The Miami Heat’s pivot away from LeBron James took shape within hours of the miss, and it arrived with names attached.
The Miami Herald‘s Barry Jackson reported Friday that the Heat and free agent forward DeMar DeRozan, who have circled each other before, are expected to reopen discussions now that James has chosen the Philadelphia 76ers — the first concrete signal of where Miami’s roster search goes after nearly a month spent waiting on one player.
Jackson’s reporting sketches out an entire target board rather than a single name. Along with DeRozan, it includes a sourced pursuit of Dallas guard Klay Thompson, a potential fallback in Bradley Beal and a notable word of caution around Russell Westbrook.
Taken together, it is the clearest picture yet of how the front office intends to finish building around Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo.
DeRozan talks expected to resume
The DeRozan connection is the most immediate item. Jackson wrote that “fresh conversations are expected in the wake of James picking the 76ers,” noting the two sides have shared mutual interest in the past.
The 36-year-old has never been a volume threat from deep, connecting on 30.2 percent of his career three-point attempts, but he remains one of the league’s most reliable midrange scorers and self-creators, with enough secondary playmaking to ease possessions for others.
That skill set maps directly onto what Miami lost when James went elsewhere. The Heat’s search centers on a playmaker, another shooter and another big man, and DeRozan addresses the shot-creation half of that list even if he does nothing for the spacing half.
A half-court offense that sagged at times last season would gain a proven late-clock option who can generate points when the Antetokounmpo-Adebayo actions stall. The fit questions are real, though, and worth naming honestly.
A DeRozan signing would put another sub-par three-point shooter on a roster whose two stars both operate inside the arc, which makes the shooting portion of the search more urgent, not less. That tension is presumably why the front office is treating this as one conversation among several rather than a resolution.
The Thompson pursuit runs through Dallas
The shooting answer, per Jackson, is a familiar one. Citing a source, he reported that the Heat have targeted Thompson, who hit 38.0 percent of his threes last season and sits fourth on the NBA’s all-time three-point list.
The obstacle is structural rather than mutual: The Mavericks would rather trade Thompson than buy him out, and Jackson has previously reported Miami’s hope centers on Dallas buying out the final $17.2 million of the veteran’s expiring contract, clearing him to sign directly as a free agent.
That preference gap could delay the option or kill it outright unless Thompson pushes for a buyout in the coming weeks, which remains possible. It leaves Miami in a familiar offseason posture — interested, patient and dependent on another organization’s calculus — with the difference that the Heat no longer have a LeBron-sized reason to keep every dollar and roster spot in reserve while they wait.
Beal looms as the fallback
If waiting on Dallas proves unrealistic, Miami could turn to Beal, who opted out of a Los Angeles Clippers contract that would have paid him $5.5 million and would welcome interest from the Heat. The two camps spoke earlier this offseason, so a renewed conversation would be a resumption rather than a cold call.
The appeal and the risk are the same thing: availability. The 33-year-old three-time All-Star appeared in just six games last season as injuries continued to shadow him, which is why he profiles as a low-cost bench addition rather than a starting-lineup answer.
On a minimum-level commitment, that is a defensible gamble for a team that needs scoring depth behind its stars; as the primary outcome of the offseason’s shooting search, it would feel thin.
A warning shot on Westbrook
The most striking detail in Jackson’s reporting concerns a name Miami is not being pushed toward. A source with relationships around the coaching community said a coach whom Erik Spoelstra trusts privately advised the Heat against signing Westbrook, describing the former MVP as a difficult player to coach.
The framing matters here. This is one voice offering private counsel, not a report on the organization’s intentions, and nothing indicates Miami has ruled anything in or out. But it lands with weight because Westbrook had emerged in earlier reporting as a floated destination fit for Miami’s point guard vacancy, and because the advice reportedly reached Spoelstra through a channel he trusts.
For a franchise whose culture is its most protected asset, that kind of counsel tends to matter more than a market inefficiency argument.
How the board fits together
Viewed as a whole, Friday’s reporting suggests a front office working the exact checklist its own beat writers laid out: shot creation first through DeRozan, shooting through Thompson or Beal, and discipline about which reclamation projects are worth the roster spot.
What it does not yet address is the point-of-attack playmaker or the frontcourt depth behind Adebayo — the case for a veteran center has been made here before — which means this board is a beginning rather than a blueprint.
The timing works in Miami’s favor for once. The league-wide market that froze while James deliberated is thawing all at once, and the Heat enter the scramble with their exceptions, young pieces and draft capital intact after a pursuit that cost them nothing but time.
The next few days will reveal whether that patience converts into the supporting cast the Antetokounmpo era still needs.
