Miami Heat: The Next Gen Is Loud, Weird, &Already Fighting for Minutes

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT (MOSTLY)

The Godfather, Pat Riley, used to treat Miami Heat draft picks like parking tickets — pay them off, crumple the receipt, and light a cigar.

Now? Riley basically opened up a freshman dorm inside Kaseya Center. Miami suddenly has one of the youngest rosters in the East (and thank God, because Heat fans were one more washed vet away from chaining themselves to Bayside). All we’re missing is another Dwyane Wade 2.0. Please, Riles. Manifest it.

The keys aren’t in Jimmy Butler’s hands anymore (also, thank God — we’re done watching him reinvent his hair like it’s an annual Coachella costume).

Enter: Kasparas Jakucionis, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Nikola Jović, and Pelle Larsson. South Beach’s new boy band. Name: Next Gen Heat. Album cover: five dudes squinting in front of the American Airlines Arena statue like they just opened for NSYNC.

Some of them look like legit future starters, some look like future trade bait, but together they’re why Miami didn’t sell the whole roster for Kevin Durant.

Was it risky to pass up the Slim Reaper? Sure. But KD’s 36 with a -0.7 DBPM. Jakucionis is 19 with good hair and European confidence. You do the math.

KASPar THE FRIENDLY GUARD

Kasparas Jakucionis wasn’t supposed to be there at No. 20. Dude averaged 15-6-5 at Illinois before his arm gave out midseason, and even Nikola Jović was like, “Bro, he’s a top-10 lock.” Instead, he fell right into Miami’s lap, and Spoelstra basically tripped over his own clipboard sprinting that draft card to Adam Silver.

This is how the Heat operate. Other franchises overthink it. “But his vertical leap is only 27 inches” Meanwhile Miami just sees a 19-year-old with a European passport, decent hair, and the kind of basketball brain that belongs in a museum. Perfect. Pat Riley probably yelled “STEAL!” and poured another glass of red.

Summer League gave us the Jakucionis sampler. 9.5 points a night, clunky shooting, but active defense, slick passing, and a “don’t panic when the jumper’s broke” mentality that screams Heat Culture. Most rookies brick a couple shots and check their IG story mid-timeout. Kasparas? He kept grinding like Spo threatened to replace his cafecito with decaf.

Is he athletic? Absolutely not.

He runs like he’s got a desktop PC strapped to his back. But this is Miami, there’s no reason why we need him to become Ja Morant. Instead the Heat need him to read the floor like a librarian, fight over screens like his rent’s due, and make Tyler Herro’s life easier when he finally gets off crutches.

This isn’t star power. Nobody’s buying a Jakucionis jersey outside yet. But it’s infrastructure. He’s the scaffolding you need if you’re going to build something real without actually calling it a rebuild. Because let’s be honest — Pat Riley would rather eat a flip phone than admit the word “rebuild.”

So yeah, maybe Kasparas isn’t dunking on anybody’s head this season. But he’s the type of glue guy who makes Spo sleep at night. Miami didn’t sell out for Kevin Durant. Instead, they got a 19-year-old who looks like he should be pledging a frat but plays like a guy who’s already sick of AAU ball hogs. That’s a win.

WARE WE GOING?

Kel’el Ware has “future starter” tattooed on his forehead.

The rookie statline was clean! 9 points, 7 boards, and eventually Spo handed him the keys to the starting lineup midseason. That says a lot in Miami. Then Spoelstra hit him with the most Miami critique ever: “professionalism.” Translation? Stop playing Fortnite until sunrise and maybe show up to film session without Cheeto dust on your hands.

To his credit, Ware actually listened. He hit the weight room like he owed it money. Suddenly he started looking less like a baby giraffe on roller skates and more like an actual NBA big. The dude even unveiled a hook shot that didn’t make fans groan, plus a baby three-pointer that looked way too smooth for someone his size. Spo doesn’t want him going full bulk like prime Dwight Howard, though. This isn’t Gold’s Gym cosplay. He wants wiry-strong — like Nikola Jović after he finally quit housing empanadas on Biscayne before practice.

Ware’s got the frame, the flashes, and now the motivation.

When Ware keeps stacking tools, Bam Adebayo might actually have a grown-up next to him in the frontcourt. Because for the past two seasons, Bam’s been the only adult in the room, babysitting centers while putting up All-Defense numbers.

