After making the postseason, we knew the Miami Heat lost their own lottery-protected pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Though they still had Golden State’s pick in their treasure chest as a result of the Jimmy Butler trade. After finishing 48-34, that pick was positioned to finish anywhere from 18-20 because of a three-way tie in W-L record between them, the Memphis Grizzlies and Milwaukee Bucks.
The NBA announced the results of five tiebreakers on Monday, including that one. Subject to a random drawing, Golden State’s pick finished dead last of the three teams, with Memphis winning the tiebreaker.
Thus, the Heat will officially own the No. 20 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
Miami has not had a pick in the 20s since they were No. 27 in the 2022 NBA Draft, where they drafted Nikola Jovic. Most of its recent success has come in the mid-teens, selecting Tyler Herro, Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware between 13-15.
Here’s each of the Heat’s first-round picks in the 20s throughout their franchise’s history:
- 2022: Nikola Jovic (No. 27 overall)
- 2020: Precious Achiuwa (20)
- 2005: Wayne Simien (29)
- 1999: Tim James (25)
- 1997: Charles Smith (26)
- 1988: Kevin Edwards (20)
The Heat are the perfect example of being able to find talent anywhere in the draft with a little luck (and a lot of scouting). This draft could get funky outside of the top-5. You never know how the board breaks until draft night. Plus, some of these teams value certain players way more than others.
We won’t know who officially keeps their name in the draft until late May. A lot can obviously change between now and then. I’m not in the front office, but among players who could be available for the Heat in that range include Ben Saraf, Danny Wolf, Nique Clifford, Rasheer Fleming, Boogie Fland and Carter Bryant.
The first round of the 2025 NBA Draft will take place on Wednesday, June 25.
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I like Rasheer Fleming if he is still available at #20. Check out his upside. If he isn’t,
Nique Clifford or Yaxel Lendeborg might be good options. It does look like a viable PG will be available to Miami, unless the Heat trades up in the draft.
https://www.tankathon.com/players/rasheer-fleming
https://www.tankathon.com/players/nique-clifford
https://www.tankathon.com/players/yaxel-lendeborg
start dav on garland wiggy on spider tyler on max that will help alot.this is a winnable series if personnel are used correctly ,
That’s what I suggested before Game 1. Start Mitchell on Garland and Wiggins on Mitchell from the beginning (POA) to slow down offense. Best defenders on best players. Bam on Mobley. Ware on Allen. Highsmith on Hunter. Larsson on Jerome. Players are going to need to play more minutes.
From SunSentinel:
”This is not a roster that merely is one piece away. Thus a No. 8 playoff seed again. How did Cleveland get both Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell? By losing a lot, with the lottery pick for Garland and the draft capital for Mitchell.”
This isn’t helping lol
The Heat is not a team that is 1-2 pieces away from competing for a championship, unless those pieces are all-stars and at least one is a closer. Teams like OKC, Houston, Cleveland, Boston, New York, San Antonio and Detroit are going to be on top of the heap for a few years to come.
Also Mobley as well top 5 pick but hey experience am I right? Lmao
for me best week in sports nba nhl playoffs marlins(not really to bad) nfl draft
Marlins game was fun last night. Meyers were seriously cooking, Agustin came up, Stowers with a big bomb. Now they need other pitchers to give quality starts and it could be a fun season. So far, so good with fun.
theyll get perez back soon cabrera sandy meyers weathers garrett nice rotation.sandy will prob be traded to yanks by asg
I think they need to trade Cabrera if they can get anything. We’re always waiting for him to find his control and if it’s not that he gets a blister.
Sorry, HHH 😉
stowers norby mervis haggaman conine edwards nice young hitters
I enjoyed the play-in games. They were fun. I wanted the two picks, but let’s go out there and shock the world. Then we got our asses handed to us and I saw a mock draft where we got Fears and Clifford and I wanted to bang my head in to my desk. Making the playoffs to not give young guys minutes will be worthless. If we can’t even get this to a game 5 or 6, specifically 6, this might not be worth it. Ugh. It wasn’t even a tank job to lose that game Friday against the Hawks. Ugh
Now go out there and give us something to be proud of instead of me crying in my cereal over two picks between 10-20.
