Miami Heat set road map forward for Timberwolves

Caleb Martin was narrowly edged by Jimmy Butler for the Eastern Conference Finals MVP award Monday after the Miami Heat knocked off the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the NBA Eastern Conference finals in Boston.

Martin certainly was Miami’s best player in the back half of the series, culminating in a 26-point, 10-rebound performance on the strength of 11-for-16 shooting in the decisive game. Heat starting point guard Gabe Vincent scored in double-figures in five games of the series, including a 29-point explosion in Game 3.

Max Strus is averaging 10 points a game during this Heat run. Duncan Robinson just shot 48 percent from deep in the Eastern Conference Finals. Haywood Highsmith is a defensive chess piece Miami coach Erik Spoelstra has at his disposal.

All five of those players have one thing in common — none were drafted. That’s right, four of Miami’s current top seven rotation players — and five of its top 10 — heading into the NBA Finals were not even second-round selections in their respective drafts.

Miami surrounded its franchise pillars of Butler and Bam Adebayo with grinders who were plucked out of the rubble and have worked for everything they’ve gotten in this league. From their journeys was born a compete level that was necessary to rise from the bottom of the ranks — with many of their pro careers starting in Sioux Falls with the G-League Skyforce — to the game’s pinnacle.

On a recent appearance on The Herd, Timberwolves coach Chris Finch noted the Heat believe “there’s talent everywhere” — both inside the draft and out.

It’s that path that has left them so unassuming, yet hungry. They accept whatever role they’re given on a nightly basis, but are always yearning and ready for more.

“Nobody ever complains. They always do exactly what you ask them to do, which is why you want to play with guys like that, which is why they are the reason we win so many games,” Butler told reporters Monday. “I don’t call them role players; I call them teammates, because your role can change any given day, especially how many games I’ve missed, in and out of the lineup, off nights, whatever you want to call it. But we have some hoopers. We have some real-deal basketball players that can score, can defend and can pass and can win games for us.”

And they’re doing it for minimum contracts. At least Vincent, Strus and Highsmith are. Martin is playing on a $6.5 million salary that was not guaranteed at the start of the season. Those are the types of salaries that allow teams to remain competitive at a high level while still paying their big guns the big bucks.

“And, ironically, a lot of times when you’re getting undrafted guys or late second round, you’re getting guys that have been in college three or four years, they might be a little more mature, they’ve got the connective tissue, they’ve had some adversity, had to prove who they are, grow into a role,” Finch told Colin Cowherd. “All of the things that you want when guys are coming into the league, and guys that you need to help solidify a roster with talent already. They have that emotional maturity.”

What Miami is doing is a blueprint for the Timberwolves moving forward. The new Collective Bargaining Agreement agreed to earlier this spring provides greater restrictions on teams that soar past the salary cap toward a second apron of luxury tax, limiting what they can do and how they operate via trades and the use of exceptions teams over the cap often utilize to fill out their rosters.

Minnesota is in danger of entering that realm as soon as next summer, when Karl-Anthony Towns’ new extension signed last offseason kicks in, as will the extensions Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels are near locks to sign with the team before the start of the 2023-24 season.

Barring any massive roster reconfiguration, Minnesota is set to be up against it financially in the near future. The Wolves are also short on first-round draft picks, a byproduct of last summer’s blockbuster trade for Rudy Gobert. So if Minnesota is to build championship-level rosters around Edwards year after year, the Miami model makes a lot of sense.

Of course, that’s easy to say — go find high-end role players that no one, including you yourself, deemed to be worthy of draft picks. But Minnesota’s top executives in Tim Connelly and Matt Lloyd take pride in their scouting roots. That experience should be put to the test in the coming years.

For Miami, competitiveness is clearly a must-have trait. That much was obvious as Heat coach Erik Spoelstra talked about Martin on Monday.

“You get to the higher stakes, the further you get along, the more competitors are going to reveal themselves,” Spoelstra said. “Game 7s, or get to the conference finals, it’s not for everybody in this association. Otherwise more players, more teams would do it. You have to be wired a little bit differently, and Caleb is.”

On top of that, Finch said Miami is “probably in the best shape” of any team in the league.

“They develop guys into roles around star players, which is the fastest track to developing players,” Finch said. “Give them pretty tight left-right bumpers, let them know what you need them to do and they play well off of guys.”

The Wolves need to pinpoint non-negotiable starting points on prospect evaluations, acquire players that fit the bill and allow them to develop, whether that be at the G-League or NBA level. The hard part in the NBA is acquiring the types of high-end talents that can lead you into the playoffs and well beyond. Minnesota seems to have that part down with Edwards, and potentially even McDaniels.

Towns and Gobert could also be long-term pieces to the puzzle, as could impending free agent Naz Reid. But moving forward, the Timberwolves will need to fill out their roster with players on cheap deals who are also capable of contributing in a meaningful way on the grandest of stages.

That’s the type of team Miami has built, and it has led to three Eastern Conference finals appearances in four years, and yet another crack at the ultimate prize.

“I just know why (Miami president of basketball operations Pat Riley) and Coach Spo wanted me to be here, and that’s to compete at a high level and to win championships,” Butler said. “I know that the group that they put around me at all times is going to give me an opportunity to do so.”

Minnesota’s goal should be to do the exact same thing with Edwards. The Wolves would be wise to follow the road map laid out before them.

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