“I have amazing vets,” Herro said. “Really, I’ve learned a lot. Just each vet really shines like different light on me. Jimmy’s obviously like a big brother to me. But he’s brought me in, just really just showed me the way how to be a max player. That’s what he is. Obviously, I want to be like him. He just shows me how to do that. “Goran [Dragic], obviously what he’s doing. There’s so much that they’ve taught me, like how to deal with the 82-game season, it’s long. Really just, without my vets I don’t think I’d be able to have the success I’ve had.”
Goran Dragic Rumors
All NBA Players
Position: G
Born: 05/06/86
Height: 6-3 / 1.91
Weight:190 lbs. / 86.2 kg.
Salary: $19,217,900
Born: 05/06/86
Height: 6-3 / 1.91
Weight:190 lbs. / 86.2 kg.
Salary: $19,217,900
Would Leonard, who is on a salary of $11.3 million this season, take a one-year deal to remain in Miami for another run with the core of this Heat roster? The Heat’s other impending veteran free agents such as Jae Crowder and Goran Dragic will likely be faced with similar decisions this offseason.
Just days before the NBA season was suspended because of the coronavirus, Goran Dragic walked into the Miami Heat locker room with a hat that caught his teammates’ attention. With the Heat guard’s initials — G and D — stitched onto the front of the hat, a dragon is snaked through the two letters as an homage to Dragic’s nickname, “The Dragon.” The hat featuring Dragic’s logo is simple, but it has become popular among Heat teammates and fans.
“That’s my logo from my camp back home [in Slovenia],” Dragic said to the Miami Herald before play was suspended. “We designed this logo two years ago with the Miami Heat. It’s my initials with the Dragon. … It’s just something that I’m really proud of. It’s a cool hat. The logo is cool.”
All-Star Heat teammate Jimmy Butler took two of the five hats before the season was suspended, wearing one around the locker room after a game in early March. Other Heat teammates, especially Bam Adebayo, (maybe jokingly) weren’t too happy that Butler got a hat before they did. “I didn’t know this was going to be such a big issue,” Dragic said with a smile during his chat with Jackson. “Everybody wants to have this hat right now. We still need to make those hats. Of course, the coronavirus and everything stopped it. But as soon as this is over, I promise everybody is going to get their hats. Maybe, we’re even going to start selling online and try to raise money to donate.”
Dragic’s value in the locker room is highly regarded as well as is his influence on the Heat’s young core. Even on a one-year deal, it would be difficult for the Heat to offer Dragic a contract close to the $19.2 million he is making this season (if that’s what it takes to keep him) and still have enough to pursue other roster upgrades. They could try perhaps a two-year deal to reduce the cap hit and not cut too much into 2021 space.
Dragic might be willing to discuss a team-friendly deal to remain in Miami that preserves space to land a frontcourt scorer who wouldn’t command as much of a financial commitment.
