Miami Heat guard Gabe Vincent made himself a whole lot of money during the NBA playoffs. Vincent, one of the many undrafted free agents who have turned into important players in Miami, entered this summer as an unrestricted free agent on the heels of taking over the team’s starting point guard job during the stretch run of the regular season and for the entirety of the team’s surprising run to the NBA Finals.
The expectation was that the 27-year-old Vincent — who went to UC Santa Barbara, went undrafted in 2018, and started his career within the Sacramento Kings’ G League setup — would be able to get paid handsomely this summer, as he was able to join any team he wanted. On Friday, we learned what the future holds for Vincent, as he will leave Miami in a bit of a surprise to join the Los Angeles Lakers as they give him most of their mid-level with a 3-year, $33 million deal, per Shams Charania.
Free agent guard Gabe Vincent has agreed on a three-year, $33 million deal with the Los Angeles Lakers, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. Vincent’s agent, Bill Neff, negotiated the new deal for a tremendous undrafted success story.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 30, 2023
While Vincent was certainly not a bad player prior to the 2023 playoffs, he ended up becoming an indispensable piece of the puzzle as Miami made its way through the Eastern Conference postseason. After averaging 9.4 points and 2.5 assists in 25.9 minutes per game during the regular season, Vincent averaged 12.7 points and 3.5 assists in 30.5 minutes a night during the playoffs, and started all 22 games in which he appeared.
The Lakers could use a point guard with his shot creation skills as well as his abilities on the defensive end, and this seems like a very nice usage of the mid-level by L.A. The Heat will now have to replace Vincent and likely Max Strus, which will put their roster building skills to the test if they want to remain a contender. This would seemingly be the last major addition for L.A., which used its bi-annual exception earlier to bring in Taurean Prince after he was waived by Minnesota. They still have some of their own free agents to make decisions on, with Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura as restricted free agents and Dennis Schröder, D’Angelo Russell, and Lonnie Walker IV as unrestricted free agents. Adding Vincent takes some of the pressure away to bring both Schröder and Russell back, adding another interesting twist to the point guard market.