Former Jayhawk Marcus Garrett signs second two-way contract with Miami Heat

By Matt Tait     Jul 18, 2022

AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli
Golden State Warriors guard Moses Moody, right, competes for the ball against against Miami Heat's Marcus Garrett, left and Dru Smith, center, during the second half of a California Classic NBA summer league basketball game in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021.

Former University of Kansas standout Marcus Garrett’s NBA career is going to continue right where it began.

After another successful Summer League stint with the Miami Heat, Garrett signed a two-way contract with the franchise over the weekend.

After going unselected in the 2021 NBA draft, Garrett signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Heat and eventually joined the franchise on a two-way deal. A wrist injury last winter knocked him out for the second half of the 2021-22 season and the Heat waived Garrett in January.

Had he not been injured, Garrett likely would have stuck with the Heat for the rest of the 2021-22 season and throughout the current offseason.

As it stands, he gets a fresh start in a familiar place.

Despite being cut, Garrett, now 23, stayed in the Miami area to rehab with the Heat’s medical team and, according to the Miami Herald, he was cleared to resume basketball activities in June.

Known throughout his college career as an elite defender, Garrett showed off his defensive skills in a Summer League game against the Celtics. A clip of him harassing a Boston ball handler went viral and reminded folks of just how nasty Garrett and his 6-foot-10-inch wingspan can be on the ball.

He also scored 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting in 26 minutes in that July 9 win over the Celtics.

In the two games that followed, the Dallas native scored just nine points on 1-of-13 shooting, but the fact that Miami parted ways with two players who already had signed two-way deals to make room for Garrett made it clear that the Heat like what Garrett brings to the table.

The feeling is mutual.

“I just like how things are run,” Garrett told the Miami Herald last week when asked why he chose to rejoin the Heat’s Summer League squad in 2022. “I love the organization. I love how it feels like family. That’s kind of something I’ve been accustomed to throughout my whole career. It’s not something that I just wanted to leave and not be a part of.”

Before the injury, Garrett appeared in 12 games with the Miami Heat and eight more with Miami’s G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce. In Sioux Falls, Garrett averaged 12.4 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 2 steals per game.

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.