Longtime big man is among the former players joining Amazon Prime Video as a basketball analyst for the 2025/26 season, according to a social media announcement from the streamer (Instagram link).

Haslem spent 20 seasons as a player with the Heat from 2003-23, winning three championships with the club. He played a significant role earlier in his career, starting a total of 501 regular season games and 84 postseason contests, before transitioning into a veteran leadership position during his final few years with the team.

Haslem holds the title of VP of basketball development for the Heat, but has provided commentary on NBA TV and ESPN since his retirement.

In his new role with Prime Video, Haslem will be reuniting with former Miami teammate , who is among the other new analysts confirmed today by Amazon. The company also announced that and are coming aboard, confirming prior reporting.

Amazon Prime Video previously announced the hiring of and as studio analysts and has also reportedly reached a deal with . Haslem is expected to join Griffin and Nowitzki as part of the studio show, per Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald.

Amazon is one of two new media rights partners who will begin broadcasting NBA games next season. NBC, which recently announced as a studio analyst, is the other. The two broadcasters will replace TNT, with Disney (ABC/ESPN) retaining its NBA rights.

guard had an impressive regular season, making his first All-Star appearance and winning the three-point contest. He posted career highs in several statistical categories, including points (23.9) and assists (5.5) per game, while making a career-best 77 appearances. The 25-year-old also struggled in the final two games of Miami’s first-round series with Cleveland, though the Heat were clearly overmatched against the top-seeded Cavs.

Herro, who is under contract through 2026/27, will be eligible for a three-year extension in October. Asked about the possibility of signing that extension, Herro made it clear that he wants to stay with the Heat, writes Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald.

“Not the biggest deal, but I would love to be here,” Herro said. “The front office, the organization, the city, everyone knows how much I love Miami. I’ve been here since I was 18, 19. I’ve got two kids here.

“This is really home for me. I love being here. Basketball is why I’m here at the end of the day. I want to win and I know how badly this organization and city want to win. We will see what happens. If it doesn’t get done in October, then we can get it done next summer. It will just be a little bit higher of a price.”

Here’s more from the Southeast:

Head coach admitted Wednesday that the months-long drama involving brought “turbulent waters” to the , writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. Butler was a distraction during the first half of the season, becoming unhappy when the team was unwilling to give him a contract extension and team president challenged him to be available for more regular season games. Butler publicly feuded with management and was suspended three times before being sent to Golden State shortly before the trade deadline.

Speaking at today’s exit interviews, said the Butler situation was a distraction in the locker room.

“I think it was just the overall wondering when is it going to end,” Herro said. “That was kind of the main thing of when can we just focus on basketball? That’s what this profession is, it’s basketball. That’s what we’re here to do and that’s what we all get paid to do is play basketball. At the end of the day, that’s what we wanted to worry about.”

The Heat’s season didn’t get better after Butler was gone, as they posted a 12-21 record following the trade and suffered through a 10-game losing streak in March. They were able to win eight of their last 12 regular season games and made history by becoming the first 10th seed to advance through the play-in tournament, but the season crashed to an end with a first-round sweep by Cleveland and 37- and 53-point losses in their two home playoff games.

“When I say it’s a memorable season, the memories will be like the last four weeks,” Spoelstra said. “The rest of the season was a grind. But we finally started to turn the corner even during the losing streak and you felt momentum, you felt progress, you felt like everybody was coming together and it led to two play-in games. … All the other adversities, it made me better. I’ve never been in a situation like that, to try to keep a locker room together and to try to handle it during those weeks. But then also to fully change course stylistically in how to play and what to emphasize at the All-Star break. That was an invigorating challenge.”

There’s more from Miami:

The got a serious dose of reality in the playoffs, getting swept by Cleveland in the opening round and losing Game 4 by 55 points, which coach described as a humbling experience.

“These last two games were embarrassing, but Cleveland is also a very good team,” he said, per Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald. “We won whatever we won, they won 64 games. We’re as irrational as we usually are, thinking that we have a chance to win this series and they showed us why we weren’t ready for that.”

Changes are coming for a team that had to fight out of the play-in tournament just to get the last playoff seed in the Eastern Conference.

