How does the Miami Heat keep finding undrafted success stories? An agent explains it
The Heat’s ability, established over two decades, to eyeball talented undrafted players and G-Leaguers — and develop them into NBA rotation players — continues to have another positive offshoot in recent years:
Players who have multiple NBA offers are now often choosing Miami because of the Heat’s exceptional player development program.
That happened with Duncan Robinson, who spoke to the Lakers and Bucks around the 2018 draft but ultimately chose Miami after Erik Spoelstra reminded him how the Heat has developed shooters. It happened with Kendrick Nunn, who had another offer from an undisclosed team last April. It happened with Chris Silva, who also drew interest from the Spurs around the 2019 draft.
And now it has happened again with guard Gabe Vincent, who on Wednesday chose a two-way offer from Miami over an identical offer from another undisclosed team and overtures from a third.
And according to Vincent’s agent, Bill Neff, the reason was simple:
“We picked Miami because they are the best at it,” Neff said of player development. “They’re the gold standard. I don’t see how you can turn down Miami considering the pipeline, the amount of attention — starting at the top with Pat Riley, [general manager] Andy Elisburg, and most of all [vice president/basketball operations] Adam Simon — that they have shown with this kind of player. All things being equal, I pick Miami, because they will be the best at it, them and Toronto.
“When Miami shows interest, you listen and they were the first one to show interest. It gets your attention. Great system. They train their coaches. I had Briante Weber there. If I could pick any place for a G-League guy to go, it would be Miami.”
Neff said the Heat first expressed interest in Vincent when Simon sat down next to Neff at a G-League showcase event last month in Las Vegas. Vincent then scored 23 points in 14 first-half minutes and finished with 35.
“Adam sidles up to me in Las Vegas, hung out for a while, got what he needed to know,” Neff said.
Before the Heat signed him, Vincent was averaging 23.4 points for the G-League team in Stockton, California, while shooting 46.9 percent from the field and 42.1 percent on three-pointers, with a G-League leading 88 threes in 20 games. Vincent has now shifted to the team’s G-League team in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
So why was Vincent overlooked the past two years, going undrafted out of UC-Santa Barbara and not landing with an NBA team in summer league or preseason in 2019?
“People didn’t know,” Neff said, while noting a torn ACL his junior year of college hurt his stock coming out. “Even though he had a good World Cup [for Nigeria last summer], people didn’t pay attention.
“There are very few organizations scouting like the Heat are. If you have your mind only on your players, you don’t see others. Adam sees his own players but isn’t overlooking others.
“People should have been all over me on this kid. In 27 years of doing this — and I have had 27 guys called up — [Vincent] had the best record of any of my guys in that amount of time. He can play a couple positions and he guards, which is so hard to find [combined with his high-level shooting].
“With his shooting percentage he had, people [from other NBA teams] told me he was at the top of their list” of players they might want to sign.”
But only the Heat and two other teams called.
And the Heat got the nod because of a track record that might be unmatched - and certainly not surpassed - in NBA player development.
McMILLAN’S TAKE
Pacers coach Nate McMillan said Jimmy Butler should have been given a second technical foul, resulting in an automatic ejection, after T.J. Warren’s ejection during Wednesday’s Heat win at Indiana.
“They said [Warren] was clapping at Butler, but Butler was also kissing at him,” McMillan said. “None of the officials saw [Butler blowing kisses]. Both guys should’ve been ejected in that situation. Emotions, they’re going to happen.”
Only Warren was ejected, for clapping his hands in Butler’s face after Butler was called for an offensive foul against him.
“We needed to see some fight,” McMillan said. “We needed to see some scrap. I like that Warren was trying to get aggressive defensively and Butler reacted to the pressure defense. I don’t think it was anything dirty by Warren. He didn’t slam him to the floor or anything. Butler responded by getting into his face.”
Here’s what happened Wednesday and Butler’s animated reaction.
Here’s my Thursday Heat piece with news on Justise Winslow, Bam Adebayo and more.
This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 3:44 PM.
