Miami Heat: Top 10 NBA Draft picks in franchise history

6. Grant Long (PF) — No. 33 pick in 1988 NBA Draft

Career stats (with the Heat):  470 GP, 11.6 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 2.1 APG, 1.4 SPG, 0.5 BPG, 2.0 TOV, 47.8 FG%, 20.6 3P%, 76.9 FT%

Eastern Michigan’s Grant Long was a member of the Heat’s inaugural six-man draft class in 1988. Unlike his former teammate Douglas, though, he was able to see the franchise’s transformation all the way through. (Maybe not all the way through, but at least until the organization became perennial postseason participants. Work with me here.)

Long was around during Miami’s first year — when the team finished with a paltry 15-67 record — and by the time he left in 1994, the young, upstart outfit from South Florida had already made the playoffs twice.

The undersized big man spent the first six years of his career in Miami, and didn’t depart of his own volition. He was actually traded midseason — as part of a package that yielded Kevin Willis in return.

Despite being listed at merely 6-foot-8, Long started 373 games for the Heat at power forward. He was a plus-rebounder and a tough-nosed defender, who often outmuscled his much larger counterparts in the paint.

Ironically, this original Heat member embodied the culture Riley would go on to create after his departure. In a way, he was like an early prototype for guys like Brian Grant and Udonis Haslem, two other undersized big men who went on to enjoy successful careers in South Florida years after Long’s time in Miami had come to an end.

And for that reason alone, he merits his ranking on this list.