What the Miami Heat Can Learn From the NBA Playoff’s First Round

What the Miami Heat Can Learn From the NBA Playoff’s First Round by Wes Goldberg

ESPN’s draft expert Chad Ford recently published a mock NBA Draft, and has the Miami Heat selecting Arizona small forward Stanley Johnson.

Here is what he had to say about the pick.

The Heat’s future is very much up in the air this summer. Dwyane Wade, Goran Dragic and Luol Deng can opt out and Chris Bosh’s health is still a major question mark. Drafting for need probably isn’t the smartest move. Johnson would be a nice fit regardless of what the others do. He’s one of the most NBA-ready players in the draft, can play the 2 and the 3 and he’s a fierce competitor. He can back up both Wade and Deng if they come back, or take a starting role if one of them (likely Deng) decides to leave.

Think what you will of Ford, after it was revealed his draft boards are retroactively edited to make him seem more accurate, but he’s still one of the more widely respected (or, at least, listened to) NBA draft experts.

Usually his posts are behind ESPN’s pay wall, but the internet has its ways.

The Heat will most likely end up with the 10th pick in the draft, with a four percent chance of landing a top-3 pick and a small chance of being dumped from the top-10 all together.

Johnson seems like a solid choice for the Heat regardless of what happens this off-season. He’s got all the physical skills you would want in a prospect and could come along slowly on the deepest team in the NBA Draft’s top 10.

In his one and only season at Arizona, Johnson averaged 13.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 28.4 minutes per game. He was also a 37.1 percent 3-point shooter.