After trading away their franchise player, th Miami Heat were run out of the building in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.
Since the trade deadline and then again after being eliminated, many have questioned the ability of Heat team president Pat Riley.
Appearing on their podcast, 'Ticket & The Truth', Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett gave some bold takes on where the Heat's way of doing things stands and where the front office should go from here.
"You know, Bam looked like, and I was watching Bam, he even said it like, 'It's gonna be some changes from the guy with the white hair.' It look like Heat Culture is dead," Pierce said. "And you gotta push the reset button on that and change the rules, you know, get the bylaws and get the new update."
"If you want people to come to Miami, if you want to turn it back around you gotta update the culture. Because that culture right now is running people away," Pierce said. "What star gonna wanna come there after you see what happened to Jimmy Butler? You know what I'm saying? And then look, you see him thriving in Golden State. He could've been down there, pushing them against the Cavs. Why would you do that? He deserved to kind of play out down there, actually. He still had a lot left in the tank, as we watching right now."
Kevin Garnett says the Heats culture needs to be “updated”
“I don’t think the league is being ran how they do. MIA since Pat has been there sees themselves as a different team within the league. Don’t wear the same socks, they don’t do the same things everyone else does in the… pic.twitter.com/RH0wRmyPDz— Heat Culture (@HeatCulture13) May 7, 2025
The Heat lost by a combined 122 points in the first round to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Butler continues to play well with the Warriors, who are up 1-0 against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the conference semifinals. Garnett explained what he'd like to see the Heat do.
"I would like to see Pat Riley go to the side and anoint Erik Spoelstra. It's a continuation of the DNA. You keep the vibrant-ness and you continue there with Zo and Haslem and all those ex-players right there, you still got Heat culture." Garnett said. "You got a beautiful city that you can attract a lot of free agents to come and play," Garnett said. "It's just about the culture in which you're creating there and then like P said, the habits that you've shown as a front office, that has to be updated."
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Alexander Toledo is a contributor to Miami Heat On SI and producer/co-host of the Five on the Floor podcast, covering the Heat and NBA. He can be reached at [email protected]. Twitter: @tropicalblanket
Miami Heat's Pat Riley Receives Goose Egg In Award Voting For Third Straight Year
For a third straight year, Miami Heat team president Pat Riley received zero votes for the NBA's Executive of the Year Award.
The honor went to Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti, whose team won 68 games and earned the No 1 seed in the Western Conference.
The voting panel for the 2024-25 NBA Basketball Executive of the Year Award consisted of one basketball executive from each NBA team.
The complete voting results ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/JTYp3oKAwq— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) May 6, 2025
Riley last received votes in 2021-2022 when he tied for fourth place with the Phoenix Suns' James Jones, who played with the Heat for six seasons. That was the season the Heat acquired Kyle Lowry, PJ Tucker, Caleb Martin and Markieff Morris. Previously, he finished third place in 2019-2020, when they acquired Butler. Most notably, he won the award in 2010-2011, of course the season when they acquired LeBron James and Chris Bosh while re-signing Dwyane Wade.
It isn't too hard to see a trend there.
Riley and the Heat's front office have been recognized after making what were considered to be franchise-altering acquisitions. Despite the huge unexpected success in the Butler era in Miami, fans had been clamoring for another star to go alongside Butler (and Bam Adebayo) for years.
In a way, the Heat's inability to close a deal on another co-star indirectly led to Butler's departure. It would have been much easier to go all in by giving Butler an extension.
