MIAMI — It has reached the point that the biggest icon in the franchise’s 38 seasons is now questioning the direction of the Miami Heat.
A week removed from the Heat’s playoff elimination, after a fourth consecutive trip to the play-in round, Dwyane Wade did not mince words when it came to the state of a franchise he helped lead to three NBA championships.
Speaking on his podcast, in an episode of “The Check-in with Dwyane Wade” released this week, Wade questioned the cohesion and connectivity of what has been in place, while also pushing for change.
“We’re gonna miss seeing that Heat jersey in the playoffs,” he said of the Heat missing the playoffs for the first time in seven seasons. “But also, too, they need to retool. And they need to figure it out.
“When you’ve got All-Star talents around you — they continue to put out All-Stars — you just got to put the right mix together that can go out there and get yourself back to that place that you’re accustomed to being at, and that’s in the playoffs, that’s competing for something.”
Small steps, Wade said, have to be the restarting point.
“That’s not just championships. It’s in the playoffs competing for something,” he said. “And that’s what you want. You want to give yourself a chance. And we haven’t given ourselves a chance, overall. We’ve been in the play in the last four years.”
The Heat have won a single playoff game over the past three seasons, in the 2024 opening round against the Boston Celtics, before being routed out of the first round in a Cleveland Cavaliers sweep last year.
“People got mad at me when I said what I said, but no lies detected when I’m talking. This is real. It’s show and tell. It’s not that the talent’s not there. I mean, them guys are very talented. It’s just the meshing of the talent is not there. And the luck that you need when it comes to health hasn’t been there.
“People take things personal. And I know I take things personal sometimes, as well. But what I’m saying is, like, when it comes to this unit and this group that’s been put together the last few years, it hasn’t meshed.”
Wade attributed part of the downturn to the 2024-25 contretemps with Jimmy Butler and subsequent trade of the former All-Star forward at the February 2025 NBA trade deadline.
“Sometimes,” Wade said, “you see certain teams and you know that they know everything about each other. They spend all the time together, and they just connect it. And you can see it on the floor.
“I haven’t really seen that necessarily in the Heat in a while. And it started when everything started going astray with Jimmy and the Heat, and we’ve been a disconnected organization from that point. And I want to see them get back to that connectivity that the Miami Heat normally has. And if you see that, you’ll see success, and we’ll see them back in the playoffs.”
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Wade also spoke of the Heat’s ongoing pursuit of a leading man, with Giannis Antetokounmpo again being speculated as such a target.
“And it’s not just about going out and getting a star player,” Wade said. “I know the star player will get you back in there. But you’ll be out in the first round with that star player, if your players don’t mesh, and that connectivity isn’t there.
“And so we’ve been a little disorganized, a little disgruntled organization for the last few years. And we need to get that off. So hopefully this break is needed. This break allows the Miami Heat to retool and get back to, like, what we deserve to be. And that’s competing for something.”