Cole Swider ready for Heat opportunity amid team’s injuries: ‘This is what a two-way is for’

The Miami Heat hasn’t needed Cole Swider for most of the season. But the Heat needs Swider around these days.

Currently without three of its top three-point shooters — Tyler Herro, Kevin Love and Duncan Robinson — because of injuries, Swider’s quality three-point shooting is not a luxury anymore.

“This is what a two-way [contract] is for, for moments like this when Duncan is out and Tyler is out,” Swider said ahead of Sunday night’s matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Kaseya Center.

Most of Swider’s playing time this season has come in the G League with the Heat’s developmental affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, as part of his two-way contract that limits how many NBA games he can be active for. But Swider made the most of a rare opportunity to play extended NBA minutes for the Heat a few days ago.

As the Heat struggled to make threes against the New Orleans Pelicans’ zone defense on Friday without the shooting of Herro, Love and Robinson on the court, Swider entered the game in the second quarter and made his first two shots from three-point range. He ended up setting new career-highs in points (14) and threes made (four) in Friday’s loss.

“He is a great, great shooter,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Swider. “He really is. He’s elite with what he does and I think his stints in Sioux Falls have really impacted winning. That matters. Then it’s just a matter of the fit, the timing and the opportunities with us.”

Swider, 24, has proven he’s an elite shooter during his G League opportunities this season. Among the 32 players in the G League who entered Sunday averaging eight or more three-point attempts per game, Swider holds the second-best three-point percentage in the developmental league.

Swider has shot an eye-opening 45.8 percent on 10 three-point attempts per game with the Skyforce this season.

But prior to Friday’s 4-of-6 three-point shooting performance with the Heat, Swider had shot just 5 of 19 (26.3 percent) from behind the arc in his limited NBA playing time this season. He believes lack of rhythm during some short on-court stints played a role in some of those misses, as he entered Sunday a combined 7 of 13 (53.8 percent) from three-point range during the only two NBA games he logged double-digit minutes in this season.

“I think if you were to pick the two games that I played 20-plus minutes, I’ve over 40 percent in those games,” Swider said. “I think rhythm is a big part of it, but also just being ready for the moment. I think as a shooter, you can use rhythm as an excuse, but also just being ready for the moment and coming in and making those shots.”

Swider’s combination of size at 6-foot-8 and standout three-point shooting makes him an intriguing developmental prospect. It’s also a useful skill set to have around with the three-point shooting of Herro, Love and Robinson currently unavailable.

“I think the game is starting to slow down for Cole,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “He’s starting to understand that he can tell other people what to do. He can tell somebody to run a different play for him. It comes with confidence. I feel like his confidence is starting to go in the right direction and that’s obviously through behind the scenes of practice, pre-practice, him getting his work in, obviously talking to some of the older vets like Patty [Mills] and obviously the guy he’s emulating in Duncan.”

Swider, who went undrafted out of Syracuse in 2022 and spent last season on a two-way deal with the Los Angeles Lakers, is not eligible to play for the Heat in the playoffs this season as part of the limitations that come with being on a two-way contract. But he’s ready to help the Heat during the final weeks of the regular season if he’s called on.

“The conversations are always just stay ready,” Swider said of the message he has received from the Heat’s coaching staff. “Whatever that role is, obviously, I’m going to try and do that to the best of my ability. But there haven’t been a lot of conversations. It’s always been about staying ready when I come here and I suit up.”

THIS AND THAT

▪ With the Brooklyn Nets’ loss on Saturday, the Heat clinched no worse than a spot in the NBA play-in tournament that features the seventh- through 10th-place teams competing for the final two playoffs seeds in each conference. That’s because the Heat can finish the regular season no worse than 10th place in the Eastern Conference.

▪ The Skyforce clinched a spot in the G League playoffs on Saturday.

▪ The Heat ruled out Herro (right foot medial tendinitis), Jaime Jaquez Jr. (left knee/ankle discomfort), Love (right heel bruise), Josh Richardson (right shoulder surgery), Robinson (left facet syndrome) and Alondes Williams (G League) for Sunday’s matchup against the Cavaliers.

The Cavaliers are without Ty Jerome (right ankle surgery), Donovan Mitchell (nasal fracture), Isaiah Mobley (G League), Pete Nance (G League), Max Strus (right knee strain) and Dean Wade (right knee sprain) for Sunday’s game in Miami.