Aggies

PHILADELPHIA (AP) &mdash; Wesley Matthews hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 23.8 seconds left, and Giannis Antetokounmpo had 21 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Milwaukee Bucks to a 90-88 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night.
Brook Lopez scored 17 points as the Bucks, who went 0-5 in the preseason, won their season opener after Matthews surprised the Sixers on the long 3. James Harden, who scored 31 and rallied the Sixers in the fourth, missed a jumper that could have won the game.
The 76ers lost their opener Tuesday night in Boston and had another weak defensive effort that had the Philly crowd booing them off the court in the third quarter.
Joel Embiid had 15 points and 12 rebounds. Tyrese Maxey added 15 points for the Sixers.
Embiid, who had offseason surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb, had another four turnovers. He had six against the Celtics.
&ldquo;It does affect you for a long time, especially if he gets hit,&rdquo; coach Doc Rivers said. &ldquo;Those are still raw moves. As a big, I&rsquo;m assuming he gets hit every game. You&rsquo;re not injured, it&rsquo;s just painful.&rdquo;
Harden finally got the Sixers rolling in the fourth when he scored eight straight points and cut a 12-point deficit to single digits. Trying to bulk up the defensive lineup with toughness, Rivers turned to Harden, Tobias Harris, P.J Tucker, De&rsquo;Anthony Melton and Daniel House Jr.
The 76ers forced shot clock turnovers and forced the Bucks out of bounds. Tucker stole the ball and hit Harden for the layup that made it 80-all with 6:41 left. Harden, whose nagging hamstring injuries from last season seem behind him, flexed for the crowd that roared in approval.
His bucket capped a 13-0 run, all done with Embiid on the bench.
Antetokounmpo snapped the tie when he pushed through for Milwaukee&rsquo;s first basket in more than four minutes.
TIP-INS
Bucks: Coach Mike Budenholzer used a walking cane before the game and hobbled in a walking boot during the game following surgery on his right ankle. ... Rivers said Bucks guard Jrue Holiday reminded him of former 76ers point guard Mo Cheeks, whose No. 10 is retired by the team. Holiday, who started his career with the Sixers, missed 13 of 15 shots. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think he gets enough recognition,&rdquo; Rivers said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know another guard that is a better defensive player than him. I would not want to see him every night.&rdquo;
76ers: Fanatics founder Michael Rubin sold his stake in the company that owns the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils to David Adelman. Adelman is the third-largest shareholder behind owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer.
UP NEXT
Bucks: Play their home opener Saturday against Houston.
76ers: Trust the Process! Long-time coach Brett Brown, who shepherded the Sixers' rebuilding process that brought them Embiid, returns Saturday as an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs.

Wesley Matthews hit the go-ahead three, and Giannis Antetokounmpo had 21 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Bucks.

Giannis scores 21, Matthews' three sends Bucks past 76ers 90-88

Is the NBA ready to add an expansion team? Evan Sidery explores what kind of team you could build in a present-day expansion draft.

NBA Expansion Mock Draft: What would a new expansion team look like?

Ethan Fuller breaks down the NBA landscape with over half the league hovering close to a .500 record.

NBA Sour Rankings: How to understand the spectrum of mediocrity

With the season set to start in less than a month, the NBA fan community was treated to an accelerated offseason. The NBA Draft was on Wednesday, and free agency kicked off two days later. We got a whirlwind of signings and trades -- boy, were there trades -- on the opening night, and that activity extended throughout the weekend.&nbsp;
Rosters are still being filled, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean we can&rsquo;t evaluate early winners and losers. If we can do it <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-draft-2020-winners-losers-philadelphia-76ers-new-york-knicks-pelicans-new-orleans-lonzo-ball-obi-toppin-patrick-williams-chicago-bulls-tyrese-haliburton-sacramento-kings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">for the draft</a> and none of those guys have played yet, surely we can do so for more proven commodities.&nbsp;
Let&rsquo;s hand out some awards and slander, shall we?
