Less than a week after adding Klay Thompson to the fold, the Miami Heat signed free agent center Nick Richards to a one-year, non-guaranteed deal this week.
Richards, 28, will now be a part of his fourth team in three seasons after beginning his career with the Charlotte Hornets. Let’s grade the signing, shall we!
Grading the Nick Richards addition for the Miami Heat:
This is the definition of the lowest-risk move any team can make.
Richards’ deal won’t be guaranteed unless he makes the roster on opening night. And the Heat still have the flexibility to sign another player to the minimum. His deal is essentially an Exhibit 10 contract.
Most importantly, Richards joins a frontcourt that desperately needs his size. The Heat’s three “bigs” on the roster were Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bam Adebayo and Bobby Portis. Entering his second season, Vladimir Goldin still has proven he can be a rotational big; while the Heat’s lineups with Nikola Jovic as the small ball five were successful, he’s nowhere near a true big. The Heat’s new signee is.
Richards averaged 5.8 points and 5.1 rebounds across 48 combined games last season. His 19.8 rebound percentage and 12.6 offensive rebound percentage over the last two seasons rank in the 75th and 67th percentile, respectively, of all big men taller than 6-foot-9 (min. 1750 MIN). He’s also a good screener and vertical spacer, an element Miami’s frontcourt lacks after Kel’el Ware’s departure in the Giannis blockbuster.
Assuming he makes the roster, the 6-foot-11 big is likely a fringe rotation player. Improvements as a pick-and-roll defender will likely get him on the court, but his motor and ability to excel in the big man things (screening, rebounding, finishing) will keep him on.
Grade: B+
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September 1 here. Ushering in the Christmas season in the Philippines lol. A month plus to go before we see this new look Heat in actual play. Riles and co gets an A- for me. Now its Spo and the coaching staffs’ responsibility to make it work. And they have to do a good job and at least make a deep playoff run. Im tired of not seeing Heat merch around. Go Heat!
I can’t wait to see how Sixers top offense does against Miami’s best defense. It will be like two heavyweights.
Yup. That is going to be a great matchup. Can’t wait!
Yep. I think they’ll meet 4x. In regular season play. I hope Embiid is healthy. So Bam and Giannis can run around him…and Bron 😁
Simone played quite well for Italy in their loss to Serbia, chipping in 15 of Italy’s 64 points. Niko had a very quiet game versus Italy, going 2-8 from the field, with 5 points, before fouling out in eleven minutes. Eric Spoelstra attended the game.
yawn euro ball,marlins manager fkd up tonight pulling gusto after 4 innings guys been pitching great lately.terrible decision 30
I think Spo stresses him out. He may not be able to reach his potential in Miami. Hope he can but, if not, Miami needs to trade him at first opportunity.
Well, I dont know, the boxscore I found says Niko has 5 points without missing a shot, 2 rebounds, one offensive and a steal in 11 minutes. I watched games extended highlights, Niko seems to get his fouls in first half, he didnt show up in second.
Simone scored 15, but with 3-10 and 3-8 for 3p, and he has 4 fouls and 3 steals in 28 minutes.
Both looks just fine. It was a psychical low score game, even Joker scored only 8, and had 1 assist.
davin needs to put the o in davions game single digit scoring not on my champ team
Have patience. Davion is about to have a breakout season. I can see both his ppg and apg going up while still providing excellent poa defense. He’s never had an opportunity to play with this caliber teammates or defense.
he can get 20 a game every now and then .hes super quick gotta have mindset to finish more he cant be consistently under 10pts a game against the good teams.spo gonna have to tell him we need u to score more 9ppg aint gonna cut it
I think Heat gonna run a lot and Davion will be right in the middle of it.
we’re an older team though.gotta make sure greek is fresh and 100% for the playoffs.when we played against greek i thought just about every drive he took an extra step or two,
He has a supporting cast now. They will run when the opportunities present themselves.
in europe jovic could run and score not as much here here.davs only guy who can run.bams not a fast break type guy.offense goes thru greek.not one guy in the nba can guard him takes 2.gotta set up a wall to stop him.
Didn’t Mario Chalmers win a couple titles in Miami without averaging double digits? Strange.
We may be expecting too much from Davion. Did he make it to the first 5 in his previous teams? Let us not compare him to Gabe Vincent, that was an anomaly.
There’s been some very good discussion of the PG situation on this thread. It makes sense to look at that position next, as, like Sharkey says, Dru is ok as a backup, but an injury to Davion would hurt us. Nate is probably a little better than Dru, even though it’s close, as if one had to start, I would feel more comfortable with Nate. Still, there is time to figure this out, as maybe there is something better, even if it’s at wing, someone with more upside. Then we could take a chance on no PG injuries or bringing up Myron if an injury occurs.
