The Miami Heat’s wish list for the 2025 NBA offseason should be lengthy. Even while accounting for all the unnecessary distractions created by Jimmy Butler’s prolonged departure, the 2024-25 campaign was a big letdown.

They got 77 games out of Tyler Herro and 78 from Bam Adebayo and still managed all of 37 wins before being swept out of the opening round. This team needs a lot to compete—even in a seemingly wide-open Eastern Conference.

Still, if the Heat had to boil down their wish list to a single entry—and weren’t allowed to go with the generic “star”—they might settle on a backcourt mate for Herro. Given his age and ascension as a first-time All-Star, he has arguably supplanted Adebayo as the organization’s primary building block. But even if Herro hasn’t moved to the center of Miami’s universe, he might still be the one worth the most consideration when it comes to team fit, since he requires a more specific archetype alongside him.

The ideal perimeter partner to pair with Herro would be a tenacious defender and a reliable outside shooter, plus someone who’s young enough to continue developing and established enough to contribute right away. Someone, frankly, who plays a lot like Oklahoma City Thunder swingman Lu Dort, who might have a non-zero chance of shaking loose this summer.

If the Thunder would consider a Dort deal to manage salary-cap costs, then the Heat have to make a phone call.

Before getting the hopes of Heat fans too high, let’s acknowledge that the Thunder won’t be in a hurry to let go of Dort. He might be the best defender on a team loaded with suffocating stoppers, and his growth as a three-point threat (40.3 percent since the start of last season) has allowed him to carve a helpful offensive niche.

All of that said, Oklahoma City will be carefully watching its bottom line sooner than later. If there’s any downside in having a roster overloaded with young talent, it’s that the costs attached to said talent will expand over time. The Thunder have a manageable payroll for now, but that won’t be the case much longer. MVP front-runner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is eligible for a supermax extension this summer, while his co-stars, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, can ink big-dollar extensions this offseason, too.

Someone will get squeezed out sooner than later, and depending on how this postseason plays out, maybe Dort is that someone and this summer is that time.

The Heat can only hope that’s the case, at least. Beyond looking like a hand-in-glove fit with Herro, Dort also plays as if he was forged straight from the famed Heat culture. He’ll tirelessly chase opposing stars on one end, then race out in transition going the other. And, key for any Herro sidekick, Dort doesn’t need a ton of touches to make a major impact. Among the 83 players to tally five-plus win shares this season, Dort had the fifth-lowest usage percentage (13.6, per StatHead Basketball).

Again, Dort is merely a Miami dream at the moment, but the optimism sliders should be all the way up at this point on the offseason calendar. The Heat can and should have crossed fingers, because if the basketball gods granted this wish, they’d walk away with a need-filler who could make life easier on perhaps their most important player.