Said it before this does nothing for experience or morale if they gonna go home in 4/5 games. You gain absolutely nothing from it, has nothing to do with quitting rather positioning to get a B to A type player in the draft also it’s about not strengthening an already strong team in okc but some here live off hopes and dreams and a they can do it attitude when they can’t clev has too many guys that can beat Mia one being a ss level player garland Mitchell Mobley and an unsung heat killer hunter. For the millionth time picks should’ve been the goal.
since we dont have a ss when we were balling out everybody was playing good.in the great eight we need 7 out of 8 to have good games to beat cleve.wiggys gotta give us 20 plus pts and stick him on spider.burks slo mo hh need 10-12 pts each.ware needs to play 35mins plus and alot with bam dav whos been our best player last month i believe needs to stopr garland hold them under 20.i dont expect this jerome guy to go off again.if its not a close game id be surprised.and dissapointed ive seen the heat play at a high level when everybodys balling .so if everybody plays to a good level believe we have a shot.
after watching these playoff games id say the two florida teams are the worse teams left.hope im wrong but rc might have been right take the two picks but then again theyre be no heat bball games,kawhi single handedly took down the cheap shot artist.man thats a maxplayer.bams not max player dont pay ty max $$ pat.
I don’t feel much different, but what’s done is done. I’m curious to see if they can adjust on Wednesday. I think it’s possible. I will still look forward to changes in the offseason. Should be a few possibilities with the #20 pick, and the team has more flexibility without quitter’s $50+ million the next 2 years and Duncan only having a partial guarantee. Look at the bright side. Hopefully we have Davion on a new contract, get to see Keshad regularly, Ware continuing to improve, etc.
tys gotta man up dude gave up 64 pts on his own.that has to hurt im sure he’ll take that to heart and try to d up little better.he wants to get paid if this continues he wont get paid mucho dinero.and his trade value will not be to good.his fellow shtty defensive brother better not see the ct.but as u always say and are right he will
When you are trying to instill a winning spirit and you see the guys are responding, the last thing you want to do is intentionally pull the plug by tanking. If they give their all in the playoffs and lose, they can learn what they must work on and hold their heads high. If Miami would have intentionally lost in the play-in round, I don’t think the self-confidence of some of the players or “Heat Culture” would have survived.
As far as Bam or Herro, all they need is a closer alongside of them. Every successful NBA team has (at least) one. Miami had one until he decided to start missing flights, practices and games and giving 50% effort when he did play in order to force a trade. He even had most of us fooled into thinking he was “over the hill.” We didn’t realize initially that he was intentionally underperforming in order to lower his trade value and make it easier for a team such as Phoenix and Golden State to acquire him in trade.
“EXHIBIT A”
It’s Riley’s job to acquire a closer. If he doesn’t and the team is not competitive as a result, it’s all on him.
thing about quitter he knows what he has to do for his team to win.hes one of the smartest ballers in the nba.making the right play and getting others involved separates him from bam and ty.bam has the physical tools to be a ss just not the makeup.ty has the make up just not the physical tools.its frustrating watching bam be good and not great cause i think he could be great hes just gotta set his miind up 18 9 is good but 25 10 would make him great.moneys in the bank so everything good in bams world.
ive never really seen an nba gme where i see a bunch of players not trying (quitter being the exception)they are all being evaluated and no coach would put up with that .
Lol, you probably haven’t watched a lot of Sixers games the last 10 years.
embid always hurt when he plays hes the best player on the ct.maxey when he plays is always 100% effort,whos lazy rc .turtle looks lazy cause hes so fn slow lol
True about Maxey. True about Embiid. But I am not talking about the last year or 2, but the last decade. As SM pointed out, it wasn’t necessarily the players, but management sitting players. Team jockeyed for draft picks regularly. Embiid, Okafor, Simmons.
Quitting doesn’t need to be a player’s choice. It can be the organization holding players out of games because of various injuries, personal reasons, etc. Look at the injury lists on some of the teams Miami has played lately, like the Wizards. Utah has been doing it all year as have other bottom feeders, like Philly.
little late with pat prime jimmy just needed a legit c for jewelry
I’m still rooting for Airplane Mode on the Clippers
wish he was still on the heat hed help more than some guys getting pt
hey man, no arguement from me. I’ve been the chairman of the Airplane Mode fanclub since day one
hes a good bench player.great athlete slightly offensively challenged,hes better than slo mo burks prob hh also,wiggins better player than airplane.
Booooo could’ve been higher.
kawhi playing better than anybody in playoffs
One more year and some shedding of salaries before Miami can really begin to look at a full re-tooling.
Could have had a little luck to stay teens