What comes next for Jimmy Butler and Miami after their astonishing four-year run

DENVER – Jimmy Butler’s only turnover on Monday night will end up being one he’ll never forget.

With less than 40 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, all eyes were on Butler as he attacked the basket with hopes of keeping Miami’s season alive. He came to a jump stop in the lane, but as the clock ticked away, he realized he ran out of options.

He looked right. He looked left. There was no one open.

He attempted to squeeze a pass into Max Strus on the wing, but Nuggets guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope swiped it and went the other way.

After knocking down a few free throws in the final seconds, Denver walked away with a rugged 94-89 victory in Game 5 to clinch its first world title in franchise history.

Now, it’s the Miami Heat who look like a team up against a ticking clock, running out of options.

For the Nuggets, Monday ended in a night of unbridled joy after reaching heights that had never been reached for their organization. For this iteration of the Heat, however, this territory was all too familiar. It was another successful season that featured another better-than-expected playoff run ultimately ending without the ultimate prize.

As it turns out, Butler’s turnover in the final minute was a microcosm of what this team became in the Finals. They were dependent on Butler’s individual greatness to carry them across the finish line in big moments. If he wasn’t there to save the day, the options around him were lacking.

Caleb Martin, Gabe Vincent, Duncan Robinson and Strus shocked much of the basketball world with their impact on a team that ousted the top two seeds in the East and reached the NBA Finals as a No. 8 seed. During the Finals, though, they simply were not enough.

What the Heat accomplished during this playoff run will go down in history. But beating a Nuggets team this good, this efficient and led by a superstar of Nikola Jokić’s caliber required more.

“They are a class act and they are one hell of a basketball team,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the Nuggets. “One hell of a basketball team that we couldn’t really find enough solutions to be able to get us over the top.”

Butler doesn’t leave these Finals blameless, though.

After averaging 28.5 points on 48 percent shooting through the first three rounds of the playoffs, his numbers dropped to 21.6 points on 41 percent shooting against Denver. By the end of the Eastern Conference Finals, Butler didn’t have the same explosiveness on his drives and his jumpers weren’t dropping as consistently.

The only way Miami would’ve had a chance in the series is if Butler played like a superstar. Frankly, he didn’t.

In the end, that was just part of the bigger issue that haunted the Heat throughout this series. They couldn’t score enough points consistently to keep up against a team led by the greatest offensive talent in the game today.

As much credit as Denver deserves – Jokić, in particular – for coming into this series with a defensive mindset, the Heat failed to score 100 points in four of five games during the Finals. Winning any series in today’s NBA will be tough if putting 100 points on the board is an uphill battle. In Game 5, Miami displayed all the grit, determination and big-game experience you’d expect to see from them in a closeout scenario. But in today’s NBA, if you don’t score you don’t win, and that’s an issue this organization will need to face head on this summer.

These struggles in the Finals raise even bigger questions about Miami’s response to the loss once the offseason arrives. As much as the blistering hot 3-point shooting and the Butler heroics masked some of the issues, Miami’s offense was below average most of the season.

During the regular season, the Heat were 25th in offensive rating, 27th in 3-point percentage and 25th in assists. They were downright hard to watch some nights. This was a major reason why they had to take the Play-In route just to reach the postseason.

This is a team with championship aspirations. They’ve made it to the Eastern Conference Finals three of the last four seasons, and two of those trips resulted in an NBA Finals berth. The big question for Miami moving into next season will be this: Is what we’ve seen the last four seasons starting to wind down or do the Heat still have deep playoff runs in them with this core?

Even with a healthy Tyler Herro, the Heat’s offense does not have enough juice to turn Miami back into a 50-win team. There’s a ton of steep competition in the East with teams like the Celtics, Bucks, Sixers, Knicks and Cavaliers all seemingly capable of having a big season.

There’s no questioning the cultural foundation and the playoff experience this team brings, but can they put enough offensive talent on the floor to remain among the elite class in the East? That will be the biggest challenge for Miami as they work to remain at the mountaintop moving forward.

“I think this is one of my favorite teams I’ve ever been a part of because we willed our way through ups and downs. We willed our way through the things that people said we couldn’t do,” Bam Adebayo said. “I just take these lessons and I apply them to the next season. Whenever we go through adversity, I’m always going to look back and be like, ‘We’ve been through adversity before.’ Having the eighth seed in the Finals isn’t normal. It isn’t easy. People think it depends on what seeding you are (to determine) how good you’re going to be. To me, that’s bull—-, and obviously this season showed different.

“So just looking forward, I’m always going to believe that we’ve got a chance.”

It’s tough to disagree with Adebayo based on the results of the last four seasons. This Butler-Adebayo-Spoelstra run has netted 38 playoff wins and has proved doubters wrong countless times on the biggest stage.

As successful as they’ve been, however, the Heat should be taking time out to consider how many more deep playoff runs this current build of the roster has left in it.