“As an organization, yeah, we’re going to look at this and say this is unacceptable,” Spoelstra said. “We got to get to another level.”

We have more on the Heat:

‘s second NBA season hasn’t gone as smoothly as his rookie campaign. Jaquez has been out of the‘s rotation in their playoff series against Cleveland after getting steady playing time last season.

“Obviously, it’s frustrating as a competitor,” Jaquez told Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald. “As a player, you want to be in the game playing. But seasons come with ups and downs. I think more than anything, you take it as a learning experience. It will help you grow as a player and as a person to go through adversity like this. If you make it out to the other side, then you’re going to see what you become.”

Jaquez averaged 8.6 points per game this season on a lower shooting percentage than last season, when he averaged 11.9 PPG and made 48.9 percent of his attempts.

“There’s going to be struggles throughout your career,” he said. “You don’t want to shy away from those. Obviously, there have been a lot of ups and downs with some bad luck with some illnesses and then obviously getting hurt. But I think it’s given me a great opportunity to just learn, learn a lot about myself and about the game and take this time to just continue to work on my craft, work on my routine and continue to get better as a professional.”

Here’s more on the Heat:

, who has been away from the for personal reasons, announced Sunday on Instagram that his father, former NBA player , has died, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.

“The best last lesson one generation can teach the next: how to die with peace about how you’ve lived,” Kevin Love wrote. “This may be my Dad’s greatest gift. Teaching me that healing happens in your soul and that healing is there for the taking, even in the face of imminent death. Dad loved his family unconditionally and left his children with one of life’s great lessons.”

The elder Love, who was 76, was selected by the Baltimore Bullets with the ninth pick in the 1971 draft. He was traded to the Lakers in 1973 and played one year with San Antonio in the ABA before his career ended in 1975. He finished with career averages of 6.6 points and 3.9 rebounds in 239 games. Stan Love is also famous for being the younger brother of Beach Boys singer Mike Love.

Chiang notes that Kevin Love missed Miami’s final 10 regular season games and 22 overall while caring for his father. He returned for the first play-in tournament contest on April 16 against Chicago, but then had to leave again. He has been ruled out for tonight’s home game against Cleveland as the Heat try to avoid a sweep in their first-round series.

“We could use his voice,” said following Saturday’s loss. “But K-Love is going through a lot right now. We text him here and there. But understanding we still got to play the game, still got to figure it out, still got to figure out how to get one win. And that’s what we’ll worry about on Monday.”

Love, 36, has moved into a veteran leadership role for the Heat in his 17th NBA season. He appeared in just 23 games, making nine starts and averaging 5.3 points and 4.1 rebounds in 10.9 minutes per night.

He has one year remaining on his contract at $4.15MM, and he’s expected to continue playing next season.

“We feel for him and what he’s going through right now,” coach said. “So the thoughts are more about that, being there for him. We all know how much he means to us in our locker room, but this transcends that.”

The were hoping to make their series against the top-seeded competitive after a close call Wednesday at Cleveland. Instead, they suffered the worst playoff loss in franchise history on Saturday and are staring at a likely insurmountable 3-0 deficit, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.

Miami built an early 15-6 lead, but things fell apart quickly as the Cavs strung together a 33-5 run to put the game out of reach. The lead got up to 40 points in the second half as Miami fans expressed their displeasure with the effort.

“Once we jumped on them at the start of the game, then they just took control of it from there and it became an avalanche going the other direction,” coach said. “And sometimes when you care, there’s a level of discouragement that kind of fed into that avalanche and that’s what we all feel disappointed about.”

The Cavaliers dominated the game near the basket, registering 11 dunks and outscoring Miami 60-30 in the paint. Cleveland also collected 13 offensive rebounds while building a 22-10 advantage in second-chance points and had a 21-11 edge in points off turnovers.

“I know how much everybody cares,” Spoelstra added. “We just laid an egg today. A big part of it was Cleveland.”

There’s more from Miami:

April 26th, 2025 at 11:51am CST by Luke Adams

point guard will be unavailable for Game 3 vs. Miami due to his left great toe sprain, the team announced in its last injury report prior to Saturday afternoon’s tip-off.

