Good morning, friends.
Before we start, I just want to say thank you for reading throughout the 2024-25 season. None of this would be possible without you, so all of us here at HHH thank you endlessly. The season may be over, but there will be plenty of offseason content ahead, especially from yours truly.
Now, let’s get into it!
This season sucked. Let’s not sugarcoat it.
The Miami Heat suffered their two worst postseason losses in franchise history on their home court, losing by 37 in Game 3 and 55 in Game 4, five points away from an NBA record for worst point differential in a playoff game.
They were mercifully swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers, who outscored the Heat by 122 points, an NBA record. Miami finished with its worst regular season record since 2014-15, lost out on a lottery pick and lost sight of the #HEATCulture™ that was the backbone of the franchise for 30 years. Never wear those jerseys again, please.
Now that it’s (finally!) over, how would you honestly grade the 2024-25 Miami Heat season?
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Hanifan’s Take: There weren’t many positives to take away from this season. A few I listed in the offseason blog were Herro’s career year, finding a legitimate frontcourt partner next to Adebayo (who developed quicker than anyone thought) and Davion Mitchell’s emergence post-Jimmy trade.
To some extent, I was scratching the bottom of the barrel for anything. It was an incredibly disappointing season and it only highlighted how directionless they appear to be. Change is needed. I won’t promise anything because I’m not in the front office. I’m just a writer who’s still compartmentalizing everything that’s happened over the last calendar year. I’ve probably forgotten more basketball than Pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra know; I never once said I was or am smart. I try to tell the truth like the rest of you.
There were (some) positives. But there was a whole lot more drama and rudderless play. I’m not sure if it was an abject failure (am I being too optimistic?!), but it’s definitely not far from it. And they can’t follow up with an offseason that’s anything close to what it’s been the last few summers. It may take a while, but let’s have a clear direction and tangible change to get us back to sustainable contention–whether that means taking a few steps back and collecting assets or the inverse.
Hanifan’s Grade: D
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(Note: This poll will close on May 13 at 11:59 p.m. EST!)
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- Poll: How would you grade the 2024-25 Miami Heat season?
- The 2025 offseason has arrived — now what?
- Heat make history in all the wrong ways after getting axed in Game 4 by Cavaliers
- Heat lose to Cavs in blowout, 138-83. Eliminated from NBA Playoffs
- NBA PLAYOFFS 1ST ROUND GAMETHREAD: Cleveland Cavaliers @ Miami HEAT GAME 4
- GAME PREVIEW: Heat will attempt to avoid just third series sweep in franchise history versus Cavs
- Tyler Herro: Heat would be in a ‘completely different situation’ with Jimmy Butler
I’d like to use the courtroom plea of guilty with cause. The season was doomed from the start with the Butler debacle. That lingered up to and beyond the trade. However, the performance against Cleveland was inexcusable. Losing is one thing, but I had to shut 1 game off in the 3rd quarter and 1 at halftime.
As I, and now others have stated, everything and every player should be on the table this offseason. But I don’t think there will be any changes in the management team, except for maybe assistant coaches. I’m not saying there shouldn’t be, just I don’t think there will be.
The team’s failure lands squarely at the feet of Pat Riley. The honorable thing for him to do is retire so someone else can come in and clean up his mess.
But do you think that will happen?
It should. Even Arison must have seen the decline in his performance. Insulting Butler publicly last year then getting into a pissing contest with him IS NOT the way to build a contending team. Another mistake was not trading him when his stock was high. Getting fleeced by Golden State was another mistake. He created the problem and compounded it with additional poor decisions. In any other business he would have/should have /would be fired.
i know in football if a team loses like this coach or asst coach fired on black monday.mickey will never fire his best friend or their step child its a family thing.im ok with spobot here cause coaches dont matter that much.its up to sunman to send his resume to the heat work from home and get busy reloading this mediocre team.we are not far away one go to player and some athletes .i believe in sunman
When the Butler trade was done, we were literally within 24 hours of being stuck with a malcontent for the rest of the season. Not long after, many people (I believe you were one) felt that they did the best they could under the circumstances, getting 3 players plus a first round pick. While Wiggins missed time due to injuries (not his fault), he averaged 19/4/3 with the Heat. Unfortunately, in the playoffs, he caught trs (Terry Rozier Syndrome). No one predicted that. Mitchell turned out to be at least a solid backup pg who has played textbook defense. And slo-mo was a decent addition as well. IMO, no way did the Heat get fleeced.
