The Miami Heat have made their intentions pretty clear with Pelle Larsson.
On Friday, Larsson and the Heat agreed to a four-year, $60 million contract extension, a move that locks in the 25-year-old and only strengthens the case that he’s a major part of Miami’s rotation moving forward. That matters because it sets up a real battle for minutes on the wing, with Klay Thompson and Tim Hardaway Jr. now in the mix as the Heat sort through their new guard options.
The new deal also gives Larsson a strong edge in the conversation around who plays more. Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel recently suggested Larsson could end up ahead of Thompson in the Heat’s minute distribution, and this extension makes that idea even harder to ignore. Miami is heading into a season where it expects to push toward championship contention, and Larsson’s age, role and contract all work in his favor.
That long-term commitment could matter a lot if head coach Erik Spoelstra has to choose between Larsson and Thompson in certain situations. Larsson now looks like a fixture in the Heat’s future, while Thompson arrives as the veteran name with the bigger résumé. There’s also the simple production argument: Larsson averaged nearly five more minutes per game last season, and Winderman has raised the possibility that he may be the better player right now.
Thompson still could begin the season in the starting lineup for a Miami team that already includes Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bam Adebayo and Andrew Wiggins, all of whom are over 29. But starting and closing are different things, and Winderman’s read is that Larsson could wind up seeing more court time and finishing games ahead of the former Warriors star.
There’s a familiar twist in all of this for Thompson. In his final season with Golden State, after more than a decade as a locked-in starter when healthy, he briefly lost his spot to rookie Brandin Podziemski.
That development, along with the Warriors’ reluctance to promise Thompson a starting role going forward, helped push him out of Golden State. He later signed a three-year, $50 million deal with the Dallas Mavericks in free agency.
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Draymond Green Just Made This Warriors Role Change More Complicated
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The pressure point is obvious: Greens long-range efficiency has trended down over the past decade, and Golden State needs to know whether more volume can come with better accuracy. If it does, the fit stays cleaner. If it does not, the Warriors may have to start making harder decisions about how they want the frontcourt rotation to look, especially with younger options waiting in the wings. [Read more 🡒]