Ware doesn’t need to become Adebayo, although that would be wonderful if he did. Rather, he just needs to rebound like his paycheck depends on it, hit enough hooks to keep defenders honest, and body up dudes who think South Beach is a vacation. If he nails that? Miami suddenly has a legitimate twin-towers look — and Bam finally gets a partner in crime instead of carrying the paint solo like he’s renting the whole place on AirBnB.

JAQUEZ: THE REDEMPTION TOUR

Jaime Jaquez Jr. looked like Jimmy Butler’s mini-me as a rookie.

The hair, the swagger, the “I’m gonna get to my spot whether you like it or not” attitude. Heat fans were ready to crown him the heir to Butler’s throne. Then Year 2 hit, defenses got the scouting report, and suddenly Jaquez was spinning into traffic like a confused Roomba that ran out of Wi-Fi.

Teams stopped biting on the pump fakes. They sagged off him on threes like he was Ben Simmons’ cousin. By December, he was shooting 31% from deep and looking more predictable than Miami nightlife Instagram captions. It got so bad Spo yanked him out of crunch-time lineups and Heat Twitter was debating whether he needed a G-League vacation.

But then 2025 showed up and apparently so did Jaquez’s jumper. After Jan. 1, he started cooking again — 49.4% from the floor, 36% from three, and the kind of all-around numbers that looked a whole lot like his Rookie of the Year campaign. The man even went nuclear one night: 41 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists. That wasn’t just a stat line; that was a billboard that said “remember me, assholes?”

This season? The runway is wide open. Jimmy Butler is out in Golden State playing backup dancer to Steph Curry. Tyler Herro’s hobbling around with an ankle boot for at least a month. Somebody has to take the shots, and it might as well be Jaquez spinning, slashing, and hopefully hitting enough threes that Spo doesn’t need a bottle of Tums on the scorer’s table.

The Heat desperately need him to be the “glue guy” plus a little extra sauce. The cutting, the craft, the sneaky rebounds — all that’s still there. If he can keep the jumper in the mid-30s and not dribble himself into human traffic cones, he’s a legit starter on a playoff team. Miami doesn’t need him to cosplay as Jimmy. They just need him to be Jaime with some actual Wi-Fi this time.

Because if he hits? The Heat suddenly look way scarier than anyone in the East expects. If he misses? Well, we’re back to Roomba jokes.

LARSSON: GLUE GUY ENERGY

Pelle Larsson was a second-rounder in 2024. We all know what usually happens to second-rounders, right? They either A, disappear into the G-League vortex or B, become a trivia answer on a random bar night in Wynwood. But Pelle?He made sure those were not his options. This Swedish guard refuses to fade. Larsson’s game is straight cutting, defending and hustling. In three straight starts, he’s quietly averaging 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists like it’s nothing.

Spoelstra already stamped him with the ultimate HeatCulture compliment: “He’s a bully with the basketball.” Translation: Pelle plays like you owe him money.

He drives into the paint with the energy of a dude trying to get his deposit back from a Miami landlord.

This is the exact kind of player Miami hoards like Pat Riley hoards Armani ties. He’s not a star, and he probably never will be. But he’s a “plug-and-play” Heat guy — a glue dude who makes your stars’ lives easier, saves possessions, and gets fans to say, “Wait, why does this random Euro look like a rotation player already?”

Even better? He costs less than Tyler Herro’s sneaker budget and definitely less than Jimmy Butler’s latest hair experiment. Pelle is the guy you plug in when everything else looks messy, and somehow the game just starts to make sense.

Larsson’s HeatCulture IKEA: cheap, efficient, and surprisingly sturdy once you put the pieces together.

THE VERDICT: GEN Z HEAT

Jakucionis is steady. Ware is bulking up. Jaquez is finding his shot. Jović is in prove-it purgatory. Larsson is duct tape with sneakers. None of them are Jimmy Butler. But together, they might be the foundation of Miami’s sneaky retool.

Pat Riley didn’t trade them for Durant. Spo’s already cooking up lineups where they all touch the floor at once. And Heat fans better get used to watching the kids, because this isn’t the LeBron/Bosh era. It’s the Jakucionis/Ware/Jaquez question mark era.

Fun? Yes. Stressful? Absolutely. But that’s Heat basketball, baby.