The Heat have the No. 13 pick in the upcoming draft, and while they have been rumored to trade for Giannis or another star, they are still scouting as if the pick will remain in Miami.
Heat assistant general manager Adam Simon laid out the front office’s evaluation philosophy:
“I always remind our scouts, we always talk about we have our principles of what we like, what we look for. There’s things that we always try to like. Who doesn’t like length? Who doesn’t like athleticism? Who doesn’t like positional size?” Simon said via Ira Winderman.
Miami drafted Kasparas Jakučionis with the No. 20 pick in last year’s draft. The 6-foot-5 guard finished the year with 2.3 win shares, good for 12th in his draft class (per Basketball Reference’s stats).
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“But, as you know, there’s heart and there’s IQ and there’s ability to outplay deficiencies that you might have based on size. And if you look in the history of the game, if you basically overlook something based on one aspect of the evaluation, that player can outplay it.”
That, Simon said, brings it back to scouting the positives: “There are players that aren’t athletic that make it. There’s players that are in that size range that become Hall of Famers.”
