Here are Top 10 who got away
The common theme for the Miami Heat, especially since the arrival of Pat Riley in 1995, has been identifying quality players who fell through the cracks elsewhere.
It has led to finds such as Anthony Carter, Malik Allen, Bruce Bowen, Mike James, Isaac Austin, Udonis Haslem and, most recently, Tyler Johnson and Hassan Whiteside.
But there also have been those who have gotten away, who ultimately were merely passing through — or stood positioned to do so — on the way to better days elsewhere.
Throughout this 30th-anniversary season, the South Florida Sun Sentinel will look back at three decades of the Heat, at the men and the moments that have made this an exhausting, exhilarating and enduring ride.
Today we look at 10 players who got away, their play elsewhere creating reminders on what might have been.
10. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
OK, this is a stretch, but the reality is that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was exposed by the Los Angeles Lakers (and Pat Riley) in the 1988 expansion draft. As part of a prearranged deal, the Heat bypassed selecting the about-to-retire center in exchange for the Lakers’ 1992 second-round draft choice, which was utilized on Matt Geiger (a key component in the 1995 trade that landed Alonzo Mourning upon Riley’s Heat arrival). Abdul-Jabbar retired after that 1988-89 season.
9. Chris Jackson (Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf ).
The Heat could have kept it simple when they exited the 1990 lottery with the No. 3 selection. Could have, but didn’t. Instead, in a flurry of draft-day dealing, they dealt that No. 3 pick for the draft rights to Willie Burton and Alec Kessler. Jackson, who changed his name to Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, went on to a nine-year NBA career, named NBA Most Improved Player in 1993. Burton played eight seasons, never reaching the statistical heights of AbdulRauf.
8. John “Hot Rod” Williams.
The Heat, under the previous management team of Lewis Schaffel and Billy Cunningham, went all in for the first time in free agency in the 1990 offseason, when they tendered a seven-year, $26.5 million offer sheet to Cavaliers restricted free agent John “Hot Rod” Williams. To put the magnitude of the offer in perspective, consider that the NBA salary cap for 1990-91 was $11.9 million per team. The Cavaliers matched the offer sheet two weeks later, making Williams the fifth highest-paid player in the league at the time. He would go on to become Cleveland’s all-time leader in blocked shots.
7. Juwan Howard.
The first splash in free agency as Heat president for Pat Riley was the 1996 signing of Wizards forward Juwan Howard to a sevenyear, $98 million contract. Signed, sealed . . . but ultimately not delivered, with the NBA ruling the agreement had violated the salary cap due to bonuses in the deals of P.J. Brown and Tim Hardaway (which, to this day, those involved from the Heat side insist was not the case). Howard would later join the Heat as a free agent in 2010, part of Heat championship teams in 2012 and ‘13. He now serves as a Heat assistant coach.
6. Shaun Livingston.
Like so many other teams after Livingston’s devastating knee injury with the Clippers in 2007, the Heat attempted to tap into that potential with a two-year contract in Oct. 2008, ultimately trading him three months later to the Grizzlies to avoid the guarantee trigger in his contract. “It gives us some flexibility,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said at the time. Livingston has, of course, gone on to win championships as a key contributor with the Warriors in 2015 and ‘17.
5. Jameer Nelson.
So why has Pat Riley shied from youth for more than a decade? All you need to do is go back to the 2004 NBA draft, when, while holding the No. 19 selection, Riley went with the unlikely pick of prep product Dorell Wright, with the Orlando Magic (in a draftday trade) immediately pouncing on the four-year collegiate promise of Jameer Nelson at No. 20. The selection for the Heat came amid the drought at point guard between Tim Hardaway and Jason Williams. Wright never gained an NBA foothold with the Heat, while Nelson, at 35, still is plugging along, now with the New Orleans Pelicans.
4. Patrick Beverley.
The Heat went to significant lengths to acquire the pesky defensive guard, working out a draft-day deal with the Lakers in 2009 to obtain his secondround rights, stashing him in Greece for the 2009-10 season, then signing him to a two-year, guaranteed contract in August 2010, only to release him to months later in favor of Eddie House and Jerry Stackhouse. Beverley would go on to emerge as an NBA All-Defensive selection with the Houston Rockets, moving on to the Clippers this offseason in the Chris Paul trade.
3. Steve Smith.
Desperate to shake up a flailing roster, a somewhat impatient coach Kevin Loughery in a five-day span in November 1994 dealt away franchise mainstays Rony Seikaly, Grant Long and Steve Smith, with Kevin Willis acquired for Smith. While Willis would provide solid rebounding numbers on non-descript Heat rosters, Smith would go on to become an NBA All-Star and 20-point scorer, as well as an NBA champion with the Spurs in 2003, before cycling back to close his career with the Heat in 2005.
2. Bruce Bowen.
Having unearthed the defensive-minded forward after he opened his professional career overseas and in the minor leagues, the Heat first signed Bowen to a 10-day contract in 1997, when he played just one game with the team, then claimed him off waivers in 2000, when he emerged as an All-Defensive selection. But the Heat, up against the luxury tax, then allowed Bowen to depart to the Spurs in 2001 free agency. The rest is history, with Bowen winning NBA champions in San Antonio in 2003, ‘05 and ‘07, his No. 12 eventually retired by the Spurs.
1. Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love, Brook Lopez (Derrick Rose).
We all know the rest of the story, the Heat falling back from the No. 1 pick to No. 2 in the 2008 NBA draft lottery, after finishing a league-worst 15-67. That effectively took them out of the running for No. 1 pick Derrick Rose. But the Heat then went with the consensus pick at No. 2, selecting Michael Beasley — and bypassing Westbrook (No. 4), Love (No. 5) and Lopez (No. 10), among others. The irony is that Pat Riley continually stressed leading up to that draft that Beasley was not necessarily the clear choice at No. 2. He proved regrettably prescient.