The Miami Heat’s place as a ‘middle of the road’ NBA team was underlined with a disappointing 2024-25 season.
Two years ago the Miami Heat stunned the basketball world by becoming the first team to reach the NBA Finals after qualifying for the playoffs via the Play-In Tournament.
Ultimately defeated by the Denver Nuggets in 2023, the Miami Heat have gone backwards since, and were eliminated in the first round of the 2025 playoffs with a humiliating clean sweep at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
This has left plenty of questions being asked about the team’s direction, and how they will move forward.
After their Game 4 loss to the Cavs, Bam Adebayo warned his teammates that team president Pat Riley will be making big decisions in the offseason.
Riley spoke on May 9, holding his season exit interview, insisting he would not be stepping down or retiring any time soon.
The Miami Heat’s direction for next season is not totally clear. The team lacks star power and are also short of assets to make big moves.
Riley made clear he still wants to win and is proud of his record as a team executive over the past two decades.
Speaking at his press conference, Riley referred to his ability to rebuild, but does not expect to take drastic steps like tanking in order to do it.
And if it was his chosen path to send Miami into a big overhaul and chase picks in the Draft Lottery, he says he would not declare it in advance.
Riley explained: “We’ve always found a way to rebuild a team that was respected, that was a contender.
“24 times in the playoffs. I’m not trying to pat myself on the back. I’m just giving you the numbers, because 24 times in the playoffs, and I only tried to tank twice, and I was successful.”
He referred back to his final coaching season with the Heat where the team went 15-67, before he handed the reins over to Erik Spoelstra.
“Not really successful in the way here, but I was successful in 2008, but I never told anybody I was gonna try to tank. I always said we’re gonna win, but we’re tanking, not really, but we were.”
This underlines how Riley will communicate his plans for the season. He will say he wants to win, and he most likely really will want to do so.
But in the event he does make the rare move to try and tank – he will keep it secret until it is so obvious it stares everybody in the face.
Pat Riley was also keen to underline that the direction of the Miami Heat is not made on his individual whim, insisting there is a collaborative process.
“I don’t do this in a vacuum. We have a great front office, and we make decisions together, we plan and we plot together.”
In response to ongoing questions about the Heat’s poor season, he added: “I’m gonna live on my track record. That’s all I can live on.”
With free agency upcoming in June, the Heat’s direction for next season will begin to look a little clearer.
While Riley won’t come out and declare a desire to tank, the look of the team’s roster will provide a few clues.
