Every NBA team can learn something from the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder as they prepare to square off in the Finals. For the Miami Heat, their primary takeaway is especially critical, because it speaks to their entire roster-building approach moving forward.
It is also a lesson that will be difficult to stomach, because it effectively hints at a need for major changes. Miami should be receptive to it anyway. The Pacers and Thunder are in the 2025 NBA Finals. The Heat are at home. Not only that, but they're galaxies away from even being a Finals-caliber team.
The key to changing that? Following in the footsteps of Indiana and Oklahoma City, and finding the player who can be the engine of a title contender's offense.
The Thunder and Pacers found their guy, and then went about the rest of their business
This emphasis on the offensive side of the ball is not meant to downplay the importance of defense. Both the Thunder and Pacers have cobbled together exhaustive defensive machines that can pressure the ball, force turnovers, futz and fiddle with matchups, play physical, and do so much more.
Still, the watershed moments for each of their operations can be traced back to a single trade. The Thunder acquired Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as part of the Paul George blockbuster in 2019. The Pacers swapped out Domantas Sabonis for Tyrese Haliburton in 2022.
The rest is, quite literally, history.
Neither Oklahoma City nor Indiana took off right away. There were growing pains, and other moves.
The Thunder built from within, turning assets into other assets, never making a blockbuster trade, but positioning themselves to select Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams, and to be a player on the free-agency market, where they poached Isaiah Hartenstein last summer. The Pacers built themselves incrementally, reorienting around Haliburton by finding value on the margins, in Andrew Nembhard (No. 31 in 2022) and Aaron Nesmith (acquired as part of the Malcolm Brogdon deal), before swinging on a bigger-time name like Siakam.
Central offensive figureheads are the common denominator. Neither team reached its peak or operated at its most aggressive until they found the player capable of running the entire team.
The Heat do not have their best offensive player of the future
This will be interpreted as an insult to Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro. But it’s not meant to be a point of contention. It’s simply a fact.
Miami just finished in the bottom 10 of points scored per possession for a third consecutive season. Adebayo and Herro are fantastic players—legitimate All-Stars. But the Heat ranked in the 37th percentile of offensive efficiency this season during the duo’s minutes without Butler. And across the past four years, through both the regular season and playoffs, the team’s offensive rating has been decidedly below average when Adebayo and Herro play without Butler, according to PBP Stats.
Both stars at this point are better off as second or third options. This isn’t to say they can’t get better. They can. They will. But neither is wired to drive the offense as both a standout scorer and table-setter for everyone else.
The Heat still need to find that player, and it won’t be easy. They have no young prospects lying in wait who could seize that role, their trade asset stores are limited, and they won’t have significant cap space until 2026.
It doesn’t matter. The Heat need to figure it out anyway. Maybe that entails waiting for 2026 free agency, or even suffering through a gap year next season and drafting someone. It might even entail looking at Herro or, less likely, Adebayo trades.
Every option must be on the table, because as the Thunder and Pacers have shown, you’re not going anywhere special until you find the type of lead playmaker no longer on Miami’s roster.