A chaotic Miami Heat season ended tonight with a Game Four loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers that wrapped up a 4-0 first round series sweep in which the Heat never threatened. The gap between the two teams was stark, and was long since forthcoming; a Heat team that finished the regular season eight games under .500, and backed into the playoffs only because of a combination of the weak Eastern Conference and the play-in tournament never stood a chance against the title-contending Cavs.
In a season that will be best remembered for the explosive end to the Jimmy Butler era, for the Heat to have made the playoffs at all was perhaps an achievement. Nevertheless, they now head into the 2025 NBA offseason with incontrovertible evidence of how sizeable the gap to the top truly is. There is a lot to do to become like the Cavaliers.
That said, the Heat dance to their own tune, rather than imitate. While modern conventional thinking surrounding roster construction holds that teams outside of realistic title contention – even after a hypothetical big trade or two – should sell off quality pieces and begin rebuilding through the draft, the Heat historically do not do it that way, and will surely not start doing so now. They therefore will need to find talent infusions – particularly on the offensive end – without having either a quality or quantity of draft picks, nor salary cap space, with which to do so.
With this in mind, here follows a look at the Miami Heat’s roster and spending options heading into the 2025 NBA offseason.
