Lester Quinones joins a loaded Miami Heat roster, filling Miami’s final preseason slot as the team reshapes its depth for a championship run.
The Miami Heat had a very prolific offseason, adding multiple big-name players such as Giannis Antetokounmpo and Klay Thompson. Even with these veterans coming in, there are some under-the-radar moves the team has been making to add depth to the roster. Earlier this month, the Heat, through their G-League affiliate, added former first-round pick Mo Bamba to fight for a roster spot. Last week, the Heat made another move, adding young guard Bez Mbeng. The Heat also signed Ian Schieffelin to a non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 contract on Friday afternoon and also brought in former first-round pick Dennis Smith Jr. on an Exhibit 10 contract on Sunday as well.
While it seemed the Heat were basically wrapped up with their offseason before training camp officially gets underway, Miami made one more move. The Heat added guard Lester Quinones to the roster on one final Exhibit 10 deal. With this addition, the Heat's roster now sits at the preseason maximum of 21 players. There are some roster cuts expected to follow to allow room for the other Exhibit 10 signings as well but as of now, there have been no corresponding moves officially announced.
Quinones, 25, has bounced around a lot throughout his short NBA career thus far. He played for the Memphis Tigers under Penny Hardaway for three seasons from 2019-2022. With Memphis, Quinones helped lead the team to an NIT title in 2021 before the team made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament in his final season in 2022.
He went undrafted in 2022 and was quickly picked up by the Golden State Warriors. He spent most of his rookie season with their G-League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors, and appeared in four games for Golden State. However, in his sophomore season, he had more of a bench role after signing a standard contract, appearing in 37 games and averaging 10.6 minutes while scoring 4.4 points.
He was not retained by the Warriors in the 2024 offseason and spent the 2024-25 season with both the Philadelphia 76ers and New Orleans Pelicans along with their respective G-League affiliates. He spent most of last season with the Orlando Magic's G-League team before finding his way to Miami this week.
He is still young and has some experience at the NBA level but the Heat have a plethora of shooting guard options at the moment. Thompson, Pelle Larsson and Hardaway Jr. are all shooting guards who are expected to receive minutes above him.
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