The Disastrous 2024-2025 Miami Heat Season Has Ended, but What’s Next?
The ending to the Miami Heat’s 2024-2025 season couldn’t have ended more fittingly. The team was left looking sad, tired, and defeated as the Cleveland Cavaliers ran up the score, leading to a 55-point victory and a sweep of the series. Truthfully, at 37-45, the Heat had zero reason to be in the playoffs and probably should’ve been getting ready for the offseason already. The Heat mustered up enough courage to sneak into the playoffs and leave the season with some positive takeaways, but this fanbase doesn’t care about positive takeaways. This fanbase wants the team to win something and be an organization that they have pride in being a fan of. Right now, after this clean sweep, the team has reached a low that has hardly ever been seen in the Erik Spoelstra era.
Never has it been more clear that the Heat don’t currently have a star capable of taking over in the playoffs. Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo had glimpses of brilliance during this series, but were complete no-shows when needed the most. Backs against the wall, season on the line, and they put together 15 points in total, with 13 of those coming from Adebayo. It is horrifying to see if you’re Pat Riley and the front office staff. This team is all in on these two being the duo that will lead the team to greatness again, but the early returns of their leadership show signs of failure to meet the moment. The most underwhelming showcase of the playoffs has been the play of Andrew Wiggins. Wiggins, a proven playoff performer, most well-known for his instrumental help in the Warriors’ 2022 championship, had fans questioning if they were watching the same player. Wiggins has been battling an ankle injury throughout the second half of the season and missed a large chunk of games because of it. That ankle might not be completely healed, and if I’m in the Heat front office, I’d hope this series was Wiggins showing his grit by overcoming a harsh ankle injury, and not his best attempt at replacing the production of Jimmy Butler.
Monday night was a reflection of everything that this organization feared. The years of mediocrity following the breakup of the Big Three was ended when they signed Jimmy Butler in 2019. Jimmy represented a safety blanket that the team will always be competitive, and in the hunt for a title, even if they come up short. Right now, that blanket is removed, and the front office has to sleep in the bed they made. The good news is that they have two all-star caliber players and young talent who haven’t sniffed their peak yet, but this offseason means everything for this team. Another offseason running it back with the same team simply won’t work anymore, because this team can’t win right now, and Pat Riley knows it. That 55-point loss and series sweep put pressure on this organization to choose a path forward that will require major changes and restructuring. The only question that remains to ask is, can they meet the moment? I don’t have the answers to that question, but they’ve done it before, and maybe Pat Riley can work his legendary Godfather-esque ways for one last time before he calls it a career, and rides off into the Miami sunset.
