Ahead of summer league opener, Orlando Robinson and Jamaree Bouyea excited for what’s next

The Miami Heat’s summer league roster includes three players who are currently on track to be on the Heat’s 15-man roster this upcoming season.

With last year’s first-round pick Nikola Jovic and this year’s first-round pick Jaime Jaquez Jr. already two of the biggest names on the Heat’s summer roster, developmental center Orlando Robinson joined the list of Heat summer league players with a spot on the team’s 15-man NBA roster when he was moved to a standard contract on Saturday.

Robinson, who went undrafted last year out of Fresno State, closed this past season on a two-way deal with the Heat. Of the moment Robinson learned the Heat wanted to promote him to his first standard NBA contract, he called it “surreal.”

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“I had to sit down,” Robinson said after practicing with the Heat’s summer league team on Sunday in Sacramento. “I was just like in shock because I didn’t expect that news right now or any time soon. So when he told me that, I had to sit down real quick and analyze the situation. Then I started getting really excited because obviously this is what I’ve been working toward all last year and my entire life.”

Robinson’s new contract with the Heat is similar to the one forward Haywood Highsmith signed with Miami last year — a minimum deal with conditional guarantees.

With Robinson as one of the headliners, the Heat’s summer league team opens summer league play in Sacramento against the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday at 6 p.m. (ESPN2). Robinson also played for the Heat’s summer league team last year, but he’s a more well-rounded player this time around.

“I would say that my game has gotten better in the areas of playing off the ball,” Robinson said. “Now I’m more aware, I know where to go in certain situations, drives, kicks. Because before, I felt like I wasn’t really an off-the-ball player, I was more mainly on the ball. So just adding the off-the-ball part of my game to what I already have had kind of completed me in a sense.”

Robinson, who turns 23 on July 10, could have a chance to compete for the backup center role next season behind starter Bam Adebayo. Robinson’s main competition at the moment for that job is center Thomas Bryant, who has played six seasons in the NBA and committed to join the Heat on a minimum deal in free agency on Saturday.

Cody Zeller, who closed this past season as the Heat’s backup center, agreed to join the New Orleans Pelicans in free agency, according to ESPN. Omer Yurtseven, the third center on the Heat’s roster last season, remains a free agent.

Robinson spent this past season developing his skill set and learning the NBA game on both ends of the court. This summer league, he’ll put that work to the test while also exploring other aspects of his game.

One of Robinson’s goals this offseason is to make the three-point shot a bigger part of his offensive package to give himself a chance to share the court with Adebayo. Robinson shot 0 of 6 on threes with the Heat and just 2 of 12 (16.7 percent) on threes in the G League last season, but shot a respectable 37 of 105 (35.2 percent) from three-point range in his final college season before entering the NBA last summer.

“We’ve been talking a lot about Orlando’s spacing on the floor,” Heat assistant coach and summer league head coach Caron Butler said. “Looking at his percentages throughout the course of the season and during his player development while we had this long run in the playoffs, we’ve just seen an incline in that production from a percentage standpoint. His assessment test has been off the charts, so you’re going to see him in different regions of the floor. You’re going to see him posting up, obviously getting into a lot of triggers in pick-and-roll actions, open side actions and his leadership has just been paramount for this ball club.”

TWO-WAY TALK

The Heat signed guards Jamaree Bouyea and Dru Smith to two-way contracts on Saturday. Bouyea was already on the Heat’s summer roster and Smith was added to the Heat’s summer roster on Sunday after signing his two-way deal.

“It was just an opportunity they presented to me a couple days ago that I found out through my agent,” Bouyea said Sunday of his new two-way contract. “We worked it out when I got here to Sacramento for summer league. It’s a two-way contract and I just want to build off this and continue to play hard and work hard and see what I can do.”

The new collective bargaining agreement increased the amount of two-way contract slots each NBA team has from two to three this season. The signings of Bouyea and Smith fill two of those three spots.

Two-way contracts do not count toward the salary cap or luxury tax and allow for players to be on their NBA team’s active list for as many as 50 regular-season games, with other game action having to come in the G League. Those on two-way deals are not eligible to take part in the NBA playoffs.

“Defensively, he has some things that really got us all excited from a vocal standpoint, his activity, deflections and just really igniting whatever group that he’s with,” Butler said of Bouyea. “Some of the scrimmages that we’ve had, every game, every post coaches meeting, we’re always talking about him in different ways. That just shows a lot of growth on his part.”

SUMMER SCHEDULE

After opening a two-game schedule at the California Classic on Monday, the Heat’s second summer league game in Sacramento will come against the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday at 10 p.m. (ESPN).

The Heat will then, like every NBA team, play at least five games in Las Vegas Summer league that will be held from Friday-July 17: vs. Boston Celtics on Saturday at 3 p.m. on NBA TV, vs. Phoenix Suns on July 10 at 6:30 p.m. on NBA TV, vs. Milwaukee Bucks on July 13 at 5:30 p.m. on NBA TV, vs. Denver Nuggets on July 14 at 9 p.m. on ESPN2, and the fifth game will either be played on either July 15 or 16 with the opponent and game time determined later. Only the two teams that make the championship game will play a sixth game in Las Vegas Summer League