5 power forwards the Miami Heat could target in the 2017 NBA Draft

Ivan Rabb (Cal)

In an era that’s dominated by top prospects going to college for a year and then hightailing it out of there as quickly as possible, Ivan Rabb is an anomaly. After arriving at Cal as the seventh overall recruit in the country, and having success as a freshman, Rabb surprised people by announcing he’d be returning for his sophomore year.

His reasoning was simple. He said that the NBA wasn’t going anywhere, and he’d still be in a position to go in the lottery after another year of seasoning.

Thus far, early returns on his decision deem it questionable.

Rabb has managed to up his scoring, rebounding, and assists from his freshman year campaign. He currently averages 15 points, nine boards, and two dimes per contest. It came at a cost though: his efficiency. The sophomore’s shooting percentage has dipped to 55 percent after being at 62 in his first year. And his free throw shooting, which was already poor, managed to get even worse.

That’s due to the fact that he’s trying to change his game to look more appealing to NBA teams. Rabb is a player, who despite having solid size (6-foot-10 with a 7-foot-2 wingspan), struggles in one area most stretch-4’s of his ilk excel. And that’s shooting the basketball.

Today’s top teams have bigs who can stretch the floor. That doesn’t mean that your big men have to be adept shooters but, if they’re not, they need to be good playmakers at the very least. The teams with the best offensive ratings all feature fours who fall into one of those two categories. Ryan Anderson, Kevin Love, Draymond Green and Blake Griffin all immediately come to mind.

Meanwhile, Rabb, is limited in not just his shooting but in his passing as well.  He averaged less than one assist per game as a freshman. And that number hasn’t risen enough this year to make a difference. That has led many analysts to believe that his future in the NBA will be as a small-ball center.

Does that mean he can’t one day blossom into a valuable NBA player? Of course not. Just two years ago, Kenneth Faried, a somewhat comparable tweener-type (although Rabb doesn’t have the same athleticism), had early success, and got a $60 million extension from the Denver Nuggets out of it. So there is precedent.

But would Riley and Heat brass necessarily want another center who can’t shoot coming off the bench? I doubt it.

Even more worrisome are Rabb’s defensive deficiencies. Despite his length, he doesn’t really block shots (averaging just one per game). Further, his feet don’t move as smoothly as Markkanen’s, which makes it difficult for him to switch onto guards. And his thin frame sometimes gets backed down rather easily, even at the college level.

Despite all the negatives, the Cal power forward does do a lot of other things well. He has a solid face-up game in the mid-post, runs the floor, and has excellent hands for a big. And even though he’s not a leaper by any means, his reach and tenacity make him a great rebounder. I started the following clip at a point that shows four straight impressive offensive sequences by Rabb. They’re mostly all in the post:

You can see his hands, his pick-and-roll finishing ability, and finally, his length (which helped him finish the alley-oop), all at full display.

But still, I just don’t see a fit for Rabb and the Heat, barring a Hassan Whiteside trade. Even then, it would probably be an awkward match for both parties.