Heat signs top shooter to two-way contract. Winslow returns, and tough decisions await.
Heat swingman Justise Winslow has been cleared to return after a back injury, but Erik Spoelstra said not to expect him for his regular dose of minutes, beginning Wednesday in Indianapolis.
“He’s kept himself in very good condition; his weight and body fat are in a fantastic place,” Spoelstra said after the team’s morning shootaround at Banker’s Life Fieldhouse. “It won’t be the minutes he had before, nor should it be right now. He’ll work his way back into it.”
Winslow has missed 15 games in a row with a bone bruise in his lower back, and Spoelstra said Winslow was cleared to play on Wednesday partly because of his “comfort level. He’s had a couple of practices now. He still needs more work. Let’s take this first step and be available. He’s ready.”
Spoelstra now faces difficult rotation decisions. He said the decisions could be fluid from game to game, based in part on matchups.
“I won’t have all the answers tonight,” he said. “I probably won’t have all the answers for a rotation on this road trip. The key is whatever minutes you have, help us. They have to be positive minutes.
“That’s the job of a coaching staff, to go through all those possibilities. We want to be able to utilize our versatility as much as we can. I won’t be able to play everybody on the roster; everybody understands that.”
He said “there could be” two or three players who play some nights and don’t on others.
“Those machinations will not be all crystal clear [Wednesday],” he said.
Among those who could be affected: Kelly Olynyk (his minutes already have dropped dramatically in the past week) and possibly Derrick Jones Jr. And others could see their minutes drop slightly.
Jimmy Butler doesn’t expect teammates to express displeasure if their minutes are reduced because “we do enjoy each other’s success and we do want each other to do great.”
Winslow’s return means we’ll likely see more of a defensive-minded lineup with Winslow, Butler and Bam Adebayo, with each of those players adept at defending players at multiple positions.
When that trio has been on the court together this season, Heat opponents are shooting just 39 percent and 35 percent on threes during their 70 minutes over six games. Their defensive rating as a troika — 102.1 — would be the best for any NBA team over an entire season.
But on the flip side, Miami is shooting just 41 percent overall and 33.3 percent on threes when those three are on the floor together and their offensive rating together is 104.9, which would be fifth worst for an NBA team.
That’s why the Heat has outscored teams by only six points — and not a bigger margin — when those three play together.
“All of our different lineups with some versatility I would love to see sooner than later,” Spoelstra said.
Winslow this season has averaged 12.4 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.3 assists in 10 games, including five starts. He previously missed nine games while in the NBA’s concussion protocol.
NEW GUARD SIGNED
The Heat is planning to sign 6-3 guard Gabe Vincent to a two-way contract and will drop point guard Daryl Macon from his two-way contract, according to a league source. [UPDATE: The Heat has now announced this.]
Vincent, an undrafted second-year player from UC-Santa Barbara, is averaging 23.4 points for the G-League team in Stockton, Cal., while shooting 46.9 percent from the field and 42.1 percent on three-pointers.
The Nigerian-born Vincent has made 88 three-pointers in 209 attempts this season in just 20 games, including three starts. He ranks 13th in the G-League in scoring and first with those 88 threes.
Vincent went undrafted in 2018, spent a few days of training camp with the Sacramento Kings and averaged 8.4 points in 25 games for Stockton last season. His offensive game has blossomed this season.
He did not play in summer league last summer but played for the Nigerian team in the World Cup and was a standout. He wasn’t in an NBA training camp this past October.
Under terms of the deal, Vincent can spend as many as 26 days (the proration of 45 days) with the Heat before the G-League season ends in late March.
“We felt he fit our DNA, that type of work ethic, character that we like and somebody that can grow in our system,” Spoelstra said. “He’s a tremendous three-point shooter and dynamic in his ability to do it off the catch and off the dribble. We’re excited to have him in our program and start that process of development.”
Macon is averaging 19.4 points and 4.8 assists in 17 games (15 starts) for the Heat’s G-League team in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
“We want to create as many dream opportunities as we can and that doesn’t change with Daryl,” Spoelstra said.
Meanwhile, the Heat has not decided whether to convert forward Chris Silva’s two-way contract into a standard deal on Jan. 14, the earliest date it can do so under the restrictions of a hard cap.
The positive for doing that: It would allow the Heat to sign a different player to a second two-way contract; the deadline for that is Jan. 15.
The reason to hold off on converting Silva: It would leave Miami with about $800,000 in wiggle room under its hard cap if it wants to make a trade before the Feb. 6 deadline. Under that scenario, the Heat could take back a player earning nearly $1 million more than the player it sends out.
That option would evaporate if Silva’s two-way is converted to a standard deal on Jan. 14.
Silva - who can spend only seven more days with the Heat under his current two-way contract - said the Heat hasn’t shared its intentions. “That’s my hope and dream, to be converted,” he said.
Silva hasn’t played a game for the Heat’s G League team in Sioux Falls, and said players on that team — Macon, Davon Reed and others — “joke that I don’t want to be a part of the team.”
BUTLER ON COMEDY CENTRAL
With the Heat set to fly to New York after Wednesday’s game, Jimmy Butler will be a guest on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” on Thursday. The program airs at 11 p.m. on weeknights.
Butler said he and Noah have developed a relationship the past few months.
“He’s a really good dude,” Butler said. “I’m a fan. Read his book. I like who he is as a person.”
Butler said he has no plans to discuss politics, a topic he doesn’t talk about publicly.
“It’s just going to be basketball and us joking around and talking about each other and talking about life,” he said. “Leave the politics to him.”
This story was originally published January 8, 2020 at 12:07 PM.
