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NBA Mock Draft 2012: Heat Could Add Big Man Festus Ezeli

Pat Riley and the Miami Heat front office have little time to transition from celebrating their 2012 NBA Championship to the NBA Draft. It will be a busy week for the Heat, starting with the parade and celebration on Monday and the Draft on Thursday.

Miami will obviously be picking at the bottom of the first round. The No. 27 pick will almost certainly not yield an impact player, or at least someone who can impact games right away. But Miami did get a solid contributor in Norris Cole at the bottom of the first round in 2011. DraftExpress, one of the best scouting sites in the business, thinks Riley may look inside for help and take one of the true center prospects in this draft. Jonathan Givony tabs Festus Ezeli as the pick:

The Heat have had a hard time surrounding Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James with complementary rotation pieces, but have a chance to add another talented young player to the mix with this pick. Pat Riley has reportedly been looking hard at all of the big men in the draft, trying to see if he can add a center who can develop into a serviceable role player. Ezeli has the size, length and athleticism to warrant being picked here.

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Photographs by cstreet.us, thelastminute, turtlemom nancy , fesek, kthypryn, justinwright, sue_elias, pointnshoot, and scrapstothefuture used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.