The Miami Heat will have plenty of decisions to make before making another hopeful run for the NBA Finals in 2024.

Forward Jimmy Butler, center Bam Adebayo and guard Kyle Lowry highlight the nine players who could return for the Heat next season, according to sports team and player contract site Spotrac. Miami's options for adding new players may be limited in the offseason, but they have the No. 18 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft and the Taxpayer Mid-Level exception to add or retain at least a few players.

The Heat will have five unrestricted and three restricted free agents, including two from two-way contracts, they can try to bring back this offseason. Guard Victor Oladipo is listed with a player option. Miami could bring in some extra rotational players who address the Heat's most pressing needs on a budget in free agency.

Who are some free agents the Miami Heat should try to re-sign during the 2023 offseason?

Kevin Love

The Heat must keep or add new options at the power forward if it makes another run for the Finals next season.

Love, a 15-year NBA veteran and five-time All-Star, played in 62 games and started in 20 between the Heat and the Cleveland Cavaliers last season. He gained 17 starts during the remainder of the 2022-23 regular season, averaging 7.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 21 games played for Miami.

The Heat signed the former Cavalier after the Cavs bought him out in February.

“Not many teams, if any, are capable of what they're doing year in and year out and I've seen it, man,” Love said, via Inside the Heat. “Since I started in this league and got drafted in 2008 until now. They just have a tradition of excellence. They want to win and win now and that's something I want to be a part of.”

Love's production slightly tapered off as he entered the postseason. He posted averages of 6.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game in 20 games played, according to ESPN. But having his veteran presence back on the squad could be a valuable part in making another run for the NBA Playoffs and beyond next year.

Victor Oladipo

Oladipo, the former No. 2 pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, played in 42 games and started in two for the Heat last season. He averaged 10.7 points, three rebounds and 3.5 assists in 26.3 minutes per game.

Oladipo suffered a season-ending torn patellar tendon injury as he fell to the Kaseya Center floor during Game 3 in the playoffs' first round. He still kept his head up after the injury, as Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra recounted during an April conference.

“He had the outlook you would expect,” Spoelstra said. “He said, ‘Don't shed a tear for me. I'm going to get through all of this.'”

If he were to accept his player option, or decline it and sign a more team-friendly deal, he could provide a much-needed scoring punch off the bench.

Gabe Vincent

It will be essential to keep players who have played well during the season and embody the core values of “Heat Culture.”

Vincent, who has played in 195 games for the Heat since 2019, averaged 9.4 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game last season. He played in 68 games and started in 34. He proved to be a valuable part of the team's run in the postseason after he played and started in 22 games.

Vincent said the goal for the Heat was the same all season after Miami defeated the Boston Celtics in a 128-102 win during Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

“We want to win. Our goal has never changed,” Vincent said in May, via NBA TV. “Year in and year out, the Miami Heat are trying to compete for a title, and this year is no different.”

Max Strus

Like Vincent, Strus's grit and perseverance will make him a valuable part of keeping the Heat's culture intact for at least the near future.

“Like a lot of our guys, he has that grit and that perseverance,” Spoelstra said of Strus in April, via The South Florida Sun Sentinel. “His routine never changes, in terms of starting his shooting workouts. Whether we're on the road, he always meets us there, gets in his routine before we arrive. After practice, before practice, before games, he just stays consistent all the way through.

“And that's what you can commit to, not having a guarantee of any kind of results. But if you just continue to plug away, you stay with your process, eventually the floodgates can open, particularly if you just stay the course and have that kind of perseverance and grit.”

Should he try to sign back on a deal the Heat can afford, he can continue to provide valuable minutes for Miami alongside Butler, Adebayo, Lowry and the other returning members from the 2023 Finals run.