{"id":203502,"date":"2026-07-02T23:17:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T03:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=203502"},"modified":"2026-07-02T23:22:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T03:22:06","slug":"heat-targeting-big-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/07\/02\/heat-targeting-big-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Heat Targeting A Few Veterans As They Look to Add a “Big Guard”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Miami Heat<\/a> made their offseason splash by trading for Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>. Antetokounmpo’s acquisition cost them not only players and draft capital, but also cap space to sign other free agents, including their own. Still, the Heat need to fill out their roster with a few more players.<\/p>\n

Miami has 12 players under contract for 2025-27 following the signings of Simone Fontecchio <\/a>and rookie Ryan Conwell.<\/a> Fontecchio signed a one-year, $2.45 million veteran minimum deal earlier today while Conwell signed a three-year, $6.5 million pact via the second round exception ($1.3 million in 2026-27) yesterday.<\/p>\n

The Heat have about $199 million committed to the 12 players. Therefore, the Heat will be a taxpayer and are $10 million below the first apron, where they are hardcapped. While the Heat added Tim Hardaway Jr<\/a>., Fontecchio and Conwell, they still could use shooting and backcourt help.<\/p>\n

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Heat Targeting A Few Veterans As They Look to Add a “Big Guard”<\/h2>\n

Speaking of backcourt help, Barry Jackson and Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald<\/a> said earlier today that “The Heat hopes to add a shooting guard with size and length on a value contract if possible. ”<\/p>\n

Miami missed out on Anfernee Simons<\/a>, who signed with the Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> earlier today. Simons signed a two-year, $12.3 million contract with the 76ers. While the Heat could have offered Simons the same deal, they chose to offer him the veteran’s minimum.\u00a0 \u00a0So, it is no surprise that he took the better deal. Golden State and Dallas were said to be also in the mix.<\/p>\n

Jackson and Chiang also said that the Heat aren’t interested in bringing back Gabe Vincent<\/a>, at least for the time being. Vincent, who spent his first four seasons in Miami, stands at 6-2 and is more of a point guard than a 2. Besides, the 30-year-old has struggled since leaving South Beach, averaging just 4.4 points and 1.1 threes while shooting 35.2% from the field and 34.1% from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

So, Who Could the Heat Pursue?<\/h3>\n

According to the Miami Herald’s duo, Bradley Beal<\/a>, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope<\/a>, Zach LaVine,<\/a> and Klay Thompson<\/a> are on the Heat’s radar. Beal, who declined his player option after one season with the Los Angeles Clippers, is the only player currently on the open market.<\/p>\n

Beal has struggled to stay healthy the past five seasons, and only appeared in six games last year due to a hip tear. Beal is a good shooter and an adequate playmaker, though he only fits in Miami if he is willing to take the veteran’s minimum or slightly above it ($4-to-$5 million at most). He would be ideal for Eric Spoelstra’s offense due to his catch-and-shoot and movement ability.<\/p>\n

Caldwell-Pope opted into his $21.6 million player option. But there is a belief that the 33-year-old and the Memphis Grizzlies will eventually come to a buyout agreement.<\/p>\n

Caldwell-Pope has struggled the past two years. Caldwell-Pope is coming off his worst season since his rookie campaign this past year and was limited to 51 appearances due to a season-ending finger injury. He would be the perfect fit alongside Adebayo and Antetokounmpo due to his elite defensive ability and shooting — KCP averages 1.6 treys at a 36.5% clip for his career.<\/p>\n

LaVine is in the final year of his deal after opting into his $48.9 million player option with Sacramento. The Kings have said they want to move off of two of their biggest contracts this offseason. He is arguably the best fit for the Heat given his age and offensive ability.<\/p>\n

Likewise, Thompson could also be available if Dallas<\/a> decides to waive and stretch the 36-year-old.\u00a0 Thompson is slated to make $17.1 million this year, and while his production has dropped off, it hasn’t been as dramatic as Beal’s or Caldwell-Pope’s. He has averaged 12.9 points and 3.7 triples on 40.3% from the field and 38.7% from deep over the last two campaigns with the Mavericks.<\/p>\n

DeMar DeRozan Is Another Option<\/h3>\n

While not a prototypical two these days, DeMar DeRozan<\/a> is versatile and a creator. DeRozan is also on an expiring deal, though only $10 million of his $25 million is guaranteed, thus making his exit from Sacramento a little easier than the others.<\/p>\n

“DeMar DeRozan is hoping to accelerate his exit, either by being waived and testing the open market or being traded sooner rather than later, sources say. The 37-year-old is expecting to be waived and stretched by the franchise, a similar sentiment shared by rival executives, sources say”, per Kelly Iko of Yahoo Sports<\/a>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Photo Credit: Jim Dedmon, Imagn Images via Reuters Connect<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Miami Heat made their offseason splash by trading for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Antetokounmpo’s acquisition cost them not only players and draft capital, but also cap space to sign other free agents, including their own. Still, the Heat need to fill out their roster with a few more players. Miami has 12 players under contract for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3146,"featured_media":203571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,30,2,27,32,16,62,3],"tags":[1010,311,350,306,1105,70,297,457],"class_list":["post-203502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-mavericks","category-featured","category-clippers","category-grizzlies","category-heat","category-nba","category-news","tag-bam-adebayo","tag-bradley-beal","tag-demar-derozan","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-kentavious-caldwell-pope","tag-klay-thompson","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-zach-lavine"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203502"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":203574,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203502\/revisions\/203574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}