What’s next for Guy after 10-day deal with Heat? Chalmers on coaching interest and Butler out
Among the COVID-19 replacement players the Miami Heat has brought in for depth, guard Kyle Guy has stood out.
Since signing his 10-day contract with the Heat on Dec. 30, Guy (6-1, 167 pounds) entered Saturday night’s matchup against the Phoenix Suns at Footprint Center with totals of 47 points on 17-of-31 (54.8 percent) shooting from the field and 9-of-18 (50 percent) shooting on threes, eight rebounds, 10 assists and just four turnovers in 88 minutes over four games.
“It has been great,” Guy said of his Heat experience to the Miami Herald. “They got a nice culture here and they do things the right way. We’ve only had a practice and a half during my 10 days, but I love what they’re about. Quick and to the point, coaches are great and the players are even better.”
Guy, 24, was selected in the second round of the 2019 NBA Draft out of Virginia. Before signing with the Heat last week, he had appeared in 34 NBA games during his career. He averaged 2.8 points while shooting 28.3 percent on threes, 1.1 rebounds and one assist in 31 games with the Kings last season.
In the G League this season, Guy averaged 20 points while shooting 45.1 percent from the field and 36.3 percent on 8.5 three-point attempts per game, 7.2 rebounds and four assists in 12 games with the Cleveland Charge.
“Kyle Guy is a gamer, so he figures out different ways to impact and help you by making winning plays,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “... I think if you just observe his career, he has found different ways to make an impact and he’s far more than just a shooter.”
Why is Guy excelling with the Heat?
“I think they’ve obviously watched film and know what I do,” said Guy, who has averaged 19.1 points and 4.1 assists per 36 minutes since signing with Miami. “I shoot the ball, I can be aggressive, get in the paint and make the right plays, facilitate, scrappy on defense. So they just play to my strengths. That’s how they’ve developed a lot of their guys to be like that. I already had some of the traits coming in, so I think it was just an easy transition. The feeling is mutual, they like me and I love it here.”
But Guy’s 10-day contract with the Heat expires following Saturday’s game in Phoenix, and he can then be signed by any team. The COVID-19 replacement 10-day contracts of Mario Chalmers, Haywood Highsmith, Aric Holman, Chris Silva and Nik Stauskas signed with the Heat also expire this weekend.
While Guy looks like he belongs in the NBA, he may not stick with Miami because of the team’s salary cap and roster situation.
Signing Guy to a two-way contract that doesn’t count toward the salary cap or luxury tax would make the most sense, but both of the Heat’s two-way slots are filled with Marcus Garrett and Caleb Martin. Miami does have the option to waive Garrett and replace him with Guy, but the Heat’s coaches have been high on Garrett’s defensive potential.
Martin has become a quality rotation player for the Heat and is expected to eventually have his two-way contract converted to a standard deal that makes him eligible for the playoffs. But that will happen later in the regular season, when such a move does not take Miami into luxury tax territory.
The Heat also has one open spot on its 15-man roster. But using that opening to sign Guy for the rest of the season is considered unlikely because Miami looks to have it reserved for Martin, and signing Guy to such a contract at this point would push the Heat into the luxury tax.
The Heat has been determined to avoid the luxury tax this season — unless an opportunity arises that it can’t refuse — with the threat of the punitive repeater lax (when a team is over the tax at least three times during a four-year period) looming. Miami finished the 2019-20 season as a tax team.
With one remaining player, Garrett, in the NBA’s health and safety protocols, the Heat also can sign Guy to another 10-day deal as a COVID-19 replacement in the coming days. But that also seems unlikely with Garrett expected to be cleared soon after entering protocols over a week ago, as COVID-19 replacements are ineligible to play if a team does not have a player in protocols.
Of course, a trade could also help create space for Guy.
As of Friday, Guy had not been told by the Heat what will come next.
“I’m a big day-by-day person,” Guy said. “Obviously, I have my big picture. But I’m just day by day while I’m here. I’m grateful for the opportunity and making the most of it. So they’ll tell me when they think they need to tell me. Whether that’s at the end of the 10-day or today or tomorrow, I don’t know. So we’ll see. But I have no idea.”
COACH CHALMERS?
Spoelstra recently revealed that Chalmers told him he wants to eventually get into coaching.
Chalmers, 35, said he’s currently focused on continuing his playing career, but confirmed that coaching does interest him.
“As of right now, I still want to continue playing, continue my career,” said Chalmers, who signed a 10-day deal to return to the Heat as a COVID-19 replacement that expires on Sunday. “But if a coaching opportunity presents itself the next couple years, I would definitely be interested. For me, I come from a family of coaches. My mom was a coach, my dad was a coach, so I’ve been around coaches all my life. It’s just something that I love the game of basketball so much that I’ll always want to be around it.”
Chalmers, who spent the first seven-plus seasons of his NBA career with the Heat, last played in an NBA game on April 11, 2018 as a member of the Memphis Grizzlies.
As for what Chalmers believes he would be best at as a coach, he points to player development. And he would prefer to coach at the NBA level.
“I think I would be a way better player development coach just because I’ve had to develop myself, I’ve had other people help me develop,” he said.
INJURY REPORT
The Heat ruled out Bam Adebayo (thumb surgery), Jimmy Butler (sprained ankle), Chalmers (ineligible to play), Dewayne Dedmon (knee sprain), Garrett (protocols), Udonis Haslem (not with team), Holman (ineligible to play), Markieff Morris (whiplash), KZ Okpala (wrist sprain), Victor Oladipo (knee injury recovery), Stauskas (ineligible to play) and Gabe Vincent (not with team) for Saturday’s game against the Suns.
Haslem cleared protocols on Friday and Vincent cleared protocols on Saturday. But they’re not available to play against the Suns because they’re still in Miami.
This story was originally published January 8, 2022 at 12:45 PM.
