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2024 Miami Heat Mock Draft Roundup: February 17 – Hot Hot Hoops

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2024 Miami Heat Mock Draft Roundup: February 17 – Hot Hot Hoops


Virginia forward Ryan Dunn is one of many prospects who have been linked to the Miami Heat ahead of the 2024 NBA Draft. (Photo courtesy of Virginia Athletics)

We are approximately one month away from the most exciting time of the college basketball season: The NCAA Tournament! The 2023-24 NBA All-Star break has arrived, so let’s discuss which (potential) 2024 NBA Draft Prospects are being linked to the Miami Heat!

Bleacher Report (Jonathan Wasserman; Feb. 13):

No. 16: Stephon Castle, G, UConn

Opinions vary on Stephon Castle. Mixing productive games with quiet ones, he’s showing a mix of scoring physicality, playmaking at 6’6″ and defense, while questions about his creation quickness and shooting range continue to linger.

“He’s had some bigger games of late—including consecutive 20-point efforts—and Connecticut’s loaded roster can make it difficult for him to gets looks and reps consistently.

“Castle will have a wide draft range that could start in the late lottery if certain teams feel optimistic about his jumper’s potential to improve. Right now, it’s the passing, defense and finishing that feel most translatable.”

No. 45: Tyrese Proctor, G, Duke

“Tyrese Proctor has frustrated scouts by following up signs of improvement with lines like a 1-of-6 showing in a loss to North Carolina, but he’ll continue to look interesting for his positional size, shot-making potential and passing IQ.

“Teams could see a useful pick-and-roll operator and connector. The inconsistency for a second-year player has just weighed on scouts’ confidence.”

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NBA Draft Room:

No. 16: Tyler Kolek, G, Marquette

 “Kolek is one of the most productive and effective players in college basketball. While he might not have the elite physical attributes that you look for in a NBA prospect he’s got an elite feel for the game and a very high skill level. Has an uncanny ability to score in the lane, using great angles and timing. Kolek is a special passer with awesome court vision. He runs the offense well, operates ball screens with good feel and is a true facilitator and leader on the floor. He’s also a really good 3pt shooter who is even better in the clutch. Projects as a really good back up at the NBA level, with some starter potential.”

No. 45: Mackenzie Mgbako, F, Indiana

From the 2023 Nike Hoops Summit in April of 2023:

“He showed a level of aggressiveness and confidence that you want to see from big time scorers. The 6-8 wing has a feathery jumper, enough size and strength to bang in the paint and a knack for scoring the ball. He’s not the most heralded recruit but could be one of the better NBA prospects in this class, when it’s all said and done.”

No Ceilings (Nick Agar-Johnson; Feb. 14):

No. 16: Kevin McCullar Jr., G, Kansas

“The Miami Heat have traditionally not shied away from older prospects, whether that be Jaime Jaquez Jr. in the draft last year or the long line of undrafted free agents with years of college development under their belts who come to Miami with a defensive focus and a chip on their shoulder. With all of that in mind, Kevin McCullar to the Miami Heat is a near-perfect match of player and team. McCullar has been on the draft radar for years now as an elite defensive prospect on the wing, but he’s really put together the pieces of his offensive game at Kansas this season. McCullar is a good decision-maker who moves the ball well, and his improved shooting on solid volume (currently shooting 36.1% from deep on a career-high 4.4 attempts per game) makes it even easier to envision him fitting in as a key cog for the Miami Heat machine.”

No. 45: Trey Alexander, G, Creighton
Fansided (Christopher Kline; Feb. 14):
No. 15: Kevin McCullar, G, Kansas

“Miami opted for experience in the 2023 draft and it paid off. Kevin McCullar is one of the best wing defenders on the board, but the senior’s offensive leap has been the real storyline for top-10 Kansas. He’s hitting more 3s than ever, combined with a more demanding on-ball role that has allowed him to flourish as a slasher and facilitator. McCullar has the potential to contribute right away as a connective two-way wing for an aspirant contender.”

NBADraft.net (Feb. 12):

No. 16: Tidjane Salaun, F, France

 

Yardbarker (Pat Heery, Feb. 11):

No. 20: Jared McCain, G, Duke

It’s never a bad thing to have depth at point guard in the NBA. With Kyle Lowry set to be a free agent (or retire) at the end of the season, there’s a good chance the Heat will be looking for another gritty guard like the one who helped them win the Eastern Conference last season, Gabe Vincent. Duke’s freshman Jaren McCain, like Vincent, is a tough-nosed guard who can play on-ball – though he will need to improve his playmaking, as well as off-ball as a shooter (42 percent from three on more than five attempts per game).”

