2025 Miami Heat Regular Season Thread

[SA37]

Jovic failing is wearing Wiggins out

This needs to be a real discussion. Wiggins is leading the team in minutes as a two-way player on a high 106 pace team. People have to understand that 33 minutes at 106 pace is not equal to 33 minutes on a 98 pace team. And people have to understand that Wiggins is one of the reasons the Heat can play effectively at a high pace. It is exponentially more taxing on a player's body at this pace.
Spo has to have an effective 11-man rotation at this pace. Jovic is hurting that possibility. Spo really needs to start giving Jovic one-on-one attention and finding a way to make him effective. Or eventually, the Heat need to get another player or start infusing Jakučionis.

Jovic isn't a 3, he's a tweener. He can't guard 3s unless they're big 3s, like Franz Wagner, and offensively he simply can't take guys off the dribble. He has above average quickness for a 4, but he's a slow 3 whose skills don't make up for his relative lack of athleticism.

It's the same story with Fontecchio.

Jaquez is the only other SF, but he doesn't have Wiggins' length or defensive ability.

Even if he is a bit on the small side, this is where Miami misses a player like Highsmith. Grant Williams hasn't played in an eternity, but he is a guy who could come in a be a Highsmith-like player. If the Clips decide to have a firesale, Nic Batum or DJJ would be guys Miami could look at. Either of the Martin brothers would be cheap stop-gaps.

The guy who would be optimal here, imo, would be Keegan Murray, but his price tag would be significantly higher than the aforementioned guys. Same with Jerami Grant.

[Vertical Limit]

I said it during the offseason.. dont offer extensions to Jovic davion or Herro… offer davion his qo…visit those talks when they become free agents… we always outbid ourselves.. now look, we got rid of a bad contract in Duncan and gave ourselves another 4 year horrible contract..

He didnt do anything to earn it..some thought well maybe it wont be so bad like 3 years 33 million.. then andy does it again.. 4 years 62 million…good lord… how, what, why…where did that number come from… all these agents know they can bend over our salary cap..

[twix2500]

Jovic failing is wearing Wiggins out

This needs to be a real discussion. Wiggins is leading the team in minutes as a two-way player on a high 106 pace team. People have to understand that 33 minutes at 106 pace is not equal to 33 minutes on a 98 pace team. And people have to understand that Wiggins is one of the reasons the Heat can play effectively at a high pace. It is exponentially more taxing on a player's body at this pace.
Spo has to have an effective 11-man rotation at this pace. Jovic is hurting that possibility. Spo really needs to start giving Jovic one-on-one attention and finding a way to make him effective. Or eventually, the Heat need to get another player or start infusing Jakučionis.

Jovic isn't a 3, he's a tweener. He can't guard 3s unless they're big 3s, like Franz Wagner, and offensively he simply can't take guys off the dribble. He has above average quickness for a 4, but he's a slow 3 whose skills don't make up for his relative lack of athleticism.

It's the same story with Fontecchio.

Jaquez is the only other SF, but he doesn't have Wiggins' length or defensive ability.

Even if he is a bit on the small side, this is where Miami misses a player like Highsmith. Grant Williams hasn't played in an eternity, but he is a guy who could come in a be a Highsmith-like player. If the Clips decide to have a firesale, Nic Batum or DJJ would be guys Miami could look at. Either of the Martin brothers would be cheap stop-gaps.

The guy who would be optimal here, imo, would be Keegan Murray, but his price tag would be significantly higher than the aforementioned guys. Same with Jerami Grant.

Well its not about someone who plays the exact same style, but someone who can play in another unit successfully that will allow Wiggins to get rest. A bench core of Jovic, Ware and Jaquez should have potential to be very successful trio. Spo has to find the right glue players for that trio to work and Jovic has to simply play better.

Now I do agree with you that a defensive player should be the glue piece. But I do not necessarily think it needs to be a power forward. Some type of disruptor glue guy.

