Heat sends Chris Silva to G League for first time. And a notable injury update
Rookie forward Chris Silva is headed to the G League for the first time this season.
The Heat announced Thursday it has assigned Silva to its developmental affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce. He will be available for the Skyforce’s home games against the Rio Grande Valley Vipers on Friday and Saturday, and he is expected to rejoin the Heat for its home matchup against the Magic on Monday.
Silva, 23, has fallen out of the Heat’s rotation recently, as he has not played in seven consecutive games. But his two-game stint in the G League will likely include a lot of playing time.
With the Heat playing just one game in a four-day span between Thursday and Sunday, Friday’s home matchup against the Clippers, Silva will be away from the team for just one contest during his quick stay in the G League.
“To keep him up to speed,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the decision to send Silva to the G League. “We haven’t had a whole lot of practice time. But this little break or chunk in the schedule is a perfect opportunity for him to get a couple games. He’ll come right back after that.”
Undrafted out of South Carolina this past summer, Silva played for the Heat’s summer league team and signed a two-way contract with the organization just days before the start of the regular season.
Last week, the Heat replaced Silva’s two-way deal with a three-year standard contract that runs through the 2021-22 season. The minimum-salary deal includes a team option for the third year.
Silva has played in 30 games with the Heat this season, averaging 3.5 points and 3.1 rebounds in 8.3 minutes. Since Silva is now on a standard contract, he is part of Miami’s 15-man roster.
AILING HEAT?
The Heat is listing the valuable trio of Jimmy Butler (right knee soreness), Goran Dragic (left calf soreness) and Kendrick Nunn (left Achilles soreness) as questionable for Friday’s game against the Clippers.
In addition, forward Justise Winslow remains out for at least another week because of a lower back bone bruise. Rookie forward KZ Okpala and Silva will also be unavailable, with both currently playing in the G League.
The Clippers listed Paul George (hamstring strain) as out and Patrick Beverley (sore groin) as doubtful for Friday’s contest.
FIVE-MAN SUBSTITUTION
When asked about his decision to pull all five Heat starters (Nunn, Butler, Duncan Robinson, Meyers Leonard, Bam Adebayo) with 6:41 to play in the third quarter of Wednesday’s overtime win over the Wizards, Spoelstra recalled the last time he made such a drastic move.
“I’ve done it before,” Spoelstra said following Thursday’s practice. “I remember the game. It was in 2016-17 at Brooklyn. It was in the middle of our 13-game win streak and the starters were [bad], so I subbed them all out and the second unit did much like our second unit did last night.”
That wasn’t exactly a five-player substitution, though. In that Jan. 25, 2017 game at Barclays Center, Spoelstra replaced four of the Heat’s five starters after the Nets began the second half on a 6-0 run and opted to leave Dragic in the game.
Spoelstra made the five-player move Wednesday after the Wizards began the second half on a 19-3 run to cut the Heat’s lead from 19 all the way down to three just five minutes into the third quarter.
“It’s not about sending a message. It’s not,” Spoelstra said. “That had to be done. That wasn’t even a savvy coaching move. It was a 20-0 run. What am I supposed to do? I can’t just sit there. I already called a timeout and I warned them and gave them two minutes — ‘You change it.’ I made sure I looked every single one of them in the eye because there wasn’t one person, it wasn’t two people. Sometimes you just need to make two or three subs. That whole unit was responsible. Everybody was playing poorly.
“If I’m doing that regularly, we’re in trouble That starting unit is a good unit. So I’m not even going to give it mental thought on what I’ll do next time. I hope there’s not a next time. But Micky [Arison] and Pat [Riley] pay me a decent salary to make decisions during the course of a game.”
A SPECIAL SURPRISE
Dragic received a special delivery this week when teammate Tyler Herro arrived to his house with Papa John’s Pizza, which is one of the Heat’s sponsors.
Every year, one Heat player helps make pizza at a local Papa John’s and delivers it to a season ticket holder. But with this year’s chosen season ticket holder living close to Dragic, the Heat asked Dragic if he wanted Herro to pass by his house with dinner.
Dragic knew the pizza was coming, but the surprise was on Herro. The rookie had never been to Dragic’s house and was unaware he was about to deliver pizza to his teammate.
“It was staged,” Dragic said with a laugh. “But he didn’t know that he was going to deliver it to my house. He was really surprised.”
This story was originally published January 23, 2020 at 1:43 PM.