Winner: Centers
If we learned anything from the bubble, particularly from the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets, it&rsquo;s that size still matters in this league. The Lakers bludgeoned teams with their size all season long, led by the ultimate unicorn in Anthony Davis. With the NBA being a copycat league, there seemed to be a real emphasis on teams adding big men early on in the free agency process.
I mean sure, the Pistons tried to sign literally all of them -- I&rsquo;m still shaking my head at the Mason Plumlee 3-year, $25 million deal -- but other bigs saw a heightened market. Derrick Favors (3/$30M) went back to his stomping grounds in Utah after looking half-dead athletically in the bubble. Meyers Leonard saw a massive drop in playing time in the bubble and playoffs, and he still was able to return to Miami for nearly $10 million. Robin Lopez shockingly opted out of a $5 million player option with the Bucks, and even more shockingly got a raise from the Washington Wizards.&nbsp;
You can&rsquo;t build the boat out of centers like you could in yesteryear, but it appears that teams have swung back the other way on their utility in general. Skilled size is king, but size in general still matters quite a bit.
Winner: Los Angeles Lakers
Whew, buddy, have the rich gotten richer.
After trading Danny Green to the Oklahoma City Thunder as part of a package for Dennis Schroder, the Lakers were able to find his replacement by adding Wes Matthews with their bi-annual exception. They then were able to add last year&rsquo;s Sixth Man of the Year, Montrezl Harrell, for the non-taxpayer mid-level exception. Harrell has his flaws defensively, but there may not be a better big in the league than Davis to cover for those warts.
Speaking of bigs, the Lakers were also able to pry Marc Gasol away from the Toronto Raptors. Gasol has slipped quite a bit in terms of mobility, but still possesses the shooting, passing and defensive aptitude to juice the Lakers&rsquo; frontcourt. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope also returns on a reasonable deal (3/$40M) after the cap space market mostly dried up on him.
The Lakers&rsquo; potential playoff rotation now consists of LeBron James, Caldwell-Pope, Matthews, Davis, Gasol, Schroder, Harrell and Alex Caruso. I think it&rsquo;s safe to say, barring injury, that they are the clear favorites to win the title this year.&nbsp;
Winner: Trae Young
Have you ever played NBA 2K&rsquo;s MyCareer mode on Hall-of-Fame difficulty? It can be a frustrating experience. It&rsquo;s less about your individual skill level. if you&rsquo;re good, you should still be able to bake CPUs; if you&rsquo;re not that good, but you&rsquo;re smart, there are some pretty simple exploits (slip those PnRs!) that can get you easy buckets. It&rsquo;s more about what the talent around you does. They just perform in a way that makes you shake your head. At a certain point, you have to assume virtually all creation responsibility if you want to score enough against the CPU to win games, assuming you don&rsquo;t stash your player on the Lakers or something. The stats you put up and the skill/badge points you earn alleviate some of the frustration, but it&rsquo;s still a pain to deal with.
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/usatsi_14021300-1_lg.jpg" alt="" width="860" height="AUTO" />
This is what I imagine Trae Young felt like last year.
His skill level is obviously high; he&rsquo;s one of the NBA&rsquo;s best passers and is a pull-up threat the second he crosses half-court. But between not having an NBA-caliber backup point guard until the Jeff Teague addition, injury woes from second-in-command Kevin Huerter and John Collins (more on him later) getting himself suspended for 25 games, it felt like Young was the only player on the Hawks that could generate offense for himself or others.
Within that lens, this offseason has been huge for him. Signing Danilo Gallinari gives the Hawks (and Young) a bonafide three-level scorer that can hold his own weight. The merits of Rajon Rondo&rsquo;s (regular season) value can be debated, but he is a high IQ guy and a tremendous passer that can create for others in the half-court. There may be more reinforcements on the way, with Kings restricted free agent and <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-rumors-trade-grade-milwaukee-bucks-jrue-holiday-bogdan-bogdanovic-giannis-antetokounmpo-nekias-deal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">honorary Bucks legend</a> Bogdan Bogdanovic signing a hefty offer sheet (4/$72M) over the weekend. If the Kings don&rsquo;t match, Bogdanovic will give the Hawks another shot creator that also offers some passing chops in pick-and-roll.
