The Heat were one of only three teams that didn’t make a trade ahead of Thursday’s deadline. As Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald writes, the team has been trending in the wrong direction for two months, going just 13-18 over its past 31 games after a 14-7 start.
Despite having another middling record (27-25), the Heat are optimistic brighter days are ahead.
“League-wide, I think everybody is just glad that all of that is behind us,” head coach Erik Spoelstra said following Friday’s morning shooting shootaround in Boston. “And we can just focus on the next 30 games. We have great opportunities still ahead of us. We know what we have to work on is our consistency. We have a high ceiling, but we need to do it more consistently.”
Consistency was a major talking point for Spoelstra, who said variations of the word several more times on Friday.
Captain and starting center Bam Adebayo said the players breathed a sigh of relief when they learned they were sticking with Miami, according to Chiang.
“Guys got that weight off their shoulders, where they don’t know what’s going to happen to them,” Adebayo said. “It’s good to have that type of clarity. So now we can focus on basketball and try to stack these wins.”
Here’s more from Miami:
- The Heat were one of the primary suitors for Giannis Antetokounmpo, and aside from Adebayo, they were willing to discuss every other player on the roster in talks for the Bucks star, a league source tells Chiang. Miami also had “some level of interest” in Ja Morant, but his maximum-salary contract and injury history were among the factors that made the Heat leery of pursuing the Grizzlies guard, Chiang reports.
- Andrew Wiggins was mentioned as a possible trade candidate this season, but the Heat were never offered a first-round pick for the veteran forward, according to Chiang. Terry Rozier, who has been away from the team throughout 2025/26 after being arrested and indicted on federal charges related to illegal gambling, was another player who stayed put. Chiang hears Miami’s brain trust is still weighing the possibility of waiving Rozier’s expiring contract, which would open up a second spot on the standard roster — the Heat have only been carrying 14 players due to their proximity to the luxury tax line.
- Jahmir Young has been named the G League’s Player of the Month for games played in January, the NBA announced (via Twitter). Young, a second-year guard who is on a two-way contract with the Heat, averaged 29.5 points, 9.6 assists and 4.9 rebounds last month for the Sioux Falls Skyforce, Miami’s NBAGL affiliate.
- Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel takes a look at some options the Heat could consider to fill out their standard roster, including converting a two-way player like Young or taking a flier on a veteran on the buyout/free agent market. Pat Connaughton, Georges Niang and Chris Boucher are a few of the veterans Winderman lists.
- For better or worse, the Heat stuck to their guiding principles ahead of the deadline, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald, who considers whether that was the right call and explores what the consequences of maintaining the status quo could be both now and going forward.