[twix2500]

This needs to be a real discussion. Wiggins is leading the team in minutes as a two-way player on a high 106 pace team. People have to understand that 33 minutes at 106 pace is not equal to 33 minutes on a 98 pace team. And people have to understand that Wiggins is one of the reasons the Heat can play effectively at a high pace. It is exponentially more taxing on a player's body at this pace.
Spo has to have an effective 11-man rotation at this pace. Jovic is hurting that possibility. Spo really needs to start giving Jovic one-on-one attention and finding a way to make him effective. Or eventually, the Heat need to get another player or start infusing Jakučionis.

Jovic isn't a 3, he's a tweener. He can't guard 3s unless they're big 3s, like Franz Wagner, and offensively he simply can't take guys off the dribble. He has above average quickness for a 4, but he's a slow 3 whose skills don't make up for his relative lack of athleticism.

It's the same story with Fontecchio.

Jaquez is the only other SF, but he doesn't have Wiggins' length or defensive ability.

Even if he is a bit on the small side, this is where Miami misses a player like Highsmith. Grant Williams hasn't played in an eternity, but he is a guy who could come in a be a Highsmith-like player. If the Clips decide to have a firesale, Nic Batum or DJJ would be guys Miami could look at. Either of the Martin brothers would be cheap stop-gaps.

The guy who would be optimal here, imo, would be Keegan Murray, but his price tag would be significantly higher than the aforementioned guys. Same with Jerami Grant.

Well its not about someone who plays the exact same style, but someone who can play in another unit successfully that will allow Wiggins to get rest. A bench core of Jovic, Ware and Jaquez should have potential to be very successful trio. Spo has to find the right glue players for that trio to work and Jovic has to simply play better.

Now I do agree with you that a defensive player should be the glue piece. But I do not necessarily think it needs to be a power forward. Some type of disruptor glue guy.

My question to you, and it’s why I keep bringing up Middleton, is this: I am assuming Middleton will be bought out. Around this time, agents are backdoor negotiating this possible outcome and new destination. How do you feel about a bench trio of Middleton, Jamie, and Ware? If Jovic keeps struggling, Middleton could temporarily fill that role as a bench go-to player.

[Beenie]

Could really use a reliable shooting wing.

Wiggs, Jaimie, Pelle, Jovic, and Fontecchio I wouldnt hold my breath to rely on hitting a big long range shot in the playoffs.

[MartyCONLONNN]

I said it during the offseason.. dont offer extensions to Jovic davion or Herro… offer davion his qo…visit those talks when they become free agents… we always outbid ourselves.. now look, we got rid of a bad contract in Duncan and gave ourselves another 4 year horrible contract..

He didnt do anything to earn it..some thought well maybe it wont be so bad like 3 years 33 million.. then andy does it again.. 4 years 62 million…good lord… how, what, why…where did that number come from… all these agents know they can bend over our salary cap..

we're just lucky Jovic is still 21 and that there is upside once he gets his confidence back and feels like he's in the correct role, but yes it was yet another mistake by the same FO that told Jimmy to go earn it after taking us to 2 Finals. At this point every player except Bam should be "earning" their extensions and traded otherwise. So far Powell is playing like someone who has earned their $$ but I would wait to see how injury prone he is because he keeps twisting ankles and strained his groin already and making us run through a bogged down offense through Boy Wonder

Herro absolutely doesnt deserve the contract he thinks he does... he still is a big target even when flanked by Davion, Wiggins, Bam, JJJ, Dru. he cant carry his weight defensively and still struggles offensively against physicality. He needs to be shopped around and even if it's unlikely hopefully there's some allure for Bucks and his Wisconsin roots

[greg4012]

Miami had a dominant performance against LAC last night, shot 52% from 3 on 46 attempts, all the starters scored over 15 points. Miami is 14-7 and the 3 seed in the East currently. Miami ranks 6th in the NBA in net rating at +5.3. Vibes are high. I'm loving it.

BUT, getting outclassed by Detroit still left a bad taste in my mouth. Miami is currently behind the knicks in the Eastern Conference standings and both the knicks and little brother magic are riding high right now with better net ratings than Miami over the past 4 games. F**K that. Miami has the 15th best offense and 7th best defense in this timespan. Not good enough. Gotta keep integrating the pieces (namely Herro) with those that helped Miami succeed previously (Ware, Larsson, Davion, Jaquez). A lot more iteration to do. I'm riding with a healthy paranoia.

