Miami theoretically can bring Strus and Vincent back and wheel and deal around Butler and Bam, tax be damned. Does Riley believe in this team as a contender? Because the Heat have been willing to pay the tax before when that’s been the case. This puts the front office in what will be a telling bind. Even if Miami were to bring them back on team-friendly deals (i.e., underpay them), the luxury tax bill would skyrocket. And that calculation doesn’t even include Gabe Vincent and Max Strus, important pieces who started in every postseason game they played in. If they fill the roster out with their first-round pick and minimum players, that already puts the total salary above the second tax apron, which would not only cost owner Micky Arison a hefty amount of money, it would also restrict the moves the Heat can make on the margins of the roster. The Heat have over $170 million committed to only nine players for next season. The issue is the new CBA and Miami’s ballooning payroll. When Wade was Miami’s star, Pat Riley landed him Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron, recognizing the need to go all in.īutler deserves the same, especially after he put an eight-seed on his back all the way to the championship round, even as his ankle looked more gimpy as the playoffs endured. There’s new management in Washington, and thus a chance Bradley Beal could become available.Īcquiring that type of player is always easier said than done, but at the very least the Heat would be in the mix. Miami reportedly made an offer to Brooklyn for Kyrie Irving at the deadline. Damian Lillard has already floated Miami as a possible destination if he were to ever ask out of Portland. In a normal summer, the Heat would be going out and looking for the right third piece to complement their two best players. Butler and Adebayo have proved they must be taken seriously come playoff time, and with those two players, the Heat have the pillars of a possible champion. While maybe not quite at Jamal Murray–Nikola Jokić level, Jimmy and Bam have achieved as much if not more consistent success than starrier tandems such as LeBron James and Anthony Davis, Embiid and James Harden, and Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. In concert with Bam Adebayo, Miami has one of the more formidable duos in the league. Will they be able to find Butler his missing piece?īutler, of course, hasn’t done this alone. Now, after a second Finals loss in the last four years, the Heat are entering an offseason perhaps as pivotal as the one that got them Butler. Though not quite in the uppermost stratosphere of superstars, Butler has gone toe to toe with some of the greats over the last few years, including LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid.Īll of this is to say Butler has delivered everything the Heat could have asked for and has exceeded even the wildest expectations since becoming The Man in Miami. During Butler’s tenure, the Heat have led the NBA in both playoff wins and Finals appearances. Since then, Miami has been one of the most successful teams in the league. The team never quite threatened in the playoffs and never bottomed out, either.īutler rather miraculously landed in the Heat’s lap four summers ago, thanks in part to mismanagement by Philadelphia and his own relationship with Wade. Big contracts were handed out to Hassan Whiteside, Dion Waiters and others. From 2015 to ’19, the Heat alternated seasons in and out of the playoffs. However you want to describe it, Miami had very little direction before Butler joined the team. When Jimmy Butler joined the Heat in 2019, the franchise was in no-man’s land.
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