The Miami Heat entered the All-Star break in the midst of their longest losing streak of the 2024-25 season, losing four straight. As a result, they dropped to 25-28, which is the first time all season they were three games below .500.
While the Heat struggled significantly in the third quarter at the beginning of the new season, two of their most recent losses have come due to fourth-quarter disasters. After another disappointing finish Thursday against the depleted Dallas Mavericks, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra addressed the matter.
“We just have to be better,” he said. “We have to be better with our execution and intentionality with what we’re trying to do offensively. I understand there wasn’t going to be a lot of precision, execution either way because both teams were switching everything–taking away all the triggers. But intentionality needed to be better.
“You can alleviate a lot of that stuff with just (getting) multiple stops in a row. It happened–by the time I called that timeout, it was a minute-and-a-half 8-0 run. We’re going to correct that. We’re going to get better. We have enough experience with it now. Our guys are fully aware of it. Everybody wants to be better in those situations when we’re up.
“I’ll get to work, the staff will get to work. We’ll do what we need to do. I promise we’re going to correct this.”
On Feb. 7 against the Brooklyn Nets, they led by six–77-71–entering the final period. Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored the quarter’s first points after taking Keon Johnson baseline on the right block. But it all went downhill from there. The Heat had three turnovers on their next four possessions while missing their next shots before Terry Rozier’s triple cut it to three–87-84–with 7:02 left.
The Heat didn’t make any of their final 12 shots thereafter. A similar problem percolated Wednesday against the Oklahoma City Thunder, being on the wrong end of a 24-0 run that saw a 10-point fourth-quarter flip to a 14-point deficit with 6:27 left. Even after checking the starters in with 9:31 left, the Heat’s first points came courtesy of an above-the-break triple from Bam Adebayo, who finished the game with 27 points and 15 rebounds.
Basketball is a game of runs–though both were avalanches. Both games were episodic collapses for a group that’s had difficulty slamming the door. Miami scored nine and eight points in the period, respectively; it is the only team to have more than one single-digit scoring output in the fourth quarter this season–doing so thrice.
Since the start of the New Year, their 4Q NET Rating is a league-worst minus-13.1, nearly three points per 100 possessions worse than the next-worst.
That’s unfathomable. At this point, several parties deserve blame. Spoelstra hasn’t had the best season, but the continued struggles fall just as much as the players playing them. A house is only as strong as its foundation, and the foundation has become flimsy late in games regardless of who’s on the floor.
And that can’t continue under any circumstance, especially if the Heat want to have any aspirations of making their sixth-straight postseason.
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POWER RANKINGS (FANSIDED FEBRUARY 15, 2025)
20. Miami Heat
Looking back at this season in retrospect, I’m sure the Miami Heat would probably do things a tad bit differently. Even the Jimmy Butler saga aside, it’s been far from a banner year for the Heat overall. Erik Spoelstra has struggled from a head-coaching perspective and it’s hard to look at any one player who has been a resounding success this year other than Tyler Herro. Even though he made the All-Star team this year, there are still questions about whether he’s a player worth building around for Miami – especially considering how mediocre the team has been this year.
Despite all of those struggles, the Heat is probably still going to do just enough to carve out a spot in the postseason. It’s generally what they do. The Heat isn’t a team that has embraced any type of rebuilding and likes to brand themselves on “retooling.” Heading into the offseason, it’s difficult to envision how that’s going to happen for Miami. It’s safe to say that things could get progressively worse for the Heat before they begin to get better. That’s not a good thing for a franchise that has been all about winning championships.
LACK OF A TWO-WAY POINT GUARD WHO CAN CONSISTENTLY SCORE 15+ PPG
The team assembled by Riley just doesn’t mesh. It has no chemistry. In the past, Miami had Goran Dragic, Kyle Lowry and Gabe Vincent to function as point guards. In addition, Jimmy Butler was used as a quasi Point Forward, but now he’s gone. Although the intent was to have Terry Rozier function as the Heat’s new point guard to replace Kyle Lowry, that never happened. Rozier is a shooting guard and not a very good one lately, period. The closest the Heat came to coalescing in the past two seasons was when Dru Smith was briefly given the reins to run/control the offense, before he was injured. Other than Smith’s brief stint, the Heat hasn’t had a functioning point guard since Gabe Vincent during the 2022-2023 season, when the team went to the NBA Finals.
LACK OF CONSISTENCY
Riley has assembled a team composed of several players who have shown signs of being solid rotation pieces. However, they are a very inconsistent bunch. If there is one thing they are consistent at it is inconsistency. Spo has had to constantly switch pieces on the chess board because the players’ performances change so drastically from one game to another. Rozier, Jovic, Jaquez, Highsmith, Larsson, Robinson and Love are good examples of inconsistent players. It’s too early to tell how consistent our new players (Wiggins, Mitchell and Anderson) will be and if all three will be around by the beginning of the 2025-2026 season.
NEED FOR RE-TOOLING/REBUILDING
The patchwork approach Riley has used in the past to stay competitive no longer works. That method is a thing of the past. Today’s best teams have, for the most part, undergone years of underwhelming performances resulting in the lottery picks needed to acquire top level talent that would make them truly competitive. Teams considered legitimate contenders for an NBA championship today and in the near future, such as Boston, OKC, Cleveland, Houston, Memphis, San Antonio, New York, Indiana, etc. have all gone through this process. The Heat has avoided the “tanking phase” but has never truly rebuilt the team to compete at the highest levels. The arrival of Jimmy Butler delayed the need to rebuild the team. His departure has made it mandatory.
THE NUCLEUS OF A REBUILDING TEAM
The Heat has a solid nucleus to build a team around in Bam (PF), Herro (SG) and Ware (C). In addition, the team may be receiving two first round draft picks this year (it’s own and Golden State’s). One or both of the two could be two lottery picks, (with a little luck). That’s 5 players.
The jury is still out on Wiggins, Michell, the players on rookie contracts and the G Leaguers. Two players (Mitchell and Burks) have contracts expiring in 2024-2025. Robinson’s contract has a partially guaranteed team option which can be bought out for $9.9M this summer or he can be re-signed for $19.9M. Rozier, Jovic, Love and Highsmith have contracts expiring in 2025-2026. Anderson’s contract, in effect, expires in 2025-2026, since he has a team option for 2026-2027. The three G Leaguers (Smith, Stevens and Christopher) will be restricted free agents in 2025-2026. Johnson will be a restricted free agent in 2026-2027. There is still time to determine by the end of this season which ones are keepers, which ones aren’t and which ones the jury is still out on.
HOW TO FAST-TRACK A RE-TOOLING OF THE TEAM
If Riley is willing, the team can go through an expedited re-tooling process by:
I can agree with some thing, I cannot with others.
Still, the nucleus of this team are really Herro, Bam and Ware. If Wiggins can play at high level, could be included in the nucleus.
Of the rest, the closer to what this teams needs, is Jovic as a sixth man, so I would include him in this nucleus.
We need a starting level point guard, which should acquired this summer.
Those 6 players should be the nucleus going forward.
I think Spo needs to evaluate the entire roster. Other than Bam, Herro and Ware, I think any of the rest are expendable if they can (,individually or together) bring in better players and draft picks.
dwades retired jimmy went awol.poor eric has an avg roster so now hes an avg coach.tell your step dad to get u better players spobot only solution signed bernie bickerstaff jr