Season Wrap: The 2024-25 Miami Heat

  • By Mike Passador

    Last Updated on June 7, 2025 5:19 pm by Mike Passador | Published: June 7, 2025

    The Heat have been a thorn in everyone’s side for years now, with a deep group that is always coached to be more than the sum of its parts. Jimmy Butler was the tip of the spear and the Heat have always been more worried about having him healthy heading into the postseason than the team’s regular season results, but this year they had to worry about having him at all.

    How’d It Go?

    The Heat made their own bed by signaling that Jimmy Butler would not be getting a max contract, or apparently anything close to it, over the offseason. Given Butler’s history of forcing his way out of previous stops in less-than-professional ways, it pushed a ton of risk onto the organization. With their tone-setter disgruntled and no stranger to making things uncomfortable to get his way, the Heat were hoping that their organizational cachet would be enough to let cooler heads prevail.

    It didn’t play out that way, as Butler was suspended for seven games in January for conduct detrimental to the team and submitted a formal trade request that included the fact he’d be willing to play anywhere other than Miami. He returned for two games, got suspended two more after missing a team flight and then was suspended indefinitely after walking out of a team meeting where he was informed that he’d come off the bench moving forward. A motivated Butler with an axe to grind could’ve been something special given the way he had carried the team in the past, but instead he took his ball and went home. He was traded to the Warriors without suiting up for Miami again, and the messy exit was a season-breaker for the team.

    The Butler drama was the story of the Heat’s season but there were a few positives. Bam Adebayo was as sturdy as ever and Tyler Herro took a legitimate leap, stepping into the scoring and leadership void left by Butler’s behavior. Rookie Kel’el Ware proved capable of playing alongside Adebayo and came on strong as the season progressed. Nikola Jovic had his moments of development and Davion Mitchell proved to be an outstanding pickup at the trade deadline, giving the Heat some big-time moments in their postseason pursuits.

    On the flip side, there were other disappointments beyond Butler’s drama. Terry Rozier was dreadful and played his way out of the rotation; less than a year after the Heat paid to make him the complementary third option behind Butler and Adebayo, he was out of the picture. Jaime Jaquez Jr. stagnated after a solid rookie campaign. Andrew Wiggins, the centerpiece of the Butler trade, appeared in just 17 of 32 games with Miami.

    Miami did get into the playoffs but there was never any real hope of them advancing given the mishmash roster that they had to work with. Management not addressing the Butler situation with the right tact — or in a timelier manner — derailed the season.

    Coaching

    Erik Spoelstra has earned the right to be discussed amongst the league’s top bench bosses with his outstanding work over the years. You can quibble with Miami’s poor play in clutch situations and tendency to fritter away good work with ugly second halves — they blew way more than their fair share of double-digit leads this season — but ultimately, nobody is laying the blame at Spoelstra’s feet.

    So much of Spoelstra’s early success was about managing egos and personalities but this time he couldn’t get Butler to buy in after the perceived disrespect from the organization. Miami’s roster was built around Butler as their one true star, and without him it all fell apart. Offense was already a struggle with Rozier apparently forgetting how to hoop, and with Butler checked out even when he was available the Heat could not keep pace in a way that suggested they’d be real contenders, even with their playoff pedigree.

    Spoelstra was given too many challenges and not enough resources to work with this season. He wasn’t perfect and those blown leads need to be addressed, but Miami’s lackluster season was hardly his fault.

    The Players

    Tyler Herro
    SG, Miami Heat
    SeasonTeamGPGSMPG FGMFGAFG% FTMFTAFT% 3PTM3PTA3PT% PTSREBAST STLBLKTO
    24-25 MIA 77 77 35.4 8.5 17.9 47.2 3.7 4.2 87.8 3.3 8.7 37.5 23.9 5.2 5.5 0.9 0.2 2.6
    23-24 MIA 42 40 33.1 7.7 17.5 44.1 2.3 2.6 85.6 3.1 7.9 39.6 20.8 5.3 4.5 0.7 0.1 2.2
    22-23 MIA 67 67 34.9 7.3 16.6 43.9 2.5 2.7 93.4 3.0 8.0 37.8 20.1 5.4 4.2 0.8 0.2 2.4

    ADP: 78.9/89.8 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 13/13 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 25/29 (8/9-cat)

    Herro had the best season of his career in 2024-25. With the Butler saga wiping away the Heat’s top player, Herro stepped into a true go-to role and flourished. He juiced his scoring by over three points per game and delivered a new career-best FG% on added shot volume (and defensive attention), fueled by more looks from deep and at the rim and less mid-range shimmying. Herro also pitched in personal bests in assists and 3-pointers for good measure. Even better? After a career-low 42 games in 2023-24 that prompted Pat Riley to call the guard “fragile” after the season, Herro suited up in a career-high 77 contests.

    He earned his first All-Star berth and put himself firmly in Miami’s long-term plans after a couple years of teetering on the fence. A disappointing playoff run is something to think about, and Herro’s game may not be built to withstand the rigors of elite defenses trying to harass him on every possession in a way that teams don’t in the regular season, but there’s no taking away from the scope and breadth of his improvement. Anyone who drafted Herro in fantasy ended up with a steal, and even if you could’ve known before the season that Jimmy Butler would disappear (and only try a little bit before then), you couldn’t have predicted Herro returning top-30 value while staying healthy. It’s outstanding work.

    Bam Adebayo
    C, Miami Heat
    SeasonTeamGPGSMPG FGMFGAFG% FTMFTAFT% 3PTM3PTA3PT% PTSREBAST STLBLKTO
    24-25 MIA 78 78 34.3 6.9 14.3 48.5 3.2 4.2 76.5 1.0 2.8 35.7 18.1 9.6 4.3 1.3 0.7 2.1
    23-24 MIA 71 71 34.0 7.5 14.3 52.1 4.1 5.5 75.5 0.2 0.6 35.7 19.3 10.4 3.9 1.1 0.9 2.3
    22-23 MIA 75 75 34.6 8.0 14.9 54.0 4.3 5.4 80.6 0.0 0.2 8.3 20.4 9.2 3.2 1.2 0.8 2.5

    ADP: 31.1/35.2 (Yahoo/ESPN) | Total Value: 22/23 (8/9-cat) | Per-Game Value: 53/46 (8/9-cat)

    Adebayo was a pillar of consistency for the Heat in a very turbulent season. He did what he always does: anchor the team defensively while providing solid scoring, playmaking and work on the glass. It’s a reliable package for fantasy even if Adebayo doesn’t have the elite per-game upside we were once hopeful to see. It was a slow start for him offensively but Adebayo rode an early steals binge to stay in the middle-rounds. He was shooting just .428 from the field through the end of November, making him a prime buy-low target. By the end of December, he had already pushed that up to .450, and although he finished with a career-low FG%, Adebayo was able to drive that up to .485 by the time the dust settled.

    Unfortunately the steals did not continue rolling in at the same clip, and Adebayo failed to crack the early rounds in the rankings despite reliable play every night. He was able to heat up after the All-Star break when he was largely forced to carry the team in terms of two-way play, driving his averages up to 20.6 points, 4.0 assists and 1.2 triples on .508 shooting (and .822 free throws) over his final 27 contests, resulting in top-25 value. Adebayo also finished the season with only four absences, resulting in a successful campaign overall. The shape of his production changed as the points, rebounds and FG% fell, but Adebayo increased his assists, steals and free throws to help produce another solid effort. The Heat figure to build around him going forward, and one wonders exactly what kind of role Adebayo will be asked to handle given the variety of his skills.

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    June 7, 2025, 5:19 pm