LAS VEGAS — It was arguably the most surprising signing of the Miami Heat’s offseason, particularly when considering the team’s limited resources from luxury-tax and roster-space perspectives.
For his part, as he stays away from social media, third-year point guard Dru Smith is simply appreciative of the opportunity after the Heat agreed at the start of the month to bring him back on a two-way contract.
Still pushing through the recovery from the gruesome knee injury sustained after he mis-stepped off the elevated floor at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse during a November road victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers, in many ways Smith never left.
Waived by the Heat on March 6 in order to fill out the playoff roster with Patty Mills, Smith’s rehabilitation at Kaseya Center has been ongoing and continued this week with the Heat in Las Vegas during summer league.
“The way this organization has treated me, it’s unbelievable,” Smith, 26, said during a courtside interview at Thomas & Mack Center amid the Heat’s summer schedule. “I’m very appreciative of it. At the same time, I’m going to go out there and do everything I can for them, as well.
“I think the love is reciprocated both ways, which I really appreciate. I just want to continue to get back healthy and then be able to get back out there for this team.”
A timetable for a return remains uncertain.
“I feel like I’m doing really well,” he said, before taking a seat across from the Heat bench to watch the summer roster in action. “Six and a half months post-op right now, I think. I’m feeling pretty good. I feel like I’m getting back to moving normally. Just taking it day by day still, trying to make sure I’m not rushing anything. Just making sure I’m healthy, first and foremost, and then just trying to get back.”
The Heat open training camp the first week of October.
“My personal goal is to be back by camp,” he said. “I think it’s very feasible. But you never know. These things are day by day. So as long as everything goes smoothly, I think that’s kind of the plan. But like I said, it’s always up in the air. We just got to make sure everything is going right.”
While the Heat have received quality play during summer league from undrafted point guards Zyon Pullin and Isaiah Stevens, with both under contract, Heat general manager Andy Elisburg said the team has not lost sight of Smith’s possibilities.
“We like Dru a lot,” he said this week of the 6-foot-2 guard who went undrafted out of Missouri in 2021. “We liked Dru last year. That’s obviously why he made the team. And I think we really liked the things we were seeing Dru do unfortunately before he had the unfortunate injury.
“Now that there is an opportunity to sign him again and it’s on a two-way, so there’s a little bit more flexibility, in terms of the expectations off of the two-way. But we’re optimistic that he’s going to continue to improve and hopefully we’ll see where he is in the fall.”
While two-way contracts can be swapped out at any time, there also can be an element of guaranteed money, money that does not count against the salary cap or the luxury-tax aprons. For a player to be eligible to move on to a team’s G League affiliate if released, that amount for the coming season is $77,000.
So for Smith, there are no guarantees of a roster spot, not the standard contract he held last season.
But there is the opportunity to at least attempt to pick up where he left off, unlike when he was moving through the halls at Kaseya Center amid his rehab this past spring while no longer on the roster.
“It was tough,” he said. “But, like I said, they’ve treated me really well through all of this. Even when I wasn’t even on the team, they still allowed me to come in for film sessions and to watch practice and still kind of be in it every day, still be able to learn, still be able to be around the guys, things like that.
“So it was definitely tough. It’s tough to sit there and watch, in general, when you’re on the team and not on the team, anything. It’s just tough to be sitting there. But they’ve treated me extremely well. I just want to make sure that’s conveyed. I’m really appreciative of it, for sure.”
All while pushing through the reality that if the court in Cleveland was not elevated, and if it didn’t have a drop-off ledge in front of the benches, there never would have been this NBA detour.
“It was a freak accident,” Smith said. “But, at the same time, the way I look at it at this point, there’s no point in being negative about it. I think that would just slow everything down. I think I’ve tried to be as positive as possible throughout the whole process after, obviously, those first couple of weeks.
“But since then, just trying to be positive, trying to have a good outlook. Just trying to make sure that everything keeps continuing to trend upwards. That’s just going day by day. That’s all I can do is take it day by day.”
