South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Smart, Mulder waived; Garrett, LSU prospect added
The Miami Heat on their final day at the NBA Las Vegas Summer League altered their prospective training camp roster Saturday by releasing two-way-contract players Mychal Mulder and Javonte Smart.
In their places, the Heat signed defensive-minded guard Marcus Garrett to a two-way contract for the second consecutive summer and also added forward Darius Days, who has been playing on the San Antonio Spurs’ summer roster.
The moves keep the Heat offseason roster at 18 players, two below the league maximum, with an anticipated return by veeran power forward Udonis Haslem expected to bring the total to 19.
Mulder and Smart were waived within hours of starting the Heat’s Friday night summer-league loss to the Toronto Raptors.
Mulder closed that loss 2 of 8 from the field and 1 of 6 on 3-pointers, having struggled throughout summer league with his trademark 3-point shooting.
Signed to a Heat two-way contract on March 24, Mulder appeared in two games with the Heat last season, averaging 7.0 points, 1.5 rebounds, 1.0 assists in 22.1 minutes per appearance.
Smart closed Friday night’s loss 4 of 13 from the field with six turnovers, failing to provide efficient scoring in summer league as an undersized shooting guard, and unable to provide playmaking.
Signed to his two-way contract on Feb. 15, Smart appeared in four games with the Heat,
averaging 5.0 points and 1.3 rebounds in 10.0 minutes of action.
For Garrett, who went undrafted out of Kansas in 2021, the two-way contract comes after he left the Heat in January to undergo wrist surgery.
A three-time All-Big 12 selection, Garrett was signed to a Heat two-way contract on Sept. 2, ahead of last season’s training camp, appearing in 12 games. He then rejoined the Heat for summer league, only recently gaining clearing to return from his wrist surgery.
Days, who played four seasons at LSU before going undrafted in June, had appeared in three summer-league games with the Spurs, averaging 13.7 points and 10.0 rebounds in 21.8 minutes, shooting .556 percent from the field and .375 on 3-pointers. He led San Antonio’s summer roster in rebounds and scored in double-figures in each of the three appearances.
Days finished his LSU career as one of 10 players in school history to record at least 1,300 points and 800 rebounds, becoming the third LSU player since 1978 to have at least 1,300 points, 800 rebounds and 125 steals.
At 6 feet 7, 240 pounds, Days said he has attempted to pattern his game after Draymond Green and P.J. Tucker, the starting power forward the Heat lost earlier this month to the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency.
Of Days, Mitch Johnson, the Spurs’ summer-league coach, told San Antonio’s Express News, “He can shoot it and he rebounds it. He has a pathway to a role to this league.”
Late Friday
The Heat fell to 1-3 in Las Vegas with an 88-78 loss late Friday night to the summer roster of the Toronto Raptors.
The Heat fell behind by 23 and clawed within five with less than two minutes to play, in a game that left both teams at a loss. Had the Raptors won by at least 18, they would have advanced to the summer league’s championship game, which instead will be contested Sunday by the New York Knicks and Portland Trail Blazers.
The Heat got 17 points in the loss from French League guard Kyle Allman Jr. and a 13-point, 11-rebound double-double from Robinson.