3 Heat players who earned untouchable status, 3 who are expendable

The Miami Heat are yet again entering an offseason where critical decisions will have to be made. The Heat are coming off of a disappointing season, ending the year as the Eastern Conference eighth seed, and fell to the Boston Celtics 4-1 in the first round.

There is no doubt that the structure of Miami’s roster is very questionable. They are led by a 34-year-old veteran Jimmy Butler, who is coming off a disappointing 2023-24 campaign. Then the second option is a young star in Bam Adebayo, who is nearly nine years younger than Butler. Outside of the tandem of Bam and Butler, the roster structure just seems to raise a plethora of questions. With young talents such as Jaime Jaquez Jr. (23 years old), and Nikola Jovic (21 years old), then a 30-year-old Terry Rozier, the age timeline of the roster is sporadic.

Now with rumors brewing of Jimmy Butler trades and Butler possibly wanting out of Miami if the Heat don't offer him a maximum extension, Pat Riley and Co. have a vital decision to make on how they should structure the roster to make their next run at the Larry O'Brien championship trophy.

Here are players I believe have achieved untouchable status for the offseason:

Untouchable: Nikola Jovic

Jovic’s improvement over the course of the second half of the season and the playoffs was truly impressive to observe. He is only 21 years old and will only get better. The Miami Heat drafted him with the 27th pick in the first round of the 2022 draft, knowing that he was raw talent and would have the potential to become a great player throughout their developmental system. He has already exceeded expectations for where his talent level was when the Heat first drafted him.

During the 2023-24 regular season, Jovic averaged 7.7 PPG, 4.2 RPG, and shot 45.2% from the field, and 39.9% from behind the arc. Those are exceptional numbers for a player who was spending time in the G League throughout the first half of the season.

In the playoff series against Boston, Jovic saw his minutes increase from 19.5 MPG to 25.6 MPG, due to the significant amount of injuries the Miami Heat suffered at the end of the season. He averaged 9.4 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 2 APG, and shot 40.9% from three-point range.