Heat signs forward Chris Silva to standard deal. And the latest on Tyler Herro’s injury.
Things change fast in the NBA. Just ask forward Chris Silva.
Silva went undrafted out of South Carolina this past summer and opted to join the Heat’s summer league roster. Because of Silva’s work in the summer and training camp, Miami signed him to a two-way contract just days before the start of the regular season.
In advance of Wednesday’s home matchup against the Spurs, the Heat officially announced it replaced Silva’s two-way deal with a three-year standard contract that runs through the 2021-22 season. Tuesday was the first day the Heat had enough room under the league’s hard cap to sign Silva to a standard deal.
According to a league source, it’s a minimum-salary deal that includes a team option for the third year when the Heat could be looking to maximize cap space to make a big free agent signing in the summer of 2021. Silva’s full salary for the rest of this season and next season is guaranteed.
“He has made us notice him, made us watch him, made us develop him and made us offer him a two-way and then finally a contract,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Silva. “You’re thrilled for a guy like Chris. Super inspired by his story. Every single day, we’re inspired by his commitment, his work ethic and he has earned it. It’s one of those times you’re absolutely thrilled to be able to offer that contract to him.”
By signing Silva, 23, to a three-year deal, it gives the Heat his Bird Rights at the end of the contract. Bird Rights would allow for Miami to to exceed the salary cap to sign him to another deal.
Moving Silva to a standard contract on Wednesday also opened a two-way roster spot, with the Heat filling it by signing center/forward Kyle Alexander to a two-way deal. Wednesday was the final day for NBA teams to sign players to two-way contracts this season.
Alexander will have 24 days to spend in the NBA through the end of the G League season and the rest of the time must be spent with the team’s developmental affiliate. The two-way contract prevents Alexander from being signed by another NBA team, with two-way deals not counting against a team’s salary cap or luxury tax.
Alexander was part of the Heat’s training camp/preseason roster and was waived just days before the start of the regular season. He also was a member of the Heat’s summer league team.
After Alexander was waived by the Heat, he remained in the organization’s developmental system as part of its G League affiliate. He has averaged 10.6 points, 9.1 rebounds and 2.2 blocks in 23 games (21 starts) for the Sioux Falls Skyforce.
“You don’t see guys like that with that length, activity,” Spoelstra said of Alexander. “He’s raw, so we wanted to get him into our program and develop him. ... This was the long game. We want to be able to develop him for several months and another summer program to see how much better he can get. So we’re excited about having him in the fold, too.”
Guard Gabe Vincent, who was signed last week after the Heat released guard Daryl Macon from a two-way deal, and Alexander are the Heat’s two two-way contract players for the rest of the season. Teams are allowed to carry a maximum of two two-way contract players at a time.
The signing of Silva puts the Heat’s roster at the NBA maximum of 15 players under standard contracts. Miami was forced to carry 14 players up until this point because of its position against the hard-cap threshold, entering the season only about $1 million below the $138.9 million hard cap that was triggered by the sign-and-trade acquisition of Jimmy Butler.
According to ESPN insider and former NBA executive Bobby Marks, the Heat is just $12,330 below the hard-cap threshold after signing Silva.
Despite starting the season on a two-way contract that only allows a player to spend up to 45 days with an NBA team during the G League season, Silva never was sent to the Heat’s developmental affiliate in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. While being held out of practices to conserve the NBA days on his two-way deal, Silva has averaged 3.5 points and 3.1 minutes in 8.3 minutes in 30 games as a rookie this season.
With Spoelstra tightening the Heat’s rotation recently, Silva entered Wednesday with just five appearances in the past 10 games. He has played a total of 12 minutes during than span.
Silva — 6-8 and 230 pounds — arrived to the Heat this past summer with a strong defensive reputation, as he was the SEC’s Co-Defensive Player of the Year as a junior in 2017-18 and was voted onto the SEC’s All-Defensive team in each of his final two seasons at South Carolina. Some within the Heat organization have compared Silva to another undrafted forward, Udonis Haslem, because of their play style built around relentless effort and the fact they both played for Frank Martin, who coached Silva with the Gamecocks and Haslem at Miami High.
It has been an eventful memorable few weeks for Silva, which included a surprise reunion with his mother. The Heat, the NBA and NBA Africa teamed up to bring Silva’s mother, Carine Minkoue Obame, from their native Gabon, Africa to Miami in late December for their first in-person encounter in three years.
Silva, who left Gabon to begin living in the United States in 2012 just days before turning 16, met with NBA commissioner Adam Silver last week to thank him for his role in helping bring his mother to Miami for a 10-day stay.
For Silva, signing his first NBA standard contract Wednesday just adds to his list of memorable moments from the last month. And it serves as a reminder of where he came from.
“Listen, it was a long, long, long summer,” Silva said following Tuesday’s practice. “It was a grind from being disappointed after not being drafted, to not knowing what was going to be next and sitting with my agent to see the next step, to finally coming here for summer league, to signing the Exhibit 10 contract, to playing in the summer league and now knowing what was going to be next, to signing the two-way contract after the preseason.
“It has been long. Every step, I just focused on the present. That’s what helped me get to this day.”
▪ In addition to playing without forward Justise Winslow (lower back bone bruise) on Wednesday, the Heat were also without rookie guard Tyler Herro because of a left knee bruise he suffered in Tuesday’s practice. It marked just the second game Herro has missed this season.
Spoelstra didn’t seem overly concerned about Herro’s injury, noting “it’s not a major thing right now.”
“It’s just a knee contusion on the one area,” Spoelstra said. “Again, I don’t know how this remarkably happens so often. We have these guys padded up like they’re Robo Cops, and then they get these bruises in the one centimeter area where they’re not padded. It’s just right above the knee. I think another day of treatment will help. He’s young, so he’ll heal much faster than any of us in this room would.”
This story was originally published January 15, 2020 at 1:00 PM.
