Miami – There will be a new banner atop Miami’s home floor next season. It will have a Heat logo and will be added to the rafters quietly, without any celebration or sounds of fan cheering.
Eastern Conference champion banners aren’t worth a Heat party.
Only the NBA championship banners get the explosive celebrations, and the Heat will have to wait at least another year to get those celebrations. It was a surprising period – from nearly bouncing back in the championship to making it to the NBA Finals – but it ended with Miami falling in the title series for the third time in their last three games.
Denver beat Miami 4-1 in the Finals, giving the Nuggets their first title and making the Heat wait again for a fourth.
“We didn’t get the ultimate win, but sometimes that’s true in sports and in life, too—that you don’t always get what you want,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But there’s no remorse on our part. Everyone, the staff, the players alike in the dressing room put themselves out there and put themselves in the team, whatever’s best for the team. And the hard pill to swallow is that it wasn’t good enough. We ran Against a team that has been better than us in this series.”
So the goal is clear: Miami will be looking to make moves this summer. Big moves, probably.
Once Portland’s Damian Lillard mentioned on a recent podcast that he would consider Miami an acceptable trade destination — to be clear, there was no indication the Trail Blazers would trade Lillard anywhere, and Lillard also said he expected to stay in Portland to start next season — the hype began. Hit fans flowing in waves.
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The team that brought together LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh 13 summers ago is constantly mentioned in potential moves for the biggest names that might be available each season. And Heat president Pat Riley starts each season with one goal: to win it all.
“I think we’ll be fine,” said forward Jimmy Butler. “That’s the job of Coach Pat and Coach Spo to make another team, and I’m sure they’ll do it, and we’ll take it from there.”
It was a strange year. Miami’s longest winning streak was four games. The Heat was the lowest scoring team in the NBA during the regular season. They were actually outclassed over the first 82 games. They lost their first game of play, fell behind in the second game and were about three minutes away from elimination, then won 13 playoff games—the most of any No. 8 seed ever. They defeated #1 overall seed Milwaukee in the first round, eliminated longtime rival New York in the second round and nearly squandered a 3-0 series lead against Boston in the East Finals before winning game seven on the road.
In the finals, they just didn’t have enough – and tipped their hats to Denver.
“I think this is one of my favorite teams that I’ve been a part of because we’ve worked our way through ups and downs,” said center Bam Adebayo. “We made our way through things that people said we couldn’t do. So, for me, the future, I’m just taking those lessons and applying them for the next season. Whenever we’ve been through adversity, I’ll always look back and say, ‘We’ve been through adversity before’.” ”
As always, changes can be expected and there are decisions to be made.
Gabe Vincent – who initially became a Miami guard – is about to become a free agent. So does shooting guard Max Stross, a full-time postseason player in both of Miami’s last playoff runs. Both made $1.8 million this season; They could now reasonably say that they had earned significant raises even after struggling in the finals.
Midseason acquisitions Kevin Love and Cody Zeller are free agents as well and it’s possible Miami will try to keep one or both of them. Victor Oladipo has a player option for $9.5 million and is expected to sign up, especially since he will need some time to recover from his torn patellar tendon.
“I think the biggest part of that was the fun we had together, this set, having picked up Kevin Love and Cody Zeller,” said Stross. “It was so unique how we all came together and had this run together and just had fun. … But we came up short. It will be a lesson we all learned, and we will be better for our careers in the future.”
The only player who will definitely not return is Udonis Haslem.
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Miami captain retires after 20 seasons. He’s the only player to have appeared in all six of Miami’s games in the NBA Finals, and the Heat has already announced that the 40th-place finisher will be retiring — likely in party next season.
“I have no regrets,” Haslem said. “I am completely satisfied. … They gave me one last season that I will never forget.”
He intends to remain with the organization in an as-yet-unspecified role. He will change his night clothes. His message will not.
“Winning a championship is going to be the hardest thing you’ll ever do,” Haslem said. “People only talk about the march and carrying the trophy. They don’t talk about the journey, the sleepless nights, the frustration, the tears, the pain. They don’t talk about it.”
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