Former 11-year NBA veteran Austin Rivers recently opined about the Miami Heat’s inability to land stars. (Mandatory Credit: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
We’re not quite at the halfway point, yet. But now is about the time when teams begin to separate themselves from the pack in their respective conferences. The Miami Heat, currently losers of eight of their last nine, have not, holding sole possession for the No. 8 seed in the weakest Eastern Conference in recent memory.
Should that hold, theywill be a play-in team for the fourth-straight year. Miami traded a disgruntled Jimmy Butler last February and are still trying to navigate waters with Tyler Herro, Norman Powell and Bam Adebayo, the team’s captain, leading the charge.
Despite their success — or lack thereof — save for a miraculous 2023 NBA Finals run, former 11-year NBA veteran Austin Rivers is quite confused as to why they can’t land star talent.
“Some of these cities I don’t understand how no players ever get there. Don’t get me started on Miami. The fact their free agency market and how they just don’t get anybody just blows my mind. I don’t understand the Miami thing for the life of me,” Rivers said recently on his Off Guard with Austin Rivers podcast, according to Awful Announcing’s Ben Axelrod. “What the f*ck are y’all doing? Why don’t y’all have seven stars there? I don’t understand. Who doesn’t want to live and play in Miami?”
We live in different times, for better or worse:
Contrary to Rivers’ belief, this is an organization problem, not a player problem. Their best position to land a true star talent was in 2023 with Damian Lillard, though the Portland Trail Blazers flung the bird at Miami’s package, trading him to the Milwaukee Bucks instead.
The reality is star talents don’t enter free agency anymore. When Butler did, the Heat miraculously acquired him without cap space via a four-team sign-and-trade. In the trade market, their assets — or lack thereof — took them out of the conversations before they even started.
Every front office has strengths and weaknesses. Miami’s weaknesses, respectfully, has been their asset (mis)management and inability to adapt. Over time, you could argue they’ve missed multiple sell high opportunities to would recoup value and bolster their future package for stars, should they become available.
It’s not a free agency deal. This isn’t 2014, where the best free agents would enter free agency and take meetings before picking a destination. It’s a trade deal, where the Heat have come up short far more often than not.
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