The Miami Heat have one roster spot left, and one familiar name keeps coming up: Gabe Vincent.
According to the report, Bam Adebayo has been advocating for a reunion with the guard, who has been sitting in unrestricted free agency for the past couple of months and is also interested in coming back to Miami. The two spent four seasons together as teammates, sharing the floor in 195 regular season games and through extended playoff runs.
Miami’s offseason has already been busy. The Heat sent four players and picks to the Milwaukee Bucks for Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis, then watched Norman Powell leave for the Chicago Bulls in free agency.
Since then, they’ve added Klay Thompson and Nick Richards over the last week-and-a-half, while Tim Hardaway Jr. signed a one-year deal earlier in the offseason. Simone Fontecchio is also back on a one-year deal.
That leaves the final opening on the roster, and the team can either keep it available for flexibility later in the season or use it now. Vincent has been one of the names linked to that spot for weeks.
For Miami, the fit is easy to see. The Heat could use another guard behind Davion Mitchell, and Vincent already knows the system and the coach. He has experience playing under Erik Spoelstra, which only adds to the appeal if the front office decides to move in that direction.
Vincent’s path to this point has been a winding one. He went undrafted in 2018 and initially signed with the Sacramento Kings on an Exhibit 10 deal, but he never appeared in an NBA game for them.
Instead, he spent a season-and-a-half with the Stockton Kings before landing in Miami on a two-way deal in January 2020. That year, he bounced between the NBA and G-League and won the G-League’s Most Improved Player award in a season cut short by COVID-19.
He came back the next season and played in 50 NBA games, then earned a standard contract in the 2021 offseason. His best stretch came in 2022-23, when he started a career-high 34 games and played a major role in Miami’s playoff run. That performance helped him land a three-year, $33 million deal with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Things never quite clicked the same way in Los Angeles. Vincent did not reach the level he showed with the Heat, and his Lakers stint ended at this past trade deadline when he was sent to the Atlanta Hawks, where he posted similar numbers.
If Miami wants to add one more piece, Vincent makes sense on multiple levels. He gives the Heat another backcourt option, and he gives Adebayo the reunion he’s reportedly pushing for.
In Other News...
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For Miami, the appeal is obvious: a player of that caliber can alter both the nightly ceiling and the larger trajectory of a season. The forecast also expects Antetokounmpos individual numbers to climb in 2026-27, which only adds to the intrigue around how quickly this new look can settle in and how high it can push the Heat when the East starts sorting itself out. [Read more 🡒]
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For Miami, the larger takeaway is less about Denvers roster sheet and more about how the Western race is shifting around it. If the Nuggets get the kind of production they expect, they will remain a real problem in the playoff picture, which only raises the pressure on everyone else trying to climb the bracket. The debate now is whether this is the kind of offseason move that simply adds scoring or one that changes how far Denver can go when the games matter most. [Read more 🡒]
Nick Richards Saw Something In The Heat Miami Clearly Needed
Nick Richards arrived in Miami with a simple job description: add size, depth and a little more muscle to a frontcourt that can use both. The 6-foot-11 big man is entering his seventh NBA season, and the Heat brought him in to help give the rotation more support around Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo, two pillars whose workload can always use some relief over the grind of a season.
Richards told Ira Winderman he sees a fit in the Heats physical, role-driven style, and he believes that environment suits the way he plays. He also said he wants to prove doubters wrong, which gives this signing a little more edge than a standard depth move. For Miami, the appeal is obvious: if Richards can translate that confidence into reliable minutes, the Heat may have found another frontcourt piece that fits the way they want to play. [Read more 🡒]