Heat planning to give new deal to Silva. And examining the Heat’s defensive decline.
Forward Chris Silva, whose rebounding and relentless effort have impressed the Heat since he signed as an undrafted free agent out of South Carolina last June, is about to be rewarded.
Per a team source, the Heat is planning to replace Silva’s two-way contract with a standard three-year deal Tuesday, the first day Miami has the flexibility to do that under the parameters of the league’s hard salary cap.
Players on two-way contracts can spend only 45 days with an NBA team, and Silva is down to a couple of days. Also, by signing Silva to a deal Tuesday, the Heat can sign a new player to a two-way contract by Wednesday’s NBA deadline to do so. Silva and guard Gabe Vincent are currently Miami’s players on two-way contracts.
Silva is averaging 3.5 points and 3.1 rebounds in 30 games, but the numbers are very good (15.0 points, 13.3 rebounds) if measured per 36 minutes.
With Erik Spoelstra tightening his rotation, Silva has played in only five of the Heat’s past 10 games and just 12 minutes during those games.
By signing him to a three-year deal — similar to the one given to Kendrick Nunn on the final day of last season — Miami will have his Bird Rights after his contract ends, allowing the Heat to exceed the cap to sign him with only a modest cap charge.
The 6-8 Silva, who chose the Heat over San Antonio after the draft, was named first-team All Southeastern Conference in 2018 and voted first-team all-SEC by the league’s coaches in 2019.
DEFENSIVE ISSUES
Relinquishing 117 and 124 points in consecutive losses is bad enough for a Heat franchise that prides itself on defensive excellence.
Giving that up to two sub-.500 teams is even worse.
But permitting those totals to two sub.-500 teams playing without their leading scorers (Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving and the Knicks’ Marcus Morris)?
That’s simply unacceptable.
“We’ve got to guard [our man],” Bam Adebayo said after the Heat’s 124-121 loss to the Knicks on Sunday. “It’s not about scheme. It’s not about X’s and O’s. It’s about effort. It’s about staying in front of your man. We’ve been lacking in that department.”
No Heat team, in the past five years, had allowed as many points at the rim in consecutive games as this Heat team permitted against the Nets and Knicks.
But this is even more disturbing: The Heat is allowing 107.5 points per 100 possessions, which is 14th in the league and the most Miami has yielded per 100 possessions since the 2007-08 Heat relinquished 108.8. That team went 15-67.
In fact, the only Heat team that finished worse than 11th in that defensive rating category, over the past decade, was the 2014-15 team that finished 21st.
Too often, Heat defenders are being broken down off the dribble. With Hassan Whiteside now in Portland, the Heat has less rim deterrence than any point in the past five years, ranking worst in the league in field-goal percentage against in the basket area.
“We had a lot of mental lapses [Sunday], including myself,” James Johnson said. “Every one of their guys was getting in the paint. We take pride in not letting guys in the paint, and we take pride holding guys man to man. We can’t be a front-running team where everyone is where they need to be defensively when the ball is going in the hoop and not doing that when we’re down 10.”
Meyers Leonard said communication on defense has not been as sharp as it needs to be, but Jimmy Butler said that’s not the problem.
“It’s all about effort,” Butler said. “You can yell and talk all you want. Communication is not going to make you guard anybody. We’ve got to play hard. Communication, maybe it can be a little better. We have to man up and guard.”
Leonard, who is allowing opposing players to shoot 49.1 percent against him compared to the 45 percent those same players shoot overall, said: “What I do know is I want to be better for our team. My job as the communicator and the anchor is to see the actions, understand the scouting report, try to help our guards understand what’s coming before it happens. I feel I’m doing a pretty good job of that. But we have to do a better job on pick and roll. I’ve got to do a better job in some situations.”
Asked if it might be time for lineup changes, with San Antonio visiting Wednesday, coach Erik Spoelstra said: “We do not need to panic. We know how to do it, we’ve done it, and the personnel has done it. This season has become real for us like it becomes real for everybody. Seasons don’t just go easy all the way through.”
Could these struggles help the team down the road? “No,” Butler said. “I don’t like to lose... This doesn’t benefit us.
“We should be winning these games. I’ve got to figure out a way to help us win. I love the group of guys we have. I do want to play with these guys. I’m going to figure it out.”
This story was originally published January 13, 2020 at 10:48 AM.