The Hawks still have some, uh, roster balancing to do, but they&rsquo;ve undoubtedly taken some of the burden off of Young&rsquo;s plate. That feels like a win for the young lad.&nbsp;
Winner: Portland Trail Blazers
I&rsquo;m not sure if &ldquo;quietly&rdquo; is the right way to describe it, but the Blazers have had themselves one heck of an offseason. It started with their pre-draft trade for Robert Covington, a ridiculous help defender that should allow the Blazers to ramp up their defensive aggression if they so choose. Of course, that doesn&rsquo;t count as a free-agency move, but the Blazers have plenty of ammo in that department as well.
Bringing back Rodney Hood was a smart move. Hood was in the midst of his most efficient season by far (with a career-high 62.5% True Shooting percentage) before injuries derailed his campaign. His off-the-bounce shooting is a wonderful counterpunch to teams that overreact to the Damian Lillard/CJ McCollum backcourt and scramble after getting the ball out of their hands.&nbsp;
The Blazers also added Derrick Jones Jr. on a sorta-rich-but-mostly-fine 1+1 deal at the mid-level. He gives Portland a level of athleticism that they haven&rsquo;t had since, well... when have they had a guy who can jump like he can? Jones is a versatile defender in terms of his individual skill set, but also brings with him a diversity of scheme deployment after playing just about any defense you can think of under Erik Spoelstra in Miami last year.
Circling back to the &ldquo;Centers Matter!&rdquo; point, the Blazers also made sure to bolster their frontcourt. Enes Kanter is back to provide interior scoring and rebounding against specific matchups. Harry Giles is a mystery box; a tremendous passer with plus-athleticism that also has no idea what he&rsquo;s doing on defense. Carmelo Anthony isn&rsquo;t a center, but does provide some semblance of frontcourt depth as a spacer and occasional end-of-shot-clock option.
Health is the big caveat for the Blazers (when hasn&rsquo;t it been?), but they&rsquo;re set up to push for a top-four seed this season.
Loser: Denver Nuggets
I have two issues with the Nuggets&rsquo; opening weekend -- enough that I&rsquo;d consider them a loser versus a team I&rsquo;m just concerned with.
First, losing Jerami Grant hurts, even if that was mostly out of their control. Grant reportedly chose a larger role in Detroit over sticking with the Nuggets, despite a willingness from Denver&rsquo;s side to offer a similar deal. It&rsquo;s hard to blame a young dude for wanting to expand his game. And as we know in today&rsquo;s NBA, good, young-ish players on bad NBA teams can always be flipped to good teams for draft compensation. I&rsquo;d be surprised if Grant finishes his deal as a member of the Pistons.
Regardless, the athleticism, shooting, cutting and defensive versatility that Grant brings will be missed in Denver. Bringing back Paul Millsap and signing JaMychal Green are solid counters, but they didn't replace Grant&rsquo;s skillset (or youth).&nbsp;
Second, even if they were able to retain Grant, the Nuggets would still be in need of an actual-factual wing defender. They&rsquo;ve done absolutely nothing to fill that void. The closest version of that player on the roster was Torrey Craig and they pulled his qualifying offer, leading to Craig signing with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Craig is a flawed player, particularly offensively. This isn&rsquo;t a &ldquo;wow, the Nuggets really dropped the ball&rdquo; type of complaint, but he was at least a facsimile of what they needed. Who is the guy on the roster that can match up -- forget defend, just match up -- with the LeBrons, Kawhis and Paul Georges of the conference? That is a lot of pressure on Will Barton or Gary Harris or PJ Dozier -- and all of those guys are undersized against 3s or 3/4 hybrids.
