Shams Charania broke the news Saturday afternoon that the Miami Heat have agreed to a 2-year, fully guaranteed $24 million deal for Davion Mitchell to remain in South Beach.

For the Miami Heat, this is huge. We’ve speculated the Heat needed to improve their point guard position recently, and did so Wednesday night by drafting Kasparas Jakucionis with their 20th overall pick.

With the Terry Rozier trade not panning out quite like the Heat hoped, acquiring Davion Mitchell midseason was the spark the Heat needed. Mitchell perfectly fits the Heat culture, and that’s the main reason the team wanted Mitchell to stay in Miami.

Davion Mitchell is the player the Miami Heat look for, but it wasn’t an easy start to his career.

Mitchell was the 9th overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. That top ten was stacked with Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green, Evan Mobley, and Scottie Barnes at the top of the draft, with Jalen Suggs, Josh Giddey, Jonathan Kuminga, and Franz Wagner all being drafted ahead of Mitchell at 9. If you begin comparing Mitchell to that class, he’s probably the 9th-best player of that group, but it’s all about where you land.

Sacramento was a dumpster fire. Nobody wanted to play for the Kings, and it was a doom-and-gloom place to land in your first year as a pro. For Mitchell, his minutes dipped with the Kings and he was shipped to the Toronto Raptors in 2024 for essentially nothing — Jalen McDaniels, who most recently played on a 10-day contract for the Washington Wizards.

Mitchell’s run in Toronto showed flashes for the first half of the year. Starting half (22 of 42) games with the Raptors, he had a career-high in assists with 4.6 per game and had his minutes jump back up to 24.5 minutes a night, when it had dipped to 15.3 minutes per game with the Kings.

Meanwhile, while Mitchell was trying to find his rhythm in the Toronto offense, the Miami Heat were dealing with a long, dramatic saga with Jimmy Butler, who expressed every desire to leave the Heat but scared any potential suitors off with his media antics. And for the Heat wanting the most bang for their buck, the eventual deal for Jimmy Butler at this year’s trade deadline would include the Heat, Warriors, and three other teams, including the Toronto Raptors, who would send Davion Mitchell to the Heat.

Davion Mitchell just seems to fit into Miami like a glove. He couldn’t have arrived at a better time. Miami had issues in the point guard room, had little money to address that glaring hole, and needed to find its grit after Jimmy Butler left, who was touted as the definition of Heat culture when he was brought in to be on the team.

Mitchell came onto the scene and for the remaining 30 games of the season, he started half on his new team, scoring double digits a night, averaging 10.3 points per game. His other stats were career-highs across the board.

• Shooting (50.4%)
• 3-point shooting (44.7%)
• Assists per game (5.3)
• Rebounds per game (2.7)
• Steals per game (1.4)
• Minutes per game (31.6)

Miami has that way with certain players. Well-traveled guys find a good culture fit in Miami, put in the hard work, and the results on the court are outstanding. Mitchell is another example of why the Heat gets the most out of their players who want to be there.

The Heat obviously have addressed their point guard problem, drafting Jakucionis and re-signing Mitchell. These are two solid point guards who can help the Heat maximize their talent on the floor.

The Heat needed to regain control of the culture and dismissing Butler’s character for someone like Mitchell’s is the way to go.

And for Miami, it is a fully guaranteed contract over 2 years, but it’s only $12 million per year. For a point guard who can provide 30+ minutes a night, that is very cheap. As Mitchell and Jakucionis develop as point guards on this team, the Heat might have to allocate more funds to this position in the future, but Mitchell is giving the Heat a very team-friendly deal as opposed to getting more on the open market and starting somewhere new, a place that might not use his talents to its fullest potential.

This is a steal for the Miami Heat and while he might not be the big flashy names like Damian Lillard or Kevin Durant, this is a winning move for Miami Heat basketball.