Time of death: Monday, 28 April, 2025 (2-3 minutes after tip-off of Game 4)
Adding our dear forum mod's "serious" post
(Having a bit of fun with the current blowout. Don't ban me. LOL):---
Time of death: ????
Record at Elimination: 37-45 (2-0 in play-in, 0-3* in playoffs) Game 4 is playing right now...
Head coach: Erik Spoelstra
https://www.spotrac.com/nba/miami-heat/yearly
Contract summary:
Adebayo – next season will be 37M, then extension kicks in 3/160
Herro – extension eligible, 2/64M remain
Wiggins – extension eligible, 2/59M remain, final year 30M PO
Rozier – extension eligible, otherwise 24M expiring
Robinson – extension eligible, or Early Termination Option (ETO with 9M guaranteed but releases Duncan Robinson to UFA). IF not ETO, then 1yr/20M expiring.
Kyle Anderson – 2/18M remain
Haywood Highsmith – 1yr/5.6M remains
Kevin Love – 1yr/4.1M
Alec Burks - UFA
Rookie Scale/minimums (varies on 2-4 years remaining):
Davion Mitchell – extension eligible or RFA market/offer sheet
Kel’el Ware – 3yr remain
Jaime Jaquez – 4M TO, and can extend next season
Nikola Jovic – extension eligible or 4.5M QO
Pelle Larsson – 2M non-guaranteed
Keshad Johnson – 1.9M TO
TW
Josh Christopher
Dru Smith
Isaiah Stevens
Dead-cap – NONE retained this season, NONE for next season.
25-26 Capspace – over the cap, tax team – just below 1st apron.
PICKS for 2025 draft:
GSW 1st
A SMALL SEASON REVIEW:
https://www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/mia/miami-heat
Another team that was overflowing with internal drama for much of the pre-Trade Deadline chatter. Things weren’t going so great with Jimmy Butler, and unable to secure an extension from the Heat brass, this obscured his future in South Beach. We can firmly say those two Finals appearances were special basketball from Butler even if they beat some teams with injured stars. The Heat made it there, at least.
For a few weeks this Butler situation was the focal point of trade talks from pundits and fans alike with many teams linked Butler. Even Jimmy himself was wearing a Phoenix Suns colour-scheme on his shoes, but he didn’t end up in the Valley of the Sun. Now Butler is on the Warriors and Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson, and Davion Mitchell are on the Heat via the complicated multi team trade.
Following that trade, The Heat had a long 10-game losing streak in the second half of the year, followed immediately by a 6-game win streak. They earned a play-in spot as the lower Eastern teams failed to make up ground. Miami actually made history again as the first 10-seeded play-in team to make it into the playoffs beating both the Bulls and Hawks on the road.
Getting those two victories also means the Heat’s pick conveys to OKC this year [as #15 in 2025, it was unprotected next year, but now MIA retains that pick in 2026].
In the 8/1 matchup vs Cleveland, the Heat never had control in this series and promptly heads into the offseason after losing a 4-0 sweep. *Predicted*
Surely many of the contracts will be on the trade market to land a huge star (like KD), and that’s a key storyline for Miami entering the offseason. Rookie Kel’el Ware really impressed this year, and there are still some young players developing (Jaquez, Jovic, Highsmith played a bigger role). How do you feel Miami will reposition after a crazy season that ultimately leads to a play-off loss, and losing its pick in the 25’ Draft. They will have GSW’s pick #20, so that’s helpful, but that’s the only selection Miami will make. They do have their pick NEXT year, as I wrote above, but that's a year away.