Loser: Charlotte Hornets
Four years, $120 million for Gordon Hayward. Even with the theoretical small-market/bad-team tax that has to be paid to land second-tier free agents, that is a steep price for a guy who:
1) Hasn&rsquo;t made an All-Star team in three seasons.
2) Has played in 125 games over the past three seasons due to lower-body injuries.
3) May still be dealing with a <a href="https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2020/07/gordon-hayards-takeover-ability-foot-pain-and-absence-3-big-questions-as-the-boston-celtics-restart-their-season.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">nerve issue in his foot</a> from his catastrophic injury in 2017.
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/usatsi_9765789-1_lg.jpg" alt="" width="860" height="AUTO" />
On top of that, the Hornets elected to waive-and-stretch Nicolas Batum -- their last big-money-gone-bad-due-to-injury wing signing -- to free up the money to bring in Hayward. Let&rsquo;s say Hayward is reasonably healthy (60 of 72 games?) and slaps up, like, 19-5-5 on solid efficiency. Is that enough to get these Hornets into the play-in tournament? Maybe?&nbsp;
I don&rsquo;t love it. I can also quibble about the Bismack Biyombo signing because there were (and are) better center options on the market, but there is familiarity there and he&rsquo;s a genuine locker-room presence.&nbsp;
Loser: John Collins
As mentioned earlier, the signing of Gallinari takes quite a bit of pressure off of Young in terms of shot creation. Gallinari is also pretty firmly a 4, which happens to be the same position that Collins plays.&nbsp;
You may say, &ldquo;Just slide Collins over to the 5!&rdquo; and sure. But the Hawks traded for Clint Capela to operate as a rim runner and rim protector. They also just drafted Onyeka Okongwu at No. 6 overall. He may be mobile enough to survive at the 4, but he does not have the shooting or ball skills (yet) to play it offensively. He should also get burn at the 5.&nbsp;
If the Hawks are serious about making the playoffs (which they seem to be based on the money they&rsquo;ve shelled out so far), then improving the defense should be priority number one. Capela, Okongwu and the recently-signed Kris Dunn all fit that billing. Capela and Okongwu are better options at holding down the fort defensively than Collins is.
These moves conveniently come during an offseason in which Collins is extension-eligible and fresh off a season where Collins missed 25 games due to stupi-, er, suspension.
I&rsquo;m not the best at math, but 2 + 2 has always come out to 4 in my experience. It&rsquo;s starting to feel like Collins is going to end up being the odd man out.&nbsp;
Collins is very talented, a legit stretch option at this point while also being a violent rim-runner and offensive rebounder; but the lack of positional versatility due to his &ldquo;meh&rdquo; length and defensive aptitude cap his ceiling in terms of playoff value. And it&rsquo;s hard to argue giving max money to a guy like that, especially when your franchise player is one of the worst defenders in the sport. If building around Young is the priority, you&rsquo;re going to need a team full of wing defenders and interior stoppers. Collins, as good as he is, doesn&rsquo;t qualify as either.
Loser: JaVale McGee
Opting into your contract, only to be shipped to Cleveland to make room for your replacement has to sting. Assuming he stays, he&rsquo;s also not any closer to consistent playing time. And even if he does carve out a 14-16-minute role as the back-up 5, he&rsquo;ll be going from LeBron to&hellip; Collin Sexton and Darius Garland as pick-and-roll passers?&nbsp;
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/usatsi_13781902-1_lg.jpg" alt="" width="860" height="AUTO" />
Quite a drop, I&rsquo;d say.
Stray Thoughts
- Maybe not a loser, but the Brooklyn Nets are loser-adjacent right now. Bringing back Joe Harris is smart, even if that price (4/$75M) seems a smidge steep for my liking. But they&rsquo;re still a couple of perimeter defenders short, and they need a 4. Badly. Go flip some stuff for Aaron Gordon, please.
- Very nerdy thing, but I love the DeAndre&rsquo; Bembry signing for Toronto. He can&rsquo;t shoot, which stinks, but he can defend multiple positions, plays at 150 MPH all the time and can make some funky passes from time-to-time. He&rsquo;s going to be fun (and sometimes infuriating) for their bench unit.
