The Miami Heat opted for shooting with the No. 13 selection in Thursday's NBA draft, going for the 3-point range of Kentucky guard Tyler Herro.
Having lost Wayne Ellington, Tyler Johnson and Rodney McGruder last season due to luxury-tax transactions, the Heat reloaded with spacing with the 6-foot-5 freshman guard who shot 60 of 169 on 3-pointers in his lone season with the Wildcats.
Dwyane Wade, another loss from last season's Heat roster with his retirement, posted on Twitter in the wake of the selection, "OK Tyler Herro, I hope you're ready to work. It's the Miami Heat way. Let's go!"
The Heat, with the selection, bypassed options such as Romeo Langford, Nassir Little, Brandon Clarke, Kevin Porter Jr., Bol Bol and French League player Sekou Doumbouya.
Herro, according to the NBA's scouting is considered a "multidimensional scoring threat with a high basketball IQ." The league's draft guide notes of Herro, "has very good range and overall touch" as well as "can make plays off the dribble" and "has good size and length for his position."
Of Herro, Kentucky coach John Calipari said going into the draft, "Tyler is wired and driven like few other players I've coached. A complete basketball player who can score on the bounce, who can shoot it, who can defend and who can rebound. It's his total package that will make Tyler successful at the next level."
Up next is what Heat President Pat Riley long has considered the main thing in roster renovation.
It is on June 30, of course, when NBA free-agency negotiations can begin. At the moment, there is no cap space or even a full mid-level exception to spend. But that could well be what these intervening days will be about, resetting a payroll that has gotten decidedly sideways.
The immediate reset could be a trade of guard Goran Dragic, who, by opting into his $19.2 million for next season, on the final year on his contract, has become trade eligible. Whiteside, similarly, will become trade eligible once he opts into the $27 million on the final year of his contract by his June 29 deadline.
Factoring into the Heat's Thursday approach was the absence of a first-round pick in the 2021 draft, with that unprotected selection, currently held by the Los Angeles Clippers, having been dealt to the Phoenix Suns in the February 2015 Dragic trade. By rule, it makes the Heat ineligible to trade their 2020 or '22 first-round picks, with the NBA banning teams from being without successive future first-round selections.
The Heat's Thursday selections likely will join former 2018-19 two-way players Duncan Robinson and Yante Maten, late-season acquisition Kendrick Nunn, as well as the Heat's first-round pick for the team's summer leagues next month in Sacramento and Las Vegas.