CBS Sports (Gary Parrish; Feb. 9):

No. 15: Matas Buzelis, F, G-League Ignite

“Buzelis is the type of long prospect who can move all over the floor in ways that front offices really value these days. That he’s shooting below 30% from 3-point range for a terrible G League Ignite team is a bit of a concern, especially considering there have long been questions about whether Buzelis will ever truly be a knockdown shooter. But his positional versatility and ability to pass at his size should make the Chicago native close to a lock to go somewhere in the top 20.”

The Ringer (Kevin O’Connor; Jan. 24):

No. 17: Zach Edey, C, Purdue

“There isn’t a more dominant player in college basketball right now, but scouts are split on Edey’s NBA upside: He’s a 300-pound, non-shooting center with concerns about his ability to defend outside the paint. It would be fascinating to see what he could do in an organization like the Heat, who have one of the best strength and conditioning programs in the league and could maximize whatever Edey can become athletically.

“Hard-to-stop interior scorer, not just because of his sheer size but also because of his skill and touch. He does a great job of using his massive frame to seal off positioning and make himself available for interior feeds. He doesn’t have advanced footwork, but his gigantic presence is enhanced by his agility. … Willingly embraces his role, whether playing limited minutes as an underclassman or running the offense through him as a junior and senior. Playing for the Canadian national team last summer, he fully took on responsibility as a screener, something Purdue doesn’t ask of him as often as post-ups.

“Limited defender when pulled away from the basket. He struggles to recover on pick-and-pops and often gets blown by on closeouts. NBA teams will target him even more than college teams do; granted, he’s made improvements in handling pressure at his current level. … Lacks a perimeter game aside from his screening. Though he has soft touch on floaters and a solid free throw percentage for a big, there is no indication that he will develop a spot-up jumper.”

ESPN (Jonathan Givony, Jeremy Woo; Jan. 11):

No. 20: Yves Missi, C, Baylor

From Feb. 10:

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“Missi’s production has fluctuated throughout the season, but his appeal is the impressive size, reach and verticality he offers as a pick-and-roll finisher. He has shown some flashes creating his own shot from the mid-post or high-post areas as well, using an explosive first step and long strides, helping him draw fouls consistently. Missi’s ability to make a more regular impact as a defender and rebounder are areas that will be scrutinized in the final weeks of the season, as he has been hit or miss protecting the rim and offering physicality on the interior, things he’ll have to do to play a role in the NBA early in his career.”

Tankathon (Feb. 3):

No. 16: Ryan Dunn, F, Virginia
Heat
(Photo Courtesy of Tankathon.com)

***

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3 hurt in fire on Lincoln Road that started underground

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3 hurt in fire on Lincoln Road that started underground


Three people were hurt after a building caught fire on Lincoln Road on Sunday, according to authorities.

The Miami Beach Fire Department said it was working a fire near 230 Lincoln Road.

The flames had spread from a fire in a manhole that “ignited an FPL vault of an adjacent building,” officials said.

Three people were taken to Mount Sinai Medical Center with minor injuries.

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The building was evacuated, and FPL has shut off power to the surrounding area, the fire department said.

Drivers were asked to avoid the area of Collins Avenue between 16th and 17th streets while crews worked the scene.



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“Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” star Tommie Lee among 6 arrested during World Cup match in Miami, sheriff says

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“Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” star Tommie Lee among 6 arrested during World Cup match in Miami, sheriff says


Reality television personality Tommie Lee — whose real name is Atasha Jefferson — best known for her appearances on “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta,” was among six people arrested during the England vs. Norway FIFA World Cup match in Miami on Saturday, according to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office.  

The sheriff’s office said 60,024 fans attended the match. Deputies also reported 19 ejections from the stadium, adding that all incidents were isolated and handled quickly.  

Authorities have not yet released the circumstances surrounding Jefferson’s arrest or any charges she may face.

A social media account that regularly reports celebrity news claimed Sunday that Jefferson was arrested July 11 and released July 12 after posting a $1,000 bond. The post also alleged she is facing a felony charge of interference with a sporting or entertainment event and said she later shared a video on Snapchat appearing to be in good spirits after her release.

