Over a week through free agency, the Miami Heat have lost Delon Wright and Caleb Martin while waiving third-year center Orlando Robinson over the weekend. Conversely, they retained bigs Kevin Love–one of the first players leaguewide to re-sign once free agency opened–Thomas Bryant plus wing Haywood Highsmith on Monday.
The only new non-rookie to join thus far has been guard Alec Burks, who signed a one-year deal for the minimum last week. The 13-year NBA veteran has spent time with seven different NBA organizations–most recently the Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks.
Burks, who will turn 33-years-old on July 20, opened up to Heat media on a Zoom call Monday regarding his decision to join the organization.
“I just admired the Heat Culture from afar and I talked to [head coach Erik Spoelstra] before I made my decision. We had a great conversation and I think that’s the real reason I picked the team,” Burks said, according to Heat reporter Zachary Weinberger of Clutch Points. “I think I could fit in, I think what I bring I could just be a role player and help out and help winning.”
Burks played in 66 combined games last year with Detroit and New York. He averaged 10.4 points on 36.9 percent shooting, including 37.6 percent from 3-point range on 5.0 attempts (58.0 3PAr). Over his previous four campaigns, he averaged 13.0 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists on 41.4/40.3/84.6 shooting splits, equating to a 56.9 true-shooting percentage.
He’s not a natural point guard, but Burks could add some secondary creation juice off a Heat bench that ranked No. 12 in offensive rating and 3-point percentage last year.
“I think I just play my role and help out anyway I can, just play off them,” Burks said regarding his role around Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro. “My versatility, that I can play a couple of positions and be able to shoot, space the floor for other guys to get into the paint and those two skills will help out a lot.
“I’ve been in the situation before so just be ready, be professional. You never know what’s gonna happen in the game so just always got to be ready. So that’s why I pride myself me being always ready.”
Newly acquired Alec Burks on how he can complement Butler, Adebayo, and Herro:
“Just, I think I can space the floor, all three of them are very elite. So I think I just play my role and help out anyway I can, just play off them.” (via @ZachWeinberger)
He also said he has… pic.twitter.com/TUDVAMAg2h
— Hot Hot Hoops (@hothothoops) July 8, 2024
The Heat roster currently possesses 14 players on standard contracts, including Burks. The guard room features Herro, Terry Rozier, Josh Richardson, Duncan Robinson and rookie Pelle Larsson with Zyon Pullin and Dru Smith on two-way contracts. They are limited to signing only rookies with their last spot this offseason unless they want to obtain additional flexibility via a trade.
Miami still lacks a natural point guard off the bench, a similar issue it faced last offseason, to make life easier for some of its other ancillary pieces. Who knows how the Heat will approach the rest of the offseason, but Burks could be a stabilizer in the locker room and on the court, one they may need if they want to avoid play-in contention for a third-straight year.
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Not a sexy pickup, but the Heat needed a backup guard. Hopefully he can hold down the fort until J-Rich and Drusky come back
Watching mount edey.He makes 7 footers look tiny.Once he catches the ball in low post unguardable.Has a nice low post game.Not an ounce of fat on him.Looks like his mobility is decent.Cant wait to see him play for the heat(I wish).Only ? is durability being so big
Nice that he wanted to come.
Agree. Not crazy about him running backup PG at times. Not crazy if they really expect the backup PG to be Dru Smith. I know they don’t like to fill out the roster all the way to 15, so it’s something to monitor. Still some rock solid backup PG options. I would like a Dennis Smith Jr or someone like that, but right now I’m not expecting the team to sign one. I would be happily surprised
Yes, the guy I was wondering about Is Brandon Ingram. Is he available and would a Herro for him trade be feasible? I just read up on it and they want a backup big man and Ingram wants a big contract. I do think he would help us.
Hes avail They have cj and murray 30.
Simmons blames part of the fact Miami is not signing free agents or making trades this summer due to Tyler Herro’s overloaded contract.
“Nobody wants Herro’s contract,” Simmons said. “Tyler Herro is not as good as Tyler Maxey. Herro has no trade value. He has even less than he had last year.”
Thanks to pat living vicariously through him
Herro is getting paid what the market at that time provided. We can say now oh it’s this or it’s that, but at that time that is what guys in his draft class were getting.
I still think we play him as 6th man or it will be Terry as 6th man. Whoever is hot that game can get more minutes, inlcuding end game if they have been hitting the 3.
There’s a few things to address here. One is that you are correct about the Herro contract. I listed several players last year that were in the same range. Some were better, some were worse. It was fair market value at the time. Two, Simmons is correct of course. Herro’s trade value definitely is less than last year. That would be true of any player who missed half the season. Third, I find it ironic and funny that a person who constantly gave me crap for quoting other sources, now quotes another source.