My current fixation is Opponent Points in the Paint after seeing some clear warning signs the past 2 games. Over the 3-game span with the current rotation, Miami is worst in the league in opponent points per game, allowing 62 paint ppg. For context, over the last 20 seasons the worst opponent paint ppg allowed was 58.3 by Washington 2 seasons ago (29th ranked defense that season).

On the season as a whole, Miami is 24th in opponent paint points per game averaging 53.3. Before this stretch of games, Miami was at 51.9.

Of course, Miami plays at the fastest pace in the NBA so it will inflate all raw counting stats. So, if we adjust these numbers to average NBA pace, then what we have is Pace-Adjusted 59 opponent paint ppg allowed over the last 3 games. That still would be worst in league and worst in past 20 seasons.

On the season, Miami is allowing Pace-Adjusted 50.5 opponent paint ppg.

Small sample, of course. But, it's our only sample with this unit so far. Could be nothing that some small tweaks don't fix. But it's a signal that I'll try to monitor as the season progresses.

Update--last night Miami only allowed 44 points in the paint (good). But, it didn't change their last 3-game total since the 2 games prior were league-worst in opponent point in the paint. Last 3 games at 62 opponent paint ppg. With that said, last night Miami never logged the 3-guard lineup since Powell was out (Larsson in play style, skillset and defensive game is a SF/SG to me). My concern is the correlation between running the 3-guard lineup and Miami's defense being susceptible to open season in the paint. Spo's defenses are typically designed to keep teams out of the paint.

[3ammy3uck3ts]

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[3ammy3uck3ts]

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[SA37]

Jovic isn't a 3, he's a tweener. He can't guard 3s unless they're big 3s, like Franz Wagner, and offensively he simply can't take guys off the dribble. He has above average quickness for a 4, but he's a slow 3 whose skills don't make up for his relative lack of athleticism.

It's the same story with Fontecchio.

Jaquez is the only other SF, but he doesn't have Wiggins' length or defensive ability.

Even if he is a bit on the small side, this is where Miami misses a player like Highsmith. Grant Williams hasn't played in an eternity, but he is a guy who could come in a be a Highsmith-like player. If the Clips decide to have a firesale, Nic Batum or DJJ would be guys Miami could look at. Either of the Martin brothers would be cheap stop-gaps.

The guy who would be optimal here, imo, would be Keegan Murray, but his price tag would be significantly higher than the aforementioned guys. Same with Jerami Grant.

Well its not about someone who plays the exact same style, but someone who can play in another unit successfully that will allow Wiggins to get rest. A bench core of Jovic, Ware and Jaquez should have potential to be very successful trio. Spo has to find the right glue players for that trio to work and Jovic has to simply play better.

Now I do agree with you that a defensive player should be the glue piece. But I do not necessarily think it needs to be a power forward. Some type of disruptor glue guy.

My question to you, and it’s why I keep bringing up Middleton, is this: I am assuming Middleton will be bought out. Around this time, agents are backdoor negotiating this possible outcome and new destination. How do you feel about a bench trio of Middleton, Jamie, and Ware? If Jovic keeps struggling, Middleton could temporarily fill that role as a bench go-to player.

I really like Middleton. I was actually hoping Miami would trade Butler to the Bucks for a Middelton/Portis package. In reduced minutes, I think he can play at Miami's pace. He's a lethal shooter and can get buckets.

[3ammy3uck3ts]

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[HeatFan_NC]

Let's just go ahead and send Herro, Jovic, and the kid we drafted this year to MIL for Giannis. We can win the championship and Riles can ride off into the sunset after making one last great deal.

The east is somewhat wide open this year with Tatum and Haliburton being hurt. With Giannis I think we could win the East easily.

[Lennyzinho]

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Do we really think spo isnt going to adjust and add stuff back in? He always talks about how the team has so little time to practice, he almost treats games as practice. Very clear to me teams already adjusted to us and sprint back on defense after misses.

