Giannis Antetokounmpo doesn’t join the Heat. The Bucks let teams know earlier today that they wouldn’t move Giannis before the trade deadline. The Heat are the only team in the Eastern Conference not to make a trade to improve their team. There was twitter buzz stating that the Heat front office want to make moves in the off-season, so now that is confirmed.
What is next for the Heat this season?
The Heat have 28 games remaining starting tomorrow against the Celtics. They have exactly 14 games against teams with above .500 records and below. So, the Heat could conceivably finish 41-41. They have six winnable games in February (at Washington, Utah, at New Orleans, at Atlanta, Memphis, at Milwaukee.) The team needs to win all six games.
The other games they have (at Boston, at Philadelphia, Houston) will be difficult games as the Celtics got better at the trade deadline with Porzingis 2.0 (Vucevic) and Houston is making an assault on the playoffs. Philadelphia is experiencing a renaissance with Joel Embiid and are in the top 6 in the East.
Heat at All-Star break compared to pre-season
One of the keys to the Heat’s season was that both Tyler Herro and Norman Powell needed to play together. That hasn’t happened. Herro right now is dealing with an inflammation of the costochondral rib joints and he didn’t travel with the team on their last road trip.
As for the young power players on the team, neither Niko Jovic and Kel’el Ware have performed up to their physical abilities. Jovic has suffered from a lack of mental toughness and Kel’el Ware has “hit a ceiling” in his development and clashed with Coach Spoelstra several times.
The Heat haven’t been outrebounded many times by opponents which has helped them a lot. They broke out to a good record at the start of the season, but severely regressed.
Buyout market possible players?
There aren’t many players available for the Heat in the buyout market. As per the site, the Third Apron, the Heat are only 1.6 million below the luxury tax apron. It was a good thing that they didn’t make any mistakes at the trade deadline.
The Heat will finish where at the end of the 2025-26 season?
The Heat will get healthy be in the play-in tournament (7th, 8th or 9th.) Kel’el Ware isn’t in “the doghouse” with the Heat, but he hasn’t responded well to the Heat’s development track. Kel’el Ware needs to take over defensive responsibilities for Bam Adebayo to allow Bam to score more on offense. Bam is “a unicorn” in that he can be so good on defense and have so much potential on offense.
As a fan, one hopes that Ware will reset himself in the All-Star break and come out the last 28 games setting team records for rebounding. Niko Jovic will finally show mental toughness and sacrifice his body to lead the team in offensive rebounds (while scoring 12 points per game.) Finally, Tyler Herro and Norman Powell play 20 games together and the Heat set pace records again as they did at the start of the season.
