NBA draft now with a halftime, with Heat back at it for second round Thursday

MIAMI — This time, the NBA draft comes with a halftime, the league for the first time spreading the two rounds over two days.

So Wednesday night the main course, the first 30 selections over the first round at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

Thursday at 4 p.m at ESPN’s New York studios, the final 28 selections (with picks forfeited due to previous salary-cap violations by the Philadelphia 76ers and Phoenix Suns.)

For the Miami Heat and the rest of the league, it means an opportunity for a double exhale. Not only about the 17 hours between the rounds, but teams are now given four minutes in the second round per selection instead of the previous two (there remains a five-minute limit between selections in the first round).

“It’s going to be a lot of digging of information between the two rounds,” said Adam Simon,  the Heat’s vice president of basketball operations and assistant general manager, who oversees the team’s draft.

With the Heat entering the draft process slotted at No. 43 overall, the 13th selection of the second round, the break in the draft will mean a reset of the intel process, with teams having played some of their hand in the first round.

“So it’s either going to be a lot of maneuvering or a lot of lying,” Simon said of the chatter during the break, “one or the other.”

As it is, having a second-round pick is somewhat of a Heat anomaly.

The last time the Heat emerged from the second round with a selection was when they traded for the rights to KZ Okpala in 2019. That foray led to an uneven partnership on a three-year contract the Heat eventually dealt for salary-cap relief.

The second round is one that is played by its own rules – numerous rules. Unlike first-round selections, which come with guaranteed contracts, players selected in the second round are not slotted into a specific salary scale. Further, some teams make second-round selections with the intent of signing those picks to two-way contracts, which do not count against the salary cap. In addition, second-round agreements often are made with overseas players to have such selections remain overseas and therefore count neither against next season’s salary cap nor roster limit.

While the Wild West nature of the season round hasn’t changed, what has is the added time for agents to influence the process.

“I anticipate a lot of phone calls between teams and agents, and agents trying to figure out where their players are going to go,” Simon of the break between rounds, with the Heat’s war room set up on the team’s practice court at Kaseya Center.

With the NBA’s rookie scale, the first round is formulaic.

“The second round, there’s the ability to sign players to four-year contracts or two-way contracts or ‘stash,’ you take a foreign player, leave him over,” Simon said. “So I think every agent’s going to have a different agenda, and some are going to want their players to try to get to certain teams.

“They’re going to do what they can to maybe potentially get their player to a team. And then at the same time, there’ll be teams trying to find out from agents where they think their players are going to go and help them to maneuver.”

Recent Heat second-round picks

2024: No. 43 (own selection).

2023: None.

2022: None.

2021: None.

2020: None.

2019: Bol Bol (No. 44, immediately dealt to Denver Nuggets). Traded for  No. 32 selection KZ Okpala.

2018: None.

2017: None.

2016: None.

2015: Josh Richardson (No. 40).