The Heat’s roster-building mindset has always been the same – find the next star, no matter how many trade attempts fail along the way. Portland turned them down for Damian Lillard. Brooklyn sent Kevin Durant to Phoenix instead. Four straight years in the Play-In Tournament followed. This time, it finally happened. Whether that turns out to be a blessing or a long-term regret is exactly what Chris Broussard addressed.

“Unfortunately, I think the regrets are very high,” Broussard said on First Things First. “I don’t think he’s going to win a championship there. People are already talking about how, in Miami, every time Pat Riley gets a superstar player, he ends up delivering a championship, and it’s true. Everybody they’ve had on Giannis’ level, LeBron, Dwyane Wade, Shaq, they all won championships there.”

“So when Giannis doesn’t—which is my prediction, unfortunately—I think that’s going to be held against him. If it doesn’t work out in Miami, you could have gone to Boston. You could have been competing for a championship this year, and really the rest of your prime. You could have been in the Finals versus Wemby, which would have been incredible, that one-on-one matchup.”

The Milwaukee Bucks sent Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis to Miami for Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis, three first-round picks, a pick swap, and a second-rounder.

Zach Lowe flagged the same risk before the deal even closed, warning Miami about breaking its young core to win the bidding war:

“If we do this and all our first-round picks are out the door, and Jakucionis is out the door, and all our young guys are out the door, what is it going to amount to?”

Broussard wasn’t alone in questioning the timing and the fit. Skip Bayless went even further, predicting the move will be viewed as a “letdown” rather than a triumph:

“I do believe deep down that Giannis wanted to go to South Beach because effectively, he’s going to semi-retire in South Beach. He will ultimately be viewed maybe not as a failure in Miami, but as a letdown. He will not quite live up to the expectations.”

What if Giannis Had Gone to Boston Instead

Jayson Tatum would have given Antetokounmpo exactly the kind of shot-making partner Khris Middleton once provided in Milwaukee. Someone capable of taking over in clutch moments without needing to dominate the ball. Tatum’s two-way size would have also let Boston close games without a traditional center on the floor.

Boston’s biggest weakness, where they ranked low in the league in paint points last season, was precisely the gap Antetokounmpo’s rim pressure would have covered.

The Celtics also run one of the league’s most sophisticated half-court systems under Joe Mazzulla, built around read-and-react spacing that would have freed Giannis from the isolation-heavy sets that defined his final years in Milwaukee.

There’s also the matter of shooting. Boston finished among the league leaders in three-point percentage last season, which means Giannis would have seen the most consistently open driving lanes of his career.

He wouldn’t have needed to carry a broken offense. He would have been the weapon inside a functioning one.

For now, Miami is projected to start next season with a starting five of Adebayo, Antetokounmpo, Wiggins, Powell, and Davion Mitchell.

Chris Broussard’s FS1 colleague, Nick Wright, made a stark remark on the same segment:

“With the Heat, I would be stunned if they win a title. I would not be stunned if next year, they are the 7th seed. I would not be stunned by that.”

And before the trade was even made, he suggested, “I just want to see Giannis playing in big, relevant games. And it’s going to happen in Boston, not in Miami.”

A roster ESPN’s Ben Golliver called “good and balanced, if relatively light on shooting,” while asking whether it’s actually better than the champion Knicks, the ‘rebuilding’ Celtics, the 60-win Pistons, or a healthy Pacers team.

The projected bench- currently Portis, Nikola Jovic, Pelle Larsson, Keshad Johnson, Dru Smith, and Myron Gardner is one of the thinnest in the league, the direct cost of sending four rotation players to Milwaukee.

And even that starting five is shakier than it looks.

According to Shams Charania, the Heat are not expecting Powell back, a stunning development given that he was arguably the most important player on the roster outside of the two stars.

Powell, an unrestricted free agent who just averaged 21.7 points and earned his first All-Star selection, is the team’s only reliable perimeter scorer and floor spacer. Losing him doesn’t just weaken the starting five. It eliminates the primary mechanism for keeping defenses honest against Giannis and Bam.

The trade structure hard-capped Miami at the first apron, leaving roughly $18 million in space to fill out the rest of the roster- and if Wiggins picks up his $30.2 million player option, reports suggest Miami could only offer Powell around $12 to $13 million per year, a number that won’t clear the market for a 33-year-old coming off his best season.