By standing pat at Thursday’s NBA trade deadline, thus becoming the only Eastern Conference team to bypass tinkering with its roster this week, the Heat essentially doubled down on its core philosophies.
Call them the 10 commandments of Heat (though nobody, before now, has written them up as a list or called them that). And Miami adhered to each of those 10 tenets:
1). Never trade good players for future draft picks.
The Heat’s focus is always on the here and now, not collecting assets to build up a war chest of draft capital to flip for a hypothetical star.
2). Never give up on a season.
Though the Heat will be a clear underdog in a potential first-round series against Detroit, New York or Boston – and is hardly even assured of making the playoffs – Miami believes that it always has a chance because of Erik Spoelstra, Bam Adebayo, the culture, a pretty good supporting cast and because the Heat rose from an eighth seed to the Finals in 2023, albeit with Jimmy Butler donning a magic cape to drive that ride.
3). Do not accept taking a step back with the hope that it could lead to better days ahead. And certainly don’t even consider trying to miss the playoffs with the hopes of landing a high draft pick.
“I don’t believe in that,” Heat president Pat Riley said last May, in his last public comments, when asked about giving tanking a chance to help the Heat’s chances of landing a transformational talent. (As we’ve reported, the Heat’s deep study into tanking has left them convinced it rarely works.)
4). Go all in for an all-time great player but be very selective about pursuing other good players.
That was reflected in two ways this week. Per a source, the Heat essentially told the Bucks they could have anyone on their roster except Bam Adebayo in a trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo. But that wasn’t enough.
But also remember that Riley said two years ago that there are only two or three players in the league who would get the Heat “to go for it, shoot the moon.”
Two of those players are Antetokounmpo and Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, according to a source. The third, per Five Reasons Sports, is Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell. But none of those players is available.
Ja Morant is not one of those players; as we reported Thursday, the Heat decided not to try to trade for him because of his injury history and other issues.
5). Do not make a trade simply for the sake of making a trade.
When I asked a Heat executive last summer whether the team should make a trade simply to shake things up with a stale roster, the message was no, and that’s not how they view team-building.
The thinking is to make a trade only if owner Micky Arison, CEO Nick Arison and Riley believe it clearly helps. (Erik Spoelstra, GM Andy Elisburg and vice president/basketball operations Adam Simon also have a seat at the table.)
6). Don’t give up on a roster prematurely.
Even after the Heat lost 10 in a row at one point last season and was bounced by 122 points in a four-game first round sweep against Cleveland (the most lopsided drubbing in NBA playoff history), Riley insisted two weeks later: “We are not reflective of that. Those… losses were humbling. They might have put the final nail in thinking we’ve got to tear everything apart and rebuild. We’ve never done that. Thirteen times, we’ve always found a way to rebuild a team that was respected, that was a contender.”
Similarly, this season’s 27-25 start did not leave the Heat convinced that it needed an overhaul, particularly because Tyler Herro has missed most of the season due to injuries.
7). Don’t try to sell high on players.
The Heat believes it should never try to trade a good player coming off a great year because of fear that his stock will diminish later. As a team source said, that’s simply not how they operate.
8). Bam Adebayo is essentially untouchable.
He might be the only player in the league who has never been All-NBA (not first, second or third team) and yet is viewed as a non-starter in trade talks.
9). Maintain roster/payroll flexibility if possible.
This one is certainly reasonable. It would have been counter-productive to use Rozier’s and Wiggins’ expiring contracts for decent, but not difference-making players, with multiple years and sizable money left on their contracts. And by keeping one open roster spot (two if Rozier is cut), Miami has a path to add a player in the buyout market if it chooses.
10). Don’t worry about losing a free agent for nothing.
The Heat believes it can always find some benefit in that scenario – whether it’s generating more room to spend under the first apron, or acquiring a second-rounder in a sign-and-trade, or gaining use of a mid-level exception.
But living by those principles comes with consequences. And three of those consequences have crystallized over the past two seasons:
▪ In an era without free agency, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to build a championship contender without taking a step back.
Of the top six teams in each conference entering the weekend, all of them except Denver and Boston had at least one season in which they won between 10 and 26 games during the past decade, and 9 of those 12 teams experienced such a season this decade. In most cases, they had more than one dreadful season and that directly led to landing players that helped turned around their franchises.
