One big hit: Looking at Heat's success with lottery selections

During the rough first few seasons of the Miami Heat, the team built its roster with draft picks and then began its upward climb in earnest with the hiring of Pat Riley in 1995.

Since then, the Heat have only had three lottery picks leading up to the 2015 draft, when they will make their first appearance in the lottery since 2008 with the No. 10 pick. They have just 10 lottery picks in their franchise history, while the Charlotte Hornets, Minnesota Timberwolves and Orlando Magic -- the three other expansion teams of the late 1980s -- have been perennial lottery teams.

For the 1988-89 season, Miami retained four players from the 1988 expansion draft, in which they chose from a group of unprotected players from each NBA team along with the Hornets, so it was imperative they did well with their first lottery pick. The selection of Lebanese-born Rony Seikaly out of Syracuse with the No. 9 pick gave the franchise its first marquee player and a strong presence in the middle.

Sure, someone had to put up stats on a team that lost the first 17 games of its inaugural season, but Seikaly was the lone bright spot on a team that finished with the NBA's worst record at 15-67. He averaged 10.9 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game as a rookie and followed that up by winning the NBA's Most Improved Player award in his second season and then helping lead the Heat to its first ever playoff berth in 1991-92.

Joining him in the Heat's second season was an even brighter star in Glen Rice, who was taken fourth overall out of Michigan in 1989. A deadly shooter with great size, Rice had offensive prowess on a team that struggled to score and was last in points. Though Miami only improved its record by three wins in Rice's rookie season, he showed plenty of promise by averaging 13.6 points and making the All-Rookie second team. Though he would only convert 17 3-pointers on 25 percent shooting his first year, he would become one of the NBA's best outside shooters over time.

Miami had the third overall pick in their third season but traded down and ended up with the No. 9 and No. 12 picks and selected Willie Burton of the University of Minnesota and Alec Kessler of the University of Georgia, respectively. Neither pick panned out in a very weak draft class.

Burton played out of position as a shooting guard with Rice entrenched as the starting small forward, but he did average 12 points and was named to the All-Rookie second team. His scoring average went downhill in each of his next three seasons in Miami before he was sent packing to the Philadelphia 76ers. Kessler fared even worse as a backup center and averaged 6.2 points and 4.3 rebounds in his rookie year, his best numbers before his NBA career ended after four seasons with the Heat and getting waived in 1994.

The team's fortunes picked up with the selection of shooting guard Steve Smith with the No. 5 pick in 1991. Added to a core of Rice and Seikaly, who had each improved from their rookie seasons, Smith was named to the All-Rookie first team averaging 12 points and 4.6 assists to help the team reach its first postseason berth.

He raised his production through the next two seasons before he was traded to the Atlanta Hawks two games into his fourth season along with Grant Long in exchange for aging veteran Kevin Willis. A decade later, Smith returned to the Heat for the final 13 games of his pro career before retiring in 2005.

The next year, the Heat thought they had the steal of the draft when they took Harold Miner out of USC with the No. 12 pick. "Baby Jordan" certainly brought attention to the franchise with his high-flying feats, and he won the Slam Dunk Contest and averaged 10.3 points off the bench in his rookie season.

He repeated as the Slam Dunk champ in his second season and continued to average double-digits in scoring but struggled to find increased playing time in his three seasons with the Heat. His pro career ended unceremoniously due to injuries and lack of a consistent role and a well-rounded game after just one more year in the NBA with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Miami traded out of the draft lottery the following year to acquire veteran John Salley and then selected Khalid Reeves with the No. 12 pick in 1994, but he lasted just one season before he was shipped off by new coach Pat Riley in a multi-player package to the Hornets for Alonzo Mourning. Reeves put up decent numbers in his rookie year with 9.2 points and 4.3 assists per game but never averaged more than that in six seasons with several NBA teams before finishing his pro career overseas.

Kurt Thomas was taken with the No. 10 pick out of Texas Christian University in 1995 just before Riley's hiring and proved to be a valuable role player in a long NBA career that lasted until 2013 at the age of 40. Thomas showed potential in his rookie campaign with the Heat, averaging 9 points and 5.9 rebounds, but he was traded during his second season to the Dallas Mavericks for All-Star forward Jamal Mashburn.

With Riley remaking the team in his own vision, his veteran teams climbed up the standings that pushed them lower in the next drafts. Unfortunately, Mourning's kidney disease diagnosed in 2000 set the franchise back and Riley missed the playoffs for the first time in his coaching career in the 2001-02 season.

The team began rebuilding with the selection of Caron Butler out of Connecticut with the No. 10 pick in the 2002 draft. With Mourning no longer the face of the franchise, Butler started in all 78 games he played in and averaged an impressive 15.4 points, 1.8 steals, and 5.1 rebounds to earn All-Rookie first team honors. It wasn't enough to lift the team's fortunes, however, and the Heat missed the playoffs once again with a 25-57 record.

The most important draft pick in franchise history arrived with the No. 5 selection in 2003. Dwyane Wade's talent ensured the Heat would remain relevant each season. Not just a gifted scorer, Wade played with a swagger and confidence well known to Heat fans ever since his rookie year, in which he helped knock the Hornets out of the first round of the playoffs in a grueling seven-game series. He followed up his historic NBA Finals MVP performance in 2006, where he almost single-handedly won Miami its first title, by helping orchestrate the formation of the Big 3 with LeBron James and Chris Bosh to win two more rings.

Before that golden age of Heat basketball, an injured Wade and an unmotivated Shaquille O'Neal in the 2007-08 season contributed to the worst record in Heat history since their first season. It was enough for Riley to call it quits with his coaching career and move permanently to the front office. Though they had the best chance of getting their first top pick in the draft, the Chicago Bulls beat the odds and won the lottery instead to select Derrick Rose. Miami settled for Kansas State's Michael Beasley over the likes of Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love and Brook Lopez.

Beasley quickly became a fan favorite as a rookie and displayed his offensive gifts to average 13.9 points mostly off the bench. But he struggled against NBA competition in his first two pro seasons as well as dealing with personal issues off the court before he was essentially given away to the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2010 to make room for James and Bosh. Riley remains intrigued with Beasley's unique skill set and has brought him back for two separate stints, once after he was waived by the Phoenix Suns following a drug-related arrest in 2013 as well as last season after he was out of the NBA and playing in China.

Injuries to several players in the 2014-15 season once again pushed the Heat out of the playoff picture and a top pick in the draft after seven years away from the lottery. Will the next rookie help push Miami right back into elite status or will he be the first piece in a long rebuilding process?

You can follow Surya Fernandez on Twitter @SuryaHeatNBA or email him at SuryaFoxSports@gmail.com.