Miami Heat: 6 Most Interesting Late Lottery Draft Options

2. Justin Jackson, SF, North Carolina

Justin Jackson is one of the fastest-rising prospects in the 2017 draft class.

As recently as January of this year, Draft Express had him projected as the 39th overall pick. Presently, he’s all the way up to 14th.

Part of that is due to Jackson becoming a legitimate threat from three-point range as a junior. After shooting 29.7 percent from deep during his first two years of college, Jackson improved that margin to 37.0 percent in his third season.

He also got much better as a pure spot-up shooter, making him the exact type of wing the Heat want to put around Dragic and Waiters in Erik Spoelstra’s drive-and-kick offense.

There are those who question how legitimate his improvements were, though. Over the first 30 games of 2016-17, Jackson converted successfully on 39.9 percent of his threes. But in his last 10 outings, he shot 28.9 percent from three, or, about what he shot as a freshman and sophomore.

Is a 30-game sample size (over three years) enough to prove he’s become adept from beyond the arc? Or, is the fact that as the games got tighter and he faced better defenses, he regressed back to being a sub-par shooter from deep, a more accurate portrayal of who he is?

Nonetheless, his potential value isn’t solely as a shooter. Jackson averaged 18.3 points per game last year, displaying an ability to score on all three levels. He also grabbed 4.7 rebounds and dished out 2.8 assists (to just 1.7 turnovers) nightly.

And he was the best perimeter defender on a national-title-winning team.

Add in the size he would provide Miami on the wing at 6-foot-8, and you’ve got the makings of a good fit.