Do The Miami Heat Have A HIDDEN GEM?

Do The Miami Heat Have A HIDDEN GEM?

[Music] The Miami Heat. Do they have another hidden gem on their roster? We have seen it time and time again. They found Gabe Vincent. They found Caleb Martin. They found Max Strose. They found Kendrick Nun. Is there another player that this Heatfront office and coaching staff’s values in a high regard that could ultimately provide dividends for the Miami Heat? I am Nick Rolloff this heat report by chat sports. The player that I’m referring to is Ethan Thompson, a guy that has been in the G-League. The Heat signed to an exhibit 10 contract this off season. Well, Eric Spolster spoke very highly of Thompson following the opening preseason game on Saturday against the Magic. Now, if I’ll be honest, the performance from Thompson wasn’t like the most jawdropping, oh my goodness, that he have this star in their system type of thing. He played the most minutes out of anyone in this preseason game, 27 minutes, and did look good in terms of his distribution as a point guard, but struggled to find his own in terms of putting the ball in the basket. But he is a really big body guard who does possess a lot of qualities you want to see in a potential NBA caliber guy. He’s certainly intriguing. There’s no debate about that. And the Heat do clearly like him because out of all the Exhibit 10 contract players they signed this off seasonason, he was the first one they signed. I’m just not sold on it right now. We’ll kind of go through everything on today’s show, but join the family here at the Heat Report because we have daily Miami Heat content. We are the most interactive Miami Heat YouTube community there is. Watch parties are officially back. You see it bottom of your screen. Wednesday, October 8th, just two days from today, against the Spurs. First watch party of the 2025 season. I know it’s preseason, but it’s good to be back. Hit that sub button. We’re 22 away from 24,700. Join the family. The reason why we’re making this video though is because how complimentary Eric Bolster was of Ethan Thompson. There was nothing from his performance on Saturday evening that made me want to talk about Thompson for a extended video on how he could be another hidden gem. But when your head coach speaks so highly of a guy like this, it turns your head a little bit. It opens your odds. It’s like, oh, if he says this about him publicly, there’s clearly something they value with Thompson. So, what did Spoke say exactly? Let me read it off for you. He says, we like Ethan. you know, we’ve we’ve been a fan of his for a couple years. We’ve tried to get him a couple years ago, just didn’t work out. So, we followed him since then. We thought he had the qualities that fit how we play and how we do things. He’s had a very good training camp. He was really committed in September and August and he has to keep on plugging away. He’s very close to me. He is an NBA player. It’s a matter of, you know, the right opportunity, the right timing. That is high praise for a player that is on an exhibit 10 contract. And this isn’t a guy that’s been on a two-way contract. The team ultimately waved him and the Heat signed him to an exhibit 10. No, this is a guy that has been in the GLeague for the past four years after being an undrafted free agent. Now, the Heat do have an opportunity to add him to a two-way contract. They still have an open two-way slot. They have Vlad Golden signed. They have Myron Gardner signed, but they left one spot open for potentially one of these exhibit 10 contract guys to make that jump up from exhibit 10 to two-way, be in the Heats G-League system for this season and potentially appear in about 41 regular season games. Because remember, if you’re on a two-way contract, you’re allowed to appear in up to 41 regular season games. 40. What is 40 exactly? 50. Excuse me. Thank you, Coupe. And you are not allowed to participate in the NBA playoffs, though. So, Thompson could potentially fill that void for the Miami Heat. More coming here, but pin comment on today’s show. Should Ethan Thompson get that final two-way contract slot for the Miami Heat? Type Y for yes or type N for no. Now, I do think it is smart for Miami to target a guard with that final two-way spot. Will it be Ethan Thompson? I don’t know. But with Tyler Herro out for the first month of the year, with DaVon Mitchell dealing calf soreness, Casakonis ais wrist sprain, and Terry Rosier hamstring strain. That is four Miami Heat guards that are banged up right now. Now, will they all miss time to start the regular season? No. The only one that’s guaranteed to miss time is Tyler Herro. But with so many question marks at that guard rotation early in the year, it makes sense to have another guy that you can play early in the season with a two-way contract that is a guard. And I want to go through Thompson’s kind of background now outside of just his performance in the Heats preseason opener. Play at Oregon State from 2017 to 2021. Was undrafted and has been in the G-League ever since then across three different organizations. He was with the Windy City Bulls for two years, then joined the Mexico City Capitans and then played for the Magic G-League team a year ago. So, he’s bounced around some organizations. I don’t even know who’s the Mexico City affiliation. Coupe. No affiliation, says Coupe. They’re just in the G-League having a fun time. Obviously, the Bulls and Magic are self-explanatory, but Thompson’s been quote unquote breaking out in the G-League. last season. He made the AllNNBA G-League third team and was in the NBA GLeague Next Up game last season, which means he is an ascending player to where he might be one of those guys that either is taking that step to being an NBA backend level guy, like 11th to 13th on the roster, or maybe he’s just one of those guys that we call in the MLB is a quadruple A player, where it’s too good for the minor league