Career stats with Miami: 181 GP, 9.6 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 1.3 APG, 0.4 SPG, 0.1 BPG, 46.1 FG%, 32.8 3FG%, 77.9 FT%
Had Harold Miner lived up to his immense potential, he would rank far higher here.
During his three-year career at USC, Minor averaged 23.5 points on 45.3 percent shooting and earned the nickname “Baby Jordan” thanks to his rim-rattling dunks. After being named the Pac-12 Player of the Year in 1991-92, he declared for the 1992 draft, where Miami selected him at No. 12 overall.
The Jordan comparisons quickly began to fade, as Miner didn’t start a single game during his rookie season despite appearing in 73 contests. He won the Slam Dunk Contest at All-Star Weekend as a rookie — and did so again two years later — but that wound up being one of the highlights of his Heat career.
To some degree, Miner’s underwhelming Heat tenure wasn’t entirely his fault. The Heat had spent the No. 5 overall pick on fellow 2-guard Steve Smith the year prior, and the positionless craze sweeping over the NBA these days was still decades away. Miner was the relegated to the bench for all but 47 of his 181 appearances in a Heat uniform, although he did churn out double-digit scoring totals in each of his first two seasons with Miami.
In June 1995, the Heat packaged Miner with a second-round draft pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers for a second-rounder, which speaks to how far his stock had fallen in only three seasons. After 19 underwhelming games in Cleveland, the Cavaliers released him in August 1996, and he would never play another regular-season NBA game again.
Miner was arguably Miami’s biggest draft whiff in its formative years, as players such as Doug Christie, Jon Barry and Latrell Sprewell went off the board later in the first round. Though the “Baby Jordan” moniker proved to be misplaced, his two Dunk Contest titles and production as a reserve in the early 1990s do count for something.
Next: No. 12