Welcome to the seventh evolution of the Miami Heat

Klay Thompson, getting long in the tooth and perhaps shorter in range, joins the Giannis Antetokounmpo-Bam Adebayo-Andrew Wiggins edition of the Heat. How's it going to be?

Good morning. It's Free Newsletter Wednesday. Let's basketball.

The Miami Heat, since their founding season in 1988-89, have had six distinct eras.

1. 1988-95: The Expansion Era. Two playoff appearances in their first seven seasons. Their best player was probably Glen Rice. A pretty normal new NBA franchise, all things told.
2. 1995-2003: The Blood on the Floor Era. Pat Riley arrives in 1995; so does Alonzo Mourning (the best player of this era). The Heat become a high-end East power, making the playoffs for six consecutive years (but winning only three total playoff series) before it all fizzles out in 2001 and Riley "retires" from coaching.
3. 2003-2010: The D-Wade Era. Riley drafted Dwyane Wade No. 5 overall in 2003, and the team immediately gets back into the playoffs and wins a round. A year later, Miami trades for just-past-prime Shaquille O'Neal. The supporting cast is built out, too. The Heat make the conference finals in '05 and win the title in '06. Wade is crowned one of the best players in the league. Due to injuries and the disintegration of the roster around Wade (including Shaq going full Shaq), the Heat don't win a single playoff series after the championship that decade.
4. 2010-2015: The Heatles Era. After the denouement from the D-Wade era, Riley pulls off an all-time coup by signing the Nos. 1 and 4 picks from that 2003 draft: LeBron James and Chris Bosh. The Heat make four straight Finals, winning two of them. This could also be called the LeBron Era; this was one of the two greatest players ever at his absolute peak. LeBron left in less-than-pleasant terms in 2014; Bosh suffered health issues and Wade aged quickly. Miami went below .500 the year after LeBron fled.
5. 2015-2019: The Hassan Whiteside Interregnum. Riley tried to pivot the roster leveraging free agency again. The results were Hassan Whiteside, Tyler Johnson, late-career Amar'e Stoudemire, mid-career Goran Dragic, Dion Waiters, Justise Winslow, Josh Richardson, Kelly Olynyk and James Johnson. The team did draft Bam Adebayo in this era, made the playoffs twice in four years and won one series. Chalk that up to the burgeoning genius of Erik Spoelstra.
6. 2019-2026: The Playoff Jimmy Era. Riley, in another shock masterstroke, landed Jimmy Butler in the 2019 summer, poaching him from the Sixers. On the backs of Jimmy, Bam, rookie Tyler Herro and random heroes like Duncan Robinson, the Heat immediately made the Finals ... in the bubble. Miami made two more deep runs (one more trip to the Finals in 2023) before petering out. Jimmy went fully Jimmy in 2024 over a contract extension dispute with Riley; the Heat made the playoffs without Jimmy via the play-in in that 2024-25 season but fell short the next year.

This is where we land now: we are in the Heat's Giannis Era.

With the exception of The Expansion Era and The Hassan Whiteside Interregnum, these eras have taken similar shape:

• Pat Riley pulls off some high-talent coup, usually through free agency but once through the draft.
• The Heat sprint into high-level excellence, usually title contention, almost immediately after the big splash.
• Something happens and the team fades quickly and sharply.

There is a good bit of skepticism about this version of the Heat because Giannis Antetokounmpo, despite playing at an MVP level in recent years, hasn't seen team success in a bit and has suffered some injuries along the way. But the Heat have shown an ability to immediately take advantage of the talent infusion like few other franchises. Part of it is the genius of Riley's front office (which is not just Riley; Andy Elisburg and Adam Simon have been there forever, too). Part of it is the unique draw of Miami, both for young players with options (the weather, the culture, the history of team success, the allure of Riley) and aging vets, who have seen their predecessors have success going to Miami. It's a virtuous cycle: the Heat pull together eclectic supporting casts out of the aether and meet success, causing future ecletic supporting casts to chase that same high.

