Ira Winderman: Heat similarities to 2004-05 offer hope, with need to take heed
· Yahoo Sports
MIAMI — In just over two weeks, Erik Spoelstra will, at some point during his comments at media day, stress how the 2026-27 Miami Heat will be a team telling its own story.
Just as he has for years with almost all of his teams, with a clear dissuasion toward comparisons to what came before during his coaching tenure.
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So expect no comparisons to the Jimmy Butler years, the Big Three era, or even last year preceding this major offseason overhaul.
And yet, Spoelstra, Pat Riley, Andy Elisburg also have spoken extensively over the years about lessons learned, of how the past, for a franchise that turns 39 this season, cannot be ignored.
So if comparison is necessary, if turning back the clock can offer insight into the future, particularly the immediate future, then this very much has the feel of 2004-05.
As in the first season of the Shaquille O’Neal era, and of how the Heat created that framework and then also recognized the need for renovation.
The deal on July 14, 2004, for those who forget, was O’Neal acquired from the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Lamar Odom, Caron Butler, Brian Grant and draft capital.
With the Heat’s July 6 deal with the Milwaukee Bucks for Giannis Antetokounmpo, the comps would be Odom going out as Tyler Herro, as the emerging young star; Butler going out as Jaime Jaquez Jr., as the attacking youthful scorer coming off a solid Heat season; Grant as Kel’el Ware, the replacement big-man component. The extra, this time, is 2025 first-round pick Kasparas Jakucionis also going out, which can be chalked up to Antetokounmpo, at 31, arriving a year younger than Shaq did in 2004.
And what did the Heat do then, after the Shaq acquisition? They turned to experience.
In the immediate wake of the O’Neal deal, the Heat added Michael Doleac, Keyon Dooling, Damon Jones, Wesley Person, and, later, Christian Laettner, Shandon Anderson, Steve Smith and Alonzo Mourning.
Similar to how this summer the Heat have added veterans Klay Thompson, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Nick Richards.
And from what was held over, more comparisons are ample: Dwyane Wade as the featured holdover then, as Bam Adebayo is now; Eddie Jones as the retained veteran supporting component, as Andrew Wiggins is now; Udonis Haslem as the intriguing developmental prospect kept, as Pelle Larsson is now.
There also was no pretense of growth curve, even with Dorell Wright coming in as a draft pick in 2004, just as Ryan Conwell is this season.
Success, at least from a regular-season perspective, was instant, from 42-40 in 2003-04 to 59-23 in 2004-05. In that regard, there is a similar takeoff point this season, after closing at 43-39 last season.
In the 2005 playoffs, the Heat closed a win shy of the franchise’s first berth in the NBA Finals, falling in seven games to the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals after Wade missed Game 6 of that series due to a strained rib and played in a limited capacity in Game 7.
Something even close to that 2004-05 regular season and then 2005 playoff run for this season’s Heat assuredly would be considered successful.
But you also don’t deal for Shaquille O’Neal and settle for being runner-up, just as the Heat did not sacrifice so much current youth and so much future draft capital for anything less than a title with Giannis.
And that also is where the story of 2004-05 is germane to what Riley has assembled for Spoelstra to coach.
And where what followed could stand as an abject lesson for Wiggins, Davion Mitchell, Bobby Portis and others playing this coming season in support of Antetokounmpo and Adebayo.
Weeks after that 2005 Eastern Conference finals loss to the Pistons, Riley blew it up.
Gone in a massive five-team, 13 player deal on Aug. 2, 2005 were Eddie Jones, Rasual Butler and draft capital, in the trade that brought in Jason Williams, Antoine Walker and James Posey, players who would form the supporting core for the Heat’s 2006 inaugural NBA championship. Later that 2005 offseason, Gary Payton was brought in, as well, another key contributing championship component.
The lesson being, that, yes, the 2026-27 Heat, as they head to training camp on Sept. 29, will be charged by Spoelstra to write their own story.
But there also is a Heat chapter already in place of how when a superstar big man is airlifted in, it becomes time to live in the moment — while also considering whether additional change will be inevitable.
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