With the Miami Heat coming within reach of the franchise’s fourth NBA championship several times during the Jimmy Butler era, there is ample room for regret.
There is a lot that has gone wrong during the Jimmy Butler era with the Miami Heat. From front-office mistakes to team-wide health issues, the Heat have come up short of their ultimate goal. Butler’s free agent arrival, although not expected at first, turned the team into title contenders over the following years. In five seasons, the Heat reached the NBA Finals twice and one Eastern Conference finals.
The national media’s dismissive stance on what Miami has accomplished forced the team to embrace being an underdog. Granted the Heat’s Finals runs came with the team being a five and eight seed, respectively. But they still didn’t get much attention even when they secured the East’s number one seed back in 2022.
Some will say this core has overachieved, but Heat players will say they always know what they are capable of.
This Butler-led build is still ongoing with unfinished business to handle, especially in this upcoming season. Bam Adebayo is poised for a career year following his Team USA run, along with his co-star in Butler ready to come out with something to prove on a contract year. A full season of a healthy Terry Rozier/Tyler Herro backcourt is also in the works. Then there is continued development and growth from the Heat’s young core as another factor that can impact the team’s success.
However, with all this being said, there is a fair share of regrets surrounding the organization that has kept Miami from finally getting over that hump over recent years.
- Letting developed players walk for nothing
The Heat have earned a reputation for having an eye for young talent and developing them. Assistant GM Adam Simon, who leads the scouting department, is at the head of this. Gabe Vincent, Max Strus and Caleb Martin are all recent undrafted success stories that wound up leaving in free agency over the last couple of years.
Coach Erik Spoelstra and the team’s development staff put in the work to maximize their talents. All three became crucial rotation pieces for the Heat over recent playoff runs. The fact that the organization has nothing to show for Vincent, Strus and Martin’s growth in their system following free-agent departures is tough.
When it came time to pay these guys, the team’s limited cap space got in the way of keeping them long term. But if that was the assumed outcome, the front office should have attempted to unload each of the role players via trade when they had value before hitting the open market. Now, they have nothing to show for their scouting/development efforts.
- Kyle Lowry’s contract
In the summer of 2021, the Heat headlined free agency by signing multi-time All-Star and NBA champion Kyle Lowry. He was signed to a hefty three-year, $90 million contract in a sign-and-trade that unloaded beloved point guard Goran Dragic and newly drafted Precious Achiuwa. At first, the signing of Lowry looked promising.
He provided elite playmaking and floor general skills that helped lead Miami to the first seed in the East. However, injury issues arose in Lowry’s first postseason with the team. The years after featured him take a significant step back in performance.
It should come as no surprise that giving a $30 million annual contract to a guy that was on the wrong end of 30 years old, and had an injury history, wasn’t a good idea. Lowry’s age caught up to him drastically and that contract did not age well.
More importantly, his contract took up valuable space on the Heat’s cap that they could’ve used to acquire another impactful player.
- Not exploring trades for Kyrie Irving or James Harden
Over the years, the NBA has seen a lot of superstar movement in the trade market. During the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 season, respectively, the Heat made no efforts to bring in a pair of available superstars. Kyrie Irving was traded to the Dallas Mavericks and James Harden was traded to the LA Clippers.
Both players have assets to their games that instantly could’ve elevated Miami. Something that has been a repeated problem over the years is limited offensive production, especially come playoff time to help Butler. Irving and Harden are generational scorers that could’ve added a much-needed scoring jolt.
Irving especially just saw himself help lead the Mavericks to the NBA Finals a few months ago. It seemed that off-the-court issues among the two reportedly held the Heat front office back from taking the risk on the pair of stars. Irving and Harden both had Miami as a preferred trade destination, but Pat Riley opted to sit back and look elsewhere for options to improve.
- Drafting Precious Achiuwa over Tyrese Maxey
In the 2020 NBA draft, the Heat suffered a painful draft mistake of taking Precious Achiuwa one pick ahead of Philadelphia 76ers rising star Tyrese Maxey. Achiuwa went 20th overall, as Maxey was chosen 21st. In the moment, it was clear that the Heat wanted to pair Adebayo with another big man in the frontcourt and were happy with Tyler Herro coming off an impressive playoff run in the Bubble.
Ultimately that vision never panned out. Achiuwa was raw and undersized as a big. He ended up getting traded for Lowry, but had the Heat brought in Maxey instead, it could’ve changed the entire outlook of this Butler era. In Achiuwa’s lone Heat season, he didn’t bring much of an impact.
The 6-foot-8 center averaged just 5.0 points and 3.4 rebounds in 12.1 minutes during his rookie year in Miami. Maxey on the other hand, just signed a lucrative max extension and is coming off earning the league’s Most Improved Player of the Year award. He averaged 25.9 points this past season, as Achiuwa averaged 7.6 points playing for the Toronto Raptors and New York Knicks.
- Striking out on Damian Lillard
The most painful regret during the last five seasons will be not getting the job done in bringing on superstar guard Damian Lillard.
Last summer, the former Portland Trail Blazers franchise player requested a trade to the Heat, and specifically only the Heat. After a summer-long drama of talks between Miami and Portland that went nowhere, Lillard finally ended up with the rival Milwaukee Bucks.
Heat insiders mentioned over the years that because the team is so limited financially and asset-wise, the only way of acquiring a star in a trade is if they demand Miami as their top destination.
Well, that opportunity finally happened, and Riley still wasn’t able to get the job done. It was speculated that the Heat front office assuredly wanted Lillard’s services, but it seemed like they tried to get away with low-ball offers until it was too late. Riley’s negotiation tactics rubbed Trail Blazers general manager Joe Cronin the wrong way.
In what could have been the last realistic chance of pairing Butler and Adebayo with another true superstar to round out a new trio, the Heat may have fumbled this one. Lillard’s arrival would have instantly elevated Miami to East favorites and provided the team with someone who could maximize this title window. Instead, the Heat missed out, found themselves in the play-in tournament for the second straight season and won just one playoff game.
Now Butler will return for another season without a new contract and plans to enter free agency next summer. That means this could be the Heat’s last chance to maximize the Butler era with a championship.
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