It's entirely possible that the best move the Miami Heat made during the 2025 NBA offseason was among their quietest. Look, paying a clearance price for Norman Powell was a no-brainer with obvious (and immense) upside, and spending the No. 20 pick on Kasparas Jakučionis still has draft-heist potential (despite his rocky summer league), but keeping Davion Mitchell away from restricted free agency by giving him a new two-year, $24 million pact could prove just as valuable.
The franchise's latest reclamation project already paid huge dividends, shining down the stretch following his deadline deal to South Florida. Maybe it all proves to be a flash-in-the-pan mirage, but there are reasons to believe—or at least hope—that the ninth overall pick of the 2021 draft is just getting started.
Miami's developmental system can work wonders for Mitchell.
By the time the Heat acquired Mitchell in February, he'd already failed to convince both the Sacramento Kings and the Toronto Raptors that he was a keeper. After giving him 27.7 minutes of nightly floor time, the Kings dialed back his opportunities during his final two go-rounds in Sacramento. Toronto, meanwhile, moved on from Mitchell after less than eight months together.
There were, admittedly, reasons that both the Kings and Raptors deemed him expendable, and they all tied back to an apparent inability to grow his offensive game. Long touted as a dogged defender, he had struggled to move the needle as a scorer, table-setter, and outside shooter.
It's worth noting, though, that Sacramento hasn't exactly been a hotbed of successful developmental stories. And while Toronto has had better fortune on that front, the Raptors weren't really equipped to take on a guard with spacing concerns, given how many limited or non-shooters occupy their frontcourt.
That's not to excuse Mitchell's sluggish start, but sometimes explanations sound a lot like excuses.
While the South Beach-based simple size was small, it was impossible not to notice how much better Mitchell looked in Miami. His three-ball came alive (44.7 percent), his field-goal percentage followed suit (50.4), and he made his presence felt as a playmaker (5.3 assists against 1.7 turnovers).
And he followed that scorching stretch run by being the only Heat starter to perk up his play during the postseason. Again, you don't want to overreact to four games, but it's still fair to get giddy about a young guard averaging 15 points on 61 percent shooting (50 percent from range) and 6.3 assists (against 2.0 turnovers) against the Eastern Conference's No. 1 seed.
Maybe this was legitimate growth in his game. Perhaps he'd just found the right coaching and system fits to help bring out his best. His hustle-hard defense is about as clean a culture fit as the club could've found, and his penchant for passing made him a natural on-court fit with Tyler Herro, especially when combined with Mitchell's defensive versatility.
The Heat were wise to want to see if things can go even further with Mitchell. There might be no guarantee that it happens, but the Heat could quietly check a lot of boxes—both for their present and future—if it does.