But the team competing as a major player in MLS seems poised to not wait for either and start now.

▪ HURRICANES FOOTBALL: Overall grade: C — Mario Cristobal, ex-Canes national champion as a player and coming from an Oregon program he made a big winner, arrived last year as a dream hire landing his dream job. The coach went 5-7. The grand homecoming landed with a massive thud. It included a loss to Middle Tennessee State, a seven-turnover loss to Duke and 45-3 loss to Florida State.

But one season, even one so disappointing, is not enough to judge. Benefit of doubt is earned, Cristobal deserves it, and a 2023 recruiting class presently ranked best in the ACC and No. 3 in the nation by ESPN highlights Cristobal doing what he does best and hikes the grade up to a C. (But can he reel in wavering five-star recruit Cormani McClain?) I believe Cristobal will win at Miami, in spite of the inauspicious debut. But win now is the frame of mind, and should be, greeting his second season.

▪ FLORIDA PANTHERS: Overall grade: C-minus — No getting around it. The Panthers have been a huge disappointment. Last season — rallying from losing coach Joel Quennevile nine games in — they set a franchise record for most standing points, led the NHL in goals scored and advanced in the playoffs for the first time since 1996. Today they have lost more games than they have won and would not make the playoffs if the season ended now.

Florida messed with success. They chose not to retain their interim coach, bringing in veteran Paul Maurice, and they swapped star players in trading Jonathan Huberdeau for Matthew Tkachuk. Can’t say Tkachuk hasn’t worked out; he leads the team with 22 goals and 56 points. But the record makes the Maurice hire is open to debate at midseason.

▪ MIAMI MARLINS: Overall grade: D — We are coming up on the sixth season of owner Bruce Sherman’s stewardship, with the Derek Jeter experiment now jettisoned and fans still waiting (and waiting) for the ground-up rebuild to show some sort of payoff. Ace Sandy Alcantara won a Cy Young Award last season and still the Fish went 69-93, thanks largely to anemic offense.

Sherman infamously said just before last season began, “We have money and we will spend it.” He did not. He still has not, relative to the rest of MLB and especially his rivals in the National League East. The Marlins are still flying economy while other teams go first class. The Mets, Braves and Phillies player payrolls will easily double that of the Marlins in 2023. Other teams add stars. Miami adds the underwhelming likes of Jean Segura and Johnny Cueto.

The farm system is not producing enough difference-making bats, and the lack of spending is not adding any in free agency. The result is a 2023 season that will begin with Miami all but destined to finish no better than fourth in a five-team division. Again. A new manager, Skip Schumaker, replaces Don Mattingly, but what really needed replacing was the unwillingness to spend big. Marlins fans who remain steadfastly patient deserve medals.

If our big seven teams was a Big 10:

Canes women’s basketball: Grade: B — Like the UM men’s team, the Canes women rebounded from a down year two seasons ago to finish 21-13 and make the second round of the NCAA Tournament. This season the team is 12-6.

FAU football: Grade: C-minus — Owls enjoyed a 2017-19 boost from Lane Kiffin but fired Willie Taggert after consecutive 5-7 seasons. Tom Herman’s turn now as the former Texas coach shepherds FAU’s move from Conference USA to the American Athletic Conference.

FIU football: Grade: D-plus — Panthers were hard-hit by the pandemic and finished 1-16 across Butch Davis final two seasons before a slight upturn to 4-8 under new coach Mike MacIntyre last year.