Butler turns 34 in September. Kyle Lowry is 37. Kevin Love is 34.

There is a great deal of belief within the organization that this mix of personalities meshed really well together once Kevin Love and Cody Zeller joined the mix in February, and that was a big part of how they remained united through playoff adversity. It’s easy to see Miami making a few tweaks to the roster and coming back with basically the same squad from last year. Run it back and it would be enough to position them as a playoff team again.

But this is the organization that’s always pursuing more. Throughout this playoff run, Butler made it abundantly clear that anything less than a championship was considered a failure from his perspective.

At this point, it seems like the Heat are stuck at the stage in their development where they’re good enough to compete for (and even win) the Eastern Conference, but not quite good enough to get over that championship hump. We saw it during the bubble run to the NBA Finals against the Lakers, and we saw it again during these playoffs. The scary part for them is, as these grueling playoff runs pile up, Butler’s body holding up through four rounds is becoming a taller task. He’s already been asked to do a lot over the last four years. Being asked to carry that same kind of load at age 34 seems like a path that leads to disappointment more times than not.

This is one of the most complicated situations any front office can be asked to navigate: keeping a really good team together long enough so that it can become great. It’s a mission Denver accomplished en route to this year’s championship.

The one thing we do know about the Heat is that there’s always clarity in their vision: They always want to win, and they never want to take a step back. That doesn’t make the path forward any easier, but having everyone on the same page eliminates any confusion that might get in the way.

“I’ve had some helluva teammates come through and compete with me and give us the opportunity to win a championship, which I still believe, with everything in me, that we will do as a team here,” Butler said. “The four years (in Miami) have been great. It’s always great to be wanted and loved and appreciated. I don’t think that’s going to change. … I’m grateful, man, that we made it here. Came up short, but I’m blessed. I’m fortunate.”

The other complicated factor that comes into play with this team’s desire to win is some of the free-agent decisions that will come across the table in a couple of weeks.

Strus and Vincent are unrestricted free agents after going from undrafted dudes fighting to stay in the league to starters on the Eastern Conference champions. As frustrating as those two guys were in the Finals, the Heat don’t make it there without Strus and Vincent playing the way they did in the first round.

Based on their playoff performances and their respective ages (Vincent turns 27 on Wednesday, Strus is also 27), it’s easy to see other contenders lining up to sign reliable role players with big-game experience like these guys.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see one or both of Vincent and Strus get offers from other teams in the $15 million per year range. As unrestricted free agents, they’ll have the freedom to go talk to anyone in the league and see how much money is available for them on the open market.

Considering how much the work they’ve done to develop over the years is a shining example of what Heat Culture is all about, the Heat will likely do what they can to keep those guys around.

But it’s hard to invest that kind of money when you already have over $90 million tied up in next year’s cap on Lowry, Robinson, Herro, Martin and Victor Oladipo (assuming he picks up his player option).

While maintaining stability will be a major goal for Miami going into the offseason (as it always is), it’s almost certain we’ll see some shakeup with the backcourt for the financial reasons mentioned above. It’ll also be important to add some new blood to this group just to spice up the offensive options. Or maybe the Heat look at Vincent and Strus as players who will continue to improve as they get older and more experienced. We’ll know how much the Heat believe in those two based on the contract offers they get in a few weeks.

“The only thing I can say is they need to put more respect on undrafted players. They are still basketball players at the end of the day, and obviously you’ve seen, they can take you there,” Adebayo said. “It was a joy to get this far and have these types of guys — undrafted, fighting to make a name for themselves. And they fought to the Finals. Came up short, but I don’t care what anybody says. You can never count these guys out.”

There’s also another path the Heat can consider.

Miami is always a contender whenever big-name stars hit the market, and there may be a few available once free agency/trade season gets going in a few weeks.

One name that’s been linked with them heavily as of late is Damian Lillard after a recent interview where the Blazers star spoke fondly about Miami and his close friend, Adebayo. If the Heat can manage to put together a team that features Lillard, Butler and Adebayo, they should be considered the odds-on favorite to repeat as Eastern Conference champs.

Another name linked with Miami the last few years is Washington’s Bradley Beal. He’d also be a great fit next to Butler in the backcourt.

The big question when it comes to Miami and making these kinds of blockbuster trades is what assets are they willing to give up?

Herro would be an obvious candidate for any team looking for a young building block in return for an All-NBA talent. The Heat also own the No. 18 pick in the June 22 NBA Draft and can also trade their own first rounders in 2027 and 2029.

As fascinating as this postseason has been for the Heat, this offseason is about to be just as interesting for the impact it’ll have on this team over the next few years. They’ve got to strike while the iron is still hot with Butler. Expecting him to keep carrying the same load he did the last four seasons in the biggest games is too much.

But if the Heat are able to add a significant upgrade in the trade market, that Finals hurdle could finally be cleared again.

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