After trading away Haywood Highsmith to the Brooklyn Nets, the Miami Heat signed Dru Smith to a three-year, $7.9 million contract on Saturday.
Smith, who’s going to be 28-years-old in December, is coming off back-to-back serious knee/lower leg injuries. In 2023-24, he suffered a season-ending ACL injury after just nine games, while suffering a torn Achilles 14 games into his 2024-25 season.
Once again, the Heat are giving him another shot. But as we discussed here, Miami’s gaping hole in the frontcourt behind Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware remains vacant.
The roster is disproportionate. Given their guard logjam, Smith’s addition could be telling for how the Heat plan to use Kasparas Jakucionis as a rookie.
Why Dru Smith’s signing isn’t good news for Kasparas Jakucionis:
The Miami Heat drafted Jakucionis with the No. 20 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
Generally, the hit rate for players outside the top-15 is quite low — though Jakucionis is widely viewed as a fringe top-10 prospect heading into the draft, including being No. 7 on my board.
That doesn’t mean he will ultimately be the 7th-best player in his class or a surefire talent. Of course, I’m projecting that to be the case — but there’s no guarantee. Not all growth is linear.
His Summer League was a direct example of that. He averaged 15.0 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists in three games in Las Vegas after a very bad three-game California Classic stint.
Jakucionis is the best passer on this roster and showed very encouraging flashes defensively in the summer. However, the mountain climb for Jakucionis to get any sort of consistent playing time just got a little steeper.
As of right now, you could argue Jakucionis is presumably behind Davion Mitchell, Tyler Herro, Norman Powell, Pelle Larsson and now Smith in the depth chart. Training camp and preseason could change a lot, but Jakucionis’ road to cracking the 9-10-man rotation is a little more narrow.
The expectation was that he was going to begin the 2025-26 campaign out of the rotation anyway. But we also know how much head coach Erik Spoelstra trusts Smith when he’s healthy — so one could assume, if everything’s equal, Smith has the leg up.
What are your thoughts?? Let us know in the comments!
***
To check out our other content, click here.
Follow Hot Hot Hoops on Twitter/X here!
Follow Hot Hot Hoops on Instagram here!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!
- Heat will have 13th best lottery odds ahead of 2026 NBA Draft
- How this Heat rookie ‘surprised’ many in organization
- Why this two-man combination was ‘challenging’ for Heat
- How the Miami Heat can move up to 12th in lottery race
- Norman Powell noncommittal on future with Heat
- Pelle Larsson reveals areas he wants to improve entering third season
- The 2026 offseason has arrived — now what?
Yes, this is an indication that the Heat does not expect KJ to step into the point guard role yet. Perhaps they project he will be more ready by next season. Now, let’s hope Dru can stay healthy and show us that what we only saw for a short span last year was as good as it looked.
Dru is insurance in case Herro or Mitchell go down or if Herro is traded. It also takes the pressure off Jakucionis who needs “seasoning” before he can compete for a spot in the rotation. By next year’s training camp, after a season in Sioux Falls and occasional minutes during garbage time with the Heat, he will be better prepared to compete for a rotation spot.
Dru Smith fan club still in the house!
Yes it is! Good for him and you.
I would expect KJ to start in Sioux Falls and there is nothing wrong with that. He isn’t going to get playing time, especially with the start of the schedule. Now if he goes nuclear in camp and preseason we can revisit.
Yes reason why they went backwards to resign dru smith cause they were never going to play the new rookie could have gave him an Highsmith up for kd