At his end of season press conference last month, Miami Heat Pat Riley was open about acquiring an aging star as long as the player had the right name and contract. While he was indirectly nudging Kevin Durant, there is no certainty that the Heat land the 15-time All-Star.
Yes, I know what team we’re talking about. I know what team we’re following. But here’s why, in my–yes, MY–opinion, the Miami Heat shouldn’t attempt to acquire an aging star to remedy this directionless ship this summer, regardless if it’s Durant, DeMar DeRozan or Jrue Holiday, among others.
The rest of the NBA is getting younger … so a 37-win Miami Heat team should get even older?!?
The Miami Heat, coming off the worst season in a decade, entered last season as the sixth-oldest team in the NBA. Their nine most-active rotation players (sorted by total minutes) post All-Star break averaged 28 years of age. That’s not bad, but that would’ve been the third-oldest roster in the NBA, assuming that was the average age of the entire roster. The Heat aren’t old and littered with aging vets, but they’re also not young. They were also a 37-win team that hasn’t had enough gas to compete with the best teams in the East for multiple seasons.
Vets matter–it’s hard to win without experience. That’s why Udonis Haslem was the perfect culture bearer for 20 years; that’s why Kevin Love is so important to the Heat’s locker room right now; that’s why James Johnson is vital to the Pacers’ locker room.
Ideally, assuming those vets play, they must complement your best (young) players without the burden of being (arguably) your best offensive player at their respective age–which Durant and DeRozan would be. That’s not the exact same for Holiday, who was acquired two summers ago to be a complementary piece alongside Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, two top-25 players, plus Kristaps Porzingis and Derrick White.
You also need to be athletic, which the Heat currently aren’t, making it all the more confusing why Miami should be targeting an aging star–Durant or otherwise–if they’re not 1-2 pieces away. Both San Antonio and Houston have an abundance of youth, but have a plethora of assets that they wouldn’t have to make a dent in to acquire Durant, let alone DeRozan, Holiday or another aging star. The same can’t be said about the Heat, but we’ll get to that later.
Lastly, how has getting older helped teams like Golden State, Philadelphia, Dallas, Phoenix or Milwaukee? And why would it benefit Miami when you’re asking so much from the aging star you’re acquiring?!
Some of their games may age, but their bodies won’t:
Kevin Durant is still an elite offensive talent at this stage of his career. A lot of Phoenix’s downfall wasn’t his fault. He averaged 26.7 points on 52.3 percent shooting, including 43.0 percent from 3-point range and 83.9 percent from the charity stripe, a career low. Nobody is disparaging the talent that Durant has and has always had.
But his body won’t age the same as his game does. Yes, Durant doesn’t rely on physicality as much as, say, DeRozan and Holiday do. He doesn’t rely on it as much as Jimmy Butler did, either. But since he ruptured his achilles in the 2019 NBA Finals, he’s suffered a pair of Grade 2 MCL sprains–one on each knee–plus an ankle sprain that forced him to miss the final two weeks of this season.
That’s a scary amount of soft tissue injuries for a player pushing 40. Outside of appearing in 75 games in 2023-24, he’s played in roughly 63 percent of all available games since he missed all of 2019-20 (achilles); with the 75-game sample, he’s played in 68.5 percent of available games. That’s alarmingly low. And he’s not getting any younger, either.
DeRozan and Holiday don’t quite have those same health concerns. Believe it not, DeRozan’s cumulated only nine total minutes less than Durant in the regular season; DeRozan’s played in 41,228 minutes while Durant’s suited up for 41,237. The 15-time All-Star has totaled over 4,000 more postseason minutes, but while DeRozan’s stayed relatively healthy, he’s not getting any younger … and relies on more physicality than Durant does while being far less efficient and malleable offensively.
Furthermore, we saw Holiday’s body break down a little bit more in 2024-25, including a hamstring strain that limited his availability this postseason. And with his physical nature on both ends of the court, his body won’t age as gracefully as a few of his counterparts heading into the future.
Heat don’t have many assets to begin with … and would have fewer to use after acquiring one:
In Durant’s case, he’s an elite scorer who would help elevate the Heat’s floor offensively–a low bar, sure. That said, his presence doesn’t alleviate multiple of the Heat’s biggest needs outside of being a steady presence.
Does he make life for Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo better?! Absolutely! Is he still hyper-efficient from every area of the floor?! Yes! But, regardless of who they trade, the Heat would still need to address myriad things after acquiring the 36-year-old forward–a few being rim pressure (Durant doesn’t pressure the rim as much anymore), movement shooting (especially if Duncan’s on the move), point-of-attack defense and the need for a legit PG (Herro and Davion Mitchell aren’t that, respectfully).
Those are just a short list of items that would still need to be addressed. Miami is devoid of premier assets–they have three tradable first-round picks (2025, 2030, 2032)–with Kel’el Ware, Nikola Jovic and Jaime Jaquez Jr., who is coming off a down sophomore season. Let’s say they don’t trade Ware and trade Andrew Wiggins, Jovic and Duncan Robinson plus one first-round pick for Durant.
