In their short history, the Miami Heat have been fortunate enough to draft players like Dwyane Wade, Caron Butler, Glen Rice and Steve Smith. While those are the highlights, these are the lowlights.
At the end of every season, the entire NBA reconvenes to select the next crop of superstars and sometimes that wish comes true. But for every Paul George, Russell Westbrook and Dwyane Wade, there are those picks that just don’t pan out.
One could argue that fit and timing matter more in the NBA than in any other sport, with that incoming draft pick absorbing that particular team’s culture. The Miami Heat have marketed their own culture for many years, but it wasn’t there from the very start and it certainly doesn’t work on everybody.
Here are five players drafted by the Heat who, for their own respective reasons, didn’t work out in Miami.
5. Kurt Thomas
While the hard-nosed forward went on to play 18 years in the NBA, his time with the Heat was brief as he was selected with the 10th overall pick in the 1995 draft.
His rookie campaign was strong, starting 42 games and averaging a respectable nine points and six rebounds, but an ankle injury in his second year stunted his development, appearing in just 18 games.
With Pat Riley new in town, he dealt Thomas and others to Dallas in exchange for more scoring, securing Jamal Mashburn. While Mashburn proved to be a centerpiece of those competitive teams of the late 90s, it was Thomas who landed on the other side playing seven years for the Knicks and bringing that toughness to the team that did battle with the Heat for many years.
It’s tough to imagine what could’ve been if the Heat held onto Thomas (assuming they were able to get Mashburn another way) and pitted him against that tough Knicks frontline.
4. Khalid Reeves
Along with Damon Stoudamire, guard Khalid Reeves orchestrated a run to the Final Four for Lute Olson and the University of Arizona in 1994, but his success thereafter was limited.
Selected 12th overall in 1994, Reeves would play for six teams in five years including his first with the Heat where he averaged just nine points.
TheNoLookPass.com recently profiled Reeves, noting that then-Heat coach Kevin Loughery viewed him as the best point guard in the draft. He was the second point guard off the board after Jason Kidd (future Heat guard Eddie Jones was also in that ’94 draft), and taken before Charlie Ward went to the Knicks with the 26th pick.
Reeves arrived at a transitional time in the franchise’s history, as Loughery was replaced by Pat Riley shortly thereafter and cornerstone Rony Seikaly was also traded. Reeves joined Glen Rice and Mett Geiger in a trade that brought Alonzo Mourning to Miami, reshaping the face of the Miami Heat.
Reeves’ career didn’t amount to much else after leaving the Heat, as he bounced around the league on various 10-day contracts, never able to capture the magic in the NBA that his Arizona backcourt running mate did.
3. Wayne Simien
There is an unfortunately long list of standout college basketball players who were taken out of the league mostly by bad luck. Wayne Simien is one of those players.
A freakishly athletic forward/center who played four years at Kansas, winning the Big 12 Player of the Year award as a senior and notching three Big 12 titles as well, Simien looked well on his way to having a long and healthy NBA career.
The Heat took him 29th overall in 2005 after a run to the Eastern Conference Finals as they looked to add some athleticism to their frontline to combat the Detroit Pistons. While Simien would play on the 2006 championship team and win a title, he wouldn’t contribute.
A salmonella infection forced him out of the team’s 2006 Summer League and limited his ability to contribute that season, appearing in just eight games. In 2007 as a part of a major franchise reconstruction in the wake of a title, Simien was dealt to Minnesota with Antoine Walker and Michael Doleac. He was waived by the Wolves and his career would never recover.
2. Dorell Wright
The quest to find then-budding star Dwyane Wade a backcourt mate spanned several years and numerous attempts, starting in 2004 with the selection of 19-year old Dorell Wright.
Wright was supposed to be the next high school phenom following in the footsteps of LeBron James. The Heat were going to assemble the young, athletic backcourt of the future with Wright and Wade, the two even became great friends and still are to this day.
But on the court, Wright just wasn’t ready. He couldn’t match the NBA athleticism and his jumper proved far too inconsistent. He was assigned to the team’s Developmental League squad the Florida Flame in hopes of developing his game further but to no avail. In six seasons with the Heat, Wright started just 56 games and never averaged over eight points per game.
While both parties went their separate ways for the better, the Heat missed out on a chance to pair Wade with the likes of Jameer Nelson, Tony Allen, Kevin Martin or Trevor Ariza, all drafted following their pick.
As for Wright, he caught on with the Golden State Warriors and had the best year of his career in 2010, averaging 16 points per game and finishing third in the voting for Most Improved Player. The Heat even brought Wright back in 2016, where he played in minimal action. He was recently waived by the Los Angeles Clippers following the 2017 preseason.
1. Michael Beasley
Along with Wright, the next attempt to add a dynamic playmaker as a complement to Wade came in 2008, when the Heat had their highest draft pick in franchise history. They’d pick second after the Chicago Bulls and the consensus was that it’d be Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley with the first two picks.
The Bulls went with Rose and the Heat took the athletic lefty from Kansas State to anchor their franchise for the next decade. Those plans of course never took shape as Beasley’s two seasons with the Heat could best be described as uneven.
No draft pick in Miami Heat history came in with as much hype as Beasley, only to perform no better than a bench player. Beasley was inefficient, sloppy and inconsistent, showing flashes of his brilliance that made him the second pick in the draft and then following up with an erratic performance.
Off the court, Beasley was also an issue along with Mario Chalmers, who were both fined repeatedly during their rookie season for violation of team rules such as being late to or missing practice.
It’s safe to say that the Michael Beasley experiment in Miami was a failure, as the Heat traded him to Minnesota for future draft picks in 2010 as they prepared to bring in LeBron James and Chris Bosh.
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Much like Wright, Beasley would get a second chance with the Heat, returning to the ream in 2013 and joining them in the playoffs that season that resulted in a five game loss to the Spurs. Unlike Wright, Beasley returned a third time in 2015, first signing a ten-day contract in February of that year and then staying around for the rest of the season. The Heat mercifully declined his option that offseason.
Beasley played last season for the Milwaukee Bucks, and will be a free agent this summer.