Josh Christopher’s strong finish for the Miami Heat at summer league, combined with uneven play over those three weeks by undrafted Florida guard Zyon Pullin, on Thursday led to an alteration with the Miami Heat’s approach with their two-way contracts.
Having helped fuel the Heat to the championship of the recently completed Las Vegas NBA Summer League, Christopher was awarded one of the three two-way deals available to the Heat, a contract that pays half the NBA minimum salary and allows a player to be on the active roster for 50 of the regular season’s 82 games.
That move came at the expense of Pullin, who was uneven with his play over the three weeks of the Heat’s summer program, eventually bypassed in the Heat’s summer starting lineup by undrafted Colorado State point guard Isaiah Stevens.
Remaining under two-way contacts for the Heat are undrafted Arizona forward Keshad Johnson and returning Heat guard Dru Smith, who spent most of last season sidelined with a knee injury sustained in November.
Thursday’s move continued the limbo of guard Alondes Williams and forward Cole Swider, who both finished last season on Heat two-way contracts, but remain without contract offers for the Heat for the coming season.
While the Heat again are at the maximum of three players under two-way contracts, they continue to operate with 14 players under standard contract, one below the NBA regular-season maximum. The Heat currently are unable to fill that 15th standard roster spot due to their position hard against the highly punitive second luxury-tax apron of the NBA’s new collective-bargaining agreement.
Under standard contract to the Heat for the coming season are Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Terry Rozier, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Nikola Jovic, Duncan Robinson, Kevin Love, Haywood Highsmith, Josh Richardson, Alec Burks, Thomas Bryant and draft picks Kel’el Ware and Pelle Larsson.
Teams are allowed to carry up to 21 players in the offseason, with Stevens under an Exhibit 10 camp tryout contract. The Heat have offseason roster space to offer up to three such additional tryout contracts ahead of training camp.
Christopher, who was named the 2024 Summer League Championship Game MVP, helped the Heat capture that title Monday in Las Vegas after appearing in all six Heat games (four starts) at the event and averaging 19.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.00 steals, 1.8 assists in 25.9 minutes per game, shooting .541 from the field, .525 on 3-pointers and 15 of 15 from the line. He scored in double-figures five times, recording four 20-point games, including a 20-point fourth quarter against the summer roster of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Christopher, a 6–foot-4 guard who was the No. 24 pick of the 2021 NBA draft by the Houston Rockets, finished last season with the Heat’s G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce. He then had been working in the Heat’s offseason program for months
Heat assistant Dan Bisaccio, who guided the Heat’s summer roster, sang the praise of Christopher during the event.
“He’s worked incessantly behind the scenes,” Bisaccio said. “He’s staying in Miami since May with us, constantly asking us, ‘What else can I do? What more can I do? I need to do more. I want to be better. I want to be challenged.’ ”
Christopher said his journey, which also included being under contract to the Memphis Grizzlies and Utah Jazz, opened his eyes to NBA reality.
“You realize that you aren’t bigger than the NBA once you get there,” he said, “and that for some people it may take them a little longer to realize that. But you really have to buy all the way in and do what you’re asked, and that’s how you kind of create longevity.
“I’m extremely hungry. I like push myself to exhaustion and I’m in the gym every day. You put in the work, it’s going to show love back.”
Pullin, a 6-4 guard who played last season at Florida after playing the previous four at Cal-Riverside, had signed his two-way contract by the Heat on July 1, but in his six appearances for the Heat at the Las Vegas summer league averaged just 5.3 points, 1.7 assists and 1.0 rebounds in 11.9 minutes per game.
