Spoelstra reveals conversations with Chalmers
No matter how this reunion with Mario Chalmers plays out, brief as it might be, Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra hinted there might yet be an encore to this encore.
“He told me something crazy this summer,” Spoelstra said of a conversation with Chalmers, 35, ahead of the Heat signing the veteran point guard to an emergency 10-day contract. “He said he wants to get into this profession. And I asked him if he was nuts, like, ‘Are you kidding?’ “
It has not been unusual for former Heat players to eventually rejoin the team’s coaching staff. Among those who have include Keith Askins and Juwan Howard, as well as current Heat assistants Malik Allen, Anthony Carter, Chris Quinn and Caron Butler.
“But if he does choose,” Spoelstra said of Chalmers, “eventually when he’s done playing — he still has, if he chooses to, he has years ahead of him because he’s in shape and his style of play would lend itself to play a couple, a few more years — but if he does decide that he wants to get into this madness, I’d love to help him and continue the relationship whether it’s with us or somebody else.”
Chalmers’ 10-day contract, signed under the league’s roster allowance as a replacement for players in coronavirus protocols,
expires Sunday, but his eligibility would expire sooner once a corresponding Heat player returns to the active roster.
Chalmers, who helped the Heat win NBA championships in 2012 and ‘13 alongside Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh, returned to the Heat after recently playing in the G League with the Grand Rapids Gold. Prior to his stint with Grand Rapids, he spent three seasons overseas, as well as time in the halfcourt Big3 circuit.
Chalmers had yet to play during this return engagement going into Wednesday night’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers at the Moda Center.
In addition to the aforementioned Heat former players who returned to coach with the
Heat, among former Heat players who have gone on to coach elsewhere in the NBA have been Tim Hardaway, Brian Shaw, Dan Majerle, Keyon Dooling, Quentin Richardson, James Posey, Terry Porter, Jamaal Magloire, Ed Pinckney, Amar’e Stoudemire, as well as Rod Strickland, Penny Hardaway, Eric Murdock, Craig Neal, Mike Miller, Rex Walters, Milt Wagner, Majerle, Porter and Howard on the collegiate level.
New designation
With each Heat player who returns from protocols, one of the recently added players on emergency contracts will have his designation changed to “ineligible to play” until their 10-day deal expires.
Such was the case with G League forward Aric Holman when P.J. Tucker returned Monday night against the Golden State Warriors from the COVID list.
The Heat went into Wednesday’s game with five additional such emergency 10-day players on the roster: Chalmers, Chris Silva, Kyle Guy, Nik Stauskas and Haywood Highsmith.
Still listed in COVID protocols Wednesday for the Heat were Duncan Robinson, Gabe Vincent, Marcus Garrett and Udonis Haslem.
Roster bolstered
With the roster of the Heat’s G League affiliate thinned by NBA emergency callups, including center Micah Potter joining the Detroit Pistons and guard Brandon Knight joining the Dallas Mavericks, the Sioux Falls Skyforce recently added two veterans from the G League player pool.
Most notable was the addition of forward Earl Clark, a six-year NBA veteran who was the No. 14 pick in the 2009 NBA draft and most recently had been playing in South Korea. Also added forward Sam Thompson, a forward out of Ohio State who undrafted in 2015 and has been playing in Italy.
Both are free to be signed by any NBA team.
The Skyforce are scheduled to resume their season Thursday on their home court in South Dakota.