The Heat made the biggest splash of the summer by striking a deal for Giannis Antetokounmpo. After surrendering several young role players, most of whom came off the bench last season, Miami’s front office still has roster-building work to do to make sure this squad isn’t just a retread of the Bucks team he just left, John Hollinger writes for The Athletic.
Miami has its $15MM non-taxpayer mid-level exception and a $16.8MM trade exception from last year’s Duncan Robinson sign-and-trade, though one of those will be used in order to bring in Bobby Portis, who was included in the trade with Milwaukee. They have different avenues to address their depth, but each one comes with its own roadblocks, Hollinger writes.
Finding cheap shooters will be imperative, given the offensive limitations on the roster, Barry Jackson and Anthony Chiang write for the Miami Herald. Tim Hardaway Jr., Quentin Grimes, Tobias Harris, and Harrison Barnes are some of the names Jackson and Chiang examine as potential free agent targets using part of the mid-level exception.
Miami already got started adding shooters when they traded up to draft Ryan Conwell out of Louisville, Ira Winderman writes for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
“Clearly we’re trying to identify players that have a shooting skill, and he certainly does,” said assistant general manager Adam Simon. “He’s projected overall as a 37% shooter, which would have been in the top percentile of 650 players that we had studied.”
We have more notes from around the Southeast Division:
- The Wizards entered the offseason looking to add frontcourt depth and took a step toward that goal when they traded up to draft big man Felix Okpara at No. 46 on Wednesday. Washington is excited about Okpara’s potential, but the team will continue to look for big man reinforcements, Josh Robbins writes for The Athletic. “That’s still a position that we’re going to try to address in free agency,” general manager Will Dawkins said. “But we like the versatility that our big group has right now: the floor spacing with Tristan (Vukcevic), the rim protection with Felix, with his energy and youth. So, we’ll probably want to add something else on top of Alex (Sarr) and Anthony Davis.”
- The Wizards will name Tevon Saddler the head coach of their G League affiliate, the Capital City Go-Go, reports Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). Saddler, who hails from Maryland, has been the head coach of Nicholls State for the last three years.
- Magic guard Desmond Bane has been named Chief Basketball Officer at his alma mater, TCU, per the school’s website. The role will see Bane function as an advisor, especially in terms of analytics and player development. Bane played all four collegiate years at TCU.
