The Heat made a surprise move, trading into the first round for the 28th overall pick, Norris Cole. Pine Crest’s Brandon Knight went eighth overall to Detroit.
South Florida’s NBA team did something few expected, moving up three spots in the draft to take a point guard.
South Florida’s best high school player of the past decade ended up going somewhere he didn’t expect. And the rest of the NBA played musical picks as teams slogged through Thursday’s two-round NBA Draft.
The Heat gave up the No. 31 pick, which was the first pick in the second round, a future second-round pick and cash to move up to get the No. 28 pick, Cleveland State point guard Norris Cole. This pick originally belonged to the Heat but went to Toronto, then to Chicago. Chicago took Cole and traded him to Minnesota, which traded him to the Heat.
Because of NBA rules, the Heat made the No. 31 pick, taking 6-7 guard Bojan Bogdanovic of Croatia, and traded him.
Because the transaction had not been officially approved as of midnight Thursday by the NBA, the Heat couldn’t discuss Cole or the trade.
Although the Heat targeted point guard as an area for improvement this offseason, team president Pat Riley tends to eschew rookies. But Cole, 22, who is 6-2 and 170 pounds, is a rarity these days: a four-year college player who started 105 consecutive games.
Cole averaged 21.7 points as a senior, shot 34.2 percent from three-point range as a junior and senior and averaged 5.3 assists as a senior. Cole, a cousin of Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Trent Cole, was an 82.6 percent free-throw shooter over his college career and 85.3 percent as a senior.
The Heat went for Cole over Butler’s Shelvin Mack, taken at No. 34 by Washington, and Kansas guard Josh Selby, whom Memphis grabbed at No. 49.
Some mock drafts projected Fort Lauderdale Pine Crest graduate Brandon Knight to go in the top five after he led Kentucky to the Final Four in his freshman season.
Knight dropped only to No. 8, where the Detroit Pistons snapped him up as part of their reconstruction program.
In reaction shots shown on ESPN, Knight seemed stunned, a hypothesis backed up by Knight saying on TV: “I didn’t get a chance to work out for them.”
Knight said he thought he did a good job showing he could play point guard during his year at Kentucky.
As expected, Cleveland opened the draft by taking Duke guard Kyrie Irving No. 1 overall, Minnesota followed by taking Arizona power forward Derrick Williams and Utah took Enes Kanter, a Turkish center who missed all of last season after being ruled ineligible by the NCAA.
The first minor surprise of the draft came when Cleveland took Texas power forward Tristan Thompson at No. 4. Soon after, the execution of various trades started.
Earlier Thursday, Sacramento, Charlotte and Milwaukee agreed on a three-way trade. Charlotte ended up with 6-9 power forward Bismack Biyombo and forward Corey Maggette. Sacramento got 6-2 Brigham Young guard Jimmer Fredette and guard John Salmons.
Milwaukee got 6-8 forward Tobias Harris out of Tennessee, the rights to guard Stephen Jackson, forward Beno Udrih and guard Shaun Livingston.
Boston took Marshon Brooks at No. 25, New Jersey took Purdue’s JaJuan Johnson at No. 27, and the teams swapped them, with New Jersey throwing in a 2014 second-round pick.
• Heat center Zydrunas Ilgauskashas informed the Heat he’s exercising the player option, putting him under contract for $1.4 million.
Guard Eddie House likely will let the Heat know next week if he’s exercising his option for next season.
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