Heat Fan Vote Reveals MVP, Future Stars and the Team's Most Chaotic Personalities
We asked, you answered, and now, we can officially reveal the results for the Miami Heat's batch of year-end awards!
Shout-out to everyone who participated. You played a pivotal role in helping us dole out invaluable hardware. From the Heat's MVP and most underrated player to their best trash-talker and zombie apocalypse savior, you covered all the most important bases.
So, who won each category? Let's get to the big reveals.
Stats accurate as of Sunday, April 12. Contract data via Spotrac.
Who Is the Most Valuable Player?
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Winner: Bam Adebayo
Bam Adebayo might have faced competition if Tyler Herro was healthier this year. Emphasis on might.
Nobody else in the league, let alone Miami, is hard-wired to anchor a variety of different defensive approaches. Bam is the backbone who keeps the Heat afloat without tethering them to any one scheme.
Other players will always be more important to driving the offense, but his ability to adapt to the team's surrounding talent and philosophical tenets is further evidence of his versatility.
Who Is Most Underrated?
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Winner: Pelle Larsson
Pelle Larsson might not ever hit threes at gaudy clips, but he's among the team's best on-ball operators, a real change-of-pace maestro who grates on defenders as much as he keeps them on tilt. His 52 percent share of first-place votes is higher than expected, but not egregious.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. slinking into second place with 25 percent of the vote makes gobs of sense when you consider how many people are leaving him off their Sixth Man of the Year ballots. He has rebounded nicely from a downtrodden sophomore campaign and re-emerged as one of the foremost offensive drivers for a Heat squad that plays at breakneck pace.
Davion Mitchell only getting 14 percent of the vote was a tad surprising. Him turning into a functional jump-shooter since arriving in Miami is objectively cool—and has gone under-covered.
Who Is the Best Athlete?
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Winner: Bam Adebayo
Bam Adebayo's athleticism doesn't always manifest in conventional highlights, but you don't become one of the NBA's two or three most versatile defenders without plenty of it. He doesn't move anything like a traditional big man. Getting 41 percent of the vote and jumping over Kel'el Ware (23 percent) and Keshad Johnson (28 percent) is nevertheless surprising.
Ware's athleticism was among his biggest draws coming out of college, and he has not disappointed. His dunks often defy gravity and catch radiuses at the same time, and his explosion even shines through on tons of his blocks.
Props to Johnson for his under-the-radar pop. No player posted a higher max vertical at the 2024 Draft Combine.
Who Is Most Likely To Be a 1st-Time All-Star In the Next 5 Years?
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Winner: Kel'el Ware
Kel'el Ware ended up being the no-brainer selection. His offensive dynamism, range and athleticism is atypical for someone his size. He seems destined for a 20-point, 10-rebound, two-block season at some point.
If Kasparas Jakučionis (11 percent) is really this good of a three-point shooter, he could develop into someone who leads his team in both points and assists. Jaime Jaquez Jr. (19 percent) has similar stab-in-the-dark appeal, with more defensive appeal, if he ever turns into a viable long-range marksman.
Who Has the Best Contract?
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Winner: Pelle Larsson
First-time contracts do a lot of heavy lifting for the Heat—in a good way.
Pelle Larsson's victory, with 40 percent of the vote, aligns with his low-cost deal. He has another team-controlled year valued at under 2 percent of the salary cap.
Kel'el Ware had a legit shot at winning this category himself. He earned 34 percent of first-place of the vote and is on the books for under $12 million combined the next two seasons.
On the veteran front, keeping Davion Mitchell on a two-year, $24 million pact that runs through next season has turned into one of Miami's better bookkeeping decisions.
Who Has the Worst Contract?
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Winner: Nikola Jović
Nikola Jović getting 64 percent of the votes here is the least-surprising development possible. Miami signed him to a four-year, $62 million extension last summer. He is now out of the rotation. His career isn't over, but this is a big yikes.
Bam Adebayo receiving only 6 percent of the votes is...interesting. His three-year, $160 million extension takes effect in 2026-27. In a current climate that devalues max deals for those who aren't consensus top-15 players, this is an agreement that could age poorly as a trade asset.
Who Is the Best Trash-Talker?
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Winner: Tyler Herro
Tyler Herro (37 percent) gets a big ol' thumbs up for (potentially) trolling Kevin Durant to his face on the use of burner accounts. The same goes for Bam Adebayo (11 percent) and his once-upon-a-time comments to Joel Embiid.
Pat Riley can be hilariously and hopelessly unfiltered when talking about his own players, so a second-place finish with 32 percent of the vote is on-brand. While it is more stylistic and functional than verbal, Pelle Larsson (14 percent) is already a master ragebaiter himself.
Who Is Most Likely To Have a Burner Account?
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Winner: Tyler Herro
If trash-talking volume is a metric for the likelihood of having a burner account, Tyler Herro getting 55 percent of the vote makes perfect sense. That is reinforced by his handling of Jimmy Butler's trade request last season.
Running out of the locker room in that situation screams "Burner Boy."
Bam Adebayo's awareness of the criticism surrounding his 83-point game was so acute you just know he's trawling through comment sections under a secret pseudonym. Kel'el Ware took exception to Bam making his profile pic a still shot of him dunking over his sophomore teammate. That is Grade A burner-account behavior.
Give it up for Pat Riley finishing second (23 percent). His burner may be run by a fellow front office member and registered to a Netscape email, but (I'd like to think) it totally exists.
Who Are You Taking With You Into the Zombie Apocalypse?
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Winner: Erik Spoelstra
Erik Spoelstra getting 42 percent of the vote and winning this category warms my heart. It has at times felt like the fanbase is turning on him, as the Heat continue to plumb the NBA's dreaded middle.
These results suggests just the opposite. And in the event a maniacal focus on the minutiae is required to survive an undead uprising, Coach Spo is the only choice.
One of my other assumptions is that surviving a zombie takeover will require physicality, preferably in the form of brute force. I have seen enough Jaime Jaquez drives and paint touches for him to qualify. Ditto for Davion Mitchell, who has a more recklessly explosive element to him and finished in second place.
Who Is Most Likely To Be Playing Overseas In 2 Seasons?
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Winner: Terry Rozier
At this rate, playing overseas may be the only way Terry Rozier can continue his pro career. He was already waived by the Heat. And even if the gambling scandal doesn't prevent teams from taking a look at him, he was on a stark downswing before the allegations.
Be honest in the comments, folks: How many of you voted for Vladislav Goldin strictly because this was the first time you were reading/seeing his name?
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