Hammons guaranteed

MIAMI — The second name off Erik Spoelstra’s tongue when asked Sunday about Heat players deserving of All-Star consideration speaks volumes about perseverance.

“For us?” Spoelstra replied. “Goran, I think year in and year out should be on that list.”

And yet it was the next name mentioned, beyond Goran Dragic, that offered what previously might have been considered the unexpected.

“If he started out playing this way, Josh Richardson would definitely be on that list, in my mind,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s emerging small forward. “And he’s going to be considered for that as we move forward. I think that much of him.

“Bigger than that, people should hopefully start recognizing Josh Richardson’s impact on the defensive end. He’s an All-NBA defensive talent. He’s doing it every single night and now he’s just starting to emerge on the other side of the floor and really gain confidence.”

Richardson said before Sunday’s game against the Jazz that his aspirations were not quite so lofty when he entered the NBA as the No. 40 pick out of Tennessee in the 2015 draft.

“My goal was to get on the court, first of all,” he said. “Now, yeah, your goals get bigger as you get better. My next goal is really to get us back in the playoffs and go from there.”

The Heat have opted to guarantee the contract of center A.J. Hammons for the season, with $400,000 of that total having to be guaranteed by Sunday’s 5 p.m. waiver deadline.

Although Hammons arrived in a July 7 trade with the Mavericks with a contract guaranteed for both this season and next season, approximately one quarter of Hammons’ 2017-18 salary stood in question on the Heat’s payroll, the differential between the league’s previous minimum salary and the new minimum in the collective-bargaining agreement that went into place this season.

Hammons was acquired in the salary-cap dump of Josh McRoberts to the Mavericks that included cash to pay off most of McRoberts’ salary and