1 Obvious, 2 Not Obvious options for the Heat’s starting backcourt next season

Last season, the Miami Heat went into the start of the year after a weird and discouraging summer.

Their failed pursuit of Damian Lillard, which led to no real backup plan, left the Heat settling for another “run it back” offseason. However, they still displayed a lot of depth on paper; unfortunately, that was never able to be utilized, as they wound up having one of the most injury-struck rosters in the NBA.

Going into this 2024-25 season, Pat Riley insisted on giving the current Heat core another chance at his end-of-season press conference, and it seems like he is adamant about wanting to see this group available together on the court. 

The potential has always been there, and it shouldn’t be surprising that Riley is hesitant to pull the plug with how close Miami has gotten.

Now, everybody gets a fresh start. Butler is expected to be as hungry as ever in what could be a contract year, along with a fully healthy and integrated Terry Rozier getting a full training camp under his belt. Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo will also look to keep progressing and, in Herro’s case, stay healthy. 

The Rozier and Herro duo didn’t get much playing time together last year due to these availability issues. But with a new season right around the corner, there could be a few different combinations in the backcourt that Spoelstra may have to choose from. 

Terry Rozier and Tyler Herro

Is it too soon to give up on the Herro/Rozier experiment? This combination only logged around 175 minutes together in the 2023-24 campaign. In those minutes, they shot 52.2% on 2-pointers and 40.2% from 3-point range. The offensive creation and shooting volume could be scary for opposing teams if these two are both on. 

The issue comes on the opposite side of the floor, as they allowed a nearly 60% opponent 2-point shooting efficiency. They also allowed 42.7% from opponent 3-pointers. Luckily, courtesy of Adebayo’s defensive impact, the Heat still were top-five in DRTG last year.

Considering defense hasn't been a problem and that the Heat need to juice their bottom-10 offense, the Rozier and Herro combo likely has the inside track to be the starting backcourt. But Spoelstra could also go in another direction.