With the start of the 2025 NBA Draft looming, the Miami Heat don’t project to be one of the more active teams in the draft.
After all, the Heat have just one pick in the entire draft, and that’s the No. 20 overall pick in the first round.
Miami acquired that selection as part of the trade package that sent star forward Jimmy Butler to the Golden State Warriors before the trade deadline.
Heat insider Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel believes that the team will make “another developmental selection” with its only pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. The draft is scheduled for June 25, which is just over a fortnight away.
“With the Heat’s lone current selection in the two-round draft at No. 20, the pick acquired from the Golden State Warriors, it would appear another developmental selection is on the way,” Winderman wrote.
Miami’s vice president of basketball operations and assistant general manager Adam Simon admitted that a whole lot of factors will play into Miami’s final decision on draft night.
“I think you evaluate your roster,” he said. “And I think we’re going to have these conversations, offseason conversations. If you get into the draft, who is on the board? And is there a player that we really like? Or do you defer the pick, do you trade out? I think you weigh those things.”
He also highlighted the importance that someone in his role doesn’t pass on a player who’s full of potential.
“We could sit here and trade the pick and all of a sudden I’m going to hear that we didn’t take a certain player,” Simon said. “I think you prepare the draft, you look at the players, and you make a decision. But, yeah, we’re fortunate to have a good group of young players that we’re developing.”
The Heat have a track record of drafting NBA-caliber players in the opening round of recent drafts. Miami has made four first-round selections ever since the 2020 NBA Draft, and all of those players (Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Nikola Jovic and Precious Achiuwa) are still going strong in the league.
Achiuwa is the only one of those four players who’s still not playing for the Heat, as he’s a member of the New York Knicks. But he played in eight games in the 2025 NBA Playoffs for a Knicks team that reached the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in more than two decades.
Jaquez, Ware and Jovic are some of the more promising members of Miami’s young nucleus. Ware was just recently named to the All-Rookie Second Team, while Jaquez and Jovic gave the Heat solid minutes this season when their names were called.
Heat fans should be excited to see who the team will decide to use the No. 20 overall pick on, if the Heat don’t trade the selection away. It’s possible Miami won’t even use the pick and move it in a trade for a star.