Dru Smith is maintaining the Miami Heat tradition of undrafted gems

Dru Smith minutes matter dont let anyone outside of the Miami Heat tell you otherwise.

Miami appears to have found another undrafted gem capable of bolstering its rotation.

Now enjoying his second stint with the Heat, the 26-year-old Smith is again becoming a key fixture in Heat lineups, which has aligned with Miamis finest stretch of the season.

His ascension in the rotation continues a quite commonplace tradition.

Advertisement Dating back to the days of Udonis Haslem, the Heat have routinely scouted unheralded players who proved to be coachable, valued conditioning and simply stayed ready for an opportunity to prove themselves.

Haslems 20-year career paved the way for the likes of Duncan Robinson, Haywood Smith, Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, Joel Anthony and Caleb Martin to go from undrafted to NBA contributor.

But since the NBA is a business, most of those players have either departed for new contracts (Vincent, Strus, Martin) or retired (Haslem, Anthony), leaving opportunities for Smith to make his mark.

With a three-game win streak, the Heat (12-10) are enjoying their best production of the season, and Smiths growing impact is a big reason why Miami remains confident in still having better basketball to play.

Miami is 4-2 when Smith logs at least 10 minutes on the court, including the last two games, which have marked only the fourth time in Smiths career hes logged at least 20 minutes in consecutive games.

The best part? The third-year guard out of Missouri has been playing well enough to earn more opportunities.

Sundays victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers was a full-circle moment for Smith, who tore his ACL against Cleveland in November 2023.

Roughly a year later, he helped Miami defeat the team with the NBAs best record and tied the highest-scoring quarter of his career (11 points, 3-of-4 shooting on 3s).

About a year ago, in Cleveland, he was just starting to play well then, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

I think, if he wouldve had the whole season, he wouldve trended in a fantastic way.

But he really worked at it this offseason didnt skip any steps and came back earlier.

When you classify winning plays, its tough to define it because sometimes they show up in the box score (but) a lot of times, they dont.

He [Smith] does so many of those kind of things that most people dont see, but they do impact winning.

Advertisement Smiths minutes can come far and between, but theyre impactful.

On the season, Miami has been far better when Smith plays (plus-7.6 net rating in 140 minutes) compared to his 926 minutes on the bench so far (plus-1.9).

As the Heat have enjoyed their three-game win streak, Smith has tied Jimmy Butler for the team lead in deflections (nine) on defense while shooting 50 percent overall from the field.

Smiths raw stats wont always tell the story because he focuses on contributing to a given possession, but hes confident enough to still finish them.

Measuring a players impact via data can be fun, but I find it most practical to cross-reference numbers with seeing how said player simply ...

plays.

Nitpicking numbers wont undermine seeing Smith be confident enough to play alongside Miamis best players when it matters.

On Sunday, he channeled his inner Alonzo Mourning by grabbing a couple of crucial offensive rebounds before capping the possession with a corner 3 timely enough to make Ray Allen proud.

On the season, Smith is shooting 61.5 percent on corner 3-point attempts.

2 offensive boards and a big time triple Dru Smith , ladies & gentlemen.

pic.twitter.com/akbgbZSFa2 Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) December 9, 2024 I think we know the type of player we want and are looking for, Heat general manager Andy Elisburg told The Athletic .

From there, its about if theyre the right player or not.

Whether its Pat [Riley], Stan [Van Gundy] or Spo, they are willing to play undrafted guys.

Theyre willing to trust undrafted guys.

Theyre willing to give them roles.

You look at the history of that, with Pats history in New York [Anthony] Mason and [John] Starks to Miami with Udonis, theyre willing to trust those guys, play them in key moments of games.

Smiths hands and defensive focus are among the reasons he stands out in Miamis rotation.

His quick feet help him contain opposing scorers when hes locked in, whether said scorer is on or off the ball.

During an Oct.

30 matchup against the New York Knicks, Smith was matched up against Jalen Brunson, who went 1-of-5 shooting when guarded by Smith.

His quick feet and timelier hands didnt allow Brunson to get a clean drive to the basket.

That same thing happened to Mikal Bridges about two minutes later.

In this instance, Miami got the 4-on-2 advantage in transition as Bam Adebayo finished the alley-oop.

Entering Monday, the Heat rank 11th in fast-break points per game (13.9) after finishing 22nd last season, per NBA.com.

On Nov.

18 against the Philadelphia 76ers, Smith interrupted a pass intended for rookie guard Jared McCain before Tyler Herro took off in transition and finished with the and-1 opportunity.

Players like Smith, who routinely focus on giving headaches on defense, are among my favorites in the NBA because no job or task feels too small for them, if it means maximizing a possession.

Highsmith is another Miami undrafted find.

When Smith and Highsmith have shared the court this season, the Heat have enjoyed a net rating of plus-24 over 46 minutes.

Opponents are shooting just 34.6 percent in that sample size, which illustrates how Miami can scheme headaches in a potential playoff series down the road.

Advertisement Theyre our energizer bunnies, Adebayo said.

For us, Dru comes in, and he changes the game on that side of the ball.

Obviously, H, he does what he do on the defensive end.

Thats all we can ask from them.

Theyre making plays.

Like, its not just the defense.

Its being in the right spot at the right time understanding time and score, and understanding where to get the ball.

Players like Smith help Spoelstra focus more on his game plan than worry about whichever man is next up.

In that Nov.

18 matchup against Philly, Spoelstra unveiled a new starting lineup of Butler, Adebayo, Herro, Highsmith and Robinson.

Among the 27 five-player lineups to play this season, Miamis new opening unit has the best net rating (plus-20.8).

While clearly formidable, that lineups impact and Miamis ambitions can be maximized by trusting role players to step in and do whatever is necessary to maximize a possession.

For years, it worked with players like Haslem in the fold.

Then, the likes of Vincent, Strus and Martin helped revive the feeling.

Now, Smith is doing his part to ensure the Heat can make another run up the East standings.

Its always important to maintain high-end talent, but Miami remains the standard for thriving within the margins ...

whether on the scoreboard or in roster construction.

The NBA system you have today doesnt allow you to keep everybody the salary cap and various rules make it impossible, Elisburg said .

You can only have nine guys in a rotation.

Somebody comes, somebody goes.

Thats always been the math to it.

Youre happy for those guys when they go somewhere else because its a job, and they must take care of their families.

You want to create an opportunity they can take advantage of.

(Photo: Megan Briggs / Getty Images ).

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