2025 Offseason Thread Vol.6

[lastb1ckman]

What an offseason we are having by the way.. the state of the franchise has us ranking the most embarrassing moments of the franchise…

Like I've said before. There's nothing about the Heat right now that calls for this level of dooming. Folks sound like Hornets fans on here sometimes. They're clamoring for SUMMER LEAGUE CHAMPION shirts right now because that's the closest they've ever got to a ring. We've made it to 3 conference finals and two nba finals in the last 5 years. Plus the 3 rings and ECFs and finals appearances before that. These two franchises came into the league at the same time.

[lastb1ckman]

Gotta add this one to the list, too.

Tbh, we don't even know if they were dating. And he got A'ja Wilson now so.......

[ZoStrong]

I don't even think about the series against Cleveland that much unless some here mention it. That fourth game was terrible, or let's say "embarrassing" as competitors. They just stopped trying.
But seriously that series means nothing to me other than Heat becoming the first #10 seed to make the playoffs.
If I was to rank the most "embarrassing" moments in Miami Heat history, I don't even think I'd include it.
LeBron's first finals against Dallas and JJ Barea is up there. Heat losing to Knicks as the #1 seed against #8 is way up there.
Last year's team, I had no expectations other than hoping for one win, cuz the sweep sucks. I saw the series as more of a training camp for some of our players, nothing more

Lol, this was the start of a far more embarrassing season than last year

Ha, well, we shall see.
I'm cautiously optimistic here

[ZoStrong]

I was routing for the Heat to break another record, getting the highest loss in a playoff game in game 4 when they were close, because I like breaking records and was annoyed they made the playoffs and didn't take the opportunity for a lottery pick (record still belongs to New Orleans, they lost by 58 points)

Memphis beat OKC 152-79 on Dec. 2, 2021 the 73-point margin there being the biggest in NBA history

Does any of this matter to any of these franchises? nope, who cares, blowouts happen and sometimes the bench/backup guys increase the margin

Before last season, the Pistons were seen as the laughingstock of the league, remember that absurd losing streak? But fast-forward to the next season, and we saw significant growth just by adding a few veteran players.

Sure, we got dominated by the best team in the East for most of the season, no surprise there, but that doesn’t mean this team won’t learn and grow from those experiences.

I was really hoping we can somehow rescue Cade from that sorry franchise when they were going through that losing streak. Seemed like he genuinely cared. I've been wanting a some decent floor general for this team for god knows how long now, lol

[3ammy3uck3ts]

Read on Twitter

Trading Terry for Derozan and signing Vucevic outright after, the FO is locked in on adding some vets

Didn't think it was realistic asking him off the bench at his salary, but as a buyout, we go to a top 5 front court in the league

Guess we’ll see if there really was anything to his and Spos conversation to end the season

[Johnny Fontane]

Read on Twitter

Trading Terry for Derozan and signing Vucevic outright after, the FO is locked in on adding some vets

Get er done. Promise him a starting role and he’s a shoe in to come here

[al bondiga]

V U C E V I C + bam, ware, jovic We might become contenders with a little luck And some team unity

[Voltron914]

V U C E V I C + bam, ware, jovic We might become contenders with a little luck And some team unity

whats the upside of Vucevic now? i thought he was a turn style on defense at this point in his career? would he be like a suped up Meyers Leonard?

[Shewasfly]

I wonder who Miami would have to give up to even start the conversation in trading for Vucevic and Giddey (since they are so far apart in contract negotiations).

[carnageta]

If we land Derozan, it probably makes the most sense to start him and have Powell off of the bench. But if you start Derozan, I don't think you can also start Bam and Ware together because of the spacing. In this case, I think it would be more optimal to have Jovic start in place of Kel'el:

Herro
Derozan
Wiggins
Jovic
Bam

With a bench unit of

DMitchell
Powell
Larrson
Jaime/Fonteccio
Ware


KP, Keshad, Goldin, etc. all 3rd stringers.


This would be a deep team in which five (5) players could realistically score 20+ on any given night (Herro, Derozan, Wiggins, Bam, Powell). We'd still have the issue of not having a true #1 option, but history has shown that when you don't have an alpha, the second best thing is to have multiple betas.

Here's the thing, I don't know if this really makes sense lineup wise. Derozan does not space the floor. At all. And now you're giving up size and defense too.

