The Miami Heat told us that they planned to run it back. Well, here was the first domino to fall that would set that plan in motion.
With free agency upon us, the first domino to fall for the Miami Heat was bringing back stellar point guard Goran Dragic. Dragic, aka The Dragon, played a vital role for Miami last season and it’s no surprise that Pat Riley and company wanted to bring him back.
According to Shams Charania aka Shams Charania of The Athletic, aka mini Woj, Miami is bringing back the All-Star point guard on a two-year deal worth $37.4 million. I like the value for both Goran and Miami here.
Goran gets a nice payday and Miami signs him to a short deal in case we see some regression with Goran. Before suffering a foot injury in the NBA Finals though, Goran was arguably Miami’s second most important player behind only Mr. Big Face Coffee himself, Jimmy Butler.
The Miami Heat told us that they were content with bringing back their own. At least that would be mission number one and that’s just how they began Free Agency.
The Heat just weren’t the same after Dragic went down in Game One, that could also have been the result of a long playoff grind. But the depth definitely was not there at guard for the Heat.
This was honestly an unsurprising move, but I’m still glad Pat Riley got a deal done early with Goran before another team could swoop in and take him. Hopefully, this is just the first step in Pat Riley bringing the band back together.
With Jae Crowder potentially having multiple suitors, Jimmy Butler will need to work hard to make sure his fellow Marquette alum makes it back to Miami. It will be interesting to see what kind of role Dragic has next season.
After starting the season in the starting role, Goran went to the bench after the emergence of Kendrick Nunn. After Nunn came down with Covid-19 in the bubble, Goran was thrust back into the starting lineup where he thrived for the rest of the season.
My best guess is that the Dragon returns to the bench, where he can feast on second-team units.
However, that’s another problem for another day.
The most important thing is that our boy is returning home! Hopefully, Goran and Jimmy can form their own recruiting pitch and go after some more free agents.