Should the Miami Heat play rookie center Chris Silva more?

Miami Heat rookie center Chris Silva has made the most of his brief playing time. Does the 23-year-old deserve more minutes?

Thanks in part to the strong play of their young players, the Miami Heat are off to a hot start. Rookie guards Tyler Herro and Kendrick Nunn have outperformed their expectations by a lot. Big man Bam Adebayo has continued to improve. Duncan Robinson, who was on a two-way contract with Miami last season, has been shooting the 3-ball very well.

Justise Winslow and Derrick Jones Jr. are currently dealing with injuries, but have been productive when available.

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The young guys, all 25 years old or younger, have played key parts in the Heat’s hot start to the season. Aside from the previously mentioned players, there’s one more young guy that has been a regular in Miami’s rotation, yet has gone under the radar: big man Chris Silva.

Silva, a 23-year-old rookie center out of South Carolina, is currently on a two-way contract. He played for Miami in the Las Vegas Summer League and was signed to an Exhibit 10 contract due to his strong play. His contract was converted to a two-way in October.

Silva has appeared in all 12 of Miami’s games this season with his playing time ranging from 30 seconds to 15 minutes. He’s gotten minutes partially due to Miami’s slew of injuries to key players, but has still been quite useful.

Silva is the prototypical rim-runner: crashes the boards, defends inside and finishes at the rim. He brings terrific energy off the bench. Watch as he goes from the floor to getting the offensive board to finding an open shooter.

Free throw shooting is another strength of his. His terrific free throw percentage of 91.7 will eventually dip, but he showed evidence of being good at the charity stripe in college. Over his last three seasons at South Carolina (when he was a full-time starter), Silva averaged 74.9 percent on 5.0 free throws made per game.

Silva’s box score numbers in the NBA are unimpressive, as he averages just 3.8 points and 3.4 rebounds per game. The advanced stats, however, are impressive. He has accumulated 0.5 win shares, which is more than some guys that have tripled his total playing time (100 minutes) so far, such as Bobby Portis, Terry Rozier, Patrick Beverley, Jae Crowder, Cedi Osman and Marc Gasol.

His PER of 21.0 and TS% of .743 are well above the league average. His 25.4 offensive rebound percentage is insane. So is his block percentage of 10.0. The Heat’s offensive rebounding percentage increases by 16.1 when he’s on the court.

Silva’s primary issue is being too turnover prone. He averages 1.3 turnovers per game despite playing just 8.3 minutes per game. Aside from that, Silva plays his limited role pretty well. So why doesn’t he play more?

The answer is really simple: the Heat don’t really need him. They’re 9-3 and have plenty of depth. Winslow and Jones have missed recent games due to injury and the team has still been winning handily.

The best argument for playing Silva more is that it could certainly help the Heat where it needs help. Miami has played tremendously to start the season, but rebounding has been one of the weakest parts of their game. They rank 21st in rebounds per game and 26th in offensive rebounds per game.

The Heat’s interior defense could use a boost, too. They allow opponents to shoot 64.9 percent inside the restricted area and 44.0 percent from everywhere else in the paint, which ranks sixth- and fourth in the league respectively. Silva can help there, as well.

https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/1188601412479000576?s=20

Still, Miami has done more than fine with these issues. The notion to not fix what isn’t broken makes sense for Miami. If they’re playing well (which they are right now), it doesn’t make sense to shoehorn Silva into the rotation if he won’t help.

However, Miami has real weak spots in their game. Silva is a young, in-house option that could be a solution. Plugging these holes could improve the play of an already good team.

In addition to his on-court production, there’s another reason for him to get minutes: potentially making him into a trade chip. Miami could upgrade their roster using the expiring contracts of Goran Dragic and/or Meyers Leonard and assets. The 23-year-old Silva could be one of those assets. Playing him more can boost his trade value as long as he continues to produce.

The bottom line, though, is that Silva is good enough to play now. His skill set is perfect for how Miami plays and the team overall is weak where Silva is strong. Playing him more isn’t just adding another young player to the young core; it’s beneficial to a team that wants to be as competitive as possible.