Finally, as much as I wish it wasn’t so, but we can forget about any player with a high salary coming to us, at least by the start of the season, especially by trading several players for that guy. And none of those remaining targets are going to get bought out either as their teams want something back. The only type player we might get for our fifteenth spot is a player someone needs to get rid of, I.e a reclamation project. And even then they likely are only making below ten million. The pickings are slim now.
Nate? You mean Gabe?
no archibald jr rc
Yep, my mistake.
yup go high tides
Yes, that’s where I started losing brain cells.
me 2 30.now with age kicking in wow forget things all the time.
Personally, I am not a fan of these Gabe Vincent rumors. And I see him described as ‘fan favorite’. Really? By whom? He is a nice guy, tries hard, and is a C level at best. I hope they use the 15th spot on someone with a better fit and/or higher ceiling.
Me either, supposedly bam wants him back, but I don’t him back either, like you said better off using it for someone else.
does greek want him .hope not.every move should go through greek keep him happy pat.
If there isn’t an ideal fit available via free agency or trade, I would prefer that Riley wait until October to see if to see if things change or if one of the young players (e.g., Tre Donaldson or Jahmir Young) has a breakout preseason that warrants an NBA contract. Worst case scenario, I would bring Vincent in on a trial basis and let him compete head to head with Smith for the back-up PG position.
I think you’re right. And maybe there have been times in the recent past when we shouldn’t have listened to who a player wanted. Everyone liked Nate, and he did a nice job for us before. But, we have probably seen the extent of his upside. And we have time to see if we can find someone better.
i think hope riley has one more move for jrue or kyrie.
Are you willing to lose wiggy at least for one of them? And if so, then who you gonna start at sf ? Pelle 3pt isn’t consistent yet, Jr’s defense isn’t near wiggy’s level, and can’t trust jovic until he proves he is legit type shit.
I was also going to respond to that. The rumors of Jovic, Pelle/or Mitchell plus picks for Irving is bogus. I didn’t look at Jrue’s specifics, but you’d have to include Wiggins, Mitchell, and Jovic, or the 2 latter names plus Portis to match the salaries. Then I read Dallas would have to waive or trade 3 players.
gotta keep hhh relevant rc.footballs aorund the corner. u trade ad your gonna deal kyrie build around flagg there years from competing for jewelry. lebron has maxey.not needed in phily. hopefully davin is gonna be more offensive minded.u look at phily nyk at their pgs on most nights thats minus 15-20 pts at the pg position.the last game gave us hope davin can up his pts.i dont want to give up wiggy for kyrie or jrue.id love to have either on the team but matching salaries would be hard to do w/o losing wiggy .the roster we have now is real close for jewelry.id have to put nyk phily ahead of us but no other team in the east.theres alot close to us maybe at least 5 teams.man the east is a btch now gonna be lots nail biters with ereid and crotty cant wait for heat games.dolphin games yawn and footballs my fav sport.
Unless you have a replacement sf, you can’t give up Wiggins, so that’s out. The only other option is including Portis and I don’t see that happening either. And Mavericks can’t really send out 1 player and bring in 3. Do I think they trade Irving at some point, maybe by the February deadline? Yes. To Miami? I think unlikely.
At this point, I believe this team can compete with anyone. I believe Klay will not be GS level, but will have lots of open shots, and Mitchell and Pelle both improve their game/offense.
i would do kyrie for wiggy thats me,wiggys a decent all round player kyries a ss.u can have bam guard jalen brown og or bridges.tatum.bams a lean athelte not bulky has athleticism to guard guys little smaller.u have portis pf greek c kyrie pelle bam or dav pelle wig bam greek which is a better lineup ill take the kyrie lineup
It’s moot because it’s not going to happen.
as the great rc would say u didnt answer my ? how bout is kyrie a top 10 pg all time?
Where was there a question until now? Gotta think about that.
I looked at a couple of sources. One was just top 10 and he wasn’t on the list. The other, on Hoops Hype was top 20, and Irving was at 19. So top 20, maybe even top 15, not really top 10. Of course, Magic was #1 on both. And the reality is, we don’t know what level he is at now until we see him.
Well, we are thin at point guard position, and Gabe was better player then both Dru and Mitchell at his best. I m not saying that he should come, but an injury of either Dru or Mitchell would cause a lot of problems.
I don’t see Gabe being better than Mitchell. Maybe Dru. Never scored in double figures and Mitchell is the better defender.
.imo davs clearly a better player than gabe not close,davs a pit bull.built like an nfl rb .imo opinion drus d is as good as dav.if dru can bury some shots which he did before all his injuries hed be a great backup.lately his shot is very bad
Vincent at had some great games at the highest level, that what I meant with “at his best”. But of course, he was a mediocre player for most of his tenure in NBA.
how many times did we see gabe on a mismatch trying to guard a guy like foot taller happened so many times it was funny watching him try to guard a big.davs a much better player not even close imo ,gabe has a pg body but from what i recall was pretty much a 2g jump shooter.davs just starting to ascend like sm has mentioned .its his ship now he knows he has a great player now so hes juiced to take his game to another level which he is capable of.
