Silva works hard to clean up rather foul situation

For Chris Silva to stick around a bit longer for the Miami Heat, it could come down to sticking around longer during games.

Last season, only two NBA players averaged more than Silva’s 8.8 fouls per 36 minutes, which is a concern considering NBA games are 48 minutes and players are disqualified on their sixth foul.

Saturday, the secondyear Heat power forward said the foul trouble has been a point of emphasis from the coaching staff.

“The less fouls I have, the more of an option I am for coaches to put me back in, to actually have a choice to use me in different moments,” Silva said as the Heat completed their first week of training camp.

“Of course, the foul-trouble thing has been a big emphasis, from learning and watching film on how to play defense the right way, how to make reads on defense so I don’t get in foul trouble.”

Ultimately, it has turned into a mind game.

“It’s been a lot of techniques and footwork, and how to impact the ball, impact the game, meaning on the pick-and-roll jump in without the arms coming down, make a read, anticipate so I avoid making the foul,” Silva said. “It’s all the things like that that we watch. I watch a lot of film so I could be better this year.”

Coach Erik Spoelstra said the hope is those sessions can keep Silva in the game.

“I just think that really fast-tracked his learning process,” Spoelstra said Saturday of the forward who went undrafted out of South Carolina in 2019.

Full complement

Spoelstra for years has pushed for all healthy players to be allowed to suit up. That apparently will be the game this season, with 15 allowed to be in uniform on game nights.

Teams will have larger bench areas this season, with arenas either to be without fans or at reduced capacity due to the coronavirus.

“It just makes so much more sense on many different levels,” Spoelstra said. “Obviously, we have a lot more space, so I don’t think that’s an issue anymore.

“Any time you have everybody available, it just gives you more opportunities to look at different things or have guys just simply available for different circumstances that you might not be able to always predict.”

There still will be decisions to be made, with teams allowed to carry up to 17 players, when including two on two-way contracts. Those players are limited to 50 appearances over the 72-game schedule.

Limited showcase

Spoelstra said it will become clearer on Sunday, when the Heat have to issue their injury report, about the approach he will take in Monday’s preseason opener against the New Orleans Pelicans at American-Airlines Arena.

“We have 20 guys available, so I’m not going to play all of them,” he said. “I like what I’ve seen so far in training camp. We’re doing a little bit more each day.

“The guys that have been in our system are getting in much better rhythm and getting their legs under them and the conditioning to where they need to. And the other guys are getting acclimated and learning our system, learning how we do things.

“We’ve had some really good practices, really competitive the last couple days. So I want to be able to, probably Monday, not only reward some of the younger guys, but since we won’t have an extended preseason, do a little bit of an evaluation as well.”