What Should Miami Heat Do with the No. 20 Pick?

After a tumultuous season, the Miami Heat find themselves in a bit of a crisis heading into the 2025 NBA Draft. Franchise player Jimmy Butler forced his way out of the organization, which, amongst other things, resulted in a lopsided, non-competitive first-round exit at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers, 4-0.

A team that once dominated the Eastern Conference, Miami is in dire need of an excellent draft, a difficult task considering they are picking 20th overall. They are a roster in flux, a mix of aging veterans, inconsistent lead initiator play, and a lack of any real impact players on the offensive end.

The primary problem with the Miami roster is the aforementioned point guard play. Tyler Herro was often forced into the lead guard role, where he spent 38% of his offensive reps last year. Given that their best offensive weapon played out of position for a good chunk of his minutes, the Heat have to find someone to orchestrate the offense in this draft despite not having a lottery pick.

There are a few players fitting this mold that could be available at No. 20. Two of these prospects are international point guards in Nolan Traore (Saint-Quentin, LNBPA/France) and Ben Saraf (Ratiopharm Ulm, German BBL/Israel). Other options are Jase Richardson (Michigan State) and Walter Clayton Jr. (Florida).

After the mass exodus of prospects over the last couple of months, many of whom opted to stay in the collegiate ranks due to a massive increase in NIL spending, the picks outside of the lottery are becoming more and more difficult to evaluate as franchise-changing options.

The other issue is that with the thinning of the talent pool, Miami may have to take a swing on someone with upside versus any kind of established NBA commodity, something that is challenging enough to determine even with players inside of the top 10.

There is the potential that the Heat add Phoenix star Kevin Durant, who narrowed down his preferred destination list to three teams: San Antonio, Houston, and Miami. Still, even when adding that kind of offensive firepower, who will run the offense?

The best pick seems to be whichever player is available between the two international guards. Even with the possibility of adding an all-time great scorer, the Heat still need to nail this draft if they have any hope of being competitive in the East going forward.