Derozan doesn't space the floor well, which is exactly why he would be sharing most of the court with at least 3 other players that can shoot at the decent percentage (Jovic, Herro, Wiggins).

You do lose size and shot blocking at the rim (i.e. Ware), but what you gain offensively may be able to circumvent those losses. And it's not like this would be a small lineup on the floor; Herro is 6'5", Wiggins and Derozan are both 6'7" tall, Jovic is 6'11", and Bam is 6'10" himself. End-to-end that would probably be one of the taller lineups we've used in recently memory.

Spo loves small ball. Let's not forget that lol. Even if Ware starts, Bam will still log a ton of minutes at the 5.

[Hallstar]

If we land Derozan, it probably makes the most sense to start him and have Powell off of the bench. But if you start Derozan, I don't think you can also start Bam and Ware together because of the spacing. In this case, I think it would be more optimal to have Jovic start in place of Kel'el:

Herro
Derozan
Wiggins
Jovic
Bam

With a bench unit of

DMitchell
Powell
Larrson
Jaime/Fonteccio
Ware


KP, Keshad, Goldin, etc. all 3rd stringers.


This would be a deep team in which five (5) players could realistically score 20+ on any given night (Herro, Derozan, Wiggins, Bam, Powell). We'd still have the issue of not having a true #1 option, but history has shown that when you don't have an alpha, the second best thing is to have multiple betas.

Here's the thing, I don't know if this really makes sense lineup wise. Derozan does not space the floor. At all. And now you're giving up size and defense too.

Derozan doesn't space the floor well, which is exactly why he would be sharing most of the court with at least 3 other players that can shoot at the decent percentage (Jovic, Herro, Wiggins).

You do lose size and shot blocking at the rim (i.e. Ware), but what you gain offensively may be able to circumvent those losses. And it's not like this would be a small lineup on the floor; Herro is 6'5", Wiggins and Derozan are both 6'7" tall, Jovic is 6'11", and Bam is 6'10" himself. End-to-end that would probably be one of the taller lineups we've used in recently memory.

Spo loves small ball. Let's not forget that lol. Even if Ware starts, Bam will still log a ton of minutes at the 5.

If anything give him the bench to run with. Herro needs space to operate and he gets that with Powell, not being spacing for Derozan

[CrossOver]

Read on Twitter

[carnageta]

Here's the thing, I don't know if this really makes sense lineup wise. Derozan does not space the floor. At all. And now you're giving up size and defense too.

Derozan doesn't space the floor well, which is exactly why he would be sharing most of the court with at least 3 other players that can shoot at the decent percentage (Jovic, Herro, Wiggins).

You do lose size and shot blocking at the rim (i.e. Ware), but what you gain offensively may be able to circumvent those losses. And it's not like this would be a small lineup on the floor; Herro is 6'5", Wiggins and Derozan are both 6'7" tall, Jovic is 6'11", and Bam is 6'10" himself. End-to-end that would probably be one of the taller lineups we've used in recently memory.

Spo loves small ball. Let's not forget that lol. Even if Ware starts, Bam will still log a ton of minutes at the 5.

If anything give him the bench to run with. Herro needs space to operate and he gets that with Powell, not being spacing for Derozan

Lineup of Derozan, Wiggins, Jovic, and Bam provides better spacing for Herro than a lineup of Powell, Wiggins, Bam, and Ware.

[gom]

I'm pretty happy how things have gone this offseason. We are not a great team, but we are definitely improving. Picking up Gabe Madsen would be a plus too. I'm fairly neutral about DeRozan, but adding Vuc would be a plus. You can't have too many big men in the playoffs. Depth is so important.

I'm also not in a hurry to dump Rozier. At the end of the day that's a huge expiring contract, and much as I like Smart's game (when he was good and played against us), I wouldn't make that trade. Rozier is instant salary relief or a trade chip to acquire a player with a longer deal.

[HeatFanLifer]

What an offseason we are having by the way.. the state of the franchise has us ranking the most embarrassing moments of the franchise…

Like I've said before. There's nothing about the Heat right now that calls for this level of dooming. Folks sound like Hornets fans on here sometimes. They're clamoring for SUMMER LEAGUE CHAMPION shirts right now because that's the closest they've ever got to a ring. We've made it to 3 conference finals and two nba finals in the last 5 years. Plus the 3 rings and ECFs and finals appearances before that. These two franchises came into the league at the same time.

