The Miami Heat may be trying to land another former Kentucky Wildcat.
Miami views free agent center Nick Richards as a player of “considerable interest,” Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald reported this week. Jackson adds though that Richards is still considering several options right now.
Richards, 28, is a long and athletic big man who averaged 9.4 points and 7.6 rebounds per game last season for the Chicago Bulls. His best career year came in 2023-24 with the Charlotte Hornets when Richards averaged 9.7 points and 8.0 rebounds per game on an elite 69.1 percent from the field.
Interestingly enough, Richards also has a notable connection with Heat star Bam Adebayo as they both attended the University of Kentucky. While the two players were never teammates in college, Adebayo served as Richards’ host player during a 2016 visit to the campus, and Richards ultimately ended up replacing the NBA-bound Adebayo as the Wildcats’ starting center.
“Bam was my host player,” Richards said in an interview at the time. “It was fun.”
The Heat are currently at 13 spots filled on the roster amid the impending signing of Klay Thompson, who was just bought out by the Dallas Mavericks. With Adebayo’s former backup center Kel’el Ware having been traded to Milwaukee in the Giannis Antetokounmpo deal, adding more size in the form of Richards would make plenty of sense for Miami at this point.
