MIAMI — The perspective on draft night was that the Miami Heat well may have just selected his replacement.
Thomas Bryant said Wednesday he viewed the move on draft night through a different prism, that the opportunity was there to work in South Florida with a fellow Indiana Hoosier big man.
On June 26 the Heat chose Hoosiers 7-footer Kel’el Ware at No. 15 in the first round.
Days later, Bryant agreed to return to the Heat in free agency.
“My thoughts when I saw them draft him was, a fellow Hoosier right there,” said Bryant, a second-round pick out of Indiana in 2017. “I’d seen him play a few times at Indiana. I wasn’t too much locked in last year or the past few years, but I’d seen him play a few times. I remember one game he played against Minnesota, he had a great game.
“The length, the ability of him being able to block shots, be a defensive presence and also the offensive end, as well, and having a fellow Hoosier there, and knowing where he’s been from and where he’s going . . . I think I can help him out.”
At 26, Bryant said he is not quite ready to evolve into the role of a mentor.
“I think I am a little young to be like a vet,” he said with a smile during a Wednesday media session. “But if he has any questions about a rookie year, just anything like that, I’m fully open and willing to help in any way, shape or form that I can.”
Bryant said he will embrace the competition of a robust Heat power rotation that also includes Ware, Bam Adebayo, Kevin Love and Nikola Jovic.
“For me there’s a lot of centers at any roster you might go on,” he said. “It’s all about finding your way and your niche and what the team needs from you. For me, personally, I got all great feedback from guys in Miami.
“I just feel like I fit that mold, that Miami Heat fit.”
Bryant had an opt-in deadline of June 30 to return for $3.1 million on the second year of the two-year contract he signed with the Heat last July.
Instead, he opted out to give himself the opportunity to see if there was a better deal available elsewhere, with the door otherwise not closed for what became this return.
“Me and my agent, we both talked and we thought just for us was just to look out the market and just see what was available,” Bryant said. “For us, it was never about any misfortune or anything like that. I love the Miami Heat, personally. I love the way their culture is, the coaching staff, the guys that they have around each other.
“It was just about, for myself as the player and everything, individually, of just what else might have been out there, what potentially could have been out there.”
The Heat ultimately profited from the move with a $700,000 savings against the salary cap, because, by returning on a one-year deal, his cap hit was reduced to $2.1 million as opposed to the full $2.8 million cap hit if he instead opted in.
While players who return on one-year contracts that have been with the same team for at least two seasons have the ability to block a trade, Bryant waived that provision ahead of his signing.
In adding Bryant last summer in free agency from the Denver Nuggets, Heat President Pat Riley spoke glowingly of Bryant’s size adding the type of element the team lacked in falling 4-1 to Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets in the 2023 NBA Finals.
Instead, after initially being slotted into a role as the primary backup to Adebayo, Bryant found himself shuffled out of the rotation in favor of the move of Love to a floor-spacing backup center.
Bryant had been protected as a possible stretch big man, but that rarely came into play in his initial Heat season. He averaged 5.7 points and 3.7 rebounds in 11.6 minutes per game in his 38 appearances last season that included four starts, but shot only 4 of 22 on 3-pointers.
“Going into last year,” he said Wednesday, “it was very difficult for a guy that was just coming in with the Miami Heat organization, with guys that had been together for three, four, five years together. It’s a little difficult trying to get that team chemistry.”
Robinson moves on
Waived Sunday ahead of his July 15 guarantee date with the Heat, center Orlando Robinson has been added by the Houston Rockets to their roster for the Las Vegas Summer League.
Robinson spent the past two seasons with the Heat after going undrafted out of Fresno State in 2022, ultimately caught up in the team’s overload at center.
Based on his NBA tenure, Robinson is eligible for a two-way contract with the Rockets or elsewhere.