Yes
davs gotta be a 14 10 45% 38 %guy for my 4th.very realistic #s for my pg.id be dissapointed if those #s are not met
You’re funny bro. I think he will get near your 14 ppg. But “gotta be 10” assists? Pretty lofty goal there buddy. Do you know how many point guards averaged 10 assists last season? ZERO.
This is exactly why the rumors exists. It’s the next big hole on the roster. I hope it’s someone else but I understand why they would do it.
IMO the PG position is the only hole on this roster. Davion is a solid PG, very good defender and a solid 3 pt shooter, he can drive to the basket and finish. Dru is a below average substitute PG, although he is good defensively. Normally Dru should be no. 3 PG on the team, but it is what it is. If Dru gets injured, we can live with it, although it would not be ideal. But if Davion gets injured, Dru becomes our first PG and that is a problem. Yes, we definitely should try to get a point guard. I think we should look for better options than Gabe though. I am not convinced that he can perform at his 21/22 Heat level. If he could, than sure, sign him, but I think it’s unlikely.
Exactly.
I still think one of the young fellows (Donaldson or Young) may surprise everyone by the end of the preseason.
pats going vet.pats got one more ring in him before he retires.hes not playing rooks in meaningful games like donaldson keels young etc.we saw what spurs great young players looked like vs old savvy knicks.intellect experience won knicks the champ.conwell get some minutos reg season not in jimmys season
Bring in Ball and Simmons and see what they have.
need bc help balls not the answer.imo.simmons had all the talent in the world got paid was happy with nice bank acct.
Gabe is no way in hell better than Mitchell. If the Heat had this version of Mitchell in the past, they might have won it all. Gabe was the best Miami had at the time. Nothing more.
Gabe was either the 3rd or 4th best player on a Finals team, I would have Gabe ahead of Caleb Martin on that 2023 team because he had more ballhandling responsibility and from what I remember was an equally impactful defender. Then he hurt his knee his first year in LA, could barely play that year and hasn’t been impactful since. But talent wasn’t a question IMO. Davion has not proven himself at that level yet.
On the PG question, on any team with Giannis what is needed from the PG spot above all is defense, Davion provides that more than almost any other PG in the league. The national commentators who say Miami has the worst backcourt of contenders are basically completely ignoring the defensive potential of the backcourt IMO, and assuming that every team needs to have offensive creators in the backcourt, but on this team that’s the frontcourt.
At backup PG they have Dru, Conwell, and it sounds like they hope Larsson takes more PG responsibilities. I’m hoping they sign Konchar and then this team will be set IMO. Giannis and Bam can play PG on offense and this team is as versatile and interchangeable as any in the league.
I remember those games, and Gabe played really well.
the ball will be in the large hands of greek alot,hes pg 1.hes got great handle and great passer a true ss.not ajalen brown jason tatum shoot first mentality
That was a ragtag playoff group after quitter and Bam. No one else averaged over 12.7 ppg in the playoffs that year. Herro played only 19 minutes in one game and then was injured and out the entire playoffs.
During the regular season, Vincent was 8th on the team in scoring at 9.4 ppg, he had 2.5 apg and his 3 pt% was .334. He shared pg duties with Lowry that year who averaged 11.2 ppg and 5.1 apg.
As 2015 said, he was an important part of finals team. Mitchell never been there.
Steve Nash was never there either. It doesn’t mean another player who was in the finals was more important. Or better.
good pt rc vagis opinions of players i disagree with him alot.thats sports though.no hard feelings different opinons
True. Mea culpa.
i nick named gabe the brick layer when he got here,hes nota good player not an avg player.not quite a jovic but not to far away vagi.every nba player has talent.the great ones good 9 out of 10 games good 7 of 10 avg 5 good games 5 jovic games. gabe is prob good 3 games bad 7.not quite jovic .hes on the next level from the bottom of the barrel imo.
Look, I remember well how Gabe played. He was a g league guy. He wasn’t good, and he was as inconsistent as any player could be for a long time. Only last year in Miami gets his role and he was good or great in maybe one half of the season.
That earned him that contract. Since then it was only downhill.
He gets his peak, at his peak was really good.
I’m not sure about the finals that year, specifically, but imo, players better than him that season were Bam, Butler, Herro, Lowry, Strus, and maybe Love.