Detroit had five consecutive seasons of winning between 14 and 23 games before becoming a No. 1 seed this season. OKC had three years in a row of winning 22, 24 and 40 games before becoming a champion last June. The Spurs went six years of 22 to 34 wins before lucking out with Victor Wembanyamba and orchestrating a turnaround.
Cleveland had three straight seasons of 19 to 22 wins. The 76ers got Joel Embiid after a 19-63 season.
The Rockets parlayed three recent seasons of 17, 20 and 22 wins into Jalen Green (later used to trade for Kevin Durant last summer), Jabari Smith and Amen Thompson. The Timberwolves snagged Edwards in 2020 after a 19-45 season. Denver landed Jamal Murray with a seventh overall pick acquired from the Knicks in the Carmelo Anthony trade, after a season in which the Nuggets went 33-49.
Boston managed to be this good despite enduring only two losing seasons in the past 20 years (2013-14 and 14-15) because Danny Ainge and Brad Stevens made brilliant trades, including Ainge’s 2013 fleecing of the Nets in a deal that landed Boston three unprotected first-round picks, of which two were used on Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Now let’s be clear: It’s understandable and defensible that the Heat — which hasn’t won fewer than 37 games in any season since 2008-09 — doesn’t want to sacrifice six years like the Spurs or five years like the Pistons or the first quarter of the 21st century like Charlotte.
But trying to recapture greatness — in what has become a post free agent world — is incredibly difficult without “taking your medicine.”
The Heat took its medicine in 2002-03, finishing 25-57, which led to the fifth pick (Dwyane Wade), who’s arguably more responsible than anyone else for the Heat’s three championships.
2). By refusing to tank and not prioritizing draft-pick-asset collection and failing to land a star in a trade since Butler in 2019, the Heat has gone from having the East’s best record in 2021-22 to being bypassed by Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto, Detroit, New York, Indiana (before Tyrese Haliburton’s injury), Orlando and Cleveland.
The Hornets are now poised to pass Miami, particularly if Charlotte gets lucky in May’s draft lottery to land potentially generational players AJ Dybantsa (BYU) or Darryn Peterson (Kansas), or elite Duke forward Cameron Boozer.
Indiana, if it gets a top four pick in June, next season could pair one of those players with Haliburton and new pickup Ivica Zubak. Washington, tied for fourth in lottery odds, could pair one of those draft stars with recently acquired Anthony Davis and Trae Young.
Atlanta has the Pelicans’ first-round pick (which is currently second best in terms of lottery odds) and could get a generational talent to pair with young All Star forward Jalen Johnson.
So even without tanking, the Heat could fall to 11th or 12th in the conference next season if the lottery breaks right for New Orleans (Hawks’ pick), Washington, Charlotte or Indiana.
3). Even though the Heat has delivered seven Finals appearances, three championships and a consistently competitive team, this somewhat stubborn approach in a post-free agent world has taken a corrosive toll with a share of the fan base that’s exasperated by a team that looks bound for the play-in for a fourth consecutive year.
On Thursday, several fans proclaimed on social media that they’re canceling season tickets.
It might help somewhat if either Arison (Nick never speaks to reporters; Micky hasn’t spoken in 12 years) explained the philosophy to the fan base in a news conference or a more relaxed board-room table conversation with a few reporters.
It might help a bit if Riley spoke four times a year (as he did for many years) instead of once a year, as he does now.
The frustration of the fan base likely won’t hurt the Heat financially because Miami has sold out its season-ticket allotment for many years. But at some point, fans will begin tuning out in larger numbers.
When Riley last spoke, last May, he vowed “We are going to work at really, really trying to find something that will really help this team. If it doesn’t, it might take years” before adding he doesn’t want to wait years.
Essentially, the deadset refusal to intentionally take a step back — as OKC, the Spurs and many others have done — leaves the Heat needing to get immensely lucky in one of two ways: A). Finding a team willing to trade them a star with their limited draft assets and with a package not including Adebayo or B). Landing a genuine superstar with a draft pick in the teens, something that has been done only four times in the NBA this century.
In the meantime, be patient, Heat fans. The 10 commandments aren’t changing.
This story was originally published February 6, 2026 at 9:05 AM.
Barry Jackson
Miami Herald
Barry Jackson has written for the Miami Herald since 1986 and has written the Florida Sports Buzz column since 2002.