The Heat had to trade a bunch to land Giannis. But Antetokounmpo comes to a team with Bam, perhaps his best teammate ... ever? Damian Lillard was great for a season there, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday were perfect in their roles. But Bam is 29 (Dame was in his mid-30s) and one of the best two-way big men in the NBA. The combination of Giannis and Bam could be unstoppable and impenetrable for most opponents. Wiggins was pretty good last season despite Miami's problems: he played 2,000 minutes and shot quite efficiently. Having Giannis should make life easier on both ends. Davion Mitchell has made a legitimate career for himself, but stands out as the upgrade spot for the starting five (depending on how Erik Spoelstra approaches the two-guard spot). Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Tim Hardaway Jr. finished second and third in Sixth Man of the Year voting last year; THJ has been streaky through his career playing with MVP-level teammates in Luka and Jokic, so it's up to fate whether he shoots around 35% or 40% from three. Bobby Portis is here, too.

And then there's Klay Thompson, who signed with Miami on a relative discount after reaching a buy-out deal with the Mavericks. He's aging quickly, but he had a down year last season in a quickly pivoting Dallas situation ... and still shot 38% from deep on more than seven attempts per game. It's all the other stuff – the defense, the ball-handling and attacking close-outs, the defense again, also the defense – that is in question, not the shooting. In theory, if Klay is starting, the other four projected starters – Bam, Giannis, Wiggins and Mitchell – can handle the defense. You lack some ball-handling and playmaking there, but Spoelstra has always found ways to be inventive.

If history is any guide, the Miami Heat are absolutely contenders. Giannis would have finished No. 4 (perhaps No. 3) in MVP voting if he didn't miss so much time. The roster upgrade around Antetokounmpo is massive. If you trust any coach to figure out how to fit Giannis and Bam together, it'd be Spoelstra. If you trust any current star to figure out how to fit with a new star teammate, Bam would be high on the list. The supporting cast is better than it had any right to be after the Bucks trade. If the key figures are healthy enough, this team is a legitimate threat to win the East.

LeBron Did What Now?

A team of Bloomberg reporters have a story out about a deal LeBron James made in early 2018 to borrow $300 million from two life insurance firms in a deal orchestrated by Mark Walter's Guggenheim Partners. Walter did not yet own any known slice of the Lakers; he bought a large minority stake in 2021 and the full team in 2025. LeBron signed with the Lakers after the bond deal in 2018.

As such, no one appears to be accusing LeBron of anything sideways or the Lakers of cap circumvention or tampering. The Lakers are not implicated in anything; even the word "implicated" feels unnecessary, because again, no one appears to be suggesting there's anything wrong with this. But in the business of basketball, it's certainly interesting.

For example: Walter did own the Dodgers at the time. One of his partners in the Dodgers ownership group was Magic Johnson, who served in a basketball operations leadership role for the Lakers when LeBron signed with the team a few months later. One presumes that freaking LeBron James did not need an introduction from Mark Walter to freaking Magic Johnson. But it's an interesting wrinkle.

What was LeBron's loan about? According to Bloomberg, LeBron used his future earnings outside of the NBA as collateral for a capital infusion to support his business interests. There have been additional bonds offered to the insurers that Guggenheim set James up with, including as recently as 2022 (after Walter took the minority stake in the Lakers but before he became the majority partner). But there's no indication of what's outstanding and whether Guggenheim was directly involved in later borrowing rounds. Bloomberg also points out that Guggenheim invested in SpringHill's initial round ... again, pre-dating Walter's involvement with the Lakers.

The two takeaways here:

• The money mingling in the modern NBA is absolutely crazy. Superstars borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars from firms controlled by future team owners? Minority team owners investing in superstars' non-basketball companies? The NBA monitors and regulates all of this ... and did know anything about Aspiration and Kawhi? Alright, man. Might need to staff up that division.
• What the hell are life insurance companies doing? The Bloomberg story mentions that because the insurance companies are barred from making certain investments with their funds to reduce risk, the companies are trying more exotic investments like these personal bonds. It's weird stuff and I feel like it betrays the concept of insurance? I'm not a financier or financial regulator, but if someone who is said that we should shut that s--t down, I'd be all for it.

🕯️🕯️🕯️ Rest In Peace, Dolly 🕯️🕯️🕯️

One of the greatest Americans of all time. A musical genius, an advocate for the voiceless, a tremendously generous person, a masterpiece of a human. May she rest in peace.

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