#miami-heat

#miami-heat

Nevertheless, this bit of information from Windy does give the indication that the Heat were disappointed in not only the results for Jaquez, but also his process heading into last year. The hope is that it begins to change heading into his all-important third year, but that's far from a foregone conclusion. This is a huge season for Jaime Jaquez Jr.

Wiggins, 30, will earn $28.2 million this season and holds a $30.2 million player option for 2026-27. I wouldn't have classified him as a potential purple-and-gold target before Dončić's long-term future was secured, but things are different now. So my sense is that the Lakers would have interest if the Heat, in coming weeks or months, decide to prioritize financial flexibility and look to reduce payroll.

Heading into Thursday - the final day of Group Stage play - Serbia and Italy are both second in their respective groups. Serbia could have clinched the top spot in Group A, but narrowly lost to Alperen Sengun and Turkey, who clinched the No. 1 spot. Italy can clinch the top spot in Group C with a Greece loss to Spain on Thursday.

The 6-foot-8 wing scored 39 points - breaking Italy's all-time EuroBasket scoring record, previously held by Andrei Bargnani (36 PTS; 2011) - in Italy's 96-79 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina on Sunday. Fontecchio's 39 points came on 13-of-20 shooting and 7-of-10 shooting from 3-point range. Additionally, Fontecchio also hauled down eight rebounds with three assists and one steal in 37 minutes.

Former Heat guard Mario Chalmers recently said the quiet part out loud, something that the fan base has long been clamoring for the front office to address - the fact that they need a true point guard on the roster to fully unlock this team's potential. In the words of Chalmers, "Miami's at their best when they have a true point guard. I kind of think that's what they're missing...a true point guard."

There's no sugarcoating it: The Miami Heat have been mediocre each of the last three seasons. In fact, with the exception of one historically great playoff run in 2023 that nobody predicted nor could've predicted, they've been a smidge above .500 (127-119) in the regular season and just 1-8 in the postseason. Yikes! Not to mention, one of those postseason exits was in historical fashion ... in a humiliating way!