Miami Heat 2024-25 season preview: Jimmy Butler’s future looms large for East dark horse |Max Sporty|

The 2024-25 NBA season is here! We break down the biggest questions, best and worst case scenarios and fantasy prospects for all 30 teams. Enjoy!

MIAMI HEAT

2023-24 end

Offseason moves

• Additions: Alec Burks, Nassir Little, Kel’el Ware, Pelle Larsson

• Subtractions: Caleb Martin, Delon Wright, Patty Mills, Orlando Robinson

• Complete roster

The Big Question: Is there a path to a contention-caliber offense?

Since the arrival of Jimmy Butler, the Heat have made five straight playoff appearances and two trips to the NBA Finals. The combination of Butler’s two-way brilliance, Bam Adebayo’s development into one of the NBA’s most complete players and coach Erik Spoelstra’s gift for turning any roster into a top-10 defense establishes a high floor. And when Butler’s game turns to the transcendent …

… the ceiling ain’t half bad either.

Achieving it is not easy, however. Last season, the Heat finished bottom-10 in offensive rating, effective field-goal percentagehow often they attempted shots at the rima team shooting percentage on at-the-rim attemptspoints in the paintoffensive efficiency in “clutch” situations and performance scoring in transitionamong other categories.

“We have to improve,” Spoelstra told reporters. “We have to innovate.”

And while Spo and the gang certainly won’t shrink from that challenge…

… a league-average-at-best offense probably won’t be enough to top the East’s best teams.

“Spo always talks about being a top-five defense and a top-five offense,” Butler told reporters. “That’s the formula for success.”

The recipe starts with better healthmost notably for Butler — who, Playoff Paul Bunyan acts aside, has yet to play 65 games in a season in Miami, has missed an average of 20 games a year and just turned 35. (In a related story, he entered camp without a contract extension in another related story, he did not bring his pieces to media day.)

Injuries have limited Butler, Adebayo and Tyler Herro to recently 527 minutes together last season and to only 118 minutes with trade-deadline acquisition Terry Rozier (who quietly on average 18-4-4 and shot 42% from deep after the All-Star break). In theory, more lineups featuring multiple shot creators and on-ball/point threats should has more ways to generate good looks — especially if Herro is real working more off the ball and if Spoelstra really changes the offense a bit of an iso-heavy game to more fluid, faster moving sets.

“I definitely intend to see what Terry, Tyler, Jimmy [and] Bam looks,” Spoelstra told reporters.

He’ll also have to be intentional about how he fills the frontcourt vacancy left by Martin. Will he look to Haywood Highsmith, re-signed on a two-year, $11 million deal? The 6-foot-5 27-year-old with the 7-foot wingspan could prove a bargain if last year’s shooting – 42% on corner 3s (albeit on only 84 attempts) — can play a bigger role.

There’s also third-year forward Nikola Jović, who might offer the most utility as a shooter, complementary player and offensive connector:

After cracking the rotation at the end of December, the 20-year-old Serbian on average eight points, four rebounds and just under two assists in 20.2 minutes per game, shooting 39.7% from 3-point range on nearly four attempts a night. Miami has outplayed opponents by 9.1 points-per-100 when Jović shared the floor with Butler and Adebayo; that margin came in just 407 minutes, but it deserves more research.

Is it Highsmith, Jović, Jaime Jaquez Jr. or someone else who lines up next to Adebayo, it could be the Heat’s center that helps the offense take its biggest step forward … especially if he keeps taking a step back.

After shooting 68 3-pointers through his first six seasons, Adebayo went 17-for-52 from deep in 2023-24, then shot nine from the FIBA ​​line during Team USA’s run to gold in Paris. He aims pay at least 100 triples this season.

Nobody expects Bam to become Kristaps Porziņģis overnight. But if his outward migration continues on an upward trajectory, it could be a massive boon for Miami’s often congested offense, with better half-court spacing meaning wider driving lanes and a livelier drive-and-kick game.

“Hopefully, this is an offense that will be firing on all cylinders in the second half of the season,” Spoelstra. said.

If it is not – if they again struggle hard to win, shaking to stay on top of the game – in battle, with Butler. $52.4 million player option looming — then the Heat could find themselves facing existential questions. Not about floors or ceilings, but about what they even try to build anymore.

Best case scenario

A motivated Butler is turning in his healthiest and most productive season in a Heat uniform, earning his first All-NBA First Team selection in the process. Adebayo is making good on his promise to shoot more 3s, reducing the number of things he can’t do on the basketball court to … zero? Spoelstra finds the right mix of shooting, playmaking and defense in the front five, and whoever ends up on the outside looking in — I think Jaquez — makes a strong push for Sixth Man of the Year. We look up in March and are amazed to realize that Miami is on its way to the top four seed and poised for another deep postseason run.

If everything falls apart

Butler, Herro and Rozier continue to struggle with injuries, leaving Adebayo overburdened trying to shoulder the shot-creating workload of a superstar. and plug every leak on defense. The youngsters are springing up under the bright lights, and with financial flexibility and few draft assets, there is no cavalry on the way. The Heat enter another spring watching teams they once defeated pass them in the postseason and the league’s pecking order, and are forced to face a future full of tough choices.

A fancy spin

As one of the top defenders in the league, Adebayo is a reliable source of points, boards and steals that will be off draft boards by the fourth round. If he continues to launch 3s, it will be a compelling development for his fantasy profile.

Butler’s ADP is rising from a late-to-mid fourth-round pick — despite his disparate contract situation. However, health has been an issue as Jimmy Buckets has not played more than 65 games since the 2016-17 season. Herro also has his share of injury concerns, and has fallen short relative to his seventh-round ADP. Similarly, Rozier is looking for a rebound campaign after his fantasy production took a turn for the worse after he was traded to Miami last year.

Kel’el Ware is a sleeper I’ve been targeting late in drafts because he looked great in the preseason and his game reminds me of a mix of LaMarcus Aldridge and Dereck Lively II. Ware is the innovation Coach Spo is talking about. – And Titus

schedule 2024-25

Small bumps for the offense and in general health should get past this number Miami. How much further it will reach than that, however, remains very much an open question.