Dwyane Wade says lottery-bound Heat, ‘need to retool, and they need to figure it out’

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.”