The Heat’s season ended in an appropriate way Wednesday night — with another new starting lineup. Injuries have forced coach Erik Spoelstra to juggle his rotations since training camp, and he unveiled his 37th starting unit in Game 5 at Boston, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.
Rookie Jaime Jaquez was unavailable because of a hip injury he suffered in Game 4 and Spoelstra didn’t want to start Duncan Robinson, who has been limited by a back condition since late in the regular season, so veteran guard Delon Wright made the first playoff start of his career. Wright provided eight points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals in 33 minutes, but he had to leave the game briefly to get stitches in his lower lip and chin after being hit by an elbow.
In addition to Jaquez, Miami was without Jimmy Butler, Terry Rozier and Josh Richardson, who all missed the entire series due to injuries. However, Spoelstra refused to use that as an excuse, Chiang tweets.
“We’re not going to put this on the fact that we had some injuries,” Spoelstra said. “Let’s not take anything away from Boston. They’ve been the best team in basketball all season long.”
There’s more on the Heat:
- The early playoff exit leaves the franchise with a long offseason and a lot of financial decisions ahead, Chiang adds. Part of the future will be determined by player options held by Caleb Martin ($7.1MM), Kevin Love ($4MM), Richardson ($3.1MM) and Thomas Bryant ($2.8MM). Orlando Robinson has a non-guaranteed $2.1MM contract for next season, while Wright, Haywood Highsmith and Patty Mills are all headed for unrestricted free agency.
- Miami faces a difficult decision on Jimmy Butler, who will become extension-eligible this summer, Bobby Marks of ESPN notes in his offseason preview for the Heat. Butler will make $48.8MM next season and holds a $52.4MM player option for 2025/26. Beginning July 7, he can sign a one-year extension worth $58.6MM, which would retain his ’25/26 salary, or a two-year, $112.9MM extension that would void the player option. Marks points out that Butler will turn 35 during the offseason and hasn’t topped 65 games in any of the last four years.
- Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald examines the Heat’s options in this year’s draft. Players who could still be on the board when Miami picks at No. 15 include Purdue center Zach Edey, Duke power forward/center Kyle Filipowski, Providence guard Devin Carter, Colorado forward Tristan Da Silva, Duke point guard Jared McCain, Baylor center Yves Missi, Kansas small forward Kevin McCullar Jr., Baylor swingman Ja’Kobe Walter, USC point guard Isaiah Collier and Illinois shooting guard Terrence Shannon Jr.
I would ECSTATIC if the Heat could land Zach Edey at 15… he would be a perfect compliment to Bam (who could finally play the 4 and thrive there)… but it’s not realistic lol.. if they pass on him after 5, every team that does is a moron lol
From a quick glance at the big board, I kind of like guys situated in the mid 20s more than those angled toward late littery, but would need others opinions
The Heat seem to draft well. Hopefully
They will hit at 15 again. Let Butler play out his contract. Giving that money to a 37 player is not wise.
Maybe heat land Mitchell via trade…
As it was with Dame last season, the Heat don’t/won’t have the most attractive package for any superstar.
Herro had another very good season, but I don’t know that he’s a centrepiece in a superstar trade package. Bam and Jamie are their only other players under the age 27, and guys like scary Terry, Rich, Bryant and others don’t move the needle in a deal. Unless Jamie’s available in the package and they’re willing to deal this year’s first with him and Herro, I don’t see where they can drastically improve next season.
The issue with Lillard was it makes no sense tk use their assets in a guard they don’t need that would be similar to what they alreadybhave. In a deal for other types, that would be more interesting. Unfortunately, the Heat had injuries to the wrong people at extremely inopportune times at the end of the season, after also making a bad trade similar to the one they were able to avoid in the offseason, and that was that…
Now they’re at a point where 1 of Rozier/Herro and probably Jovic will be attempted to be packaged for a wing piece or another option at the 4…I could also unfortunately see this leading to the end of Duncan Robinson, as they might have to include him in the type of trade to get one of the types of players I’m talking about, mostly as they don’t have the same assets they had previously, and they need him for salary matching
Jovic is 20 years old and was their starting PF – I think that qualifies as a player under 27 besides Bam and Jaime..
Give Jimmy a two year extension and see what you can get on the market for Herro. Even if it’s getting out of that contract. Jimmy’s getting older but clearly still very important to this team. I think he’s got another 2-3 great years left.
Top priorities this offseason is to find a true point guard, which would allow Rozier to play SG. Also need to find another forward that can score and play the 4 next to Jimmy and Bam.
Would love to see Kevin Love return as the backup 5, and JRich come back as the backup combo guard. I think bringing back Delon Wright makes sense too… Other than that, hope we get lucky on some trades/FA singing. The rest of the FAs can walk. Martin & Haysmith will prob be too expensive. Bryant was a bust for us.
Hopefully Jovic and Jaquez return and can build off of last year.