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What we don’t know

CBS News has not independently verified those claims, including the reported charge, bond amount or release information, and Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office has not publicly confirmed those details.

CBS News has also not independently verified what led to the encounter, and the sheriff’s office has not said what prompted deputies to take Jefferson into custody.

CBS News has requested Jefferson’s arrest report, booking information and any charging documents from the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office. A request for comment has also been sent to Jefferson’s representatives.

Reality TV star’s legal troubles in South Florida amid World Cup festivities

Jefferson rose to national prominence as one of the breakout personalities on “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” before later appearing on several Zeus Network reality series, where she has remained a frequent cast member.

This is not Jefferson’s first legal issue in South Florida. In 2024, she was arrested in Miami Beach on a battery charge following an incident outside LIV Nightclub. Court records from that case alleged she physically confronted another person before officers took her into custody.  

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Saturday’s arrest comes as Miami continues hosting FIFA World Cup matches that have drawn tens of thousands of fans from around the world. Despite the arrests and ejections, the sheriff’s office said the event proceeded safely and described the incidents as isolated.  

This is a developing story. CBS News will update this article as additional information, including the exact circumstances surrounding Jefferson’s arrest and any charges, becomes available.



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Why I’m Not Worried About Giannis in Miami

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Why I’m Not Worried About Giannis in Miami


The reaction to the trade was predictable. The moment Pat Riley landed his whale and the Heat sent most of their young talent and a war chest of draft picks to Milwaukee for Giannis Antetokounmpo, the conversation turned away from how Miami finally landed the star they had been seeking, to calf strains and Giannis not being the superstar player that he once was.

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“He only played 36 games last year.” ”The calf injuries keep coming back.” “He’s 31, turning 32.” “They bet the franchise on a body that’s breaking down.”

Various voices on Giannis Antetokounmpo

I’ve spent Over 15 years working with youth, collegiate and pro athletes on exactly this question, not “is he hurt,” but “what does this injury actually mean for what comes next.” And I’ll say it plainly: I’M NOT WORRIED ABOUT GIANNIS. Not in the way the panic merchants want you to be.

Let me be clear about what I’m NOT claiming. I’m not his trainer. I don’t have his imaging, his force-plate data, or his medical file. And I’m not going to insult you by telling you calf strains are nothing, because in a 31-year-old NBA forward with 13 years in the NBA, they are decidedly something. The fear has a real basis.

The soleus and the gastrocnemius, which are the two muscles of your calf, both funnel down into the Achilles tendon. When a calf is compromised and an athlete returns before it has its full capacity back, the load it can’t absorb has to go somewhere, and the Achilles is next in line. We’ve watched it happen on the biggest stages. Those are the facts and I take it seriously. I just don’t think it’s the story here.

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Here’s why…

He’s one of the most durable superstars of his era

Before we talk about what’s fragile, look at what’s been bulletproof. Strip away the two COVID-compressed seasons that the entire league played short, and strip away last year (where he wa shut down by the team), and across his other ten campaigns Giannis averaged roughly 73 games a season and never once dipped below 63. He cleared 72 games in 7 different seasons. For more than a decade, the single most physically violent player in basketball, a 6’11”, 250+ pound freight train who initiates more contact per possession than almost anyone alive — was, by availability, an iron man.

Tissue tolerance, connective-tissue quality, recovery capacity, and movement efficiency are stable characteristics of an athlete, and Giannis has eleven years of evidence that his are elite. One brutal season doesn’t erase that baseline. When a historically available athlete has one wrecked year, the honest question should be “what was different about that year.” And a lot was.

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The injuries are soft tissue, not structural

Here’s the piece that many are missing, and it’s the heart of my optimism. Call me a fan if you want, but I hate seeing ANYONE get injured. I’m rooting for Giannis to bounce back.

There are two broad categories of injury, and they age completely differently. The first is structural: torn ligaments, ruptured tendons, cartilage and joint degeneration, stress fractures. These leave a permanent mark. A reconstructed ACL is never the original. Cartilage doesn’t grow back. These are the injuries that genuinely shorten careers, because the tissue itself is changed forever and the clock only runs one direction.

The second category is soft-tissue strains or muscle. A calf strain, a groin strain, a hamstring pull. And muscle is the one tissue in the lower body that, when managed properly, heals back to full structural integrity. It is not a cumulative wound. A calf you strained in December and rehabbed correctly is not a weaker calf in March; it’s a healed calf. There’s no scar that compounds the way an arthritic joint compounds. Strains are frustrating, they’re disruptive to a season, and they recur when you rush them, but they are not a countdown timer ticking toward catastrophe.