system, but is not good enough to play in the professional league. Maybe we’re in one of those situations, but I guess only time will tell. This episode is brought to you by Prize Picks. You and I make decisions every single day. The right decisions on prize picks can get you paid. It’s so easy to play. You pick more or less on at least two player stats. If you get your picks right, you could cash in. The preseason is officially here, which means you can start taking the more or less on some basketball projections, but you could also go to the professional football league as well. You could also now take stacks in lineups, which means you could go more than on Steph Curry. Points, three-pointers, assists, all in the same lineup. You can only do that on prizes. Well, I’m in some action for the Monday Night Football game today. More than Brian Thomas junior receiving yards, less than Kareem Hunt rush attempts in less than Travis Kelce receiving yards. Taylor Swift new album stinks. Travis Kelce gonna stink tonight. Download the Prize Fix app today and use code CLNS to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s code CLNS to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks. It’s good to be right. Another reason why I really am intrigued with Ethan Thompson, and I said this when the Heat signed him back in August, there’s the 14th of August to be exact. He’s got really good size for his position. He’s 6’5. He’s got a 66 wingspan. He’s filled out nicely. And I’m a sucker for lengthy guards because when you have the ability to switch defensively on many different positions, you have the ability to take advantage of mismatches if you are going up against a smaller 61 62 guard. That just provides you with so much versatility on both the offensive and defensive end. And it also helps your ability to playmake because if you have that size, you are able to see the floor slightly better. I mean, it’s very minimal and marginal, but it does help out quite a bit. Thompson played phenomenal last season for the Magic G-League squad, averaging 18 points a game. Now, he did struggle with his efficiency from the field, but shot 39% from beyond the arc. He stuffed the stat sheet, grabs boards, can help on that end, improved playmaker as well throughout his career. And I mentioned it earlier in the video, averaging 20 points per game. Yeah. and 2023 and 24 for the Mexico City Capitans, he averaged 22.8 points per game. So back-to back really solid season for Thompson in the GLeague, which has gotten him this chance in the Heat training camp, in the Heat preseason, and maybe he can parlay that into a two-way contract for this season where he might be called upon early in the year because of those injuries to the guards on the roster currently. Now, I do want to zimmer it down a little bit because it is a little bit too early to tell. I can’t sit up here and say confidently that Ethan Thompson is going to be and should be the last two-way contract spot for Miami. There’s a lot of ball to be played. There’s still a bunch of practices. There’s still five preseason games and we still got 16 days until the pre or the season opener against the Magic on the 22nd of October. So, there’s a lot of basketball, a lot of work to be done to see who ultimately earns that final two-way contract spot for the Miami Heat. And it’s hard not to think about one of these two guys either. Trevor Kees, the former Duke Blueevil, and Jamir Young, the lefty guard who went for 40 in the summer league for the Bulls and former Maryland Turpin. Kees was awesome on Saturday. In 17 minutes, he had 12 points and didn’t miss a shot. Young didn’t have as efficient as a game, but still not a bad night in terms of efficiency. He’s also a certified bucket getter. So, these two are obviously in consideration for a potential two-way contract. So, is um Ethan Thompson. Don’t know why I spaced on that name for a second there, but I would have to imagine those three are the most likely options for the Heat in terms of that final two-way contract. And I wouldn’t put it past Miami to do a full shift around. What do I mean by that? Well, two-way contracts are everflowing. You can take one away. You can give one almost at any time. So, if the Heat don’t like what they’ve seen from Myron Gardner, who’s on a two-way deal, they can remove that two-way contract and give it to AES and Jir Young. They can give it to Keels and Ethan Thompson. So, no two-way contract player saved. It’s not like a standard contract guy to where there is cap ramifications and you’d have to wave them or something like that. No, that’s not how it works with the two-way contracts. You can just basically get rid of them. I do want to make mention this is the Heat preseason schedule here for the final five games. The Bucks tonight, if you’re watching this on Monday at home, play the Spurs on Wednesday. Obviously, we are going to be live for that game as we mentioned earlier in the show. And then you have a backtoback on Sunday, Monday. I don’t know why we’re doing that. And then you have four days off until Friday, the final preseason game against the Grizzlies. And then you’re ready to roll in the regular season against the Orlando Magic on October 22nd. Unfortunately for the Heat, they decide to have all their preseason games on either Sundays, Fridays, or Mondays. Bad days for me to go live during the NFL season, which is why we’re taking advantage of the only one that we are not having a big day for, which is Wednesday, October 8th. And I’ll say it for the third time. Join us for the first watch party of the season. It’s going to be a ton of fun to watch this team in action. I know it’s not going to count and we’re probably going to see a lot of backups in the second half. But hey, maybe we see a little Victor Wanyama as well. So subscribe. We’ll have a video out tomorrow and we’ll be live on Wednesday. So hit that sub button. [Music]

Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra has spoken very highly of Heat guard, Ethan Thompson, following the Heat vs. Magic preseason game. Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS and use code CLNS and get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup! The Heat roster has an open two-way contract spot, and Thompson could be a leading candidate to get that contract. Thompson had 5 points and 6 assists in the Heat preseason opener. Ethan Thompson has been in the G League for the past three seasons, and has averaged 22 points per game over the past couple of years. Heat Report host Nic Rohloff has the latest Heat news and Miami Heat rumors during the NBA Preseason.

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Erik Spoelstra on Ethan Thompson:
“We like Ethan, you know, we’ve, we’ve been a fan of his for a couple years. We tried to get him a couple a couple years ago, it just didn’t work out. So we’ve followed him since then. [We] thought he had the quality qualities that fit how we play and how we do things. He’s had a very good training camp. He was really committed in September and August, and he just has to keep on plugging away. He’s very close. To me, he is an NBA player. It’s just a matter of, you know, the right opportunity, the right timing.”

Ethan Thompson stats vs. Orlando Magic in NBA Preseason:
5 PTS, 6 AST, 3 REB, 1/6 FG, 1/4 3P

Improve your Miami Heat knowledge by watching these Miami Heat YouTube videos:
– Nikola Jovic STARTING? Miami Heat Preseason Takeaways vs. Orlando Magic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7GVv3B_TcY
– Miami Heat Fans MIGHT FINALLY Receive The News They’ve Been Waiting For…: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRChwRT7rUE
– Heat Fans Get TERRIBLE News During Miami Heat Training Camp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLbalClvTB4

Be a real Miami Heat fan and answer today’s questions!
– Should Thompson get the final two-way? Type ‘Y’ for Yes or ‘N’ for No
– Who should get the final two-way contact?

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Ethan Thompson G League history:
2021-23: Windy City Bulls
2023-24: Mexico City Capitanes
2024-25: Osceola Magic

Ethan Thompson 2024-25 G League stats:
18.4 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 3.2 APG, 40.2 FG%, 39.0 3P%

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Miami Heat preseason schedule:
10/6: vs. Bucks
10/8: vs. Spurs
10/12: at Magic
10/13: at Hawks
10/17: vs. Grizzlies

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