NBA Draft ends without a Miami Heat pick. Next up: Free agency and summer league

The Miami Heat entered Thursday’s NBA Draft without a pick because of previous trades, and the night ended without a Heat selection.

Despite having $5.6 million available to purchase a pick and other resources to trade for one, the Heat opted not to make a move into the draft. It marked the third draft in the past six that Miami has not made a pick in, as it also did not have a selection in 2016 and 2018.

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The market for the price of a second-round pick was set hours before the draft on Thursday morning when the Philadelphia 76ers sent $2 million to the New Orleans Pelicans for the No. 53 pick. While the Heat did have enough cash available to possibly purchase two second-round picks based on what it took the 76ers to acquire one, Miami didn’t buy its way into the draft.

This is in part because the Heat has confidence that it can find NBA talent in the undrafted pool based on the organization’s impressive track record. The list of undrafted players Miami has signed and developed in recent seasons includes Duncan Robinson, Kendrick Nunn, Gabe Vincent and Chris Silva, with Rodney McGruder, Tyler Johnson and Udonis Haslem among the Heat’s past undrafted success stories.

What happened to Miami’s selections this year? The Heat’s 2021 first-round pick, which ended up at No. 18 based on its 40-32 regular-season record, was dealt as part of the 2015 trade with the Phoenix Suns for Goran Dragic and it was passed on to the Oklahoma City Thunder because of other trades. The Heat’s 2021 second-round pick, which ended up at No. 48, was traded along with Brian Roberts to the Portland Trail Blazers for cash considerations in 2016 and it ended up with the Atlanta Hawks.

The Thunder drafted Tre Mann from Florida with the 18th pick and the Hawks took Sharife Cooper from Auburn with the 48th pick.

At the top of the draft, Oklahoma State’s Cade Cunningham went No. 1 to the Detroit Pistons, Jalen Green from the G League Ignite went No. 2 to the Houston Rockets, USC’s Evan Mobley went No. 3 to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Florida State’s Scottie Barnes went No. 4 to the Toronto Raptors, and Gonzaga’s Jalen Suggs went No. 5 to the Orlando Magic.

But a move outside of the draft may have created the biggest headline of the night: The Washington Wizards traded Russell Westbrook to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and the 22nd pick that Washington later dealt to the Indiana Pacers.

Following the draft, the Heat quickly turned its attention to signing undrafted prospects to build its summer league roster. Miami’s summer league team is expected to begin practicing in Sacramento in the coming days before playing two games as part of the California Classic on Tuesday and Wednesday and then taking part in the Las Vegas Summer League.

The Miami Herald confirmed 10 undrafted players who have agreed to play for the Heat this summer: Mississippi State guard Tyson Carter, Kansas guard Marcus Garrett, Houston guard DeJon Jarreau, South Carolina guard AJ Lawson, TCU guard RJ Nembhard, Wisconsin center Micah Potter, LSU guard Javonte Smart, Missouri guard Dru Smith, Arkansas forward Justin Smith and Mississippi State guard D.J. Stewart.

Max Strus, who spent last season as one of the Heat’s two-way contract players, and Omer Yurtseven, who signed a non-guaranteed deal with the Heat in the final days of this past regular season, will also be on the Heat’s summer league team.

In addition, the trio of Precious Achiuwa, KZ Okpala and Gabe Vincent is expected to join the Heat’s summer league team when they are done playing for Nigeria in the Tokyo Olympics. There’s a chance the could rejoin the Heat sooner rather than later if Nigeria does not advance past group play, which concludes Sunday.

“These are the questions that we have to decide,” Heat assistant general manager and vice president of basketball operations Adam Simon said earlier this month when asked about putting together the Heat’s summer league roster. “How many veterans like G Leaguers and guys that have played in Europe, how many of those guys do you want to commit to before the draft? For that exact reason. How many spots do you want to use on your summer league team. I think it’s a mix. You want to take a look at some veterans that you like that are willing to do summer league and then add undrafted players, if possible.”

Then, of course, free agent negotiations are allowed to begin at 6 p.m. on Monday. There are 12 players from the Heat’s season-ending roster who could become free agents this summer.

The Heat is on track to enter free agency with just five players who have guaranteed salaries for next season: Jimmy Butler ($36 million), Bam Adebayo ($28.1 million), Tyler Herro ($4 million), Achiuwa ($2.7 million) and Okpala ($1.8 million).

Trevor Ariza, Nemanja Bjelica, Dewayne Dedmon, Haslem, Nunn (restricted), Victor Oladipo, Robinson (restricted), and two-way contract players Strus (restricted) and Vincent (restricted) will become free agents this offseason. Also, Dragic, Andre Iguodala and Yurtseven have team options in their contracts that the Heat must decide on by Sunday at 5 p.m.

Next season’s salary cap and luxury tax line have not finalized yet, but projections indicate the salary cap will land at about $112.4 million and the luxury-tax threshold will be about $136.6 million. Miami also has a $5.2 million waive-and-stretch cap hit for Ryan Anderson still on its books.

With all of that taken into account, the Heat is expected to have between $21 million and $27 million in cap space this offseason, including cap holds, unless it opts to move forward as an over-the-cap team and leverage the Bird rights of its own free agents to bring back some players from this past season’s roster.

In addition, Butler will soon be eligible for an extension. Butler will seek a maximum four-year extension that’s expected to be worth about $181 million from the Heat, and there’s optimism that a deal will be agreed upon when he becomes eligible to sign it starting on Aug. 6.

The Heat’s 2021-22 roster will be shaped in the coming days.