What will life be like for Heat without Butler? Bigger lineups seem to be big part of formula
Jimmy Butler is still on the Miami Heat’s roster, but the post-Butler era has already seemingly begun for the Heat.
On a day the Heat suspended Butler for the third time this month as it continues to try to move the disgruntled star ahead of the NBA’s Feb. 6 trade deadline, the Heat overcame a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit and a six-point hole in the first overtime to come away with an uplifting 125-119 double-overtime home win against the Orlando Magic on Monday night.
“What it means right now is just that we proved to ourselves that we have a tremendous amount of grit and we’ve gained toughness from that,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked about the significance of Monday’s win, which capped off another drama-filled day in the Heat-Butler saga.
The victory also offered a glimpse at what could be for the Heat after Butler’s eventual departure. The possibilities appear to be big — literally and figuratively.
With Butler missing 15 of the past 20 games due to illness or suspension, the Heat continues to trend toward playing bigger lineups and that was on full display in Monday’s win over the Magic.
Not only did the Heat start 7-foot rookie center Kel’el Ware alongside 6-9 three-time All-Star Bam Adebayo for the fourth straight game, but the Heat also closed the double-overtime victory with 6-10 forward Nikola Jovic on the court alongside Ware and Adebayo for the final 20 minutes of game clock.
Adebayo, Ware and Jovic had not played together this season prior to Monday’s opportunity, but this trio helped the Heat (23-22) rally from a double-digit fourth-quarter deficit to escape with the comeback win and again move above the .500 mark. After not even playing a second together through the Heat’s first 44 games this season, Adebayo, Ware and Jovic were all on the court for the final 19:31 of Miami’s double-overtime win over Orlando.
“I feel like we should do it more often,” Adebayo said after the victory when asked about playing with Ware and Jovic. “I feel like it should be in the routine. Obviously, good things happened.”
Great things happened, as the Heat outscored the Magic by 17 points in the 20 minutes Adebayo, Ware and Jovic played together to complete the comeback win. The Heat trailed by 11 points with 9:31 left in the fourth quarter when it began their stint together and ended up winning by six points, with Adebayo, Ware and Jovic on the court for the rest of the game.
They each stepped up in important moments, too, as the Heat played bigger down the stretch to match up with a Magic team that features functional size throughout its rotation.
Adebayo recorded 10 points during the two overtime periods, while also anchoring the Heat’s defense and defending Magic star Paolo Banchero.
Ware totaled eight points, six rebounds, two steals and one block in the fourth quarter and the two overtimes.
Jovic contributed 10 points, four rebounds, two assists and one steal in the fourth quarter and the two overtimes, including an alley-oop assist to Ware to give the Heat a two-point lead with 33.5 seconds left in regulation before the Magic tied it to force overtime.
“As long, and everybody is, intentional about working on things and our spacing and where is the ball going and then how do we continue to maintain our spacing and then taking the challenge on the other end,” Spoelstra said regarding the potential of the Adebayo, Ware and Jovic lineups. “Niko did a good job defensively in the fourth quarter and the overtimes. And then Kel’el and Bam have already been building this chemistry defensively.
“You talk about chemistry offensively, but that also can be a real thing defensively. That’s what we want. We want to make it really hard for teams to score easy buckets in the paint, at the rim. And then our offense, we think, it will get better as we spend more time together.”
The Heat’s new Adebayo-Ware frontcourt has been the foundation of its move toward playing bigger lineups.
Along with starting the Heat’s past four games, Adebayo and Ware have logged 89 minutes together during the last five games after playing just one minute together this season before this stretch. This duo has produced ultra-positive results, too, as the Heat has dominated opponents by 22.4 points per 100 possessions with Adebayo and Ware on the court together during this five-game span.
“It’s more about having versatility,” Spoelstra said of the Adebayo-Ware frontcourt. “For us, this is what we need to do right now. We will invest whatever time we need to make it work.”
Adebayo and Ware have thrived together, especially on the defensive end, with the pairing allowing the Heat to take advantage of Adebayo’s elite defensive versatility. Since Ware can be used to protect the rim and guard the opponent’s center, Adebayo is now able to take on the toughest defensive assignments regardless of position, play as a weak-side help defender and/or switch different actions on the perimeter instead of staying attached to the biggest players on the court.
With Adebayo spending most of Monday’s game defending the 6-foot-10 Banchero, Adebayo helped limit Banchero to 17 points on 7-of-21 shooting from the field in the contest.
“That’s a strength of ours now is having Bam playing the four, where he can roam around and he’s running around, flying around making plays,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said. “Obviously, guarding one of the better players on their team. But I think it’s a luxury to have Kel’el under the rim protecting the paint while Bam is still on the floor. He’s able to impact that end of the floor in different ways, as opposed to Bam being under the rim and having to protect the rim. Now it just makes our defense a lot more dynamic.”
That has been evident through Adebayo and Ware’s first few games together, as the Heat has limited opponents to just 83.8 points per 100 possessions during the duo’s minutes over the last five games. For perspective, the Oklahoma City Thunder entered Tuesday with the NBA’s top defensive rating this season at 103.9 points allowed per 100 possessions.
But the offense remains a work in progress, with the Heat scoring just 106.2 points per 100 possessions with Adebayo and Ware on the court during the last five games. That’s an offensive rating that would rank 29th out of 30 teams in the league this season.
“It’s two really dynamic players — their size, vertical spacing and athleticism allows us to play a different style than we’ve played since I’ve been here,” Heat forward Duncan Robinson said of the Adebayo-Ware pairing. “We’ve always been good at protecting the paint, but we’ve kind of done it in different ways. With this group, we have a chance to really dominate the paint, really hopefully on both ends of the floor. It’s a fun challenge to try to figure out.”
The Heat’s new frontcourt will be tested against an elite Cleveland Cavaliers roster that also starts a big frontcourt in the 6-9 Jarrett Allen and the 6-11 Evan Mobley. The Cavaliers, which hold the Eastern Conference’s best record this season at 37-9, will face the Heat on Wednesday at Kaseya Center (7:30 p.m. FanDuel Sports Network Sun).
“It definitely gives us a different look because we have somebody that’s 7 feet at the rim,” Adebayo said of playing with Ware on the defensive end. “So it allows me to be the versatile big. And obviously, we’ve seen in the Olympics that it will work.”
With Butler’s latest suspension lasting at least four more games, there’s plenty of uncertainty surrounding the Heat. Will the Heat trade Butler before next week’s trade deadline? What will the Heat do with Butler if he’s still on the roster past the trade deadline?
But what the Heat will look like after Butler is gone is becoming clearer, and bigger lineups appear to be a prominent part of that formula.
“I like that a lot,” Herro said of playing as part of bigger lineups. “I like playing with bigger guys. Me being one of the smaller guys out there, I think that helps a lot defensively, obviously.”
This story was originally published January 28, 2025 at 11:04 AM.