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Now go down Giannis’s list from last season: a low-grade groin strain. A calf strain. A re-aggravated calf. An ankle sprain. A knee hyperextension with a bone bruise. Look at that honestly. The ankle sprain is acute meaning it’s a one-off mechanical event as opposed to a sign of decay. The knee hyperextension and bone bruise are traumatic. That could be somebody’s leg, a bad landing, a freak gather (no pun intended). A bone bruise heals. None of those four are degenerative. None of them are the kind of injury that feeds the next one.

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Which leaves the calf. The one real recurrence. So let’s talk about the calf specifically, because that’s where the argument is actually won or lost.

What a soleus strain is

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Cleveland Clinic

Your calf is two muscles doing two different jobs. The gastrocnemius is the showy one that crosses both the knee and the ankle, it’s fast-twitch, it’s what fires when you sprint and explode off the floor. The soleus sits underneath it, crosses only the ankle, and it’s the endurance muscle. It’s considered the postural workhorse that absorbs force every time you decelerate, land, and push off, thousands of times a night in the case of many athletes. Giannis’s recurring problem has been the soleus.

Soleus strains are classic high-mileage, fatigue-and-load injuries. They show up in athletes who run an enormous volume on a heavy frame which is the literal job description of a player who logged the third-highest workload on a bad team.

And here’s the critical part: soleus strains are notoriously slow to heal and notoriously easy to re-tweak. The calf is one of hardest lower-leg structures to truly load-test before return. It can pass every clinical check, feel 100 percent walking and even jogging, and still not have the deep capacity to handle a full-speed game’s worth of repeated max-effort decelerations. Return a week early and you’re injuring healed tissue that hadn’t been rebuilt to game-level capacity yet.

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Feb 6, 2024; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers talks to forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) against the Phoenix Suns at Footprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

Last season was the worst possible environment for getting that management right. Consider the context Giannis was actually operating in. Milwaukee went 32-50 and missed the playoffs. The franchise eventually fired its coach.

Giannis spent the entire year as the center of a trade saga that, by every report, had him wanting out for over a year. A declining team with a disgruntled superstar and a front office weighing his trade value against his health is the textbook setup for muddled, hurried, incentive-conflicted return decisions which are exactly the conditions under which a soleus strain becomes two soleus strains.

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Now change the environment as he lands in Miami. Known for being an organization with a near-mythological reputation for conditioning and body management, a culture that has rehabilitated and extended careers other teams gave up on.

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He pairs with Bam Adebayo, which means for the first time in years Giannis doesn’t have to be the entire offensive and defensive engine every single night. As of now the roster isn’t fully complete but they will add to that so that there’s lower usage and a shared load. Real return-to-play standards instead of playoff-desperation math. You take the most fixable injury pattern on his chart and drop it into the best possible setting to fix it.

Feb 13, 2024; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) drives against Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo (13) in the first half at Fiserv Forum. Mandatory Credit: Michael McLoone-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect
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His game is built to age

There’s a movement argument too. Giannis isn’t a stop-start, pull-up, hard-cut guard whose game is one violent deceleration after another. He’s a downhill, long-stride force athlete. His value comes from length, gather, straight-line pressure, rim protection, and playmaking. Those are skills that lean on size and feel, and they degrade gracefully with age in a way that twitchy, change-of-direction games don’t. The same frame that makes him an injury talking point is the frame that lets him dominate without living on the edge of his physical limits every possession.

What would actually change my mind? If the recurring issue were structural, like a partial Achilles tear, chronic patellar tendon breakdown that imaging showed was degenerating, cartilage loss in the knee, I’d be writing a very different column.

If he came back this season and strained the same calf a third and fourth time despite a clean environment and proper protocols, that would tell me something about the tissue I can’t see. And the Achilles risk that follows calf injuries in some athletes is real enough that it should govern how Miami brings him back: slowly, on capacity-based criteria.

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EVERY great athlete in his thirties requires careful management. That’s just the truth.

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I’m not telling you he’s invincible. But I’m not willing to bet against eleven years of durability and the most fixable problem on the chart if you want. I’ll take the Greek Freak, the new setting, and the science that we’ll all be watching a productive age-32 season with a lot less fear than the headlines are selling you.

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