Sports
Heat 2023 NBA free agency grades for every signing – ClutchPoints
By
Jesse Cinquini
The Miami Heat's 2023 playoff run was one for the history books. Heading into the postseason as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, plenty of folks wrote off the Heat and didn't believe they could beat Giannis Antetokounmpo and the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the first round. But the Heat eliminated the Bucks in five games and then went on to beat the New York Knicks in six and the Boston Celtics in seven in the next couple of rounds to advance to the NBA Finals. The Heat became just the second eighth-seed in NBA playoff history to make it to the Finals — the 1999 Knicks are the lone other team who accomplished this feat.
Miami's postseason run didn't end the way the Heat or their fans wanted it to, though. The Heat fell to Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and the Denver Nuggets in five games in the NBA Finals and were thoroughly outplayed for the lion's share of the series.
The manner in which the Miami Heat's 2022-23 season ended was certainly disappointing, but a productive free-agency period could have helped fans forget about the team coming up short in the NBA Finals. And while the Heat have lost Max Strus (Cleveland Cavaliers) and Gabe Vincent (Miami Heat) to opposing franchises, the Heat have still enjoyed a productive free-agency period. After all, the Heat re-signed Kevin Love, who was a major part of last year's team, and they also signed Josh Richardson and Thomas Bryant. With all of that said, let's hand out NBA free agency grades for every signing the Heat have made to this point:
Kevin Love is a very flawed defensive player at this stage of his career, and that's a big part of why he played sporadically during Miami's historic playoff run. But Love's abilities to rebound the ball and shoot it from behind the three-point arc alone make him worth the money.
Kevin Love shot 37.5% from behind the three-point arc during the 2023 postseason on 4.4 attempts per contest, an impressive combination of usage rate and efficiency, especially for a player of his size. And rebounding-wise, Love was equally as effective in the playoffs, as he averaged 5.6 rebounds in just 18.0 minutes per game.
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The Heat's Richardson signing may go down as one of the best deals of the 2023 NBA free agency period in terms of value. Richardson thrived off the New Orleans Pelicans bench during the tail end of the 2022-23 regular season.
Richardson's defensive chops and penchant for coming up with steals were on full display with the New Orleans Pelicans, as he averaged 1.3 steals per contest (the second-highest steals average of his career) across 22 appearances. And offensively, Richardson provided valuable floor spacing — he converted 38.4% of his threes as a Pelican.
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Thomas Bryant has quietly been a very productive NBA center for a few years now. Over his last three seasons, he holds averages of 9.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 0.6 blocks per game.
Bryant isn't a sexy name by any means, but he projects to be a great replacement for center Cody Zeller, who signed with the New Orleans Pelicans in free agency.
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