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Miami Heat: Ranking the franchise’s last 10 first-round picks

By Sam DiGiovanni

MIAMI, FL - OCTOBER 14: Bam Adebayo #13, Justise Winslow #20, and Tyler Herro #14 of the Miami Heat look on against the Atlanta Hawks during a pre-season game on October 14, 2019 at American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images)
MIAMI, FL - OCTOBER 14: Bam Adebayo #13, Justise Winslow #20, and Tyler Herro #14 of the Miami Heat look on against the Atlanta Hawks during a pre-season game on October 14, 2019 at American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Miami Heat
Miami Heat (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /

Ranking the Miami Heat’s last 10 first-round draft picks requires going back to the 1990s. The picks range from bad to unbelievably great.

Few teams have enjoyed the amount of success the Miami Heat have achieved in recent memory. Miami is one of four teams to win at least three titles this century, an impressive feat given its lackluster draft record.

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The Heat have largely built their best teams on free agents and trade acquisitions and not with drafted players. Often times, Miami uses its first-round picks well, swapping them along with other assets for stars. Other times, the Heat have tried to flip first-rounders for other assets; the franchise has yet to make such a trade that nets something valuable.

Since current Heat President Pat Riley took full control of the front office in 2008, he has made a habit of trading first-round draft picks. In addition to four first-round picks traded away in two different sign-and-trade deals that brought in LeBron James and Chris Bosh, Riley has dealt away six first-round picks (which includes draft-day trades).

At the moment, Riley’s trades have left the Heat are without first-round picks in 2021 and 2023. However, given how good the team proved to be in the 2019-20 season, it won’t negatively affect Miami too much. Those future draft picks were put to good use, anyway. In two different deals, they were included in packages that landed two of Miami’s best players: Goran Dragic and Jimmy Butler.

The head-decision maker before Riley, Randy Pfund, traded away five first-rounders in his 12 years at the helm. Due to having two trade-happy executives, in order to grade Miami’s last 10 first-round picks, we have to go back to 1997.

So, let’s travel back that far and rank each of the Heat’s last 10 first-round picks.

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