But your point is fair that he hasn’t really gone above and beyond to get more young talent. But do you know an example of a contending team that has without hurting its chances in the immediate future?

This is the reason why most contenders tend to be so full of old vets: When signing a player, if the player is young, you are paying partially for potential and longevity. If the player is old, you are paying entirely for current talent/ability. So you can get more talent for your dollar going old.

But that’s part of the issue for the Heat — often, adding young talent on the free agent market is expensive when you are capped out. And finding it in the draft is hard both because so many late picks never amount to much and because it’s significantly harder for second round picks to make a roster and get meaningful minutes on a veteran team. Jerebko got an opportunity right away because the Pistons both had injuries and were a bad team. If he had joined a team like the Heat as a rookie, his path to playing time and being able to work through mistakes would’ve been significantly different.

Anyway, the Heat end up signing old veterans because that’s usually the easiest option to fill out the roster. But I also don’t think they’ve necessarily decided that old players on short deals will be their only philosophy. It will probably just take them longer to find those one or two gems in a second round.