As for Butler, the FIRST MISTAKE was not trading him when I advocated doing that in February 2024. He had already checked out due to not getting the extension long before Riley called him out. It might have been better to do that privately, but I was fine with it. When a player who dogged it the entire season, then is unavailable for the playoffs, tells Boston and New York they would have lost if he was playing, I think he should be told to stfu. Riley is unquestionably responsible for the current state of the team, but Butler the quitter must be looked at as responsible as well.
bam and ty knew they had no shot with pats roster so they mailed it in game 4.tys looking to the future $$$ its a miracle ty did not get hurt this year but he just got worn down. when ty is fresh theres not to many better offensively.bam saving himself for next year.our 2 best players made a business decision about game 4.
Bam Adebayo: “There’s going to be a lot of changes this summer. Just from my point of view, understanding how the guy with the silver hair (Pat Riley) works. Just be prepared for that.”
yeah your all talk bam w/o jimmy a phony max riley player.your effort son is pitiful at times.theres more there than your giving us.
For all his attributes, there are two things Bam is not, an alpha male and a closer. He is a good #3 or #4 offensive option and a #1 or #2 defensive anchor.
top 5 defender .joel anthonyish on offense
Humiliating loss should lead Heat to question everything (YardBarker)
“The Heat embarrassed themselves on Monday, losing to the Cavs, 138-83, in one of the worst blowout losses in NBA playoff history. It was the sort of defeat that should make the organization question everything.
Miami couldn’t be bothered to try in the lopsided loss, trailing 43-17 at the end of the first. At halftime, the Heat were down by 39, 72-33, prompting Inside The NBA’s Ernie Johnson to blast the team, saying the first two quarters
While the Cavaliers (64-18) certainly deserve appreciation for handling their business and looking like the best in the conference, no team has any business being manhandled the way the Heat (37-45) were over the final two games. Miami became the first team to lose consecutive playoff games by 30 points after losing Game 3 by 37, 124-87. To make matters worse, both games were at home.
The way the Heat’s season ended, team president Pat Riley could have tough decisions to make this offseason. Anything should be on the table.
Head coach Erik Spoelstra has been in his role for 17 seasons, dating back to 2008-09. After suffering back-to-back humiliating losses, it’s fair to wonder if there’s a disconnect between the players and staff.
If Miami doesn’t have a viable path back to contention, center Bam Adebayo could net the team a substantial return in a trade. Guard Tyler Herro had a career-best season in 2024-25 and might be more attractive on the market than when the Heat tried to make him the crown jewel in trade proposals with the Trail Blazers for Damian Lillard in 2023.
While it’s too soon to say how much change will occur in South Beach, it’s coming. Teams don’t lose by 50 in their final game and have things stay the same.
The Heat’s Monday loss was arguably the most mortifying in franchise history. Depending on the offseason, it could also be the most consequential.”
When you gonna admit that instead of quitting during the playoffs that they should’ve quit during the regular season? You came up here clamoring for experience and ware Jaime pelle and jovic (save for that last game) weren’t gonna get playing time! It’s spos coaching he never lets rookies get trial by fire and something drastic has to happen for him to play rookies extended minutes, and it goes back decades with him bam, herro jjj etc etc. He’s stuck in his ways like pat is stuck in his ways, I’d trade bam Tyler for young pieces and or draft picks/expiring contracts. Go after hungry players like Quinton grimes (say what you want about him on a tanking team he gave that tanking team 120% effort since he got there and didn’t get the teams tank memo) see what Minnesota wants for naz Reid, pelicans should be blowing it up maybe see what they want for herb jones, trey Murphy, hey Detroit what you want for Ivey and Stewart? Houston whitmore Jabari or tari? Indy Neismith or mathurin are they apart of your future? Okc willing to give up jwill? But lemme guess we want to go whale hunting for someone that’s never gonna come (kd for the 4/5 time) or get talked into not coming here by members of the media or the league themselves (hello dame)
There you go again with your talk about quitting. Were you born a quitter or did life’s challenges turn you into one? If you are angry about my support for whale hunting, it’s obvious you haven’t read any of my posts before rendering your final judgement.
I’ve been suggesting that the best thing is for Riley to retire, Spo to be bumped up into his job and that Miami take a year off to get rid of several players on expiring contracts and buyout or trade others before the 2026-2027 season. Meanwhile, the team can continue developing it’s young players on rookie or two-way contracts, as well as this year’s and next year’s draft picks and look to recruit or trade for one or more players next summer who will make a difference. There are several all-stars/closers who will be entering free agency at that time. I see the team’s core as Bam, Herro, Ware and Mitchell. However, if the right deals come up, they are all expendable.