I mean to be fair, the OG Hornets franchise started off hot, but Pat Riley changed the fate of both franchises when he traded for Zo. Did you know that Pat Riley has been in a non-coaching role with the Heat far longer than he was the coach? He has been out of the game for a while now. I think that is a big reason why the franchise is starting to decline. Pat Riley is irreplaceable, but he is also up there in years and 15+ years removed from the game. Add to that the fact that Spo has been one of the longest active coaches in the league and he is showing burnout as well and you can start to see why people aren’t happy with the direction the franchise is heading.

[Shewasfly]

I'm pretty happy how things have gone this offseason. We are not a great team, but we are definitely improving. Picking up Gabe Madsen would be a plus too. I'm fairly neutral about DeRozan, but adding Vuc would be a plus. You can't have too many big men in the playoffs. Depth is so important.

I'm also not in a hurry to dump Rozier. At the end of the day that's a huge expiring contract, and much as I like Smart's game (when he was good and played against us), I wouldn't make that trade. Rozier is instant salary relief or a trade chip to acquire a player with a longer deal.

Thank you for saying this. I'm not hard up to trade Rozier either and don't understand why we would be. He's not a distraction or some type of team cancer. He just has sucked for us for some reason. He should be traded when a trade that doesn't harm us (cause us to give up an asset just to get rid of him) comes up, or we should just keep him and let him expire.

I feel like we should be more worried about moving Wiggins. He is clearly not a long term fit, but while here Spo is going to bend the scheme to make him useful to us. I think this just takes away opportunities to evaluate young players who do actually have a potential future here, like Jovic and JJJ.

[twix2500]

I'm pretty happy how things have gone this offseason. We are not a great team, but we are definitely improving. Picking up Gabe Madsen would be a plus too. I'm fairly neutral about DeRozan, but adding Vuc would be a plus. You can't have too many big men in the playoffs. Depth is so important.

I'm also not in a hurry to dump Rozier. At the end of the day that's a huge expiring contract, and much as I like Smart's game (when he was good and played against us), I wouldn't make that trade. Rozier is instant salary relief or a trade chip to acquire a player with a longer deal.

Thank you for saying this. I'm not hard up to trade Rozier either and don't understand why we would be. He's not a distraction or some type of team cancer. He just has sucked for us for some reason. He should be traded when a trade that doesn't harm us (cause us to give up an asset just to get rid of him) comes up, or we should just keep him and let him expire.

I feel like we should be more worried about moving Wiggins. He is clearly not a long term fit, but while here Spo is going to bend the scheme to make him useful to us. I think this just takes away opportunities to evaluate young players who do actually have a potential future here, like Jovic and JJJ.

I think this is priority, and I believe its mainly about showcasing the talent to boost the market. JJJ reminds me much of Caron Butler when he was here, not necessarily similar games but quality of player. Butler had a disappointing sophomore season and many felt it made his trade value below his true value.

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[al bondiga]

Don't understand the positive Nay sayers... They say something that deep down, they don't mean because it is obvious that they are under the illusion, things are Trending upward... Don't you understand that you basically contradict yourself?

The results
In the Last decade indicate.
That that Heat Are trending down since wade... The same happened to San Antonio since Duncan... to the lakers Since Kobe ...Chicago...etc.etc.

In other words, it appears to be normal That we are middle of the pack and might be Mediocre for years to come...The decisions our front office days are a bit desperate and wrong

denying this downwards trend is the problem That delays solutions.

[HeatGuyInChicago]

The franchise is in transition from playoff runs for the past 6 years. 2 Finals appearances and 3 Eastern Conference Appearances. The CBA has made it difficult to keep teams together. Look at Boston. For all the money they spent over the past 6 years, they only got 1 Championship. The Heat franchise is in transition from the aging of its last franchise player, Jimmy Butler. During the Jimmy Butler era, the General Management and Coaching Performance is at least top 10. Pretend you are Mickey Arison. Who is available that will do better?

[MettaWorldPanda]

Read on Twitter

No Dru on a 2 way. Probably a prorated contract during the season once he gets fully healthy and we are under the tax.