Pat Riley’s blockbuster trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo headlines a transformative summer. It's time to reflect on every offseason move, from drafting sleeper talent to savvy veteran signings, to see if Miami’s gamble earns high marks.
The Miami Heat are just about done with their offseason signings here at the end of September just a few days before training camp officially begins. This offseason has been viewed as one of the biggest and most important in the franchise's history. Last year, Miami finished with a 43-39 record and qualified for the play-in tournament but were quickly eliminated by the Charlotte Hornets. The Heat missed the playoffs for the first time since 2019. There were some bright spots, such as the emergence of Norman Powell as an All-Star and Bam Adebayo's historic 83-point performance, but this needed to be an offseason where Pat Riley switched things up and he absolutely did.
Now, with the Heat basically complete with their offseason, let's grade their moves since the end of June.
The first move the Heat made was undoubtedly the most important for the franchise. Trading for Giannis Antetokounmpo was something that only felt like a distant rumor for the last number of months but Riley and the front office finally decided to go all-in by sending four young players along with some picks for one of the best players in the NBA. Sure, it's painful to give up on a lot of young talent in the deal but I don't think anyone is losing sleep over bringing in a true game-changer. On top of that, the Heat even added a solid backup frontcourt option in Bobby Portis as part of the deal as well. This trade gets an easy 'A+' grade.
One under-looked move the Heat made was through the NBA draft. They obviously lost their first-round pick due to trading it away as part of the Antetokounmpo deal but the team still had their second-rounder. Miami selected Louisville guard Ryan Conwell at No. 37. He hasn't played a minute of NBA action yet but the guard performed well in the Summer League and has been generating a ton of buzz. It's hard to grade someone we haven't seen play in the NBA yet but with the amount of praise he has been receiving, his draft selection can be awarded a 'B' grade.
These next few moves can be grouped together. First, Miami brought in Tim Hardaway Jr. on a one-year contract. He is getting paid $6.5 million and has been a quite productive three-point shooter over the last few seasons. The team also brought back Simone Fontecchio while extending Andrew Wiggins to free up a bit of cap space for the remainder of this offseason. These moves get a solid 'B+' grade.
Using some of that freed up cap space, the Heat brought in Klay Thompson on a two-year deal after the wing was waived by the Dallas Mavericks in August. He is not the same shooter he used to be but can still be productive at this stage of his career. I originally thought this move was fantastic but when we look at it deeper, it isn't the splashy move to build a "Big Three" opposite Antetokounmpo and Adebayo. Don't get me wrong, it's a relatively cheap contract and he has plenty of experience but as I said earlier, he is not the scorer he used to be with Golden State. This move gets a 'B+' grade.
Finally, the Heat's latest notable move was bringing in veteran center Nick Richards on a one-year deal to backup Adebayo. He hasn't been particularly efficient over the last few seasons but there aren't many backup center options. This move gets an 'A-' grade.
Overall, I believe this offseason gets an 'A' grade. I may have been more strict as a grader with some of the stop-gap veteran moves Riley made to strengthen the depth but the Antetokounmpo move is enough to really carry and overshadow this offseason because his addition seemingly convinced those veterans to join the team and hopefully build an Eastern Conference contender.
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