No, it likely won’t happen, because of Erik Spoelstra’s disposition toward smaller lineups and because Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier are part of the equation. But the fact that it would even be possible speaks volumes about a fundamental change in approach for the Miami Heat. This season, should they choose or need, the Heat could feature a lineup with five first-round draft picks – but more to the point, with all five being the Heat’s own picks.
Kel’el Ware, Bam Adebayo, Nikola Jovic, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Tyler Herro. With the addition of Ware at No.
15 last month out of Indiana, the Heat exercised a first-round pick in three consecutive drafts for the first time since a four-year run that included Caron Butler (at No. 10 in 2002), Dwyane Wade (No. 5 in 2003), Dorell Wright (No.
19 in 2004) and Wayne Simien (No. 29 in 2005). Yes, there was a time when five homegrown first-rounders on the court would not have stood as extraordinary for the Heat.
But that’s also when victories were an extraordinary challenge at the team’s inception. Back then, in the late ’80s and early ’90s, there were first-rounders such as Rony Seikaly, Kevin Edwards, Glen Rice, Willie Burton, Alec Kessler, Steve Smith and Harold Miner. Back then, there also was a lot of losing.
Then came the Pat Riley era. As in the team president who not only once offered, “To be really honest with you, I’m not a draft-pick guy,” but who also offered, “I think a draft pick every other year is good.” But this run of first-round success, particularly if Ware can come close to replicating his summer play, could transcend merely being good when it comes to first-round prosperity, particularly on a team that won’t tank.
Adebayo (No. 14 in 2017) has been an All-Defensive selection. Herro (No.
13 in 2019) has won Sixth Man of the Year. Jovic (No. 27 in 2022) has been a playoff starter.
Jaquez (No. 18 in 2023) has been first-team All-Rookie. And Ware, certainly with due perspective, has helped push his team to the summer-league title game.
Arguably the last time a player acquired by the Heat in the first round did not become either an enduring contributor or significant trade asset was Shabazz Napier, the No. 24 pick in 2014. In the wake of Chet Kammerer stepping down in 2018 as the Heat lead executive in charge of the draft, there was concern of a loss of the type of detail that led to the selection of Adebayo and addition of countless productive developmental acquisitions.
“This is always tough, when you feel like in some ways it’s time to turn the reins over to a younger group of men who are qualified to do your task,” Kammerer said at the time. That is when Adam Simon stepped up to take the lead with the team’s draft, with the Heat hardly looking back since, with even 2020 selection Precious Achiuwa utilized as a trade component in the 2021 deal for Kyle Lowry and then going on to establish an NBA foothold of his own. As he addressed during summer league where the Heat stand, General Manager Andy Elisburg said there has not been a fundamental shift in the valuation of the draft, but rather an ongoing pursuit of maximizing assets to their highest value.
“I think you always value the picks,” he said in Las Vegas. “I think it depends on what you’re able to do, like anything else with the picks, of the transactions you’re able to make.” Even when the Heat weren’t drafting, Elisburg said the use of picks played a vital role in the process that has had the Heat in Eastern Conference finals or better in three of the past five years, and even before.
“The opportunities we had with the Big Three, we sent out some draft picks,” Elisburg said of Riley aligning LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Wade in 2010 free agency and beginning a run to four consecutive NBA Finals and a pair of championships. “We moved a couple of picks for Goran,” he said of the 2015 addition of Goran Dragic, who helped lead the Heat to the 2020 NBA Finals. “The one for Jimmy hasn’t been conveyed yet,” Elisburg said of the first-rounder sent out in the 2019 sign-and-trade of Butler, who has been the catalyst to the success of the past five seasons.
But it also is the most recent first-rounders who have helped the Heat better balance their salary-cap ledger with favorable rookie-scale deals amid increasingly punitive luxury-tax parameters. “I think there’s a value to having draft packs, clearly in this market, in this collective-bargaining agreement, having players who are on scale is important,” Elisburg said. “Also getting great players is important.
So I think we always have to measure the opportunities you can make, different transactions you can make, utilizing all the various tools you have to continue to get better.” Related Articles But now, even with continued elite scouting, the draft spigot will run somewhat drier, with two of the Heat’s next four first-round picks committed to other teams, one to complete the Butler trade, one from January’s acquisition of Rozier from the Charlotte Hornets. But at least now, further invigorated by the summer play of Ware, there is ample youth in place, top-tier youth, drafted youth.
