Over the past few months, the Miami Heat have gotten a lot of attention around the league and in professional sports in general, with Jimmy Butler and company becoming an ideal underdog story by being the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference and making it all the way to the NBA Finals.
Although some will call this impressive run in the NBA playoffs pure luck and nothing more than a fluke, the Heat have defied the odds over and over again, with many crediting “Heat culture,” spearheaded by Pat Riley and head coach Erik Spoelstra, as the reason for the team’s success.
A perfect example of the impact of Heat culture is the number of undrafted rookies that went on to have a tremendous amount of success in Miami, with many of those players getting paid this summer in NBA free agency.
Naveen Ganglani of Rappler took to Twitter and listed the undrafted players that have gone through the Heat organization and either gotten paid with the team or elsewhere in the NBA.
Kendrick Nunn: 2 years, $10.5M
Duncan Robinson: 5 years, $90M
Caleb Martin: 3 years, $20M (and another payday coming soon)
Gabe Vincent: 3 years, $33M
Max Strus: 4 years, $63M
All these guys were undrafted, forgotten, & casted out. They came to Miami. Improved their game.… pic.twitter.com/S6VrMw9bL9
— Naveen Ganglani (@naveenganglani) July 1, 2023
Although none of these players turned into superstars, nor would anyone consider them stars at this point in their careers, they all have left their mark in one way or another and have been deserving of the lucrative deals they’ve inked.
It’ll be interesting to see if the Heat can continue this tradition in the years to come, especially if the team can pull off a blockbuster trade for Damian Lillard, which would put them in the title-contending conversation for the foreseeable future.
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