Miami Heat: Is Spain’s Mario Hezonja Being Targeted?
By David Ramil
Pat Riley has typically steered the Miami Heat away from adding international players to the roster. It’s a conscious decision, as he admitted back in 2010 when asked about his foreign policy:
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“I like the homegrown product, I just do,” he said in explaining why he has never invested seriously in a foreign player. “I feel comfortable with it. And maybe somewhere in free agency or via some trades, we may have missed somewhere along the line, but I just felt I just like the players here. That’s where I’ve gone. I not saying that we’re not going to ever draft a foreign player or sign one, but it hasn’t been at the top of our priority list.”
But a current scouting trip to Europe would seem to indicate a shift in Riley’s attitude and Spain’s Mario Hezonja might be the reason for the expanded world view.
The Heat are expected to have a high selection in this year’s draft, with some odds-makers putting Miami’s chances at holding on to the 10th pick at around 90 percent. And while adding a young frontcourt player is a possibility, Hezonja’s youth, athleticism and wide array of skills might be too much to pass up.
Riley and some key front office personnel are in Spain, according to the Sun Sentinel’s Ira Winderman, scouting this year’s top international prospects, namely Hezonja and Kristaps Porzingis. Both are expected to be top-10 selections in the upcoming draft. Porzingis is a 6’11” forward that — at just 19 years old — could develop into a sharpshooting stretch-4 in the NBA.
Mock drafts have him selected before Miami is expected to make a pick. But Hezonja, an explosive 6’8″ wing player, might be capable of making an immediate impact.
His highlight reel is a mix of thunderous dunks, sharp dribbling and long-range accuracy, certainly enough to entice Heat fans on the pick:
And while his age (just 20) might be a concern, he’s been playing professionally since 2012 and even represented his homeland of Croatia as part of the men’s national team at the 2014 FIBA World Cup.
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Picking Hezonja is enticing to be sure, but by no means a sure thing. For one, there’s the likely possibility that he’ll be gone by the time the Heat makes their pick. The Magic (with the fifth pick), Kings (sixth) and Nuggets (seventh) have all had success with international prospects (Nikola Vucevic, Omri Casspi and Danilo Gallinari, respectively).
And while the Pistons (eighth) have been famously burned before (with Darko Milicic in 2003), they’re rumored to have some interest in both Hezonja and Porzingis.
Moreover, there are holes in Hezonja’s game that could ultimately turn off Riley, even if the F.C. Barcelona star is available at No. 10. He’s a eager shooter but perhaps too much so, with a whopping 75 percent of all his shot attempts being jumpers.
He’s got the length and athleticism to be a solid defender, but early scouting reports show that he’s frequently out of position and can get a lost on rotations (something that doomed both Michael Beasley and James Ennis this past season in Miami).
Rumors of a bad attitude — not blending with teammates, being arrogant, unwilling to develop — certainly don’t help improve his draft status.
It’s things like this that have made Riley traditionally hesitant to select foreign-born players. In the mid- to late ’90s, Riley starting looking overseas for the next great talent, someone to fit the mold of Drazen Petrovic or Toni Kukoc. He brought in a great offensive player in Sasha Danilovic that never really grew comfortable in the U.S. and was a sieve on defense.
Two seasons in the NBA were all it took before Danilovic was traded to Dallas before returning to Europe for good.
Riley also blew a draft pick on a European player and might never have quite recovered, as Winderman points out in his piece:
"The only time the Heat made a significant investment in a European prospect in the draft during Riley’s stewardship was the acquisition of Estonian forward Martin Muursepp during the first round of the 1996 draft. The move cost the Heat a future first-round pick and also required the Heat to play an exhibition game in Israel to get Muursepp out of his contract there. Muursepp wound up playing 27 total minutes with the Heat before he was dealt to the Dallas Mavericks in 1997 in the trade that landed Jamal Mashburn."
Time may be softening Riley’s stance a little, as the mid-season trade for Goran Dragic shows. Even then, Dragic has been a proven All-Star caliber player in the NBA for years; any signs of perceived weaknesses in his game have been exposed and ironed out as much as possible.
It’s likely that Riley is doing his due diligence in Europe, as you’d expect him to do. But even if the exciting potential of Hezonja is available when Miami makes their pick in the draft, you could expect Riley to follow suit and stick to the “homegrown product”.
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