Heat’s ugly’s playoff series loss to Celtics immediately leads to calls to ‘blow it up’

On Wednesday evening, head coach Erik Spoelstra and the Miami Heat officially saw their 2023-24 season come to a disappointing end with a blowout road loss at the hands of the Boston Celtics, who will move on to face either the Orlando Magic or the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Heat were given virtually no shot by anyone in this series, as they were taking on the best team in the NBA in the Celtics and doing so without the services of their best two playmakers in Terry Rozier and Jimmy Butler, so the fact that Miami was able to squeeze even one game out of this series should be viewed as a “victory” of sorts.

It’s always hard to judge what the future holds for a team that was predictably decimated after being hit with a brutal case of the injury bug at the worst time. Still, that isn’t stopping some pundits from calling for Pat Riley and company to initiate a full-scale rebuild of a franchise that has appeared in two out of the last four NBA Finals.

“Heat squeezed everything they could out of this core for 5 years. Everyone should thank them for their service. Now blow it up, please,” wrote long time Heat reporter Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter.

Jackson then clarified exactly what he meant with the assertion, writing, “Blow it up as in significantly change the roster. Be open to everything and anything” in response to another user’s comment.

Another user reflected on this past summer’s fiasco with Miami trying but failing to land star point guard Damian Lillard, who ultimately ended up getting traded to the Milwaukee Bucks.

“Unfortunate for the Heat. Lilliard could end up playing a bit longer than both Jimmy and Herro, ironically. Jimmy wanted specifically Heat and only Heat, ESPN reported. Herro, pleasant and not wanting conflict, didn’t want to get messy/hostile with Heat over Blazers interest in trading for him & remained in Miami,” wrote the user.

Where do the Heat go from here?