Greg Cote: No Durant, but might Heat have summer blockbuster with Giannis?

MIAMI — It is not a good thing when your basketball team is more interesting during offseasons than when actually playing games, but that is where the Miami Heat find themselves in the summer of ‘25.

Without a franchise superstar, the Heat now waffle in the abyss of NBA mediocrity, mid-pack in the Eastern Conference, clawing for relevance. The most recent season was swallowed whole by the Jimmy Butler off-court drama and suspensions as he pouted his way to Golden State and, post-Jimmy, the Heat escaped the grip of play-in purgatory only to be swept in the first round of the playoffs by an embarrassing combined 122 points.

It was a season mercifully laid to rest.

Ah, but the offseason!

It began ceremonially Wednesday night with the NBA draft as the Heat selected Illinois guard Kasparas Jakucionis with the 20th overall pick in the first round — a pick lauded. He had been rated the No. 11 prospect by ESPN and will pair with Tyler Herro for a potent backcourt. Jakucionis is the playmaker and shot-creator Miami dearly needed.

So, yes, save us, summer! This is when hope rouses itself awake and anything and everything seems possible — well, with the obvious exception of the Heat signing Kevin Durant, of course. (Let’s not be ridiculous.)

But there is always the enticement of what (probably won’t but) could be next: Giannis Antetokounmpo!

Or, put more accurately: Giannis Antetokounmpo?

It would be the NBA’s summer blockbuster.

Has the power to dream that big been beaten out of Heat fans or do faint embers buried deep still glow?

Of course, odds are against. DraftKings has it favored that Giannis stays with Milwaukee, with Miami the fifth-ranked trade destination after the Knicks, Raptors, Spurs and Rockets. (Fifth. Not nothing, right?)

Meantime fans take to social media to play South Florida’s favorite sports parlor game: “Has The Game Passed Pat Riley By?”

(Any criticism of Riley should fairly consider his is one of five votes in the Heat cabal on major decisions, along with club owner Micky Arison, CEO Nick Arison, coach Erik Spoelstra and senior VP/general manager Andy Elisburg.)

Quick personal aside: I spent the past couple of months intensely following the Florida Panthers’ latest championship run, covering mostly hockey and writing the word “Bobrovsky” 6,017 times. And I found it fitting of the opposite arc of the two teams’ fortunes that the Panthers’ championship parade was revving up this past Sunday just as the news broke that Durant would be taking his talents not to South Beach but to Houston.

Riley, the Heat president who just turned 80, the franchise godfather and whale-hunter, was taking his fourth shot at Durant — a certified whale even at age 37. Riley has not boated a whale since landing LeBron James in 2010. LeBron stayed four years, won two championships, left and took the Heat’s glory days with him.

(Butler was not a whale, for those wondering. He was a good-sized tarpon before turning into a barracuda in the end.)

The whale-hunting has seen more misses than hits lately. Durant named Miami one of his three trade destinations from Phoenix but the reported sticking point in the end was that the Heat package offered would include two from among Nikola Jovic, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Haywood Highsmith — but not all three.

Dumbfounding to me that the Heat might have missed out on a Durant by not agreeing to throw in a Highsmith, but the offseason moves quickly and we’re on to ... Giannis?

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst quickly speculated Miami might have strategically been OK with not getting Durant “to save their assets for something bigger,” namely Antetokounmpo, the Greek Freak. No certainty Milwaukee will trade its cornerstone, but there are indications it might, and Giannis has said he would be open to it.

Antetokounmpo is in his prime at 30 and unequivocally great. He would be a LeBron-sized whale. If Riley could somehow score him without giving up Herro or Bam Adebayo, it would land as the godfather’s elusive last hurrah, a league-quaking move that would make Miami an immediate title contender in an Eastern Conference laid wide-open in part by Achilles injuries sustained by stars Damian Lillard of the Bucks, Jayson Tatum of the Celtics and now Tyrese Haliburton of the Pacers.

Miami — in Kel’el Ware, Jovic, Jaquez, Highsmith and now Jakucionis — has enough rising young talent to perhaps entice a rebuilding Milwaukee. Heat also has at least two future first-round draft picks that are tradeable. And enough expendable big contracts (Andrew Wiggins, Duncan Robinson, Terry Rozier) to balance the trade financially.

This offseason game entices with unpredictability, though. The Bucks and Giannis may decide their romance isn’t over. And if there is a divorce, the Heat would have much competition to woo the whale of whales.

Reality: For now, at least, Miami may have little choice but to run it back with faith in its Herro/Adebayo core, with hopes Ware and Jovic develop star-ward, with a comeback in mind for Jaquez and with high expectations for the newly minted rookie Jakucionis.

Riley’s Heat used to be whale-hunters first, enamored of proven veterans, big names. Now, out of necessity, the godfather oversees a roster leaning on youth, counting on tomorrow. A promising wave of developing young talent guided by a great coach in Spoelstra is not a terrible position to be in ...

... at least until next offseason, and another summer to dream of whales on the horizon.