- The Bogdanovic flop was funny to watch for non-Bucks fans, but I think the consensus around the Bucks&rsquo; offseason has become overly negative because of it. They still improved their team, highlighted by the <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-rumors-trade-grade-milwaukee-bucks-jrue-holiday-bogdan-bogdanovic-giannis-antetokounmpo-nekias-deal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jrue Holiday trade</a>. They&rsquo;ve also made some solid bargain signings. Bryn Forbes can shoot, as can D.J. Augustin. Bobby Portis can score, though that&rsquo;s probably all he can do. None of those guys are plus-defenders, but if you&rsquo;re of the belief that they&rsquo;ll be flanked by at least one of Giannis Antetokounmpo or Brook Lopez at all times, you have the interior infrastructure in place to protect them from being abused. Of course, none of this matters if head coach Mike Budenholzer doesn't evolve a bit. Which, well, I guess we&rsquo;ll see.
- Seriously, is there a single Knicks player on the roster that isn&rsquo;t repped by CAA? Somebody has to intervene, right? Right? Bueller?&nbsp;
- Shout-out to the Suns for drafting Jalen Smith at 10, then proceeding to sign or bring back three frontcourt players in less than a week. Bringing him along slowly isn&rsquo;t a bad idea, but it does make the pick look more questionable in the short-term.
- It&rsquo;s at least a little odd we&rsquo;ve heard next to nothing on the extension talks of Giannis Antetokounmpo (and by proxy, Bam Adebayo) or Brandon Ingram. I would expect the Ingram shoe to drop first, but the silence on the other end is... odd, to say the least. Teams like the Heat, Raptors and Mavericks might smell blood in the water.
- Honestly would&rsquo;ve liked to see the Hawks take the $12-or-so-million per year they spent on the Rondo/Dunn combo and use it for a De&rsquo;Anthony Melton offer sheet, but good on the Grizzlies for locking him up for cheap. That deal is going to age well, methinks.

Nekias Duncan breaks down the teams and players that were affected the most after the first three days of NBA free agency.

Early winners and losers of NBA free-agency weekend

If you weren&rsquo;t in the Miami Heat&rsquo;s locker room to begin this season, there&rsquo;s almost no chance you saw their run coming.
This is a team that has believed all along they could win a title. Their initial 24-8 start was a wakeup call for the rest of the league; the bubble run, as weird as the circumstances around it were, further validated their self belief. There were hiccups and changes along the way -- injuries to key starters and trade-deadline deals led to a fundamental shift in the way the Heat played defensively -- but ultimately those changes paid off. Being two wins away from a title in Year 1 of the Jimmy Butler Era is a massive success.
Now, the fun part begins.
The Heat aren&rsquo;t catching teams off guard next season. They aren&rsquo;t a plucky &ldquo;if-things-go-right&rdquo; fringe contender anymore. There are real external expectations now, and Butler is helping fuel those fires. There&rsquo;s obvious room for improvement, but the Heat are going to want to be careful about how they improve. Their trade for Andre Iguodala, Jae Crowder and Solomon Hill gives them the flexibility to generate up to $22 million in space this summer after renouncing cap holds. The always-informative Keith Smith has a more thorough breakdown of their cap situation, which you can find <a href="https://www.slamonline.com/nba/miami-heat-salary-cap-space-2020/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here.</a>
So, yeah, the Heat can make a big splash. Will they? I wouldn&rsquo;t hold my breath on it. Most of the players good enough to warrant that kind of money will be looking for multi-year deals, which could cut into the Heat&rsquo;s heralded 2021 cap space. Staying over the cap and mostly running it back would give them a pretty strong roster, while also giving them a more lucrative mid-level exception to add help.&nbsp;
Let&rsquo;s take a look at some guys they&rsquo;ll look to bring back as well as some targets that could help them come back stronger than ever.
