Chris Silva is one of the most talented basketball players in South Carolina to reach the professional level and has a tenacity that fits the culture of the Heat, but he will not be in Miami for a long time.
Silva signed with the Miami Heat earlier this year, updating his bidirectional contract to a three-year contract, giving him the 15th and final place in the squad. This in itself was due to the hard work the rookie was putting into the Heat Summer League squad.
Silva’s best ability is to get the ball out of the glass and can add a layer of rebound to the Heat game on both sides of the floor.
Heat currently occupies 14th place in total rebounds per game this season and in order to compete with the first, second and third seeds in the Eastern Conference, Heat needs to improve the amount of boards it receives per game. The first seed Milwaukee Bucks is first in the league in rebounds per game, the second seed, the Toronto Raptors, is currently 12th in rebounds, and the Boston Celtics are ninth in rebounds. All are getting at least four more rebounds per game than Miami in the last three games, respectively.
In Silva’s three games in August, he had 17 rebounds in less than 40 minutes. For 36 minutes, Silva would have an average of 13 boards per game from his 2019-2020 totals.
While Silva would insanely improve Heats’ lackluster skills outside the glass, I’m sorry to say that Silva won’t be the solution, and my prediction is that he won’t be in the squad much longer after this postseason.
Unfortunately for Silva, the Heat has an extremely deep bank with very talented players. Although Silva himself is very talented and young, I don’t think he is prioritized by coach Erik Spoelstra as a future part of this organization.
Looking at the Heat payroll, you can see that there are a ton of players who can play on the shooting guard or in small forward positions. The Heat has the following players who can play guard in two or three positions: tenacious Jimmy Butler, MVP of the 2015 finals Andre Iguodala, a tough Jae Crowder (who I think they will resign after this season), a rookie sensation in Tyler Herro, champion Derrick Jones (wrongly), a guy who sets fire to three-point terrain in Duncan Robinson and possibly growing star Bam Adebayo if the Heat were looking to use a big man line.
Even if the Heat does not hire Crowder this free agency and Adebayo does not see minutes in the wing, Silva is looking for minimum minutes. Realistically, Silva would just be playing in blowouts, injured multiplayer games or in load management situations.
My prediction is that the Miami Heat will show its talent again during the Summer League (or any new version of this that we will see because of the COVID-19 pandemic delaying the season) and sell it for the next free agency period.
I can imagine the Heat doing one of two things: the first option is to exchange it for a high second, if not at the end of the first choice, where the second option is that the Heat could pair it with Kelly Olynyk terribly overpaid and look to free up some space to sign another threat.
Although I loved that Silva remained on a list that corresponds to his tenacity and hard work, I believe it is likely that he would be wasting his time in Miami.
Silva is one of three Gamecocks in the NBA Playoffs in the bubble in Orlando this postseason, as well as PJ Dozier for the Denver Nuggets and Brian Bowen II of the Indiana Pacers.