The Heat have waived Bryson Warren and Malik Williams, the team announced (via Twitter). Both players were signed to Exhibit 10 contracts on Wednesday.
As Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald points out (Twitter link), the moves were procedural, as both players are expected to spend the upcoming season with the Sioux Falls Skyforce, Miami’s NBA G League affiliate. If they spend at least 60 days with the Skyforce, each player could earn a bonus worth up to $77.5K on top of their regular NBAGL salary.
Warren, a 6’3″ guard, spent all of last season with Sioux Falls, averaging 6.9 PPG and 1.8 APG on .376/.325/.800 shooting in 27 total games (17.4 MPG). The 19-year-old turned pro early, previously playing in the Overtime Elite league, but technically didn’t declare for the NBA draft until this year, when he went undrafted.
Williams, a 6’11” center, spent most of last season with Sioux Falls before receiving a 10-day contract and a rest-of-season deal from Toronto at the end of ’23/24. Overall, the 26-year-old big man played in 42 games with the Skyforce and seven with the Raptors. He went undrafted out of Louisville in 2022 and spent his first pro season in Poland.
The Heat are back down to 19 players under contract, two shy of the offseason maximum.
Now that the G League has affiliates for every team, the NBA really needs to start making it more of a farm system like baseball and have the G League rosters be basically an extension of the NBA rosters. Do away with this sign and waive the next day E10 nonsense and just sign them to standard G League contracts controlled by the parent team.