No team has been more prolific than the Miami Heat when it comes to developing second-round picks and undrafted free agents into bankable NBA players. Five former Heat miracles are currently on the free agent market.
The Miami Heat have put their offseason plans on hold while the Damian Lillard trade saga unfolds. The outcome feels inevitable — he's going to play for the Heat next season — but the timing of that inevitable outcome is still murky.
While the Heat wait for Portland to play its cards for leverage, several former Heat players still populate the free agent market. As noted by Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel, five former Miami players are currently available, all presumably for the veteran minimum.
There's a nice mix of quintessential #HeatCulture classics. The former All-Star fallen from grace. The undrafted home-run finds. The toolsy lottery picks. Let's rank them in terms of potential to contribute to winning next season.
No. 5 former Heat player turned free agent: Meyers Leonard
Meyers Leonard was Miami's starting center in the Bubble a few years ago. Flash forward to 2023, and the Milwaukee Bucks signed him mid-season after a long hiatus stemming from an online incident from 2021, when the 7-footer used an antisemitic slur during a video game stream.
Leonard posted 4.8 points and 3.8 rebounds in 12.7 minutes per game across nine appearances with the Bucks last season. He shot 38.9 percent from deep and flashed the same offensive skill that once earned him a $41 million contract from Portland.
Burly 7-footers who can splash 3s are rare enough. Leonard has the strength to handle physical matchups in the post and he's a genuine stretcher of defenses at the five spot. That said, 31-year-old drop coverage centers who spent as much time away from the game as Leonard have a certain burden of proof to meet before being painted as reliable impact players.
No. 4 former Heat player turned free agent: Goran Dragic
Goran Dragic played 51 games for Chicago last season before being waived and subsequently signed by Milwaukee in March. The 37-year-old played sparsely for the Bucks, who derived the majority of their point guard production from Jrue Holiday and Jevon Carter.
There's clearly still a market for Dragic. His résumé includes an All-Star appearance in 2018 and an All-NBA nomination in 2014. He was once on the shortlist of best point guards in the NBA — a crafty table-setter with a penchant for slipping down the lane and finishing with flare around the rim.
Naturally, there's pessimism around any undersized, 37-year-old point guard with a spotty defensive track record. Dragic was able to handle a regular workload for the lowly Bulls (15.4 minutes per game), but that's partially due to the steady stream of injuries Chicago suffered at the point guard spot last season. Once Dragic was in a winning situation with the Bucks, he was little more than an afterthought.
There's definite appeal in Dragic as a veteran leader who can provide guidance for younger players. He might be able to hold down a minor role as a shooter and set-up man, but the first step and finishing craft that once defined Dragic has faded in recent years. He's fast approaching the DeAndre Jordan tier of locker room vets with minimal on-court utility.
Dragic doesn't penetrate the defense like he used to and he's a sieve on defense. For those reasons, he's fairly low on the list here despite being the closest thing to a name brand.
No. 3 former Heat player turned free agent: Justise Winslow
Justise Winslow was a regular in the Blazers' rotation last season before suffering a Grade 2 ankle sprain in December. The subsequent surgery ended his season prematurely; he watched from the sidelines as Portland traded for Matisse Thybulle and Cam Reddish.
Those moves effectively ended the Winslow era in Portland. The Blazers now pivot towards a rebuild with one of the best young backcourts in the NBA and the impending arrival of a Damian Lillard trade package that could deliver more young talent to the roster. Winslow will search for a new home to make his comeback.
It's not unreasonable to buy Winslow stock. He averaged 26.8 minutes per game for Portland before the injury, and that was when the Blazers still had allusions of contending with Dame. Winslow is a bulky, versatile wing defender with an interesting offensive skill set. What he lacks in reliable 3-point shooting (31.5 percent for his career), the Duke product makes up for with real playmaking ability and the strength to absorb contact on finishes at the rim.
Surround Winslow with shooters and another reliable playmaker, and he has real utility for a winning team. He's not a primary ball-handler, but he can connect dots as a willing passer and driver who's never picked on defensively. He really doesn't have much equity as a scorer (43.8 percent on 2-point shots last season; there's a difference between driving and finishing), but Winslow has myriad role player traits worthy of investment. It's mostly a matter of how confident teams are in the ankle.
No. 2 former Heat player turned free agent: Derrick Jones Jr.
Derrick Jones Jr. appeared in 64 games for Chicago last season, averaging 5.0 points and 2.4 rebounds in 14.0 minutes per contest. His workload decreased as the year progressed, especially once the Bulls made the soft mid-season pivot toward focusing on youth. Jones is still square in his basketball prime at 26 years old, but it's fair to question his fit in the rapidly changing NBA landscape.
Jones hit 33.8 percent of his 1.3 three-point attempts per game last season, by far the best numbers of his career. Sustained progress in that area will be key to determining Jones' NBA future. The NBA is a shooter's league right now, and Jones has too often been limited anywhere outside the restricted area.
Team context is paramount for Jones. He needs four shooters around him to avoid compromising spacing too much. He also needs at least one and preferably more than one legitimate table-setter to spoon-feed him scoring opportunities at the rim. Jones is a nuclear athlete who has tremendous feel for cutting to the rim and making himself available for lobs, but his self-creation skills are completely absent from the equation.
What keeps Jones pegged at No. 2 on this list is defense. At 6-foot-5 with a 7-foot wingspan, Jones has developed into a thoroughly disruptive presence on that end of the floor. He understands how to weaponize his absurd leaping ability as a weak-side rim protector. His Go Go Gadget arms make him a regular presence in passing lanes and he's swift on his feet, capable of comfortably switching 1-4 in most matchups.
No. 1 former Heat player turned free agent: Kendrick Nunn
Kendrick Nunn split last season between the Lakers and the Wizards. He arrived in Washington ahead of the trade deadline and delivered steady results off the bench: 7.5 points and 1.8 assists in 14.1 minutes per game. Not that long ago, of course, Nunn was an everyday starter for Miami averaging over 14 points per game.
A knee injury sidelined Nunn for the entire 2021-22 season before he returned to action with the Lakers last year. He has struggled to return to his prior form, in part due to LA's depth in the backcourt and in part due to the shifting nature of NBA basketball
Nunn fits a dated player archetype: he's a 6-foot-2 guard with score-first tendencies and no discernibly elite athletic trait. He doesn't defend very well and his 1.8:1.1 assist-to-turnover ratio with the Wizards isn't something to write home about. He's a bursty driver with real pull-up shooting equity, but there's only so much mileage one can get out of undersized scorers who get played off the floor in high-leverage matchups.
The 27-year-old probably has the highest ceiling of the players listed. His microwave scoring ability projects easily into most second units and he's a fairly versatile offensive player, capable of leading the charge and running pick-and-rolls or operating off the ball and attacking closeouts on the perimeter. He's younger than Dragic; Winslow and Jones are frequently ignored by opposing defenses. For those reasons, Nunn gets the nod, even if he has his own hurdles to clear defensively.
