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Miami Heat: 2016 Offseason Grades

By Gerald Bourguet

Mar 22, 2016; New Orleans, LA, USA; Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade (3) against the New Orleans Pelicans during the fourth quarter of a game at the Smoothie King Center. The Heat defeated the Pelicans 113-99. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 22, 2016; New Orleans, LA, USA; Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade (3) against the New Orleans Pelicans during the fourth quarter of a game at the Smoothie King Center. The Heat defeated the Pelicans 113-99. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports /
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Miami Heat
Jan 8, 2016; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh (1), forward Amar’e Stoudemire (5), guard Goran Dragic (7) and guard Dwyane Wade (3) celebrate a play as they head to the bench in the second quarter against the Phoenix Suns at Talking Stick Resort Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports /

Overall

To be fair, the Miami Heat still have a promising future. Pat Riley will always be aggressive and persuasive during free agency as the NBA’s Tywin Lannister; Justise Winslow and Josh Richardson aren’t going anywhere; Tyler Johnson is now locked in for the long-term; and the team still has a franchise player in Hassan Whiteside.

But having Whiteside as your franchise player is not exactly an encouraging thought, especially after handing him nearly $100 million on a silver platter and informing that ego that he’s now “the guy.”

Forget about the potential head case factor; Whiteside thrived with defenses paying attention to everyone else, but what will happen now that he’s the No. 1 option?

A core of Dragic-Winslow-Bosh-Whiteside might be good enough to make the playoffs, but if any of them are injured for any significant amount of time, that goes right out the window and this team enters tanking territory fast.

Even worse, all of this is before we even mention that the Heat lost the most beloved and decorated player in franchise history, a living legend who deserved to spend his entire career in Miami.

So what if they had to overpay Wade with a Kobe contract to keep him? After losing out on Kevin Durant, the Heat weren’t going anywhere for the 2016-17 season anyway.

You can see the logic in not wanting to clog up the books to keep Wade, but losing him to Chicago was a gut check nevertheless, especially when he could’ve been re-signed if not for pride on both sides.

More from Hoops Habit

If you’re still not convinced it was a miserable summer for the Heat, here’s a quick checklist. Over the course of the 2016 offseason, Miami lost Dwyane Wade, Luol Deng, Joe Johnson, Gerald Green and Amar’e Stoudemire, while bringing in Dion Waiters, Derrick Williams, Wayne Ellington, Luke Babbitt and James Johnson to replace them. Yikes.

Re-signing Whiteside was a step toward keeping this team competitive, but to what end? And can Whiteside really keep this team in the playoff hunt, especially if Chris Bosh or Goran Dragic miss significant time — or worse, even if they don’t miss significant time?

The Heat preserved some of their long-term flexibility this summer, but they got significantly worse, missed out on KD, lost their franchise player, could lose their secondary franchise player because of his ongoing blood clot concerns and lost two other starters without finding viable replacements.

More hoops habit: Charlotte Hornets: 2016 Offseason Grades

That’s a pretty miserable summer, especially for a league executive of Pat Riley’s caliber.

Grade: D

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