Three intriguing options to fill out the Miami Heat’s roster

Despite plenty of early activity during free agency, Miami still has open roster spots to fill.

We are officially a week into NBA Free Agency!

The Miami Heat have made three additions — snagging Kyle Lowry, P.J. Tucker and Markieff Morris — to their roster, retained trade deadline acquisition Victor Oladipo as well as re-signing sharpshooter Duncan Robinson, Dewayne Dedmon, Max Strus, Gabe Vincent and Omer Yurtseven.

Miami also extended star guard Jimmy Butler to a four-year, $184 million extension — which kicks in at the beginning of the 2022-23 season.

However, there’s still room to complete the roster. Miami has filled 13 guaranteed roster spots, with two more to add plus two additional two-way contracts to potentially fill:

If Udonis Haslem re-ups with the Heat on the minimum for the fifth consecutive season, that would increase the roster to 14 players.

Assuming that transaction takes place and Miami fills the remaining spot with a free agent — which it doesn’t have to, especially if the front office prefers to leave room for a potential buyout candidate down the road — I created a list of three potential free agents that the Heat should target.

Without further ado, let’s get into it!

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Wesley Matthews, Guard, Los Angeles Lakers

6’4” | 220 lbs. | Seasons played: 12 | Age: 34

2020-21 stats (58 games): 4.8 PPG | 1.6 RPG | 33.5 3P% | 51.7 TS% | 7.2 PER

Matthews has drawn interest from the Heat in the past, which has been a common theme among the free agents they’ve signed this offseason.

Matthews signed a bi-annual exception with the Lakers last year, undergoing the least productive and efficient season of his career. He tallied career lows in points (4.8), rebounds (1.6) and player efficiency rating (7.2), among other statistics. He took a career-high 78.2 percent of shots from 3-point range, but netted a career-low 33.5 percent from beyond the arc on 3.4 attempts per game; his deep-ball efficiency dipped to a measly 28 percent with a 75.4 3-point rate in six playoff games.

The Lakers, who were overwhelming favorites to repeat entering last season, suffered cataclysmic injuries throughout the shortened schedule and couldn’t generate much team chemistry. Despite the down season, in the limited action he saw, Matthews still displayed that he can still defend on the perimeter while being a spot-up 3-point threat. He shot 34.7 percent on catch-and-shoot triples last year and a combined 38.0 on said attempts across the last three seasons.

If Miami were to sign him, he would provide spacing — opening up lanes for key bench cogs Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo (when returns from injury) — as an immediate shooting threat off the bench, while adding to its surplus of multi-positional defenders.

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Dennis Schröder, Guard, Los Angeles Lakers

6’3” | 172 lbs. | Seasons played: 8 | Age: 27

2020-21 stats (61 games): 15.4 PPG | 5.8 APG | 1.1 SPG | 43.7 FG% | 33.5 3P% | 54.3TS% | 13.8 PER

A Dennis Schröder-Heat pairing might not be too likely given the reported interest between Schröder and the Boston Celtics, who reportedly made him an one-year offer already. The offer, according to ESPN’s Jordan Schultz, was for $5.9 million of the $9.5 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception, the maximum amount of the NT-MLE Boston could offer without hard-capping itself.

For now, while he’s still on the free agent market and few teams apparently uninterested in signing him to a big deal, let’s analyze his fit with Miami.

People might initially scoff at the idea given Schröder’s shaky play throughout the regular season paired with his massive postseason struggles, but the Heat’s most glaring positional need, currently, is a backup point guard behind newly-acquired Kyle Lowry.

Schröder’s two years removed from finishing second for the Sixth-Man of the Year voting, averaging a career-high 18.9 points with 4.0 assists in 30.8 minutes per game and sporting a career-best 57.5 true shooting percentage. Last year, in an expanded role — inflated by midseason injuries to LeBron James and Anthony Davis — his numbers dipped to 15.4 points and 5.8 assists in 32.1 minutes a contest. Regardless of the inefficiency with the Lakers’ limited spacing — partly because of Schröder himself — he sported a 54.3 true shooting percentage.

Schröder possessed an immense shot-creation burden because of the superstars’ prolonged injury absence. His role with the Heat, in comparison, would reign similarly to his two-year stint in Oklahoma City compared to Los Angeles. Along with Herro, they would be the sixth-and-seventh men off the bench — and Miami has had quality scoring guards situated in the “sixth-man” role in years past, most recently Goran Dragic. Schröder could supply a similar scoring punch as Dragic, while adding some point-of-attack defensive juice with moderate playmaking.

Lastly, reports surfaced that he was commanding upwards of $120 million this offseason. Split the aforementioned value in half and the dart lands decidedly closer to the bullseye; unless a sign-and-trade is conducted, the maximum that most teams — like Boston — can offer is the full mid-level exception ($9.5M). In the Heat’s case, it’s more plausible they offer the $3.7 million bi-annual exception or the minimum — he would make nearly $2.39 million on the minimum with the Heat taking a standard $1.67 cap hit.

Acquiring a player at Schroder’s caliber for that price tag is a bargain.

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Josh Hart, Guard, New Orleans Pelicans

6’5” | 215 lbs. | Seasons played: 4 | Age: 26

2020-21 stats (28 games): 9.0 PPG | 8.0 RPG | 43.9 FG% | 32.6 3P% | 56.6 TS% | 12.2 PER

Adding Hart would be a difficult obstacle to hurdle because he is a restricted free agent — giving New Orleans the right to match any offer, which wouldn’t be pricey (as noted above).

In a vacuum, Hart would fit Miami like a glove.

As I’ve noted before, the Heat were a poor rebounding team last season, for a multitude of reasons. Some schematic reasoning, along with some Miami-typically-switches-their-tallest-onto-the-perimeter-without-other-compensating-size reasoning.

The Heat recorded the seventh-fewest rebounds per 100 possessions (42.5 rpg), the 9th-worst rebounding percentage (49.1 percent) and the 12th-worst defensive rebounding percentage (73.3). Though he’s listed at just 6-foot-5, Hart, a scrappy player, is one of the best rebounders in the league for his size.

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Among players who are shorter than 6-foot-7 that played at least 36 games, Hart ranks second in the league in rebounds per contest — trailing only Russell Westbrook, who dominates the glass (11.5 rpg) year-after-year. Hart also places second in rebounds per 100 possessions (13.2), rebounding percentage (13.8) and defensive rebounding percentage (23.4).

In short: Hart mitigates a glaring flaw.

He’s also shown flashes as an above average defender who can hold his own against bigger players. Miami’s shown affection for versatility players — no matter the position — and Hart fits the bill perfectly. He sports moderate efficiency; he’s shot 33.6 percent on 4.6 3-point attempts per game over the last two seasons, after knocking down 39.6 percent of his triples on 3.1 attempts as a rookie.

Without much money or long term contracts to offer, it may be a tough sell to sign any of these three free agents but Heat execs Pat Riley and Andy Elisburg may yet have another trick up their sleeve this summer.