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Heat Central: Davion Mitchell lists his all time starting 5: PG: Gary Payton SG: Kobe Bryant SF: LeBron James PF: Kevin Garnett C: Shaq (Via miamiheat TT) 🤔
Anthony Chiang: The Heat has strong interest in veteran guard Klay Thompson. The issue is he’s still under contract with the Mavericks, as he’s due $17.5 million in the final year of his contract. It appears that the Heat will remain patient in filling out the rest of its roster to give Thompson time to possibly shake free through a buyout agreement. While a trade for Thompson is also possible, it would be challenging to pull off considering the only three players on the Heat’s current roster able to be traded for Thompson in a one-for-one deal are Nikola Jovic, Davion Mitchell and Bobby Portis. The cleaner path is for the Mavericks to eventually agree to a buyout with Thompson, with Thompson hypothetically giving up $7 million of his current salary to become a free agent. The Heat can then make up the difference on the money Thompson gave up by using the rest of its midlevel exception to offer him a $7 million salary for this upcoming season.
Klutch Sports Group, led by Rich Paul, thought it would be “super easy” to get the Cavaliers or Warriors to trade for Davis, sources said. Since that’s not the case, the Heat have emerged as the leader to sign James since Miami doesn’t have to trade for Davis. The team already has Antetokounmpo and Adebayo and strong role players in Andrew Wiggins, Davion Mitchell, Bobby Portis and Tim Hardaway Jr.
Yaxel Lendeborg won his second ring in four months Sunday, leading the Golden State Warriors past the Memphis Grizzlies 94-90 in the NBA summer league championship game at UNLV's Thomas & Mack Center. Lendeborg, who starred for the University of Michigan's NCAA title team last season, finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds to outduel Cameron Boozer in an intense showdown of 2026 lottery picks. He became just the second player to win a Division I NCAA championship and a Vegas summer league title in the same year, joining Davion Mitchell. "Coming into this program, I just wanted to prove that I'm a winner," said Lendeborg, the 11th pick in last month's draft. "Doing stuff like this -- not caring about the stats and just caring about the outcome. I'm going to continue to push that into next season with the bigger Warriors. ... At Michigan, we played team ball. Here, we play team ball. That's what wins games and championships."
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Heat Central: Giannis Antetokounmpo on being in Miami: “Coach Spo brings the best out of players. I want to be coached hard…. I want people when they’re at work thinking about the Heat. I want people when they’re at their couch watching their favorite show to turn that off and put the Heat… I’m very excited to get in the gym with Bam, Mitchell, Wiggins, all these great players, Jovic.” (Via @GiselleSports) 🔥
Miami Heat guard Davion Mitchell is not wasting any time. Mitchell wants to build chemistry with his new Heat teammate, so he’s traveling all the way to Greece to do it. Mitchell will arrive in Greece on July 19 and spend a week to work out and start building a relationship with two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo in Antetokounmpo’s home country. “Immediately after I found out [about the trade], I got his number and I texted him,” Mitchell said this week while in Las Vegas to take in summer league and connect with Heat coaches. “Obviously, during the summer, people will move around. So, I’ll just go where he’s at because I’m already going to be over there anyway.”
Mitchell and Antetokounmpo “kind of knew each other” before this offseason’s trade because they were both once represented by Octagon. Mitchell has since changed agents. “I actually asked him, ‘Yo, what are you doing in the summer? I’m honestly trying to work with you and build some chemistry,’” Mitchell recalled from his conversation with Antetokounmpo that led to the plan to spend time together in Greece later this month. “He was like, ‘Do you ever go to Europe?’ And I was like, ‘actually, I’m coming to Europe.’ He said, ‘All right, well, what are you doing from these days?’ I told him and he said, ‘All right, then, you can pull up to Greece if you want.’ Immediately, I said, ‘I’m there.’ So, I’ll pull up there, and we’re going to work out. It’s going to be fun.”
Mitchell, who is a defensive-minded guard, envisions a Heat defense led by six-time NBA All-Defensive Team selection Bam Adebayo and a former NBA Defensive Player of the Year in Antetokounmpo that will be “really scary.” “I think we have a defensive-minded team, which is really good,” Mitchell, 27, said. “Because I think offense, we’ll learn. The chemistry is going to have to get there. And people expect our offense isn’t going to be like that. But we were the No. 1-ranked scoring offense last year without Giannis. So, you add Giannis, that’s like 10x. So, people don’t understand. I think a lot of people just look at numbers and what somebody shot here, what somebody shot here. And it’s like, when you play with different people, your game is going to change. You’re going to have different roles.
“Bam is going to get a lot of catch-and-shoots. I’m going to get a lot of catch-and-shoots. Everyone’s going to get a lot because of how much [Antetokounmpo] brings to the court and how much gravity he brings. So, I think the percentages are going to look better because we’re going to get more wide open shots instead of, like, we’ve got to create our shot. Throughout the game, obviously, you get open shots. But with him, there’s going to be so many open shots that people don’t understand that. But, they’ll see.”
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Anthony Chiang: Bam Adebayo, Davion Mitchell and Nikola Jovic were at the Heat's summer league practice in Las Vegas today. Adebayo and Jovic were getting in a workout together on the adjacent court.
Heat Central: Giannis’ brother Alex Antetokounmpo on Davion Mitchell: “Amazing defender. Great playmaker as well. I think that he’s a really good player. They call him off night for a reason.”
Tim Reynolds: Davion Mitchell will now wear No. 2 for the Heat to honor a late friend, Spud. “We both came from the 912, and he will always be a part of who I am. Wearing this number is my way of keeping his memory close and carrying a piece of him with me every time I step on the court.”
Multiple NBA sources confirmed to the Sun Sentinel that an earlier construct of the Heat’s proposal for Giannis Antetokounmpo included Davion Mitchell instead of Kasparas Jakucionis. The Bucks, however, insisted on the youthful promise and rookie-scale contract of Jakucionis.
