The Miami Heat have loaded up their roster this offseason by bringing back all of their starters and signing very good players to come off the bench for the upcoming NBA season. Miami is now in the process of looking to load up their D-League affiliate by signing guys to partially guaranteed deals and designating them to their D-League team after cutting them in training camp. The first player the Heat reportedly will be doing that with is Keith Benson, according to Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Benson's deal is reportedly pending a physical but if it gets done he will be the 16th player under contract with the Heat and he has basically no chance of making the team as Miami is stacked in the front court. The Heat want to assign Benson to their D-League affiliate and they plan to sign a few other players with this intention as well.
Teams are allowed to have a maximum of 20 players in training camp and of those 20 players they can keep 15 on the roster and designate four players who are late camp cuts to the D-League. Barring an unforeseen circumstance Benson will spend the 2015-16 season with Miami's D-League affiliate in Sioux Falls.
Benson has played in three career NBA games all with the Golden State Warriors in 2011-12 after signing a 10-day contract. Benson only tallied nine minutes in those three games and never was given another 10-day contract. The past few years Benson has spent playing overseas in Italy, Belarus, China, and the Philippines among other places.
Benson was a second round pick in the 2011 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks out of Oakland University where he was a dominating player. In his senior season at Oakland, Benson averaged 17.9 points, 10.1 rebounds and 3.6 blocks per game on 55 percent shooting from the field. Benson is a 6 foot-11 center whose best asset is his ability to block shots. The 27 year old has played in 44 D-League games in his career and will have to play in a few more this year in order to potentially make an NBA roster.