Also spo obviously likes winning but he does not care about standings. He will gladly sacrifice a few games to implement changes or try lineups because he always thinks they have enough and can beat anyone, so he doesn't really care about home court. It'll come. Just gotta be patient (I know its hard to be patient)

[SA37]

Let's just go ahead and send Herro, Jovic, and the kid we drafted this year to MIL for Giannis. We can win the championship and Riles can ride off into the sunset after making one last great deal.

The east is somewhat wide open this year with Tatum and Haliburton being hurt. With Giannis I think we could win the East easily.

There is no way Miami keeps both Bam and Ware.

Herro, Ware, Jovic, Jakucionis, 2 1sts and 2 swaps is probably the minimum Miami would have to offer, with Herro potentially being re-routed elsewhere.

[Heat_Down_Under]

Let's just go ahead and send Herro, Jovic, and the kid we drafted this year to MIL for Giannis. We can win the championship and Riles can ride off into the sunset after making one last great deal.

The east is somewhat wide open this year with Tatum and Haliburton being hurt. With Giannis I think we could win the East easily.

Let’s just go ahead and be delusional that package gets giannis

[Tim_Hardawayy]

Just saying "this is an efficient play so why don't we run it more" is missing a lot of context. A huge part of efficiency is volume, if you can maintain efficiency and volume at the same time its essentially a cheat code, its what defines superstars. If you could get Bam to give you an efficient 25-30 ppg as the guy and funnel offense through him, you'd do it.

That's not to say he's being used absolutely perfectly, there's arguments to be made for tweaks. But I don't look at us as wasting a top 5 talent. That's a very Bam-centric POV that completely ignores team context. If he were that dominant, they'd have run offense through him on the Olympic team. Instead, he was more of a garbage man alley oop finisher guy, which is perfectly OK and probably what he's best at on a very talented or well run team.

I'd even go so far as to argue Bam scores more for us than he might on a better team, precisely because we don't have that superstar 30 ppg dominant force to run the offense through.

[3ammy3uck3ts]

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[Crazy-Canuck]

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Some of those comments. Ware is going to be better than giannis? And confident while posting it.

I get not going all in on kd, dame, etc..

But giannis is still in his prime, he's still an athletic marvel. He gives you a good 4-5 yr window.

Hes done it in the playoffs. You need very specific personnel around him, but the heat already have them.

It's why a team like the Lakers make no sense. Nor the warriors.

Unless okc, spurs, and rockets unload their war chest, I think the heat have a legit shot. (If they choose to).

[Voltron914]

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Some of those comments. Ware is going to be better than giannis? And confident while posting it.

I get not going all in on kd, dame, etc..

But giannis is still in his prime, he's still an athletic marvel. He gives you a good 4-5 yr window.

Hes done it in the playoffs. You need very specific personnel around him, but the heat already have them.

It's why a team like the Lakers make no sense. Nor the warriors.

Unless okc, spurs, and rockets unload their war chest, I think the heat have a legit shot. (If they choose to).

I love Ware and JJJ has won me over again but Giannis is the one u go all in on. Especially with Bam shooting 3s and norm balling. I dont want to even think bout us getting him tho

[fishfuego.]

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Some of those comments. Ware is going to be better than giannis? And confident while posting it.

I get not going all in on kd, dame, etc..

But giannis is still in his prime, he's still an athletic marvel. He gives you a good 4-5 yr window.

Hes done it in the playoffs. You need very specific personnel around him, but the heat already have them.

It's why a team like the Lakers make no sense. Nor the warriors.

Unless okc, spurs, and rockets unload their war chest, I think the heat have a legit shot. (If they choose to).

Giannis is a superstar, but he was not always this guy. Heck he was this skinny dude at one point. Why I’m pointing this out? Ware reminds me of that young skinny Giannis, but with a solid 3 point shot and a bit less athletic, although pretty athletic, but more skilled in comparison. If Ware decides to up the work, he can reach monster level in Gianni’s vicinity. Some people call it potential.

That is why the Bucks should consider a trade with the Heat IMO.