Garland was affected by the toe issue earlier this month, missing two of Cleveland’s final three regular season games as a result of the injury. According to Jared Weis of The Athletic (Twitter link), the 25-year-old aggravated the injury during Game 2 on Wednesday and wasn’t able to take part in a pregame warm-up on Saturday after initially being listed as questionable.

The hope, a team source tells Weiss, is that sitting out today will allow Garland to heal up and return on Monday for Game 4 in Miami.

Garland’s absence comes on the heels of an eventful media cycle involving him and Heat guard . Following Wednesday’s Cavs victory, Garland told reporters that “pick on Herro” was a central facet of the team’s offensive game plan, prompting Herro to fire back two days later to criticize Garland’s defense.

Heat big man told the media that Herro’s teammates took Garland’s comments “personal,” adding that the Cavs guard “cannot hide,” but Miami won’t get the opportunity to go after him on the court for at least a couple more days.

Sharpshooter will start in Garland’s place, Weiss notes.

The made it fairly clear based on their offensive strategy in the first two games of their series vs. the that they were targeting a perceived weak link on Miami’s defense. Asked about the Cavs’ game plan after Wednesday’s Game 2 victory, point guard confirmed as much, per Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (subscription required).

“Pick on ,” Garland said. “Don’t play in tight spaces and pick on their weak defenders. Go at them.”

According to NBA.com’s data, the Cavaliers have attempted 33 shots through two games with Herro as the primary defender, making 21 of them (63.6%). No other Heat player has a higher number of field goals against (in terms of both makes and attempts) in the series.

Herro and the Heat didn’t have a media session on Thursday, but when the team spoke to reporters on Friday, the All-Star guard knew he’d be asked about Garland’s comments and didn’t hold back his feelings about them.

“To go to the media to talk about the game plan and this and that says a lot about him. I’m not worried about Darius Garland,” Herro said, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst. “Somebody that doesn’t play defense shouldn’t be talking, either. He don’t play any defense and we’ll see that tomorrow. He don’t play no D.”

To Herro’s point, Heat players have made 12-of-18 shots (66.7%) in the first two games of the series with Garland as their primary defender, per NBA.com.

As Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald writes, Herro downplayed the idea that Garland’s comments would further motivate him, telling reporters that he has “enough fuel in me” and doesn’t need any more from “that guy over there.” However, teammate , who came to his teammate’s defense, suggested Garland’s remarks would make for good bulletin-board material for the rest of the Heat.

“(He) cannot hide,” Adebayo said. “He said what he said. We all take that personal.”

Both Garland and Herro told Joe Vardon of The Athletic that they have a good relationship, but as Vardon writes, that doesn’t mean the trash talk between them isn’t real.

“I mean, I’m not f—ing around. I don’t think there’s anything to f— around about,” Herro told The Athletic on Friday. “But we had said some words to each other on the court and then looked like he was in his feelings to go to the media to say that after the game. I mean, that kind of says everything right there.”

As we relayed earlier on Friday, Garland is listed as questionable to play in Game 3 due to a left big toe sprain.

April 25th, 2025 at 6:38pm CST by Luke Adams

swingman has been listed as questionable to play on Saturday vs. Houston and was referred to by head coach Steve Kerr on Friday as “day-to-day,” according to Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. Kerr isn’t ruling out the possibility of Butler suiting up for Game 3.

“I’m relatively optimistic,” Kerr said. “I mean, Jimmy is Jimmy. We know he’s willing to play through anything, so we’ll see. I mean, this is a day-to-day thing for sure, and we’ll see how he feels tomorrow, but I think there’s a chance he plays.”

Kerr noted Butler’s injury is “very similar” to the one Stephen Curry suffered in March, which cost the Warriors star two games.

“It’s a pain tolerance thing, that’s why he’s day-to-day,” Kerr added.

Butler isn’t the only Warrior whose status for Saturday’s contest is up in the air. Veteran guard Gary Payton II has been listed as questionable due to a right shoulder strain after averaging just under 14 minutes per night in the first two games of the series, Youngmisuk notes.

The good news for Golden State is that guard Brandin Podziemski isn’t listed on the injury report after being limited to 14 minutes in Game 2 due to an illness. Podziemski said he’s ready to go for Game 3.

Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA: