Undrafted players make Heat depth unlikely asset
The first two players off the bench for the Heat on Thursday in its 112-97 win against the Washington Wizards were Gabe Vincent and Dewayne Dedmon. Up next was Caleb Martin and then Max Strus near the end of the first quarter to close out the Heat’s nine-man rotation.
They’re players with wildly diverging skill sets — Dedmon a burly center, Vincent a crafty point guard, Martin a lanky two-way wing and Strus a sniper shooting guard — and one big thing in common: For the most part, they’re players the rest of the league wasn’t really interested in, and the average NBA fan probably couldn’t pick out of a crowd, if he or she could even give a handful of facts about them.
Here are a couple: Dedmon was a free agent until April last season, when the Heat plucked him off the scrap heap and let him loose to average nearly 15 rebounds per 36 minutes.
Martin is on a two-way contract, meaning Miami can ship him out to the G League at will. Strus has a Duncan Robinson-style story, beginning his college basketball at Division II Lewis University and now shooting better than 44 percent from threepoint range. Vincent flushed home the first dunk of his NBA career Thursday and has gone from effectively out of the rotation to, temporarily, first off the bench in a matter of weeks.
They’re, of course, not always all Miami has off the bench — Tyler Herro and Markieff Morris both sat out Thursday because of injuries — but they’re the reason coach Erik Spoelstra says, “our depth is one of our more important strengths.”
“We think it’s a strength of ours,” the coach said Thursday. “We have enough guys that understand how long a season is, and you’re going to have guys out from time to time and you’ve got to build that trust with your
Gabe Vincent, Max Strus and Caleb Martin were all undrafted. Dewayne Dedmon spent most of last year unsigned. The unlikely foursome is elevating the Heat bench and making an impact early in the season.