If Jaime got good at catch and shoot 3s, that would be extremely interesting. Slightly quicker decisions also in certain situations. Bryant was there in case Kevin Love got injured, as I said from the beginning, but we already had Orlando Robinson, so we wasted 1 too many spots on (offensive leaning/redundant) bigs, and the Patty mills spot, plus the injuries, and using Jovic, in matchups he would have issues with right now, when he still needs another 1.5 years
J-rich, Kevin Love, and Delon are all extremely important to hold, if they can, and I think Cain and Smith should be back
Problem is that owner and Riley got too intimate with their stars. Otherwise they would plan Butler trade while he is still good.
Trade with gsw would be great for heat.
Butler for Paul, Kuminga, Moody, this year first.
Next on the block is Herro.
Jaques, Moody, Kuminga, Jovic, Adebayo is interesting lineup
Interesting to watch on league pass maybe when none of their games are nationally televised because they’re battling for .500 lol give me a break
Well…Patty mills played for some reason, and that was that. That spot should have been several other people, but it is what it is…we’re losing caleb and highsmith, and have other stuff to replace there, and hopefully won’t be injured/at least be slightly healthy for the first time in 12 years next year.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Heat try to trade rozier/herro and Jovic. Wish we could keep Caleb, but that possibility was lost in the kyle/rozier deal
Would have loved to have seen this matchup under different circumstances, but I was also hoping to play milwaukee
Just as I knew we would lose Strus and Nnamdi, I always knew the Heat were losing Caleb and Highsmith. I held put a little hope for Caleb, before the terrible Lowry+somehow a pick for Rozier trade, but that deal pretty much cemented that Caleb will get paid elsewhere, which I’m super happy for him about, but also super sad to see him go. Had they not done that, I couldnhave seen a world where they resign Kyle for 2 years at a lower amount, and offer Caleb close to the $18mil a year he probably at least gets. Heat had their bird rights, so it was plausible, but now they have Rozier’s money on their cap, and the fit isn’t as strong, unless you can somehow move Rozier, or Herro, maybe in a package with Jovic. Like anything from $14-20 mil AAV would be nice to keep Caleb if it were possible,
There are options in FA for the Heat, and they have the 15th and 43rd picks, so depends what they do there, and in summer league, but there are more than several FA options I think make sense.
Highsmith should have played last year, and I think I’ve now been proven correct there, but the Heat do have things available to replace him.
They’ve had multiple guys the last couple of years they haven’t used that can play in that spot, so they could get more looks as well. I’m super behind Jamal Cain, and assume he will be convented to the standard roster, which he should have been instead of Patty mills to end this season. If not, again, they still have the draft, summer league, and many FA options
I haven’t started my draft research yet. Anyone have ideas of 2/3s or 4/3s, or 2 way combo guards, potentially available in their draft ranges?
One more thing…
I’d be very surprised if they don’t give Butler whatever extension he wants, assuming he wants one; either structure, he’d only get 1 additional season of commitment from the team than he currently has. At his age, he wouldn’t be worth nearly as much in a trade as he is on the court. Other than a rebuild or significant reset, the team really has no choice.
There is zero chance Jimmy isn’t here at least the next 2 years
This is my current list of FA targets for the Heat (reasonable, potentially gettable ones), before considering draft picks (Heat have 15 and 43), and summer league guys. Clearly plenty of options for them, after getting my #1 wishlist guy last year with Richardson
This is under the assumption the Heat keep Josh Richardson, Kevin Love, Jamal Cain, Delon Wright, and Dru Smith, and lose Caleb and Highsmith (and 1 or both of Bryant/Orlando Robinson). List could change if anyone else is added, trades are made, or probably after the draft/during summer league (which is when I usually post this)…Heat currently need a 2/3, 4/3, and someone that can maybe play 1-3/a 2 way combo guard that can catch and shoot and doesn’t need the ball in his hands…another option at smallball 5 could be interesting as well, but they currently have Jaime and Jovic, and Kevin Love is useful in most matchups as a spacer at the 5 next to defenders
Royce o’neal, Nicolas Batum, Miles Bridges, Kyle lowry, de’anthony melton, delon Wright, Jae Crowder, Lindy Waters III, Aaron Wiggins, kyle anderson, Joe Ingles, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Xavier Tillman, Robert Covington, Wesley matthews, Gary harris, shake milton, Jae’sean Tate, Frank ntilikina, justise Winslow, shaq harrison, Marcus Morris, Taurean Prince, Oshae Brisset, KJ Martin, Derrick Jones jr, trendon watford, Torrey Craig, Keita bates-diop, Dalano banton, naji Marshall, usman garuba, dylan Windler, Kelly Oubre, Kris dunn, nerlens noel, isaiah roby, Aaron holiday, Stanley Johnson, rodney mcgruder, alec burks, romeo langford, jamychal green, chuma okeke, Cam Reddish, David Duke, Daquan Jeffries, Trevelin Queen, Charlie Brown jr, Daishen Nix, Lindell Wigginton, terence davis, Mac mcclung, Justin Jackson, Juan Toscano anderson, Lamar stevens, Dereon Seabron, ish Wainright
The Heat need to blow it up and rebuild around Bam…
Butler and the other ageing vets are just going to hold this team back…