Heat already feeling a draft, with even Pat Riley coming around to the value of the process

MIAMI — “To be really honest with you, I’m not a draft-pick guy.”

That was Miami Heat President Pat Riley in 2018, a year the Heat did not have a draft pick.

Since then, as the NBA approaches this year’s draft lottery on Sunday, Riley not only has proven to be a draft guy, but has found it an essential part of his team’s recent roster construction.

“I think a draft pick every other year is good.”

That, too, was Riley, as the Heat previously worked through a period with limited draft assets.

Now, as Riley’s scouting staff descends on Chicago for next week’s draft combine, the Heat are positioned to exercise a first-round selection for the third consecutive year.

To put that into perspective, the last time the Heat exercised first-round picks in three consecutive drafts was a four-year run that included Caron Butler (at No. 10 in 2002), Dwyane Wade (No. 5 in 2003), Dorell Wright (No. 19 in 2004) and Wayne Simien (No. 29 in 2005).

As it is, the Heat will have to exercise a first-round pick on June 26 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, under a league rule that does not allow a team to be without successive future first-round picks and with the Heat owing a lottery-protected first-round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2025.

As it was, had the Heat lost their April 19 last-chance play-in game against the Chicago Bulls, they would have been seeded into Sunday night’s random-but-weighted lottery drawing for the first four selections..

Instead, that process will play out in the Heat’s absence for a fifth-consecutive year.

Over the past five years, the draft itself largely has shaped the Heat roster, with Tyler Herro taken at No. 13 in 2019, Precious Achiuwa at No. 20 in 2020, Nikola Jovic at No. 27 in 2022 and Jaime Jaquez Jr. at No. 18 last June.

Of those four, Herro, Jovic and Jaquez have emerged as major contributors, with Achiuwa utilized in the 2021 trade with the Toronto Raptors for Kyle Lowry, Achiuwa currently playing on in the playoffs with the New York Knicks.

Arguably the last time a player acquired by the Heat in the first round did not become either an enduring contributor or significant trade asset was Shabazz Napier, the No. 24 pick in 2014. The point guard out of Connecticut was drafted in an attempt to appease LeBron James, who instead left in free agency a month later to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Based on the Heat’s position hard against the salary cap, luxury tax and new, punitive tax aprons, the draft has become an essential cog in acquiring talent that can be locked into the cost-effective rookie scale. A selection at No. 15 would result in a $4.2 million cap hit for next season, only slightly above the NBA veteran-minimum salary scale.

And that has made once-reluctant Riley into a fan of the process.

“We started talking about the draft more than anything else right now,” Riley said this week, during his season-ending media session. “We’ve got two picks. I can’t believe we have to wait two days to get two picks.”

The reference was to the two rounds of the draft each now with their own night, the second and final round on June 27, at ESPN’s New York studios.

For his part, Riley quipped that the process should just keep going, as it used to for several rounds, so Heat scouts Chet Kammerer, Adam Simon and Eric Amsler, among others, can get their work done in the draft itself.

“They should have picks three, four and five, also, so we don’t have to worry about signing two-way players,” Riley said of teams being allowed to carry up to three players on two-way contracts, players often signed in the immediate wake of the completion of the draft. “We can get those guys that Chet and Adam and Ams all want right after the draft. So just pick three, four and five.”

The NBA reduced from a five-round draft in 1987 to three in 1988 and the current two in 1989.

Last year, the Heat concluded their season with a June 12 Game 5 NBA Finals loss to the Denver Nuggets, drafting Jaquez 10 days later.

“I figure I had three days to get up to the draft last year,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “The eight weeks leading up to (this year), I think I’ll be just probably over-confused from over-analysis. I’ll stay out of the way. Like now that I have more time, I’m probably dangerous. I’ll stay out of the way of our scouting department. They do an exceptional job, Adam Simon and his staff, preparing for that draft.”

In addition to holding the No. 15 pick, the Heat also hold the No. 43 pick in the second round. That matters this year, with this the first year that teams buying draft choices automatically becoming hard-capped for the following season.