Your misconception that any of the players you mentioned would put a dent in the team’s downward trajectory without first cleaning house is delusional.
Dude what is your problem honestly. You’re just trying to antagonize people. Sunman isn’t in the front office nobody is a couple of us maybe selfishly wishing and couch commenting they don’t tank so we would have a few more games of entertainment influenced ZERO part of what happened. Shut up already
No Sunman isn’t in the FO so why do yall protect and listen to him like he is? It’s plenty of post where he contradicts himself post quotes of other people then go against what he just posted. Again plenty of times he’s contradicted himself and yall don’t call him out, except to run to his defense like yall in bed with him. He’s yo here calling me a quitter yet he doesn’t know me! Also like he didn’t watch them quit last night but that was better they did that last night with more eyes watching rather than doing it one game vs the bulls now you shut up
*Quinton grimes (say what you want about him on a tanking team he gave that tanking team 120% effort since he got there and didn’t get the teams tank memo)*
I find it interesting that you indicate that you appreciate or respect a player who gave 120% effort even though he was on a losing/tanking team, but you were against our team doing exactly that.
I regret not getting the lottery pick. I also can appreciate that giving OKC and Charlotte unprotected picks in 2026 and 2028 could be a disaster if just one key player has a serious injury.
lol I wanted them to tank for that pick. See what I mean insurance man when I say he gets defended and never questioned lol that was Sunman against tanking RC not me go check my post if you will not once has those been wrote by me.
I am not disagreeing. But isn’t the Grimes quote from you? That’s what I was referring to in my first paragraph. If that wasn’t originally from you, my bad.
That grimes post was me, I’m referring to some here who are against tanking that he gave his all on a tanking team. Again how did you get I was against tanking by saying he was on a tanking team? He was lmao
Can I vote “incomplete?” Even when we had Jimmy, he was clearly half-assing it based on what we see him now doing in GS. Then we ran our locker room through a medieval vice for two months. Then we expected them to gel with essentially half of a new team, and we ran straight into the teeth of the biggest buzz-saw to hit South Florida since Hurricane Andrew, in the form of Max Strus.
Incomplete. We had three different seasons during the course of this season, and none of them made any sense.
Rather than grading the team/players, maybe we should be grading Riley, Spoelstra and Arison.
I Give Spo a solid DI give Riley an F-I give Arison an F for keeping Riley past his expiration date
Something has to change because this dog definitely “can’t hunt.”
a gm and about 12 players needed.bam ware only 2 guys id keep as starters get new coach to get these guys functioning together optimally keep.dav as a backup.rest of the bunch your not hunting antman steph and wembys with.we need 3 new starters and the bench needs to be athletic.until this happens we are now the washington bullets carolina panthers .guys like jovic PELLE JJJ cannot compete in todays nba just cant jump high enough run fast enough.if u want to be mediocre keep them pat
Basketball is not strictly a game of athleticism. Skill, experience, grit, determination, coachability, BBIQ and the ability to function unselfishly in a team setting are also very important. There’s a bunch of physically impressive specimens in the NBA today who lack one or more of these other qualities. Likewise, there are players who are not the most athletic who are effective and successful. Athleticism is most valuable when a player can use it on both sides of the ball.
P.S. Attitude is also very important in my book. I hate arrogant entitled players, I don’t care how good they are.
He could simply draft or trade for 10 Harold Miners – super athletic, fast, high flying players.
You could not be more right. There are many good players who are not super athletes.
No, I meant what I said. Looking back at the season, the only real mistake is not paying Jimmy and/or not trading him earlier in the season when we could have gotten more value for him with better flexibility. Management miscalculated how he’d react, and miscalculated badly. Everything else is a direct result of that one decision, and amounted mostly to crisis management and choosing the least-bad from among a long list of bad options. This season is incomplete. There is not enough data to grade it.
incompetent wrong incomp
until the cleve series a c- after cleve series fplus.coaching doesnt matter spos a fraud pats over the hill.just get better players get ud and wade in front office.u think wade likes utah lol,wade and ud still have connections with current nba players.spider reminds me so much of wade that expression on his face is so dwadeish.
F !
Worst season in a decade. Making the playoffs only made the losing worse, by giving away a lottery pick.
Traded away a disgruntled star, for two bums who have locked up cap room for at least 2 years.
Add in the most lopsided playoff series in the history of the NBA and I don’t see how it’s anything other than a F.
If they had won 10 games, at least you could at you’d have the lottery pick to look forward to. Now we have an embarrassing roster, limited draft capital, no cap room.