The Miami Heat will try to continue their status quo of drafting high-quality players near the end of the first round when it’s their time to pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. The Heat have just one pick in this year’s draft, and that’s the No. 20 overall pick.
As a result of the Heat having just one pick in the upcoming two-round draft, the list of players who have worked out for Miami leading up to the draft isn’t as long as it is for some other teams. Still, almost 10 players have reportedly worked out for the Heat and others have been connected to the team via mock drafts.
Let’s dive into all of the talented prospects tied to the Heat at this juncture ahead of the draft.
Players who have worked out for the Heat
Samson Johnson
If there’s one thing Johnson did at a high level during his four-season stint playing at the University of Connecticut, it was score the ball from two-point range. For his college career, the 6-foot-10 forward converted 74.7 percent of his shot attempts from inside the 3-point line.
Jamal Mashburn Jr.
Mashburn is one of the better scorers of his draft class, as he averaged 22.0 points per game while shooting 42.9 percent from the field and 43.1 percent from deep across 23 games played with Temple University in the 2024-25 season.
Greg Sylvander of Five Reasons Sports linked Mashburn to the Heat earlier this month when he reported that Mashburn had worked out for the organization.
Zeke Mayo
Mayo’s 3-point shot is a skill that could translate to the NBA level instantly. He’s on the heels of a 2024-25 campaign during which he converted an impressive 42.2 percent of his 3s on 6.2 attempts per contest with the University of Kansas.
To boot, he shot 39.7 percent from deep for his college hoops career.
Tyrese Proctor
The former Duke University standout may have flown under the radar a bit last season with forward Cooper Flagg as the team’s definitive best player, but Duke wouldn’t have had the season it did without Proctor’s contributions as a complementary scorer.
He was one of only three Blue Devils to average double digits in points per game in the 2024-25 campaign, and he scored a lot of his points from behind the 3-point arc. For reference, Proctor averaged 4.3 made shots per game last season and 2.3 made 3s.
Jase Richardson
Richardson is an offensive-minded guard who was one of the better freshmen at his position in the nation last season. He’s still a ways away from being old enough to legally consume alcohol at just 19 years old, yet he averaged the second-most points per game of any player on Michigan State University and was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team.
Will Riley
Riley was another standout freshman player in the 2024-25 campaign, though he plays the forward position. He served as an elite sixth man for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, as he came off the bench in all but nine of the 35 games he played in and averaged 12.6 points per game. Riley was named the Big Ten’s Sixth Man of the Year.
Steve Settle III
Settle is a 6-foot-10 forward who played five seasons of college basketball at Howard University and Temple University. The versatile scorer saved his best season as a collegiate player in terms of earning himself trips to the charity stripe for the 2024-25 campaign, as he averaged 4.6 shots at the line per contest.
Saint Thomas
Not a lot of forwards possess the passing chops Thomas has. He averaged 4.2 assists per game in each of his final two seasons of college basketball, but he brings a lot to the table outside of productive playmaking. Thomas led the Big Sky Conference in rebounds per game with 9.8 in the 2023-24 season.
Marcus Williams
Williams has a combination of scoring and playmaking chops needed to potentially be a successful floor general at the highest level. Not only did Williams average the most assists of any University of San Francisco player by a wide margin last season, but he also scored 15.1 points per game on 48.3 percent shooting from the floor.
The 22-year-old admitted on social media that he has indeed worked out for the Heat organization.
Players who have been linked to Heat in mock drafts
Walter Clayton Jr.
More than one recent mock draft has projected the Heat to use their No. 20 overall pick on Clayton, who formerly starred at the University of Florida. An ESPN mock draft published on Monday had the Heat drafting Clayton, and an even more recent piece from the network on Tuesday identified Clayton as an ideal fit with Miami.
“Clayton has showcased his dynamic shotmaking in workouts and worked his way up boards in a first round that has shaped up somewhat light on point guard options,” Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo wrote. “Considering the Heat’s need for a proper point guard and the way Clayton seems to fit their mold, this fit makes sense on paper.”
CBS Sports’ Adam Finklestein has Miami using its lone first-round pick in the draft on Clayton as well.
Nique Clifford
Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel has claimed in a recent mock draft that the Heat will pick a different guard in the opening round in Clifford. The former Colorado State University standout might be a better all-around player than Clayton is, as he averaged 15.5 points, 8.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game across his two-season stint with the Rams all while being a pest on the defensive end.