2024 NBA Draft: 7 Possible Second Round Prospects To Monitor For Heat

The 2024 NBA Draft is less than a week away! The Miami Heat own one first-round (No. 15) and second-round (43) in the two-day event, which tips off on June 26.

Roughly a month ago, I delved into six potential first-round prospects–who weren’t mocked to Miami by pundits–to monitor. Now that we’re a week from the second-round tipping off, let’s dive into seven second-prospects to keep an eye on!

(Editor’s note: The list below is in no specific order relative to want or need. This information is also NOT sourced or in relation to who the Heat have worked out, which you can check out here.)

Harrison Ingram, F, UNC

After spending two seasons at Stanford, Ingram had a career year at North Carolina. He averaged 12.2 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.4 steals in 32.8 minutes per game. Ingram developed into a capable 3-point shooter, knocking down 38.5 percent of his 4.6 triple tries (44.6 3PAr). Though he’ll have to prove his two seasons at Stanford (31.6 3p%; 3.5 3PA) were an aberration.

Ingram, standing at 6-foot-7 with a 7-foot wingspan) is an exceptional rebounder for his size–sporting a 20.1 defensive rebounding percentage and a 14.5 rebounding percentage in 203-24. He’s not very explosive vertically, but is very physical when attacking the lane and showed flashes of a low-post game last year. Ingram projects to be a 3-and-D body, and in today’s NBA, you could never have enough of those.

Adem Bona, C, UCLA

If there was a motor scale from 1 to 10, Bona’s is a 20. That may be underselling it. He’s undersized for a center at 6-foot-9, but owns a 7-foot-4 wingspan with a 9-foot standing that he every bit of to his advantage. Bona’s also one of the most athletic bigs in this class, flashing a combine-best 35-inch standing vertical with a 40-inch max vertical at the combine.

That showed up on his tape, too; it wasn’t any fluke. He averaged 12.4 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 26.5 minutes per game last year. He was a two-time All-Pac-12 All-Defensive big and won the league’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2023-24, sporting their second-best block percentage with a top-15 steal percentage. He’s very scheme-versatile defensively and is a nightmare to deal with when he has a head of steam offensively. Bona doesn’t exactly have the skillset of one, but he moves like he’s a 6-foot-4 guard. He’ll need to improve his shooting range, but he drastically improved his free-throw percentage and mid-range touch as a sophomore.

Jonathan Mogbo, F, San Francisco

Mogbo, 22, who played at four schools in four collegiate seasons, is one of the better players that many may not know about.

He may be the best playmaking big in this class, averaging 3.6 assists with a 24.5 assist percentage (!!) in his lone season at San Francisco. The Dons ran offense through him, and he was elite at pinpointing shooters/cutters and initiating offensive above-the-break or at the nail. He’s another undersized big who needs to space the floor, but he’s another high-motor 6-foot-8 athlete who makes smart decisions and rebounds at a very high level.

He plays four inches bigger than he is when he gets to the lane and I trust his decision-making with the rock in his hands. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Heat took a second-round flier on him. Mogbo’s pretty fluid with his movements and could leverage his unique skillset to potentially crack an NBA rotation at some point down the line.

Pelle Larsson, G, Arizona

We don’t know what the Heat’s offseason plan entails. Nobody knows. But should they move on from at least one of Tyler Herro or Duncan Robinson, Larsson could be a player to help supplement production. His counting stats–12.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists–don’t jump off the whiteboard. But Larsson was one of Arizona’s top glue guys and one of the Pac-12’s most efficient 3-point shooters.

Larsson was the only player in the country to total 1,200 points, 500 rebounds, 300 assists and 100 steals while shooting at least 49 percent from the floor and 39 percent from the 3-point range from 2020-24. He was a smart, comfortable decision-maker as a secondary creator; he was also very comfortable running off screens, relocating and spotting up off-ball. Larsson wasn’t the perfect defender, but he wouldn’t be afraid to take on tough-er assignments and play both ends.

If you’re looking for a complementary, big guard who can be a secondary/tertiary creator, Larsson is as good of an option as there will be in the second round.

Dillon Jones, F, Weber State

I know, I cheated. I included Jones–a consensus second-round prospect–in the first-round “prospects to monitor” list too. Sue me!

Let’s just say that he’s way more realistic to be a second-rounder than a first-rounder–even though I’m admittedly high on him as a prospect. Here’s what I wrote about him previously:

“Jones isn’t the most athletic prospect in the class, but the 6-foot-6 tweener was one of the most productive players in college basketball last season. He led the Big Sky in defensive rebounding percentage four straight seasons–finishing with the third-highest defensive rebounding percentage in NCAA History over his career, per Stathead. In 2023-24, he also led in defensive win shares, total win shares, player efficiency rating (PER), box plus-minus and points produced last year.

Being such a high-usage player in college against weaker competition, I’m interested to see how Jones adjusts to the next level. Though he played in the two scrimmages at the combine and was quite impressive with his nose for the basketball, especially defensively–hounding lead guards at the POA with good dexterity and screen navigation. He was an inconsistent 3-point shooter at Weber State, but I think a role more suited off-ball could benefit those percentages.

He has good strength and is fluid in the open court and in traffic. Perhaps he falls to No. 43, but I think he could be a prospect that rises up draft boards as late June approaches.”

KJ Simpson, G, Colorado

Full disclosure: I don’t expect Simpson to be available in this range. If there was one player on this list that I think is the likeliest to be gone, I think it’s Simpson. But he’s one of my favorite guards in this class. He’s not the biggest guard ever, but he was an exceptional 3-point shooter with a lightning-quick release and good lift.

Like Ingram, he’s going to have to prove his one great shooting season wasn’t a fluke. He shot 43.4 percent on 4.9 attempts (35.5 3PAr) as a junior; he shot a combined 26.9 percent on 3.3 attempts (33.3 3PAr) in his first two seasons. That’s a stark difference. But Simpson, who has fluid shot mechanics with a high release point, shot 79.8 percent from the free-throw line in his first two seasons and 87.6 percent from the free-throw line as a junior on reasonable volume. There were indications it’d improve.

He’s also a very good floor general. Simpson was comfortable operating on- and off-ball in Colorado’s offense alongside Tristan da Silva, Cody Williams–a pair of projected first-rounders–plus J’Vonne Hadley. He knows when to attack and when to not attack. He was good in the pick-and-roll and could be a decent point-of-attack defender, despite being undersized at 6-foot-1.

Jamal Shead, G, Houston

You could make the case that Shead is the best guard defender on this class. He’s yet another small guard who wouldn’t quite solve Miami’s “lack of size” conundrum, but I would consider Shead with the No. 43 pick if the Heat went with a (big) wing or backup big at No. 15.

Shead brings a tenaciousness that’s unrivaled in this class. He was the Big 12 Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, averaging 12.9 points, 3.7 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 2.2 steals on 49.5 percent true shooting. The Heat have a history of going after smaller guards who are very good at the point-of-attack–Sup, Briante Weber and Marcus Garrett–but Shead has far more ball-skills with both of them.

He developed into a legitimately good point guard with good decision-making and leadership. Shead was the heartbeat of Houston’s 32-5 season. He’s got a bulldog mentality on the court who’s not afraid to stick his teeth into bricks. Miami likes that.

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