Omer Yurtseven, who has excelled in summer league play, has signed a two-year contract with the Heat, according to a team press release.
Luke Glass, the son of Yurtseven’s agent Keith Glass, told ESPN’s Bobby Marks of the big man’s agreement with the team (Twitter link). Yurtseven will receive about $3.5MM across two seasons, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald tweets, which likely means it’s a minimum-salary deal. Just the first year is guaranteed, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel tweets.
Yurtseven averaged 26 PPG and 13.5 RPG in two California Classic Summer League games. Glass received multiple phone calls from other teams during and after those games, according to Jackson. However, remaining with Miami was always Yurtseven’s first choice.
Miami declined its $1.5MM option on Yurtseven, a 23-year-old center, at the beginning of free agency. However, that was at the seven-footer’s request.
“I asked them when we signed to not exercise the August 1 option, so that when they gave me the option, they could go back to me and do a new deal,” Glass said to Jackson. “They kept their word.”
Miami signed Yurtseven at the end of the last season, allowing him to travel with the team for its first-round series against Milwaukee in May. Yurtseven, a member of Turkey’s national team, went unselected in the 2020 draft.
Yurtseven appeared in 14 G League games last season with Oklahoma City, averaging 15.2 points, 9.3 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per contest. He also recorded five double-doubles during that span.
Great pick up
The year he was drafted he was on my TOP 15 internal big board.
I still think he can be an all star LOL
Not sure if the lol is for your top 15 comment or that he’ll be an all star.
Maybe the whole thing.
Yes, The whole thing
How do you feel about his nickname or how he is defending pick and roll/defending the rim without fouling, and certain things he might do offensively that lead to turnovers? You’ve obviously seen him more than I have so far, so curious if you have any insight in those things before I watch that 2nd game
His nicknames awesome. On a serious note, I didn’t closely watch his defensive fundamentals. He can’t be much worse than Myers Leonard.
Turk Nowitski is possibly the greatest nickname I’ve ever heard. It’s at least up there, and for that alone, they needed to keep him. I still need to watch that 2nd summer league game he played, and watch how he looks defensively, but he does give them the floor spacing big they need. There are certain habits I did notice that hopefully they can work out, so hopefully that wont be a problem
Obviously, I would have preferred a more known commodity, like Kaminsky before he went back to Phoenix, Vonleh, Harry Giles, Thon Maker, Luke Kornet, Ersan Ilyasova, and obviously if he is healthy and actually coming back, LaMarcus Aldridge, but a floor spacing big was a need regardless, and this should be fine for now
Heat now need to address the wing position with their remaining 2 roster spots. Frank Ntilikina, Shaq Harrison, Wesley Matthews, Rodney McGruder are all possibilities, as well as a couple of guys probably playing summer league elsewhere that we’ve seen before, like maybe a Davon Reed, or Bj Johnson, or Wayne Selden, or someone else that either hasnt been released or maybe emerges in summer league…
And then obviously the 2 way slots, with 1 being for Marcus Garrett, and the other between either Dajon Jarreau or DJ Stewart, or Javonte Smart, or someone on someone else’s summer league team like Austin Reaves from the Lakers, Justin Shakel from GS, maybe Matt Coleman from Sacramento, etc, among others we havent seen yet
*jordan Schakel lol