Wayne Ellington ready for next step in coaching journey as Heat’s summer league head coach
Wayne Ellington played for nine different teams through 13 NBA seasons, but his short time with the Miami Heat left a lasting impression on him. That impression was so strong that Ellington returned to the Heat in a coaching role in October 2023 just one year after his playing career came to an end in 2022.
“When I decided I wanted to get back into coaching, it was an easy decision,” said Ellington, who spent two full seasons with the Heat before he was traded in the middle of his third season with the organization in February 2019. “[Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra] was one of the first people that I spoke with just to get a grasp of what it would look like while I was just weighing the decision if I wanted to coach. So, it was a really easy decision for me.”
After Ellington’s first three seasons on Spoelstra’s Heat coaching staff (first season as a player development coach and last two seasons as an assistant coach), he’s ready for the next step in his coaching journey. Ellington will serve as the Heat’s summer league head coach for the first time this year.
Ellington, 38, will lead the Heat’s summer league coaching staff when Miami begins the summer circuit at the four-team California Classic on July 3 in San Francisco. Ellington and the Heat’s summer squad will then join the rest of the NBA at Las Vegas Summer League, which will run from July 9-19.
“This is the next step in my journey, and I’m super excited for it,” Ellington said Friday during a teleconference with a few South Florida reporters. “I’m super appreciative of the opportunity and the confidence that Spo and the front office has in me, allowing me to do this this summer. So I’m looking forward to it.”
Other coaches on Spoelstra’s current staff who have already served in this role for the Heat in past summers include associate head coach Chris Quinn; assistant coaches Malik Allen, Caron Butler and Eric Glass; and Sioux Falls Skyforce head coach Dan Bisaccio.
“I‘ve already been picking those guys’ brains. Just getting information,” Ellington said. “Quinny, Malik, Caron, EG, Dan. I was able to coach with both EG and Dan in summer league. So I’ve seen the way they did things. Just picking their brain a little bit and getting an idea of what it’s like because, yes, it is NBA basketball. But it’s also summer league basketball. It’s a little different.
“You don’t have as much time to prepare. You don’t know who’s going to be on your roster completely until after draft night for the most part. You’ve got to prepare in a different way. You’ve got to get guys up to speed in a different way. You’ve got to have everyone understand your vision and how you want to play.”
Ellington’s time with the Heat as a player wasn’t long, but it was productive. Earning the nickname of “The Man with the Golden Arm” because of his excellent three-point shooting, he shot 38.4% on 6.9 three-point attempts per game in 164 regular-season games (27 starts) with the Heat.
Some of the best seasons of Ellington’s career came in Miami. He hit a career-high 227 three-pointers during the 2017-18 season to set a Heat record for the most three-pointers made by a player in a single season that Duncan Robinson since surpassed.
There’s still one player on the Heat’s current roster who was also around during Ellington’s time as a player with the Heat from 2016 to 2019: Bam Adebayo.
“While I was playing here for the Heat, I obviously had some of my best years in the NBA and there’s no coincidence,” Ellington said. “What the Heat is about, what Spo is about, really matched me and my personality and my beliefs and my basketball style. Honestly, it really took me back to my days at North Carolina playing under coach Roy Williams.
“We were just able to click. It was something I really bought into, and I firmly believed in and I was accepted with open arms. Not only that, Spo really gave me an opportunity to show my skill set, show my ability, and I was able to flourish under him”
Ellington is one of four members of the Heat’s coaching staff with NBA playing experience, along with Quinn, Allen and Butler. All four spent time with the Heat during their playing careers.
Ellington believes his experience of playing for accomplished coaches during his career has helped him and will continue to help him during his coaching journey.
“I’ve been blessed throughout my playing career to be coached by some amazing coaches,” Ellington said. “Going back to high school and my high school coach, Dan Dougherty, who was a coach at West Point and a Philadelphia legend himself. I learned a ton from him. And then I was coached by Roy Williams and won a national championship at North Carolina. And then when I got to the NBA, I was coached by coach Spo, obviously, who I learned a ton from. I was coached by Rick Adelman. I was coached by Rick Carlisle. I was coached by Dwane Casey. So I have a handful of coaches that I was able to be coached by and watch very closely how they do things and learn a ton from.”
While it’s now known that Ellington will serve as the Heat’s summer league head coach, it remains to be seen who will be playing for the Heat’s summer league team. The Heat holds the No. 13 overall pick in the first round and the No. 41 overall pick in the second round of the June 23-24 NBA Draft, and the players selected in those spots are expected to be part of Miami’s summer squad unless they are traded before summer league begins.
Among the players from this past season’s Heat roster who could also be part of its summer league team are Kasparas Jakucionis, Myron Gardner, Vlad Goldin, Trevor Keels and Jahmir Young.
But Jakucionis, the Heat’s 2025 first-round pick, will be away from the Heat for the California Classic segment of summer league play at Chase Center in San Francisco because he will be with the Lithuanian national team for the July window of European World Cup qualifying. Jakucionis is expected to rejoin the Heat to take part in Las Vegas Summer League.
Whatever happens this summer, Ellington hopes it’s just the next step of a long coaching career. His goal is to become an NBA head coach one day.
“Obviously, my next step is to be a bench coach. And then, yeah, I do have the ambition to be a head coach one day,” Ellington said. “I’m still growing and still learning, obviously. But that is my goal in the end.”