Gabe was the starting PG and third leading playoff scorer on the team, tied with Caleb Martin. Lowry wasn’t better, if he was Gabe wouldnt have been starting over him. Love was basically a 3PT specialist. Among starters the 2023 team was -2.0 in Strus’ playoff minutes, -1.3 in Butler’s minutes, +2.8 with Gabe and +2.6 with Bam. By the on off numbers Bam was their best starter at +4.0, then Gabe +3.0.
Yes, it’s why I referred to the regular season, not that series. And it’s a good example of why I question such numbers. Gabe was apparently good in that period, but I still wouldn’t call him the second best player overall on the team. For a brief period? Sure.
The best players on that team were pretty clearly Butler, Bam, Vincent, the top 3 in playoff minutes per game. Caleb Martin was 4th in mpg just below Vincent. To call a top player on a Finals team C level at best is just a big underestimation IMO.
And you’re entitled to feel that way. I see a player that no team has considered signing yet. If you’re a good player and you show that you have fully recovered from past injuries, you’d most likely already be signed imo.
I don’t feel that way, that’s what happened that year. He took the starting PG spot from Lowry well before the playoffs, and you don’t get to the two-way level he was at as a hot streak or by accident, even if that ends up being the best stretch of his career. He’s had three forgettable years since then, that doesn’t change that he was one of the most important players on a Finals team after Butler and Bam.
Yes, as noted, I wasn’t referring to that one period. I’m saying specifically for that season, not the playoffs, that Gabe was not the third best player on that team. If you believe he was, fine. I don’t.
Not sure why you are weighing the regular season as more important than the playoffs, or saying that Lowry was better in 2023 when Vincent became the starter at PG midway through the season. I don’t think the original point is controversial that Gabe was the 3rd or 4th best player on a Finals team, which is a common way to talk about someone’s playoff level/ceiling not referring only to the Finals but to the entire playoffs. Like how Wiggins was the 2nd best on a title team in 2022, etc.
It’s fair to say the 2023 Miami team was a less talented team than typical Finals teams but IMO if someone is a main contributor on any team that reaches the Finals that’s a track record that can’t be dismissed as an average, low ceiling player.
I think what’s happened since that Gabe has had disappointing seasons in LA his time with the Heat has become underrated. I’m a big believer in Davion this year but he couldn’t do what Gabe did on that team as the highest volume 3PT shooter on the team in the playoffs.
I am not trying in any way to devalue what he accomplished in the playoffs. I am not saying that you’re wrong on that issue. I am not talking about the playoffs. If you believe he was better or more important to the team in the regular season than Strus or Herro, fine. I disagree.
one opinion <—=====—>another opinion.
You don’t need to agree with me. I am simply stating an alternative point of view. We can see things differently. And that’s okay.
This conversation started when I said Gabe was the 3rd or 4th best player on a Finals team, and you listed players you said were better than him that year, including the PG he replaced in the starting lineup. For some reason you’re defining that year as the regular season apart from the playoffs, which just feels like moving the goalposts from the original point. I’m here to talk basketball and not trying to win personal arguments.
Right
For a 14th spot, he is definitely a B/B+.
I’m hoping Richards’ does become part of the rotation, in perhaps a better Butler-ish way. This was our greatest position of need that he should adequately fill. The rest our other bigs are afforded, and our not needing to play smaller players out of position, will both be extremely helpful to our efforts.
now we dont have to use wigg at pf.that was unfair to him and the team.still think we’re a kyrie or jru away from jewelry imo
I agree. But, just one more guy away. It’s doable, and it’s possible that 2027-28 we will be meeting right by the bridge where the DuPont Plaza building is/was (is it still there?). I just looked it up and it was closed in 2004. I believe it was located at the beginning of Brickell Avenue. It would still be a great place to meet, as center of downtown as it gets. As Neil Young would say, Down by the River.
yes dupont plaza was right next to where the bricke1l bridge started .i miss old miami and miami beach i hate they knocked everything down
I went down to Lincoln Road three years ago. It looked pretty much the same except the stores were all changed. No Woolworth’s, no Mustang Shop, no The Dinghy, and I didn’t see the tram either. The Colony Theater was still there, albeit totally rebuilt. But there was no Carib Theater and no Lincoln Theater. And, no Holy Joe, the preacher, out in front of the Mercantile Bank. Those were fond memories of life back then.
no lums went there about every day for their lum burger.convention center alot bigger beautiful building. use to go for wrestling and roller derby.floridians played there.few concerts.beach high looks different to 30.when i take the wife down to the beach brings back great memories. those were the days as archie and edith would say.long live the 70s and the music of the 70s.
Lums was so great. I used to frequent the one in North Bay Village and the one on 41st St. Hot dogs steamed in beer. As Jim Mandich would say, “Nothing better.”
the lums i frequented was on collins ave right by beach high.there was a lums on 125 st north miami.dont recall the one on 41st i remember the forge down there burger king and wqam back in the day
Kind of like using Bam as a C against the big boys.