While the addition of veteran center Cody Zeller filled a frontcourt need for the Miami Heat, it still remains unclear what type of role he’ll play.
Zeller, a nine-year veteran, signed his new contract with the Heat on Monday. He agreed to a prorated minimum deal for the remainder of the season that will make him an unrestricted free agent this upcoming summer.
“Not specifically, but I’m fine with that,” Zeller said Wednesday during a Zoom call with a group of South Florida-based reporters when asked if he has received any clarity from the Heat on what his role will be. “I’ll do whatever role they want me to. I feel like I’m healthy. I can help a team if I’m called on. I’ll fit in wherever they need me.”
The first game Zeller plays in for the Heat will mark his first appearance in an NBA regular-season game since Jan. 10, 2022 last season as a member of the Portland Trail Blazers.
The main reason behind Zeller’s long NBA hiatus is a right knee injury that required surgery to repair a patellar avulsion fracture in January 2022. He was released by the Trail Blazers a few weeks later and didn’t play again last season.
After rehabbing from surgery in Charlotte, where he lives, Zeller noted that “I was healthy by about the start of the playoffs last year.” He took part in training camp and appeared in three games this preseason with the Utah Jazz, but he was waived in October just before the start of the regular season and has been out of the league ever since until signing a contract with the Heat this week.
“The toughest thing through the whole time, whether it was last summer or since training camp, was just finding 10 guys to play with,” Zeller said, with the Heat reconvening in Miami for its first post-All-Star break practice on Thursday before resuming its schedule on Friday against the Bucks in Milwaukee. “You can’t find other NBA guys on the street to play some pickup. So a lot of individual workouts last summer. But it was really good to go to training camp, just for one to train in the altitude in Utah and then just scrimmage a lot, play in a couple of preseason games. Since then, I’ve been mostly in Charlotte, doing work on the court as much as possible.”
Zeller, 30, even practiced with UNC Charlotte’s men’s basketball team in recent months to stay in basketball shape.
“I’ve been in the gym a lot,” he said. “I’ve been doing a lot of conditioning, trying to emulate an NBA game as much as you can. So I basically treated it as if I was with a team as far as working out as much as possible. I will say one nice thing is that I feel healthy, which most guys or even myself at this point of the season, you got something banged up. ... I feel fresh. Also off the court, it’s one of the first times I’ve been able to enjoy a traditional Christmas, a traditional Thanksgiving. So, yeah, I’ve made the most of the situation.”
Zeller brings much-needed size to the Heat’s roster at 6-11 and 240 pounds. He averaged 5.2 points and and 4.6 rebounds in 27 games with the Trail Blazers last season before the knee injury cut his season short.
Zeller, who was drafted with the fourth overall pick in 2013, spent the first eight seasons of his NBA career with Charlotte prior to signing with Portland as a free agent in the 2021 offseason.
“I think rebounding, I think toughness,” Zeller said of how he can help the Heat. “That’s what I’ve always prided myself on, which it fits in well with the culture here. I talked a lot with coach [Erik] Spoelstra and Pat Riley when I came to work out here about how I’ve hated playing the Heat throughout my whole career because you always know it’s going to be a tough game, you always know it’s going to be hard-playing guys, it’s going to be a physical game.
“So it’s kind of fun for me to be on the other side of it to be able to add to that and to kind of be able to be on the other side of it.”
The obvious spot for Zeller in the Heat’s rotation is at backup center, which has been a glaring hole of negative minutes for Miami. The Heat has been outscored by six points per 100 possessions when starting center Bam Adebayo has been off the court this season.
Dewayne Dedmon, who the Heat dealt away ahead of the Feb. 9 trade deadline, spent the first two-plus months of the season as Miami’s backup center but did not produce positive results.
Undrafted rookie Orlando Robinson, who is on a two-way contract, took over for Dedmon and has played as the Heat’s backup center since early January to stabilize the non-Adebayo minutes. But the results have not been positive in recent weeks, with the Heat outscored by 16.1 points per 100 possessions in five games with Robinson on the court since the start of February.
Then there’s intriguing second-year center Omer Yurtseven, who is expected to make his season debut shortly after the All-Star break following November surgery on his left ankle.
The Heat will need to decide between Zeller, Yurtseven and Robinson when choosing its backup center for the final weeks of the regular season. That decision will come down to Zeller and Yurtseven if the Heat doesn’t waive a player in order to convert Robinson’s two-way contract to a standard deal since his NBA availability is limited to just four more games this regular season as part of restrictions tied to his two-way contract.
There’s also veteran Kevin Love, who’s the second addition the Heat made this week after his contract buyout with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Love (6-8, 251 pounds) gives the Heat a small-ball backup center option who can shoot threes.
Whatever the role is, Zeller is just happy to be back in the NBA.
“I feel good conditioning-wise. My body feels good,” he said. “I’m sure there will be a little bit of rust, but I’ve played in the league a long time, so hopefully I can kind of knock that off pretty quickly.”
