Gabe Vincent expected to have a significant market this upcoming free agency

The young guard will be an unrestricted free agent following the end of this season.

Gabe Vincent has had a tremendous story to his NBA career. Going undrafted, the Miami Heat gave the young guard an opportunity by calling him up from their g-league team in the 2019-2020 season, the same season Jimmy Butler arrived in South Florida. At 26 years old, he has gone from someone who was on 10-day contracts to someone who is now the Heat’s starting PG in the midst of a deep playoff run.

He has had the best year of his career this season. Putting up averages of 9.4 ppg, 2.5 apg, and 0.9 stls on 40% shooting, 87% from the free throw line and 34% from deep.

Vincent is one of those “culture” type of guys where his impact goes beyond the box score numbers. He has been valuable and available all season long. He was playing off the bench (but in the regular rotation) for about half this season. But when Kyle Lowry went down with a knee injury that kept him out an extended amount of time, Vincent earned the starting spot and ran with it.

He has been able to hold it down and run the offense for Miami, and although he doesn’t have those eye popping numbers, he has been very consistent overall on both ends of the floor.

Specifically during this playoff run, Vincent has had huge moments. Including hitting a big time 3 pointer to cut the lead to 1 in the closing seconds of game 5 vs the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Heat went on to tie the game, send it to OT and complete the gentleman sweep of the best team overall in the NBA on the road.

Vincent has had some strong offensive outings including a 20+ point performance in game 1’s road victory against the New York Knicks as well.

The combo guard is set to hit free agency this coming offseason. According to Shams, there could be a significantly strong market around the league for Vincent’s services.

Being that he is unrestricted, Miami won’t be able to match any offer for Vincent. His ability to be a reliable starting PG who can also play well off the bench could be very enticing to opposing teams.

Hopefully, the winning culture, loyalty and already strong built relationships within the Heat team/staff is enough for him to stick around.

Vincent is a very key role player to have on a championship team and is a great “Heat Culture” kind of guy.

If this 8th seed Heat team pulls off the miracle and secures an NBA championship it will be very hard to see Vincent walking away from that. Even if they don’t, Miami is a pretty attractive destination that could make it a long, difficult decision to leave especially for a role player.

All in all though, money talks. We’ve seen it with PJ Tucker just a year ago. The goal would be to find a happy medium in contract negotiations money wise, but there could always be that one team who is willing to break the bank. Especially on a young, versatile player with lots of upside.