Key In-House Decisions
Goran Dragic: Bring Him Back
If you&rsquo;re looking solely at on-court factors, there&rsquo;s an argument for the Heat to let Dragic walk. He&rsquo;ll be coming off a foot injury, one that could hinder his already limited mobility defensively. That&rsquo;s on top of the natural decline Dragic will suffer from as he turns 35 years old next season. With Butler, Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro to soak up a lot of on-ball usage moving forward, and Kendrick Nunn having a claim to reps if he returns to form (or isn&rsquo;t traded), there&rsquo;s a case to be made that the Heat should focus more on bolstering their perimeter defense.
Even with those concerns, Dragic is still a good player. He was one of the NBA&rsquo;s most prolific bench players. His pick-and-roll chemistry with Adebayo has become a half-court staple for the Heat. Beyond that: everyone, and I mean everyone, loves Dragic. It&rsquo;s hard to overstate how much Dragic has meant to the Heat as a pillar of the Post-Bosh Era. He&rsquo;s going to be back unless something egregious goes down in contract talks.
Jae Crowder: Bring Him Back
Crowder was simultaneously who we thought he was, but also a little better than expected. He&rsquo;s been a streaky shooter for his entire career; only once, in 2016-17 with the Boston Celtics (39.8 percent), has Crowder shot above league average from three. Crowder converted nearly 45 percent of his triples during the regular season, then shot 40 percent on 8.3 attempts through the first two rounds of the playoffs. Those numbers plummeted throughout the rest of the run (29.1 percent on 7.2 attempts), but he provided his usual brand of gritty defense to offset some of the cold streak. There&rsquo;s mutual interest between the two. I&rsquo;d expect a 1+1 with a team option on the back end.
Derrick Jones Jr.: Let Him Walk
Jones Jr was a fun find. After being exiled by the Phoenix Suns, the Heat gave him a shot and deployed him as a frontcourt spark plug off the bench. He quickly came on as a rim-roller, offensive rebounder and a surprisingly versatile defender. His complete lack of on-ball skill caps his ceiling, and the jumper just hasn&rsquo;t come around. As exciting as he can be, he&rsquo;s an actively harmful offensive player on balance, and the defense isn&rsquo;t good *enough* to justify a consistent role in games that matter. Working a sign-and-trade to a new team for a second-rounder or two could be beneficial for both parties.
Meyers Leonard: Circle Back Later
It&rsquo;s hard to get a gauge on Leonard&rsquo;s market. On one hand, he was a starter for most of the season before an ankle sprain took him out. He provided value as a shooter (41.4 percent), albeit on low volume. He was the vocal quarterback of Miami&rsquo;s drop scheme, and his size helped Adebayo avoid more physically taxing matchups during the regular season.
On the other hand, Leonard was a relative on-court non-factor during the postseason as the Heat went smaller. It&rsquo;s hard to argue for a deal worth more than $10 million, but his proficiency as a starter gives him a little more than &ldquo;vet minimum&rdquo; status. I expect him and the Heat to find a middle ground after they look at some other big man options.
Solomon Hill: Circle Back Later
Hill was the inverse of Miami&rsquo;s other trade acquisitions. He didn&rsquo;t see much of a role during the regular season, then was thrust into the rotation as a small-ball 5 (!) during the Eastern Conference Finals. Hill is a fine defender, spotty shooter and <a href="https://the-miami-heat-beat-podcast-26fdfe0c.simplecast.com/episodes/266-blm-bubble-life-anime-w-solomon-hill-miami-heat-gCO1rj0N">Anime enthusiast.</a> He should still be available once the Heat do their shopping elsewhere.
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/melton1_lg.jpg" alt="" width="785" height="AUTO" />
Free Agent Guards 
Cap Space Option: De&rsquo;Anthony Melton*
It&rsquo;s tempting to look into Raptors free agent Fred VanVleet, the best point guard on the market and someone who would solve all of Miami&rsquo;s point of attack issues while adding value as a shooter and secondary creator. Melton is flat-out worse offensively. The jumper isn&rsquo;t there outside of corner looks. There&rsquo;s some pick-and-roll craft worth exploring (54th percentile in passes out of pick-and-roll, per Synergy), but he should firmly be in the secondary attacker role.
