Dennis Smith Jr. joined the Miami Heat the way a lot of former lottery picks do shortly before the season, with a familiar name, a non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 and the thin promise of a training-camp look.
On Thursday night, that promise ended before it started.
The Heat signed the seven-year veteran and then immediately waived him in the same sequence of moves, according to reporting from Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald.
Smith will not practice with Erik Spoelstra’s team, will not play in the remaining exhibitions, and will not compete for a roster spot before the Oct. 19 cutdown. The paperwork was the tryout. The waiver was the decision.
The move closes a loop that opened on Sept. 27, when Smith’s agent, Daniel Hazan, told Chris Haynes that the guard had agreed to a deal and that Miami had tracked him all summer.
An Exhibit 10 can be converted into a standard contract if a player forces the issue in camp. It can also be used as a bridge to a club’s G League affiliate, with a bonus of up to $91,000 if the player spends at least 60 days there.
From the start, reporting from Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel framed Sioux Falls as the likelier destination. Thursday made that framing official.
Smith, 28, is headed back to the Skyforce, where he finished last season, rather than into a real competition for Miami’s backup point-guard minutes.
That outcome is less surprising than the speed of it. Smith was the ninth pick in 2017, an explosive lead guard out of NC State who started his career with the Dallas Mavericks and later passed through New York, Detroit, Portland, Charlotte and Brooklyn.
He has not appeared in an NBA game since March 3, 2024, with the Nets. A brief stint with Real Madrid followed, then G League time with Milwaukee’s Wisconsin Herd and Miami’s Skyforce.
Career averages of 9.7 points and 4.2 assists across 326 games still describe a player who once looked like a starter. They do not describe a player the Heat needed to keep on a 21-man camp roster already crowded behind Davion Mitchell, Dru Smith and two-way Tre Donaldson.
The rest of Thursday’s churn shows how Miami is treating the fringe. Lester Quiñones and J’Vonne Hadley were waived. Gabe Madsen, a wing who averaged 9.7 points in 50 Skyforce games last season, and shot-blocking center Kylor Kelley were signed and are expected at Friday’s practice.
All of them, like Smith, sit on Exhibit 10 deals that can pay a G League bonus.
The difference is that Madsen and Kelley still get a look. Smith, the name on the transaction, does not. For a former top-10 pick, the Heat’s version of interest turned out to be a signature and an exit, in that order.
