It might technically take time for NBA Draft reaches and values to be fully figured out, but the early read on Wednesday's first round suggests the Miami Heat scored one of the night's best bargains. Kasparas Jakucionis was a borderline top-10 prospect, and the Heat snagged him with the 20th pick. That's just good basketball business.
If the Heat want to maximize the value of this selection, though, then their next order of business seems obvious: Silencing all the trade talk around Andrew Wiggins. Or at least any chatter that doesn't involve shipping him out for a legitimate star.
His defense is way too important to consider letting him go.
The Heat desperately need Wiggins' defense to help protect their (heavily) offense-leaning backcourt.
While Miami's offense should be in much better shape with Jakucionis around to address the previously glaring playmaking void, the same can't be said of the defense. Squeezing even serviceable defense out of the Jakucionis-Tyler Herro backcourt could be a stretch, and the plan can't be that somehow Erik Spoelstra will just figure all of this out or that the Bam Adebayo-Kel'el Ware combo can clean up all of the guards' mistakes.
The Heat need a legitimate point-of-attack stopper, and that's where Wiggins shines brightest. His physical tools remain top-notch even with his 30th birthday behind him, and he'll use them to harass everyone from breakneck backcourt players to big, burly wings.
That versatility will be invaluable because there will seldom be a comfortable defensive assignment for either Jakucionis or Herro, let alone for both. Jakucionis has some size, and he competes, but he can struggle against both speed and strength. Most NBA perimeter players check at least one of those boxes.
Keeping Wiggins around will lessen some of Miami's defensive concerns.
Despite mostly matching up with the elites of the elite this past season, he still managed to shave 1.7 percentage points off his opponents' normal field-goal rate, per NBA.com. And that was while navigating around both availability issues and a midseason move from Golden State to Miami.
His defense is special, and his offense is better than most legitimate stoppers supply. He also has a chance to up his efficiency as an athletic, ignitable play-finisher in an offense that could have multiple creators on the floor at all times.
He may have never become the two-way star so many envisioned when he was the top overall pick in 2014—though he did get an All-Star invite in 2022—but he's a star-level defender who won't squeeze the spacing or spoil the rhythm on the game's more glamorous end. Doesn't that sound like the exact kind of player you'd want next to Miami's offense-focused guard group?
Hopefully, the Heat front office agrees, because there isn't an obvious (and available) trade target who'd be worth giving up the protection Wiggins will provide to the organization's newest investment.