To try and supplement the rest of the roster, you’d have Ware … but if you’re not going to move him for Durant, you’re probably not moving him at all, so that option’s out the door. You’d have Rozier, a negative asset despite being on an expiring contract with a partial guarantee (95 percent of it’s already guaranteed). You can’t trade Mitchell because he’s a free agent; it remains to be seen what Haywood Highsmith (cheap expiring) or Kyle Anderson (locker room vet!) could get you on the open market, whether they’re by themselves or lumped together; if you traded Jaquez, you’d be selling low on your third-best young player for a player worse than Durant, which isn’t smart.
That’s it, unless you plan on moving Keshad Johnson or Pelle Larsson. Unless you’re willing to place more Gorilla Tape on this broken-down boat (trading more future capital), you’re strapped for ways to improve the roster unless you obtain multiple free agents on inexpensive contracts in an uninspiring class.
The ends justify the means, but the Heat wouldn’t have the means to get to the end with Durant or another aging star. The Heat’s holes are even larger with DeRozan or Holiday in the fold. It’s difficult to forecast what happens 3-4 years from now, but what happens when they all retire?!? You’re kicking the can to retool down the road with perhaps less than what you had before, a less-than-ideal situation to be in, barring more unforeseen moves.
Is it too much to ask to get a full season of Miami’s youth, first?:
Part of the reason why the Heat don’t have an excellent collection of young players is because of 1.) well, unfortunate (and random) injuries and 2.) They haven’t leaned into their youth as much as they arguably should have. Part of that is justified, too.
Of course, you have to show Erik Spoelstra why he should play you consistently. But Rozier was also getting rotation minutes for 75 percent of the season, which made no sense after he clearly wasn’t as impactful as he was.
They’re one of the best organizations in the NBA at developing young players. However, their three best young players not named Adebayo or Herro–Ware, Jovic or Jaquez–need more seasoning because of their lack of game reps individually, let alone together. We know their skillsets, but we don’t know what we have in each of them in an environment that maximizes their skillsets … yet.
Now is the perfect opportunity for that.
Jovic has been largely banged up each of his first three seasons, playing 107 total games. He missed most of his rookie season with a back injury and missed multiple points of 2024-25 with ankle, face and hand injuries. He’s never played more than 46 games in a total season. But he can provide a steady 3-and-D presence, and can be a secondary ballhandler if he continues to make strides in his ballhandling and as an in-between threat.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. has dealt with groin, ankle and stomach injuries over his first two seasons, but he was largely unimpactful in his minutes on the floor last season because he wasn’t as explosive and his 3-point shot was as inconsistent as it was as a rookie. Plenty of NBA players have “sophomore slumps” before putting together inspiring careers. Let’s see what he can do before he’s up for an extension!
What does Ware and Adebayo look like together for a full season, especially after an offseason of development?! The Heat spent over five years trying to find the perfect player to put alongside their three-time All-Star–Durant or an aging star may not maximize his skillset as much as we would like to. A point guard does, however!
For several years, with merit, Miami’s largely prioritized playing veterans over young players. While that doesn’t take away from its development, let’s see what a full season of that looks like first–attempting to build up a few of these players’ value, as well as Johnson, Larsson and Isaiah Stevens–before consolidating and moving pieces around. Collect more assets and let’s see a full season of developing the youth, now that the circumstances are more appropriate post-Butler.
Miami’s window for going “all-in” is past them without Jimmy Butler:
Last season sucked. Each of the last three years have sucked, outside of one unprecedented postseason run. Jimmy Butler is no longer here, so this isn’t a, “Let’s go all-in for Jimmy while we can,” situation it once was. The time that they should’ve went all-in for Butler was after 2021-22. We’re now three calendar years removed from that date.
The Miami Heat are in a new phase. We know the gap between the Heat and the Cavaliers. Yes, the same Cleveland Cavaliers team that set an NBA record for the largest point-differential in a single series ever without their third-best player for half of the series; the same Cavaliers team that you lost by 92 points to on your home floor; the same Cleveland Cavaliers team that self-combusted in five games to the Eastern Conference champion Indiana Pacers weeks later.
A wide-open East doesn’t apply to the Heat. That only applies to good teams. A move for Durant or another aging star may make them more competitive, but as I mentioned above, there are too many holes for the rest of the puzzle to complete.
While we don’t know the moves that would follow adding one, the Miami Heat’s brass may have been reluctant to part with youth in the past. Those situations and now are two different realities.
It’s time to pivot. It’s not time to be desperate, short-sighted or reckless for short-term gain when the long-term future is far more important. There is a time and place for taking risks as an NBA franchise, and the Heat are trending toward the opposite end of that spectrum, which is why they shouldn’t prioritize adding an aging vet this offseason.
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Get the dude but don’t gut and/or sacrifice the future. Don’t get him and find other ways to compete. Simple? Yes. Easy? Nope.
Miami’s best bet is to take one step backward so they an take two steps forward. That means not trying to harpoon a whale while they are sitting on so much dead weight (expiring contracts) and have so many unproven/still developing youngsters on rookie contracts.
The objectives this year should be:
That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it.
GO HEAT!!!
Doesn’t much sound like the mantra, “we never tank, we only reload ” that Pat lives
by, does it? The downside of your very well written and logical article is that we won’t be competitive for at least a couple years. It makes sense, but may not fit Pat’s timeline.
Please listen to this man I don’t know if I can watch us shift lanes and set back a couple years by going old