The Miami Heat have reached out to Jared Sullinger

The Miami Heat have held preliminary talks with free agent power forward Jared Sullinger, according to local media reports.

With Chris Bosh’s eventual release looming, the Miami Heat are about to have a roster spot become available. Local media members Ira Winderman and Barry Jackson are reporting that Miami may have a target in mind: Jared Sullinger.

According to Jackson (via the Miami Herald):

"Veteran free agent forward Jared Sullinger met with Heat president Pat Riley in recent days as he begins the process of looking for a new team, agent David Falk said by phone on Monday. Asked if the Heat is in the mix to sign Sullinger, Falk called the conversations “exploratory at this point. We’re looking for a future home. A lot of things would have to happen. They have no roster spot.”"

Falk stated that talks are exploratory in nature because the Heat don’t have a roster spot open at the moment. But he knows full well Bosh is set to released, it’s just a matter of Miami going through the process. They could wait until the summer to do it, as Jackson said in his piece.

Or, if they like a certain free agent, they could do it sooner. It will take finding a third-party doctor to declare Bosh’s health unfit to continue playing, which is all but certain to happen.

Jackson admits this may be far from occurring, and Falk mentioned he and Sullinger are still looking around. Nonetheless, the news is pertinent.

Thoughts on Sullinger

I was very much on the Terrence Jones train after his release from the New Orleans Pelicans. Unfortunately, Riley and team management didn’t agree with my assessment. According to Jackson, Miami weren’t interested in Jones due to concerns over his maturity.

(Find that to be a confounding excuse. After all, did they not sign Dion Waiters this past offseason? Was he not a guy with maturity issues?)

Sullinger was last fully healthy in 2015-16 (out for the first 41 games of this season with a foot injury), a year that saw him miss just one outing for the Boston Celtics. He averaged 10.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 0.9 steals on 43.5 percent shooting over 81 games. Modest numbers at best, but he did rank 93rd-overall in Value Over Replacement Player (VORP for short: plus-1.5), and 90th in Win Shares (4.8).

For comparison’s sake, Dragic’s VORP that year was plus-1.6, and his Win Shares were actually lower than Sullinger’s.

There’s no question that the veteran big man is a player with some ability. He can score on the low block and has a decent face-up game. Further, he’s an okay defender one-on-one, thanks to his size and deceptively quick feet. He won’t protect the rim because he lacks the necessary vertical required, but he won’t need to playing next to Hassan Whiteside.

In all, if Sullinger does get picked up by Miami, I doubt he would play much. The Heat have found a groove with Luke Babbitt spreading the floor next to Whiteside, and James Johnson plays a ton of minutes at the backup power forward spot.

Next: The Stretch 4: Johnson shines and two ugly losses

But you never know. Maybe a change of scenery is what Sullinger needs to find the promise he had early in his career.