Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Few second chances has become norm
CHICAGO — As Adam Simon and the Miami Heat scouting staff sat courtside during the scrimmages at the NBA draft combine, it increasingly had to feel like a case of look but do not touch.
With the elite prospects and many potential firstround prospects bypassing the five-on-five play, the scrimmages largely stood as showcases for secondround picks.
As in the type of selections the Heat have lacked in recent years, lack again this season, and will continue to lack in upcoming seasons.
“Business as usual,” Simon, the Heat’s vice president of player personnel and assistant general manager, said. “We’re preparing to rank 60 players. We’ll put ’em in our tiers, trade-up scenarios, trade-down scenarios, 13th-pick scenarios [where the Heat draft in the first round], second-round pick scenarios, who do like, who don’t get drafted.
“We have to prepare for all of that. And so, if there’s a player we think we can get, if we can get him, we’ll try to get him. And it depends on the value and if those picks are available. So we go through the whole exercise of what we can do and how we can get in. And if we can’t, then we’ll move on.”
Moving on has been a recurrent theme for the Heat when it comes to the second round of the two-round draft. While Josh Richardson proved to a bargain when selected at No. 40 in 2015, he remains the lone second-rounder to make the Heat in his draft year since 2010, the Heat without second-round picks in 2018, ’17 and ’16.
It is a pattern that will continue.
This June’s secondround pick, which would have been at No. 43, was dealt in the 2014 move up in the first round for Shabazz Napier. The Heat’s 2020 second-round pick was sent to the Celtics in the 2015 trade to offload the contract of Zoran Dragic.
From there, the 2021 second-round pick was dealt to the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2016 offloading of the contract of Brian Roberts, after his one-day tenure with the Heat, as part of luxury-tax machinations.
The Heat, at the moment, do hold their 2022 secondround pick — and then the pattern somewhat resumes.
The Heat’s 2023 secondround pick was dealt to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2017 salary-cap dump of Josh McRoberts. The 2024 second-round pick, while technically conditionally dealt, only goes to the Cavaliers if the Heat finish with one of the league’s five-best records that season. That was the compensation (the least that legally can be offered) in the re-acquisition of Dwyane Wade at the 2017 NBA trading deadline.
Finally, after 2024, the Heat are free and clear when it comes to the second round.
There are, of course, options to move back into this year’s second round. Teams are allowed to spend a maximum of $5,243,000 in transactions per cap year. With the Heat sending $1.8 million to the Phoenix Suns in order to offload the 2019-20 season of Tyler Johnson’s contract at February’s trading deadline, there remains $3.4 million to purchase a second-round pick. That stands within the going rate.
Or the Heat again could play the waiting game.
After going without a selection in either round last year, the Heat pounced on undrafted forwards Yante Maten and Duncan Robinson immediately after the draft. Both thrived during summer league and then in the G League, rewarded with standard contracts going forward.
Ultimately it comes down to patience and rolling the dice, or making a move as the draft clock ticks down on June 20.
“There are players that we like that we say, ‘That player would be great to get him’ and we think they would be great for our team and our organization,” Simon said of the secondround poker played by the Heat and around the league. “Unfortunately, everybody is trying to get those players, as well. Would you like to have an extra pick? Sure, to get that player. But you work with what you get. We also have to remember the guy who doesn’t get drafted, there’s 30 teams trying to get the same groups of guys.”