However, Melton is an absolute hound defensively. He can shut the water off both guard spots, and has the length (near 6-foot-9 wingspan) to bother some 3s in a pinch. If you have faith in him becoming a reliable spot-up guy beyond the corners, he&rsquo;s the kind of young guy you make the gamble on.&nbsp;
Memphis will look to retain Melton as he&rsquo;s a restricted free agent, but other teams will come calling. There&rsquo;s an obvious fit in Atlanta alongside Trae Young, for example. Offering something like a 4-year, $45 million offer for Melton may be enough to pry him away, while still leaving just enough wiggle room to offer a star a max contract next year, depending on what the cap does.
Mid-Tier Option: Jordan Clarkson&nbsp;
Clarkson is coming off of, by far, the most efficient season of his career. He gave the Jazz a much-needed scoring punch once he arrived, averaging 15.6 points with a 56.9 True Shooting percentage during the regular season. Both of those marks increased (16.7, 57.7) during Utah&rsquo;s first round showdown with the Denver Nuggets.&nbsp;
Clarkson trading out some of his pull-up long twos for threes went a long way to making him a more efficient option. If the Heat end up looking for a Dragic replacement, Clarkson should be at the top of the list.
Bargains: Austin Rivers
Rivers brings a particular brand of energy offensively. He&rsquo;s one of the NBA&rsquo;s underrated drivers, utilizing a quick first step and channeled aggression to generate looks at the rim. He isn&rsquo;t much more than a rudimentary playmaker, but his north-south style would be a welcomed addition to the Heat bench. He&rsquo;s also a reliable spot-up threat, drilling nearly 38 percent of his catch-and-shoot threes over the past three seasons, according to a source with access to Second Spectrum tracking data.
Free Agent Wings 
Mid-Tier Options: Wes Matthews, Justin Holiday
There&rsquo;s a case to be made that Matthews could accept another minimum deal from a contender, either remaining in Milwaukee or going elsewhere. There&rsquo;s an even stronger case to be made that he&rsquo;s earned himself a pay day.
Matthews routinely took on the most demanding perimeter defensive assignments throughout the regular season, while knocking down over 36 percent of his threes on decent volume. He then upped the ante in the postseason, something that the Heat -- and Butler -- got a firsthand look at. There&rsquo;s an obvious Marquette connection at play; adding Matthews would boost Miami&rsquo;s perimeter defense while delivering a blow to the Bucks.
Holiday is more 3-and-Decent than 3-and-D, but he&rsquo;s coming off the best shooting season of his career (40.5 percent from three-point range on 4.5 attempts) while being a credible option against 2s and 3s. He&rsquo;s certainly worth a portion of the MLE if it comes down to it.
Bargains: Garrett Temple*
Temple would give the Heat a plus, multi-positional defender with a solid three-point stroke (35.3 percent over the past five seasons). The asterisk is present because the Nets hold a team option, though it&rsquo;d come as no surprise if they let Temple walk to free up tax room to bring back Joe Harris.
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/gallo1_lg.jpg" alt="" width="789" height="AUTO" />
Free Agent Forwards 
Cap Space Option: Danilo Gallinari
Gallinari was pretty close to being a member of the Heat this season, though talks allegedly broke down over a post-trade contract extension. Gallinari is one of the NBA&rsquo;s most underrated scorers, able to get buckets from all three levels and live at the free throw line when attacking mismatches. He may prioritize winning over dollars this offseason <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/danilo-gallinari-says-competing-for-a-championship-is-more-important-than-his-contract-in-free-agency/">per his own words</a>, but the Heat have a pathway to outbidding all non-Thunder playoff teams this summer. A high-dollar 1+1 deal could get things done.
