After receiving 16 nationally televised games last season, the Miami Heat will only have seven nationally televised games in the 2024–25 regular season on the ABC, ESPN, or TNT networks.

The number of nationally televised games the NBA gave the Heat in their second season suggests that the league doesn’t think highly of the team, according to second-year player Jaime Jaquez Jr.

Additionally, Duncan Robinson hinted that the Heat are used to performing better than expected when they are playing with low expectations.

Although Robinson and Jaquez appear to be accepting the fact that the Heat will participate in significantly fewer nationally televised games than they did the previous season, Miami’s decision to lessen its visibility isn’t entirely unjustified, especially in light of the team’s lack of success in the 2023–24 campaign.

Initially, the Heat experienced a wild regular season as Miami finished with a 46-36 record and had to advance through the play-in round to guarantee a position in the NBA Playoffs for 2024.

Next, the Heat failed to take advantage of their playoff berth. Miami was suffering from a severe case of the injury bug as the team lost in five games in the first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs. Josh Richardson, Terry Rozier, and Jimmy Butler missed the whole Heat’s best-of-seven series against Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics.

If Jaquez can improve on his stellar rookie season in the NBA, Miami might be able to make a bigger stride as a team in the 2024–25 campaign. In 75 games (20 starts) as a rookie with the Heat, he averaged 11.9 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.0 steal per contest.

Given that he placed fourth in the NBA’s Rookie of the Year competition, Jaquez was a candidate for one of the league’s main honors the previous season. The only people with more votes for the hardware were Brandon Miller, Chet Holmgren, and Victor Wembanyam.

Hopefully, the 82-game Heat schedule’s absence of nationally broadcast games will serve as fuel for not just Jaquez and Robinson but the entire team to disprove their naysayers.