await word from LeBron James<\/a> about his free agency, Riley acknowledged that more is needed even after the acquisitions of Antetokounmpo, Bobby Portis and Tim Hardaway Jr., especially for a team that lost Tyler Herro, Norman Powell, Kel\u2019el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Kasparas Jakucionis from last season\u2019s roster.<\/p>\n\u201cIn today\u2019s contemporary game, based on how the game used to be played from the inside out, this is a running game,\u201d Riley said. \u201cPlayers are running hard to spots. There\u2019s coast-to-coast drive-and-kicks. And you\u2019ve got to have players who can make open shots.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you get open shots, you got to be able to make them. It doesn\u2019t mean that you\u2019re going to make all these contested shots and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, yes, shooting as the primary personnel target, with the Heat likely to add only two more players to standard contracts this offseason due to their position against the hard cap created by the Antetokounmpo trade.<\/p>\n
In that regard, the best of the free-agent pool might be Bradley Beal, with Klay Thompson and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope possible buyout options.<\/p>\n
But Riley also warned not to sleep on the shooting already in place, citing acquisitions such as Portis and Hardaway, as well as returning players such as Andrew Wiggins, Davion Mitchell and Pelle Larsson.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we feel like we have enough shooting, OK?\u201d Riley said, before somewhat contradicting himself. \u201cWe will continue to try to find players who are absolutely marksmen. And there still are some out there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think getting Tim Hardaway Jr., people forget Bobby Porter shot 45% from three last year. Mitch has become a better 3-point shooter, as has Pelle. Don\u2019t underestimate what we have. But, yeah, you want to have a real sniper out there, too, that always is guarded by somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wiggins shot .414 on 3-pointers last season, Mitchell .395, but Larsson just .323.<\/p>\n
Then there is a power rotation that seemingly still needs to be built out. The infrastructure is there with Bam Adebayo, Antetokounmpo and Portis. But then it gets a bit shaky, considering Nikola Jovic is coming off an awful season and has expressed a desire not to be cast in a power role, and considering Vlad Goldin has largely been middling during summer league, having re-upped on another two-way contract.<\/p>\n
When it comes to what is left for the power rotation on the free-agent market, there isn\u2019t much beyond Chicago Bulls center Nick Richards, otherwise reduced to the likes of Kevin Love, Drew Eubanks, Kelly Olynyk, Dwight Powell, Tony Bradley and Christian Koloko.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we need a big, a certain type of big, a different kind of big that\u2019s more of a contemporary big \u2014 very athletic and a rim protector,\u201d Riley said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo getting a rim protector, and there\u2019s other bigs out there, if you want to go a little smaller, that can stretch the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, it appears that Goldin, the former FAU Final Four center, will remain in the mix, if only out of necessity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was impressed with what Vlad did in the summer league,\u201d Riley said\u00a0 \u201cHe played hard and he was making incredibly physical moves and things of that nature, blocking shots and all that stuff.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so now he\u2019s just got to get the other part of his game together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Top remaining free agents<\/p>\n
(Not including restricted free agents)<\/p>\n
Point guard: Russell Westbrook, Gabe Vincent, Brandon Williams, Aaron Holiday.<\/p>\n
Shooting guard: DeMar DeRozan, Bradley Beal, Bruce Brown, Garry Payton II, Jordan Clarkson, Seth Curry.<\/p>\n
Small forward: Matisse Thybulle, Jae\u2019Sean Tate, Nicolas Batum, Jeremy Sochan, Doug McDermott.<\/p>\n
Power forward: LeBron James. Jonathan Kuminga, Maxi Kleber, Dwight Powell.<\/p>\n
Center: Nick Richards, Drew Eubanks. Tony Bradley, Kevin Love, Kelly Olynyk.<\/p>\n
Buyout possibilities<\/p>\n
Players who could potentially hit the NBA buyout market either through being bought out, waived or waived-and-stretched (with current teams and 2026-27 salaries listed):<\/p>\n
Klay Thompson (Dallas Mavericks, $17.5 million ), Zach LaVine (Sacramento Kings, $49 million), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (Memphis Grizzlies, $21.6 million), D\u2019Angelo Russell (Grizzlies, $6 million).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 The plan by Pat Riley had been not to have plans, to have his roster in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,3914,7223,590,85],"class_list":["post-806742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-latest-headlines","tag-miami-heat","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}