Mid-Tier Options: Jerami Grant, Paul Millsap&nbsp;
Grant was one of the breakout-adjacent ballers of the bubble, providing value as a shooter, cutter and multi-positional defender. Firecracker athletes with off-ball value and defensive versatility are hard to come by. He could realistically cash in with a team with cap space (hello, Atlanta, again), though he&rsquo;ll have plenty of interest from playoff teams. The Nuggets are in the lead, but tossing the full mid-level at Grant would be a smart play. Similar to Melton, a multi-year deal in the $9-10 million per year range would still allow the Heat to have room for a max slot next season.
If not Grant, going for Millsap could be a cheaper but just-as-fruitful option. He did look a bit washed at points during the postseason, but still managed to defend Anthony Davis as well as nearly anyone while filling the gaps offensively. I&rsquo;d argue that Millsap has a bit more in the tank than it would appear; operating as the backline defender in Denver&rsquo;s aggressive pick-and-roll scheme puts a lot of strain on those old bones. He would be surrounded by better defenders in Miami, and there&rsquo;s enough scheme versatility to where his responsibility would be much lighter.
Bargains: Mo Harkless, Luc Mbah a Moute, Anthony Tolliver
Harkless was a member of the Heat for about 27 minutes as part of the Hassan Whiteside trade&nbsp; before getting redirected. He&rsquo;s a credible defender of 3s and 4s, though his jumper has always been the swing skill of his effectiveness. He&rsquo;s never been a high volume guy and even with that caveat, he has shot over 35 percent from three-point range in just three of his eight seasons. He can provide value as an eighth man during the regular season.
Mbah a Moute has fallen victim to his own body, with injuries derailing his last three seasons. It&rsquo;s probably far-fetched to expect his 2017-18 form, but he could serve as a nice &ldquo;break-glass-in-case-of-emergency&rdquo; defender during the season.&nbsp;
Tolliver is a Professional Good Person whose on-court value comes almost entirely from beyond the arc. You can do a whole lot worse than a career 37.3 percent three-point shooter.&nbsp;
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/serge1_lg.jpg" alt="" width="785" height="AUTO" />
Free Agent Bigs 
Big Money: Serge Ibaka
If you&rsquo;re looking for an ideal frontcourt partner for Adebayo, he has to have the size to bang with true centers, or perimeter shooting ability. Both would be preferred of course, but one of those qualities have to be present. Ibaka comes with more of the latter, but he has been a fearsome rim protector for nearly his entire career.
It would likely take a sizable 1+1 deal, but an Ibaka-Adebayo frontcourt could be worth it. Ibaka would operate as the 4 on offense, working pick-and-pops and floating around the perimeter while the other Heatles work downhill. He would serve as the 5 on defense, hanging around the rim in the Heat&rsquo;s drop scheme, or roaming the paint as part of their zone.&nbsp;
Mid-Tier Option: Aron Baynes
Factoring in money, it&rsquo;s hard to argue against Baynes being one of the most valuable centers in basketball last season. He did the usual grunt work: setting bone-crushing screens as a roller or handoff partner, protected the rim with superb positioning, and boxed out well enough to help end possessions or grab the board himself. The new, somewhat surprising twist is that he became a legitimate three-point option (35.1 percent on 4.0 attempts per game). Stretch-ish fives are hard to find; the fit next to Adebayo is pretty darn seamless.&nbsp;
Bargains: Harry Giles
Giles has a bit of an injury history, dating back to his high-school days. Multiple lower body injuries have sapped some of his athleticism, and he&rsquo;s still a fluid, jumpy big who can feast in transition. The intrigue lies in his on-ball skill; he&rsquo;s quietly one of the better passing big men in the league already. There&rsquo;s some serious &ldquo;throw-it-to-him-in-the-high-post-and-let-him-do-stuff&rdquo; potential waiting to be untapped. This would be a smart buy-low candidate to look into.

Nekias Duncan breaks down the Miami Heat's salary-cap situation and impending free agents, plus several players they should target.

Milton