The Miami Heat's hopes of building a capable supporting cast around Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo may be built on potential free-agent targets that may never become available.
Over the last few days, the Heat have seen a few of their targets fly off the board in favor of the likelihood that other (or better) players may hit the buyout/free agent market. The problem is, there's no guarantee that will happen.
CJ McCollum, Mike Conley Jr., and Anfernee Simons are all targets that the Heat have been linked to over the last week. However, each of them has already signed with other teams. At least in part because the Heat wants to retain flexibility (and money) to pursue other options that may become available.
Per source, Anfernee Simons would have welcomed Heat interest but Heat conveyed in past 24 hours that it would be willing to give him only the minimum. (I would have done it to provide a younger player, explosive scoring, but Heat ultimately decided no.) It's a gamble. To me,…
— Barry Jackson (@flasportsbuzz) July 2, 2026
Heat could be waiting for an early buyout market that may never come
Three of those potential targets were shouted out in a recent article by Heat writer Ira Winderman. In this article, he explored the idea of the Heat potentially holding out hope that Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and/or Kentavious Caldwell-Pope could end up hitting the free-agency market after being bought out this summer.
The problem is, neither of those is a guarantee. It's not just a foregone conclusion that either of those players will end up hitting the free-agent market, but there's also no guarantee that either of them would choose to sign a cheap deal with the Heat even if it were to happen.
In a sense, especially if the Heat's inactivity in free agency continues, there's an argument to be made that they're relying on a dangerous false hope.
One that could put them in a world of trouble as the Heat tries to put its finishing touches on the first-year build around Giannis. The last thing the Heat can afford to do is acquire Giannis only to fail to properly build around him in year one. Especially considering that Giannis has yet to sign his extension in Miami.
I can't imagine there are any concerns that Giannis would be discouraged after one season in Miami, but this front office can't afford that to even be a possibility.
And the first step in avoiding that would be for the Heat to stop putting faith in scenarios that may never happen. It's a much bigger risk than the front office may realize.
Who knows how all this will play out for the Heat, but there's no question they may already be playing with fire before the Giannis era even begins. Time will ultimately be the final judge, and it will truly be interesting to see how this ends up playing out for Miami.
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