The opportunity for rookie Ryan Conwell to break into the Miami Heat rotation before the regular season even begins has fallen right into his lap. After an untimely injury to backup point guard Dru Smith, Conwell will get the shot to cement his place in the good graces of Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra.
Perhaps most importantly, he'll have a shot to firmly put himself in a position to get early-season minutes, and on a consistent basis.
Smith injured his calf in Heat practice on Wednesday. After further examination, Smith is expected to be out for "a few weeks." While there's a chance that Smith could be back before the start of the regular season, there's no question that Conwell will be given every opportunity to establish himself as a legit backup point guard option for Miami with Smith out.
Can Ryan Conwell take advantage of his golden opportunity?
Whether he takes advantage of that or not remains to be seen, but it will certainly be interesting to see what Conwell does with this open door.
The Heat open their pre-season slate this weekend, but Conwell has already begun to make some pretty big waves in training camp. He reportedly beat Klay Thompson in a shooting drill during the first few days of training camp and has done enough to warrant some praise from some of his teammates. Not to mention the momentum he was able to build during his summer league showing for Miami.
Because of all that, it will truly be interesting to see how he's used and how much he actually plays in pre-season. Despite the positive signs that he's shown in practice, none of that matters until the games begin.
That will be the ultimate proof of whether Spoelstra trusts him or not. Interestingly enough, with Smith out, the Heat may need Conwell to play right away. So we may see him either way.
But what may start as a necessity because of an injury could blossom into a promising start to Conwell's career with the Heat. Conwell has the playmaking and shooting potential that the Heat is theoretically looking for in a backup point guard.
Whether he can put it together right away is the big question. Because if he can, there's no question that he could unseat Smith as the primary backup point guard for the Heat before the season even begins.
It may be a lofty expectation this early in his career, but Conwell will certainly be given the opportunity to do so.
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