The 3 Most Disappointing Players for the Heat... and what can be learned

This will be the Miami Heat's shortest season since 2019, if you include the postseason. And yet some of it felt so very very long. Forty-three wins beat the Las Vegas expectations, but not enough to secure more than a 10th seed, and eventual play-in exit against the now-also-eliminated Charlotte Hornets.

The season was long enough that it's easy to forget that Terry Rozier was actually traveling with the team coming out of training camp, and was with them in Orlando when he was arrested in early December. Still, his short tenure with the Heat, which began with his 2024 acquisition from Charlotte, cast a shadow over the entire season -- he took up $24 million of Miami's payroll and he was a major reason the Heat couldn't make trades at the deadline (short the first round pick owed to Charlotte). If the Heat still had that selection to offer, Giannis Antetokounmpo might be leading them in a first round series at the moment.

So it's not possible that anyone but Rozier could be the most disappointing player of the Heat's 2025-26 season, even without taking a dribble -- and, as was his custom, another dribble and maybe a few dozen more.

But there were others.

We review the three most disappointing, and what can be learned going forward:

Terry Rozier: Know The Situation

Miami has been criticized for not being bold enough, and that has some merit. In this case, however, the Heat did roll the dice -- excuse the gambling analogy. The Heat were looking for a shot creator to assist Jimmy Butler, after striking out in trade proposals for elite options. Rozier had a massive spike in his numbers with more usage for Charlotte, and the efficiency actually wasn't all that awful, so it's understandable that the Heat believed that could translate -- especially because Rozier had been a decent role player on some good Celtics squads earlier in his career.

But players tend to develop bad habits on really bad teams, and that's what happened with Rozier. And the streakiness of his three-point shot in Charlotte was a forboding tell as well.

Would it have worked out for Rozier in Miami if not for the mysterious neck injury and then the gambling investigation hanging over his head? Maybe. But probably not. And a first-round pick, with a huge expiring contract (in this case, Kyle Lowry's) was way too much to pay, in retrospect -- especially with those picks so precious for real superstar pursuits.

The lesson: Avoid the proverbial "looter in a riot," to borrow a long-time basketball phrase.

Nikola Jovic: Don't Buy Too Soon

At the time, the Nikola Jovic extension made sense.

Jovic had made progress in several areas in his first four seasons, in spite of injuries and inconsistent roles and minutes, especially in terms of his overall strength. That gave him a tantalizing combination of skill and size that projected well for the future, as Jovic continued to impress behind the scenes with his improved professionalism.

So the Heat gave him a $62.5 million deal for four more seasons, which will kick in for 2026-27. At the moment, it appears a monumental mistake. Jovic played in just 47 games, one more than the season prior, but was considerably less effective. His shooting fell off a cliff, he committed too many careless turnovers, and he became unplayable for Erik Spoelstra even with a shortage of frontcourt depth.

Confidence is clearly an issue, and Spoelstra challenged Jovic at the end-of-season press conference to lose the "victim mindset," which was followed by Jovic telling the media about all the obstacles he had endured. (To be fair, Jovic had not had time to hear his coach's comments.)

Jovic is a jovial figure generally, well-liked by teammates, media and, until this dropoff, fans. He can get back on track, like Jaime Jaquez Jr., did, but at the moment this serves as a lesson to be as sure as possible about how a player will handle extra cash and responsibility, prior to providing it.

Tyler Herro: Find the Right Archetype for a Build

There are a segment of Miami Heat fans that will blame the organization for everything related to Tyler Herro, regardless of the facts. Let's start here: Herro has more than proven his worth as an NBA player, and the Heat did not make a mistake drafting him at No. 13 overall in 2019. Herro has been more productive than every player chosen after, and several picked before.

Nor has Herro really been the deal-breaker in so many rumored moves for superstars; the Heat have offered him where appropriate, for the biggest names, including Giannis and Dame. And several of the options the team might have swapped him for wouldn't have worked out much better. Nor have the Heat been blind to his limitations; otherwise, Miami would have offered him an extension before this past season, after he played a career-high 77 games. Instead, the Heat wisely waited for him to prove he could repeat it, and he couldn't, not even close, with three different ailments as he played only 33.

But overall, there has been a little too much belief that Miami would win significantly with a physically slight shooting guard who, in spite of his efforts is hunted defensively, as one of its top two players. In a perfect scenario, Herro would be a sixth man playing 25 minutes, a role he seemed to perfect before resisting it thereafter.

As the Heat move forward, the lesson here is that every starter needs to be a two-way player, with the size and length to compete with the best teams in the league. This is a lesson the Atlanta Hawks heeded, moving off of Trae Young and leaning into longer defenders like Nickiel Alexander-Walker and Dyson Daniels, and that has helped them rise out of mediocrity.

Whatever the Heat do now with Herro -- trade, keep, maybe extend at a smaller number than he originally sought -- they need to rely upon him less. In all ways. And the same applies to any other skilled scorers, but deficient defenders, like him.

This article was originally published on www.si.com/nba/heat/onsi as The 3 Most Disappointing Players for the Heat... and what can be learned.

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This story was originally published April 20, 2026 at 12:00 PM.