Pat Riley didn’t shy away from the Miami Heat’s disappointing season. In his end-of-season press conference, Riley admitted, “We probably won’t run it back.”
He also touched on other subjects, including Jimmy Butler’s departure, Erik Spoelstra’s future and Tyler Herro’s standing with the team. Here are a few takeaways from Friday afternoon’s honest and revealing press conference.
1. The Heat are moving on from the Butler drama
The first question lobbed at Riley was about Butler and whether the drama around his trade demand derailed the season. Riley took the blame for how it played out but stopped short of going into detail.
“There’s no doubt that what happened with Jimmy had a tremendous impact on our team. There’s no doubt about it,” Riley said. “The buck stops with me. I’ll take that hit. What happened in the regular season, I don’t want to discuss.”
Riley, who has a picture of Butler leaning over the stanchion in the NBA bubble in his office, recounted the five years of Butler’s tenure, but didn’t express any regret about the fact that he no longer wears a Heat uniform.
“I’m not gonna apologize for saying no to the contact extension when we didn't have to,” Riley said. “It’s over. He’s done. I wish him well, good luck to him, and I hope somewhere deep down he wishes us well, too.”
When asked about his thoughts on the trade package the Heat got back from Golden State for Butler, which included Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson, a 2025 first-round pick and pieces that eventually led to the deadline addition of Davion Mitchell, Riley said, “We took the deal we thought was best for us now and also in the future.”
“The thinking was to make the best deal we could because we pretty much locked in with one team – a team of his choice,” Riley said. “It didn’t happen there. It happened somewhere else.”
2. Changes are coming
Riley didn’t shy away from the fact that the season did not go as planned. The Heat finished the season with a 37-45 record but won two road play-in games to advance to the playoffs, where they were easily dispatched by the top-seed Cleveland Cavaliers.
“I think we do have to make changes,” Riley said. “There’s no doubt, there has to be some change. If you don’t win, you have to go about making changes to make sure you can win. We’re gonna work really hard to find something to help this team.”
“We probably won’t run it back,” he added.
3. Erik Spoelstra needs a break
It wasn’t Spoelstra’s best coaching season. There were confusing rotation decisions, uncharacteristic gafs at the end of games – including calling a timeout he didn’t have in an early-season loss – overlooked opportunities to challenge calls that could have swung games, and the fact that the Heat blew more double-digit leads than any team in the league.
“He never takes a year off, never takes a break, had some personal issues in his life. I’ve seen the stress on him like I’ve never seen it before. This takes a toll,” Riley said.
Over the last 23 months, Spoelstra coached the Heat to the 2023 NBA Finals, went through a public divorce, saw his 2024 season end after an injury to Butler, coached for Team USA during the 2024 summer Olympics, attempted to revamp the offense in training camp, then witnessed Butler’s relationship with the team deteriorate and derail the season. It’s been a lot.
“He needs a break. He needs time to reflect,” Riley said. “He will figure this out.”
Spoelstra plans to go to Hawaii for some time before getting back to work on what comes next for the Heat.
4. Tyler Herro isn’t likely to get an extension this summer
Starting Oct. 1, Herro is eligible to sign a three-year, $149.7 million extension. Those years would be added to the two years ($31 million and $33 million) that Herro already has left on his contract. The deadline to sign that extension is Oct. 20.
If both sides wait until the summer of 2026, Herro would then be eligible to sign a four-year, $206.9 million extension. He’d become eligible to sign a five-year, $380 million supermax extension if he’s named All-NBA next season.
It sounds like the Heat prefer to wait until next summer to offer an extension.
“We’ve already talked about it. I’ve talked about it with Tyler,” Riley said. “Definitely, Tyler is deserving of the thought of an extension. But are we going to do it? We haven’t committed to it. But we’re going to discuss it. I’ve already talked to him about it. He’s cool.”
At the same time, Riley threw his support behind Herro and his standing within the organization.
“We’re happy to have him,” Riley said. “He’s pivotal for us as an offensive player. We need more around him to do a little more of what he does. He’s getting beat up, getting overly schemed. I hope he can stay here the rest of his career.”
5. The Heat will try to avoid the luxury tax
The Heat have been a tax team in each of the last two years and need to avoid the luxury tax to avoid the punitive repeater tax.
When asked if that’s something he’s thinking about as he constructs the roster, Riley suggested the Heat will try to stay below the tax next season.
Currently, the Heat are $9 million away from the first apron with 13 players under contract. Any changes that are made will have to keep that apron in mind.
“We have to make an adjustment. It gets punitive financially,” Riley said. “This not a priority, but it is in order to manage the financial part of the team. We will try to get out and then back in and reset [the clock on the repeater tax.”