“Among the tools is the ability to have players, NBA draft picks, and having the upside to see what they can do,” Elisburg said of first-round picks, as essential now, if not even more so, than when Elisburg was working his way up the Heat’s hierarchy back at the franchise’s outset 38 years ago. “They’ve been a big part of our history, as well.” MORE PLEASE: Amid his breakout moments during summer league, Heat prospect Josh Christopher had one request of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver .
“It’s time for a couple of expansion teams, man. Come on NBA,” Christopher said. “I know I’m one of the little fish in the sea, but come one, it’s time for more teams, with so much talent in the G League.
Honestly, it’s the second-best league in the world, if you ask me.” Christopher, drafted at No. 24 by the Houston Rockets, has found himself in recent years good enough to excel in the G League, but without the opportunity to gain a definitive foothold on one of the league’s 30 rosters until the Heat extended a two-way contract on Thursday.
“I’m really serious about these expansion teams,” Christopher said. “We need a couple more, so guys get some opportunities.” During his media comments at summer league, Silver said, “We’re not quite done with our media deals, yet.
But once we are, we will turn to consideration around expansion.” THE BIG CHILL: Having spent time working with Heat prospects in the G League in recent years, Heat summer coach Dan Bisaccio said he is somewhat braced for the South Dakota winter ahead of his assignment as coach of the Sioux Falls Skyforce, the Heat’s G League affiliate. “I’m from Vermont, so you never truly get rid of that stuff,” Bisaccio said of his winter gear, having worked the past 10 years for the Heat.
“It’s buried somewhere, probably in the closet. I’m going to have to go find it. I’m sure it’s got mothballs.
” That led to a laugh from Kasib Powell , who is moving on from the Skyforce to a spot on Erik Spoelstra ‘s Heat coaching staff. “I’m from New Jersey, and I thought I had some brutal winters,” Powell, the former Heat forward said. “But when you’re in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, you’ll see that it’s no other winter like there.
So he’ll see that real quickly once he gets there. He’ll be in for a rude awakening as far as the weather.” BACK AT IT: How much do the Indiana Pacers respect the leadership of former Heat forward James Johnson ? With this past week’s free-agency agreement, it marked the fifth time the Pacers have signed or re-signed Johnson since Sept.
16, 2022. Along the way, the Pacers have had to waive Johnson to accommodate trades for Jordan Nwora, George Hill, Serge Ibaka and Pascal Siakam . Johnson, who at one point was a Heat tri-captain, saw his Heat tenure end with the Feb.
6, 2020 trade that landed Andre Iguodala and Jae Crowder with the Heat. GOING GONE: It apparently will be an extended stay overseas for former Heat breakout rookie Kendrick Nunn , with the deadline for his NBA out clause passing in the two-year contract extension he signed in May in the Greek League with Panathinaikos. Nunn last season won both EuroLeague and Greek League titles, named first-team All-Euro League.
He last played in the NBA with the Washington Wizards in 2022-23. INSIDE STORY: With the NBA now mostly moving into vacation mode, it appears the league has come to grips with the first full offseason under the new collective-bargaining agreement. During his summer-league interview with SiriusXM radio, Heat General Manager Andy Elisburg said it was a matter of, “Focus in on the things it allows you to do.
” With a focus that at times, Elisburg said, needs to be in the abstract. “You look a lot at what the rest of the league is doing,” he said. “I try to focus on what it allows.
” People call it loopholes, I like to call it stretching the elasticity of what it allows.” 5th. Finish among players in rebounding (9.
4 per game in 23.5 minutes per game) in the Las Vegas NBA Summer league for former Heat center Orlando Robinson , who hooked on with the Houston Rockets’ summer roster, while still without a contract. Robinson, who was waived by the Heat ahead of his July 15 guarantee deadline, also averaged 14.
2 points on .587 shooting from the field and .500 on 3-pointers.
Robinson effectively lost his Heat roster spot with the drafting of 7-foot Kel’el Ware and the re-signing of Thomas Bryant . But off his strong play at summer league, Robinson this past week was signed by the Sacramento Kings, now to play not far from where he played collegiately at Fresno State..
