Miami Heat Summer League Orlando roster preview

There are ten teams competing in Orlando Summer League this season with a variety of different kinds of players. As teams are filled with veterans, young prospects, and out-and-out rookies, Summer League is a time of year filled with wonder, promise, and ugly basketball.

We’ll be previewing the rosters of all ten teams that will be involved in the Orlando Summer League by giving about 30-50 words on each player and letting you know how legitimate their NBA chances are.

The next team on our list?

Miami Heat Summer League roster

The Rookie

Shabazz Napier, G: LeBron’s hand-picked successor to free-agent Mario Chalmers, Napier will have an interesting developmental process that starts in the D-League. As an undersized guard without a ton of athletic skill, he’s going to need to learn how to play against length. Summer League will be the start of that, and he didn’t perform well in the first game.

Player under contract

Justin Hamilton, C: Hamilton is on a non-guaranteed contract and will be looking to make an impact as the Heat try to make an impact in free agency. My guess is that he’s probably safe regardless. Either the Heat need to fill their roster with minimum contracts after signing the Big 3, or they’ll be looking to rebuild and will take a shot on young guys. Hamilton has a developing jumper as a center, so he could be useful eventually.

Former NBA players, not under contract

Tyler Honeycutt, G/F: Honeycutt is a former Sacramento King that has played 24 NBA games, but hasn’t been back since 2013. Last season, Honeycutt played in Israel for a team that has just gained promotion to the Super League. Honeycutt is a long guard/forward that just doesn’t quite defend well enough or shoot well enough from distance to make himself an NBA player. Although he’s still young at 23, this is an important year for him to figure it out.

Random International Dude

Nobel Boungo Colo, F: Umm, well. This guy is a 26-year-old skinny French power forward that shot 40% from three this season. I’ll just connect you with his Draft Express stats profile because I have no idea who he is outside of that.

Danilo Barthel: I know even less about Barthel. He won a most-improved player award in 2014 in the German league though averaging 11 points and 5 rebounds per game. Neither of these guys are legitimate prospects.

Undrafted Rookies

Langston Hall, G: Hall was the Atlantic Sun POY this year for Mercer, and keyed their upset over Duke in the first round. He’s a good three-point shooter, but unfortunately probably just too undersized for the shooting guard position in the NBA without the ball-skills to play the point guard.

Andre Dawkins, G: The sharpshooting guard out of Duke who had a strange career is also suiting up for the Heat. He’s another one of those guys that doesn’t particularly do much else but shoot well. My guess is that he has a long career in Europe knocking down shots, but he’ll struggle to make the NBA.

Jerrelle Benimon, F: The big power forward out of Towson is a tough rebounder that played well at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament prior to the draft. He averaged 19 points and 11 rebounds per contest this season, and has the body and length to make an impact in the D-League next season.

Tyler Johnson, G: A smallish scoring guard out of Fresno State, Johnson put up solid scoring numbers with strong percentages this season. Unfortunately though, he doesn’t have the point guard skills to or general ball skills to make it at this level right now. He might be worth a flier in the D-League though because of the shooting skill.

Non-rookie, non-NBA players

James Ennis, F: Ennis was drafted 50th overall by the Heat last season, but went unsigned. Among the better athletes in Orlando this year, he’s a potential 3 and D guy if he can get the jump shot figured out. I legitimately expect him to be on the Heat roster next season.

Larry Drew, PG: Drew never was able to succeed in the way that many expected at UNC, but after transferring to UCLA he’s made quite an impact on both the Pac-12 and D-League last season. He shot 41% on 130 three-point attempts last season, and displays good vision pretty much wherever he goes. The question with Drew has never been his feel for the game, as that’s always been great, it’s more his actual athleticism.

Ivan Aska, F: Aska is a former power forward for Murray State that performed well in the Greek league last season, averaging 15 points and 7 rebounds. However, he’s probably a bit too undersized for the power forward position at 6’7 and doesn’t have the perimeter skills to move over to the 3.

Eli Holman, C: He’s clearly undersized for the center position at 6’9, but with a 7’4 wingspan he can cause some issues in the paint. Holman played well in Turkey this season, but unfortunately he’s just not quite skilled enough to make it in the NBA at that size. Should continue to have a solid European career, though.

Trey McKinney-Jones, G: McKinney-Jones is a scoring guard that played well for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants last season after a middling collegiate career for Miami and UMKC. He averaged 15 points on a 56% true-shooting percentage, so there is potential for him to continue growing. At 6’5, the size is there if he can continue to improve his shooting ability.