Scouts size up Achiuwa, five young Heat players. And ESPN’s Heat surprise
With Heat training camp beginning Tuesday at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, here’s some feedback from two longtime NBA scouts on veteran pickup Precious Achiuwa and some of the Heat’s young players:
▪ Scout 1 (an Eastern Conference scout), on Achiuwa, a backup power forward/center who was signed to a one-year, non-guaranteed contract this week:
“He’s an undersized five [center]. Can rebound, but tries to do more than he should offensively. If he just stayed in his lane — rebound, defend, set picks. He wants to be more, but he isn’t more. He’s serviceable, at times better than that. You can put him in a game and he can sometimes be good. But a nice pickup overall.”
Was Achiuwa a better option than a reunion with Thomas Bryant or signing Kai Jones, who auditioned for the Heat last month?
“Achiuwa is definitely better than Kai Jones,” the scout said. “Achiuwa is more athletic and can guard more than Bryant... Bryant is a jump shooter.” The scout said Achiuwa fills a more needed role.
▪ Scout 2, a Western Conference scout on rookie first-round pick Kasparas Jakucionis, after watching his uneven play in summer league: “To me, he’s a combo guard, not a point guard. He played a lot of point guard in summer league. He’s an underrated offensive rebounder for his position. He’s played international play. He will be playing with more experienced teammates and you will see him play better than he did in summer league.”
That scout voiced this concern: “In college, he could bully guys because he was bigger than a lot of guards. He’s going to have to be a consistent shooter to mix his strength and size against quicker, more athletic guards.”
Here’s how the two scouts sized up center Vlad Goldin and forward Myron Gardner, who are signed to two-way contracts that make them eligible to play in as many as 50 NBA games this season:
▪ Scout 2 on Goldin: “Communicates very well on the defensive end. Underrated passer. Excellent rebounder. A classic big who they will shape and mold.”
Scout 1 on Goldin: “He has good hands, he’s a lob threat, can jump a little bit. Has a little bit of a game inside. He’s got a chance to be a viable third-stringer. I don’t think he’s a backup on a good team. But he’s not a stiff. He will stick around for a while. His offense is around the basket. He took 633 shots [at Michigan last season], and 33 were threes [of which he made 11]. He’s a ways off in terms of being a threat out there.”
Scout 1 on Gardner: “He’s better than I thought. He’s athletic, he guards, has decent length. He had a good end to the summer. He had a good G-League playoffs. Could he be your 15th guy? Yes. I don’t see him as a rotation guy.”
▪ Scout 2 on guard Pelle Larsson, whose minutes could increase as Tyler Herro misses the start of the season after ankle surgery: “There’s a level of toughness that you really like. He’s got a midrange shot. But he definitely needs to improve his long-range shooting.”
Where Heat ranks
ESPN unveiled its future Power Rankings, rating teams by likelihood of success over the next three seasons.
The piece said: “To determine the rankings, we asked ESPN analysts Kevin Pelton, Bobby Marks and Tim Bontemps to rate teams in five categories and rank them relative to the rest of the league.”
Miami rose from 17th to 14th, between Boston and Indiana, the past two Eastern Conference champions who will both be without their best players for most or all of this season due to injuries.
Marks summed up the Heat’s future this way: “Despite two straight noncompetitive first-round losses, the Heat moved up. Miami ranking in the top 10 in management, market and money helped its three-spot jump. With Jimmy Butler III no longer on the roster, the Heat are not a luxury tax team and project to have spending power in the 2026 and 2027 offseasons.”
The three ESPN analysts rated Miami 18th in quality of players; 10th in money (financial flexibility); 19th in draft assets; fifth in market (which factors in the appeal of playing in South Florida) and third in management.
ESPN said “we determined that the most important category is a team’s current roster and the future potential of those players. That category accounts for 50% of each NBA team’s overall Future Power Rating, the 0-100 score each team receives to determine its overall ranking.
“At the same time, we looked at management, ownership, coaching, a team’s spending habits, its cap situation, the reputation of the city and the franchise, and what kind of draft picks we expect the team to have in the future.”
Oklahoma City was rated first and Phoenix last.
Here’s my look at how the Heat’s 2026 plan has evolved and what the organization will have the flexibility to do and not do.
This story was originally published September 26, 2025 at 2:29 PM.
