Heat’s selfless play draws high praise
MIAMI — They have a dominant player in Jimmy Butler but not necessarily a dominating scorer, with seven players averaging in double figures.
That, NBA Hall of Fame guard and current NBA TV analyst Isiah Thomas said, is what makes this season’s Miami Heat so refreshing.
“Don’t you get the feeling that they’re not playing for numbers?” the former Detroit Pistons icon said during a recent appearance on NBA TV. “They’re one of the few teams in the NBA that I don’t see playing individually for their stats or for their numbers.
“I don’t see any of their guys grabbing the stat sheet saying, ‘Ooh, I wonder how many assists I got, how many rebounds I got?’ I think they’re really playing collectively to try to win basketball games, and that’s all that really matters to them.”
That, in part, had the Heat taking a perfect home record and 17-6 overall mark into Tuesday night’s game against the Atlanta Hawks at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Butler has spent most of the season attempting to incorporate his new teammates into an ensemble offense. Entering Tuesday,
Butler
he was 14th in the league in assists, ahead of several starting point guards.
“I think that’s why he’s fitting so well,” Thomas said, “and I think he doesn’t feel the pressure of the stat sheet, of being the man [saying], ‘I have to carry the load.’ And I think he feels protected in that environment, where they just want to win.
“But also I think he’s looking around at these young players and he respects [Tyler] Herro, he respects [Kendrick] Nunn. Because I do believe they’re competing against him every single day in practice. So there are no easy days for him in practice.”
Thomas also addressed what some previously had considered the elephant in the room: the Heat making the offseason switch to Bam Adebayo as their fulltime starting center in place of Hassan Whiteside, who was dealt in July to the Portland Trail Blazers.
“When you talk about Bam,” Thomas said, “I think Bam is a guy that didn’t need the basketball, didn’t want the basketball. Whiteside, I believe, after the big contract wanted to live up to the money, wanted to live up to the contract; consequently, started demanding the basketball.”
Halfway home: Tuesday marked the 22nd NBA day on the two-way contract of undrafted rookie forward Chris Silva.
Players on two-way contracts are allowed a maximum of 45 days in the NBA, with the rest of the time to be spent in the G
League.
However, because days when a player does not practice do not count against the limit, the Heat have been able to slow-play Silva’s deal. They have yet to send him to their G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce.
The Heat currently lack the salary ability under their hard cap to shift Silva to a standard contract (there remains an open roster spot to do so). That will change in January, based on the pro-rated salary on the league’s minimum scale.
Based on how the Heat have allocated the first 22 of those NBA days over the first eight weeks of the season, it is possible the Heat can extend that 45-day allocation almost to the Feb. 6 trading deadline.
Such an approach, if Silva remains away on practice days, would require him sitting out at least three games.
Silva currently has enough NBA days left on his deal to carry him through the end of January.