The Heat are still leaving the door open for another backcourt move.
Miami has enough room to carry a 15th player into the regular season without going over its hard cap, and NBA insider Jake Fischer said on a Bleacher Report live stream that the team has “some internal interest” in adding a veteran guard for extra depth. That doesn’t mean a signing is around the corner, but Fischer made it clear the Heat are still poking around.
One name that keeps coming up is Gabe Vincent. The free agent guard spent 2019-23 with Miami and has been tied to the team several times this offseason. Fischer said Vincent has supporters in both the front office and the locker room, but he also suggested a reunion is not the “likely outcome” for the 30-year-old.
Fischer also pushed back on the idea that Kyrie Irving is a realistic trade target for Miami right now. Even so, he said the Heat do not necessarily see their roster as “done” and will keep monitoring possible backcourt options.
There’s also no shortage of outside opinion on where Miami stands after its offseason work. In a separate piece by Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald, Keshad Johnson said “a few” teams offered him standard contracts before he re-signed with the Heat on a two-way deal, though he didn’t say how much guaranteed money, if any, was attached to those offers.
Johnson said the two-way route doesn’t bother him after spending last season on a standard contract in Miami. “For guys in my position, that have been at the minimum, you’re trying to stick around as long as you can and live the dream as long as you can,” he said.
“I felt comfortable here with the Heat. I wasn’t ready to move on.
I have a lot of unfinished business here.”
Jackson also spoke with a veteran scout who didn’t consider Miami a true championship threat in 2026/27. The scout’s biggest concern was the guard group.
“Their guard play isn’t good enough. Just not good enough,” the scout said.
“Their frontcourt is very, very formidable. But the pure talent level at guard is my issue.
You have a bunch of backup guards, either what they’ve been traditionally or at this stage of their careers. … Where’s the creation from their guards?
(Tim) Hardaway (Jr.) is not a creator. (Klay) Thompson is not a creator.
(Davion) Mitchell is somewhat. Hardaway is not really a scorer; he’s more of a shooter.
Who among those guards is getting to the free throw line a lot? My concerns with them are strictly about their backcourt.”
The scout also weighed in on Miami’s additions of Thompson, Hardaway, Bobby Portis, and Nick Richards. On Hardaway, he described him as a strong shooter and “serviceable” defender, but said the fit feels limited.
“I would have rather had Anfernee Simons for the same money,” the scout said. “Simons can play point guard (as well as shooting guard).
Hardaway cannot. Simons has more dimensions to his game; you get a combo guard vs. a straight shooter.
And this team needed another combo guard.”
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Vincent is still on the market as an unrestricted free agent, and the appeal from Miamis side is easy to understand. He knows the Heat, he has played under Erik Spoelstra, and he would come back into a locker room that is already reshaped by the teams bigger swings this summer. For now, the last piece has not been filled, and Adebayos preference may be a meaningful part of how the Heat decide to close out the roster. [Read more 🡒]
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For a Heat group looking to climb in the East, the fit is obvious on paper: more size, more force at the top of the floor and a new pressure point for opponents trying to game-plan around Miami. The forecast also expects Antetokounmpos individual numbers to rise in his new setting, which only adds to the sense that this is more than a splashy offseason headline for a team hoping to make a bigger leap in conference seeding. [Read more 🡒]
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Denver, meanwhile, made the kind of signing that naturally invites debate by bringing in DeMar DeRozan. For a Heat team that knows how thin the margin can be in the playoffs, it is the sort of addition that forces everyone to ask whether a proven scorer changes the ceiling or just changes the style. The answers will take time, but the Nuggets have given the rest of the conference something to argue about well before opening night. [Read more 🡒]