Heat affiliate picks Trey Mourning, son of Alonzo Mourning, in G League draft
The Miami Heat’s developmental affiliate turned to a familiar name in Saturday’s G League draft.
With the No. 2 overall pick, the Sioux Falls Skyforce drafted former Georgetown forward Trey Mourning, who is the son of Heat executive and former All-Star center Alonzo Mourning.
Ahead of Mourning, University of Miami guard Anthony Lawrence was taken with the top pick by the Phoenix Suns’ affiliate — the Northern Arizona Suns.
The 24-year-old Mourning (6-9, 220 pounds) was a member of the Heat’s summer league team this year, averaging 3.3 points and 2.8 rebounds in nine minutes over four Las Vegas summer league games.
“It feels like we’ve all known Trey since he was a baby, literally,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said before Saturday’s game against the Bucks. “He was around our facilities as a kid, in high school. So we followed his evolution and maturation and career over the years. It’s really fun to watch this process, just like we watched Tim [Hardaway] Jr. grow up in our gym.
“With Trey, he had a very good summer with us. It looked like he was going to have this year overseas. When it didn’t necessarily work out, we very naturally revisited it. We liked our experience with him this summer. This is not just about a great story line. We like to bring in people that have a great positive attitude, a great work ethic and he does.”
Mourning was a part-time starter for the Hoyas last season, averaging 6.3 points. and 3.8 rebounds in 26 games (11 starts) for Georgetown as a redshirt senior.
Mourning played entirely off the bench in his first three seasons with the Hoyas, averaging 3.2 points and two rebounds in 62 games over his Georgetown career, with all 11 of his starts coming as a senior.
Mourning previously was a five-year member of the varsity team at Ransom Everglades School in Miami, averaging 29 points and 10 rebounds during his senior season. He also set the school’s single-game scoring record as a senior, finishing with 52 points, 22 rebounds and 12 blocks in a win over Miami La Salle.
The Skyforce’s roster is also set to include a group of players who were with the Heat for at least part of the preseason — forward Kyle Alexander, and guards Davon Reed, Skyler Flatten, Bubu Palo, Jeremiah Martin and Mychal Mulder.
Alexander, Reed, Flatten and Martin accepted affiliate assignments to the Heat’s G League affiliate, with teams allowed to designate up to four players as affiliate players. And Palo and Mulder remained with the Skyforce as returning-rights players.
All six players are considered NBA free agents and are eligible to sign with any NBA team at any point.
The Heat’s two two-way contract players, forward Chris Silva and guard Daryl Macon, are also expected to spend most of the season with the Skyforce. Two-way contracts allow a player to spend up to 45 days with an NBA team during the G League season and the rest of the time must be spent with the team’s developmental affiliate, and the contract prevents the player from being signed by another NBA team.
Monday marks the start of training camp around the G League, which is also the date when the 45-day NBA clock begins on two-way contracts.
With Heat second-round pick KZ Okpala also a candidate to spend part of the season in the G League for further development, new Skyforce coach Eric Glass could have up to 10 players who have some type of Heat experience in Sioux Falls this season.
This story was originally published October 26, 2019 at 1:55 PM.
