With the Miami Heat not exactly replete with big men ahead of the 2025-26 season, free agent Kai Jones reportedly worked out for the team recently. Jones, who was selected with the No. 19 overall pick back in the 2021 NBA Draft, averaged 5.0 points and 3.1 rebounds per game across 40 games with the Los Angeles Clippers and Dallas Mavericks last season.
However, based on an update from Five Reasons Sports’ Ethan J. Skolnick, the Heat seemingly aren’t in a rush to add Jones.
“Not hearing the Heat are in any rush to sign Kai Jones or another big,” Skolnick wrote via Discord. “Seems obvious, but I don’t think Kai blew them away with the workout.”
Jones, who started his career with the Charlotte Hornets, was waived by them earlier on in his career following a saga that included him requesting a trade.
Jones may be best known for his poster dunk on San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama in Summer League action back in 2023. He caught a lob pass and posterized the Frenchman, who is an elite rim protector and well over seven feet tall.
Skolnick’s update on the Jones buzz comes about a week after fellow insider Greg Sylvander said that Miami wouldn’t go further into the luxury tax to add Jones. Since then, Miami moved forward Haywood Highsmith, who started 42 games for the Heat last season, to get under the luxury tax.
If the Heat decide to add a big man to their roster before the beginning of the coming season, there are some other options for the team on the open market in addition to Jones. That may be an avenue the team will want to explore if it decides that Jones isn’t the piece it’s looking for.
In light of what Skolnick and Sylvander have indicated regarding the Heat’s interest in Jones, fans perhaps shouldn’t expect him to be a member of the team in the near future. Still, his name shouldn’t be completely crossed off as a possibility.
Miami is looking to put the finishing touches on its 2025 offseason before the 2025-26 campaign starts up in the fall.