Cole Swider hoping to become Heat’s latest three-point marksman development success story

When 14 NBA teams, including the Heat, offered Cole Swider the same training camp invitation in August, several names flashed through his head.

Duncan Robinson. Max Strus. Gabe Vincent.

All entered the Heat’s system as undrafted projects, then polished and expanded their games and emerged from the Heat’s development program with generational wealth.

While Strus ($63 million deal with Cleveland) and Vincent ($33 million with the Lakers) found riches elsewhere this summer, Robinson remains, in the third year of a five-year, $90 million contract. And he’s now helping nurture Swider, hoping he becomes the latest hot shot to grow his game and make a name in Miami.

After the Lakers released him in late July, the Heat “were the first team to reach out, the most interested team,” Swider said Monday at Kaseya Center, on the eve of Tuesday’s start of Heat training camp at Florida Atlantic University.

“They’ve been talking to us the most. The development program has shown guys not only play here, start here, and either stay here on big contracts or go to other teams with big contracts.”

Swider spoke to Robinson and fellow NBA players Georges Niang and Michael Carter-Williams and “one thing that’s been told to me in the whole process, when asking them [about the Heat], everyone said if they’re inviting you to camp, it means something. That was really big in my process of choosing.

“The biggest thing everyone has told me about coming to the Heat [is] every person in the building has scouted [you] at a very high level. There’s a reason you’re in the building. Maybe some other teams are bringing you in on their G League team or giving you a quick look and ship you somewhere else.”

His Exhibit 10 training camp contract comes with a modest guarantee, typically as much as $75,000.

At every level, Swider has hit threes at a high level: in college in three years at Villanova and one at Syracuse (38.1 percent), in one season in the G League (43.6 percent), in 41 minutes on a two-way deal with the Lakers last year (3 for 8) and in Summer League in July (42.5).

He made 57 threes in a row in one practice at Villanova, 44 in a row at a Heat workout last week.

But at 6-9, he also can rebound, including 6.8 per game at Syracuse in 2021-22 and 4.8 in the G League last season.

Heat assistant general manager Adam Simon quickly called Swider’s agent, Bill Duffy, when the Lakers released him this summer.

“Adam Simon called me and told me he’s Erik Spoelstra’s guy for finding hidden talent,” Swider said. “As soon as I hit the waiver wire, Adam called Bill Duffy and we went from there.

“There were some other teams, but the Heat provided the best opportunity for me to be on the roster and play in NBA games.”

Now he’s essentially competing with seven others for one or two standard roster spots or one of three two-way contracts, which are currently held by Jamal Cain, R.J. Hampton and Dru Smith. Teams can replace players on two-way contracts an unlimited number of times.

The seven cameo appearances with the Lakers last season reinforced that the NBA is “a really tough league to be in,” Swider said. “Talking to coach Spo and a bunch of the guys, [the key to earning a contract and playing time is] going to be trying to defend at this level and making shots and giving guys like Jimmy [Butler] and Bam [Adebayo] space. Me playing with Bam this offseason has been great.”

Heat president Pat Riley, in their brief on-court conversations, has emphasized “shooting on the move, getting that down to a science, being the best possible defender you can be while also showing the ability to shoot on the move,” Swider said. “It’s one thing to be able to shoot [set] shots, but for me to be successful it’s being on the move, flying off of handoffs with Bam and other guys.”

That has been a focus in his seven weeks of informal workouts at Kaseya Center.

“They’ve taught me a lot of things, about that, that maybe I didn’t know before,” he said. “I was trying to do those things when I was with the Lakers and Syracuse and I showed flashes of doing those things, but being more efficient and being able to get to those spots quicker” is an objective.

That’s a skill that Robinson has mastered.

“I used to watch Duncan all the time during college,” Swider said. “For me to make it in the NBA, he’s my prototype .. I’ve worked out five or six times at night. He’s been nothing but great to me, being a great vet, bringing me out to dinner, showing me around Miami a little bit and letting me come in the gym and shoot with him. Getting tips from him has been huge.”

Both are native New Englanders; Robinson grew up in New Hampshire and Swider in Rhode Island.

“We know a lot of the same people, come from the same area,” Robinson said. “I’ve gotten to the point where I’m selfless enough [to see] there’s a lot of value in uplifting other people in those sort of settings. I know it goes a long way to have people in your ear who have gone through it.”

For now, Swider hopes to carve his own path, to do enough to convince the Heat to keep him either permanently (on a standard contract) or two-way deal (which allows 50 NBA appearances in a season).

“It’s going to be God’s plan whether I stay with this team, go to another team or be in Sioux Falls [with the Heat’s G League team],” he said. “I don’t put a lot of pressure on myself in terms of ‘I need to make the team.’ I know it’s a process and.. guys maybe haven’t succeeded in one place but succeed in another place. I’ve done everything I can to have a great training camp.”