How Miami’s Haywood Highsmith ascended from Sixers two-way player to NBA Finals contributor

When Haywood Highsmith grabbed a rebound and drew a foul shortly after entering Game 1 of the NBA Finals Thursday night, Jeff Van Gundy provided a quick scouting report on the Miami Heat reserve forward.

“I like his readiness,” the former NBA coach and longtime analyst said of Highsmith on the national television broadcast. “I like his ability to make shots. And defensively, he’s active and solid.”

It was warranted praise for the former 76ers two-way player and Delaware Blue Coat, who, following years pursuing a full-time NBA spot, first latched on with Miami during last season’s COVID-19 omicron variant surge before earning a standard deal. The 26-year-old was a positive in the Heat’s Game 1 defeat against the Denver Nuggets, tying a career high with 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting while also guarding two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic in stretches. Highsmith then played six minutes in Miami’s Game 2 victory, as coach Erik Spoelstra adjusted his rotation and tactical approach.

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Over the past 18 months, Highsmith has become another example of how the Heat identifies and develops under-the-radar players, then turns them into capable contributors on basketball’s biggest stage. Highsmith, in turn, has seized the opportunity.

“You hear about the Heat Culture a lot,” Highsmith told The Inquirer by phone from Denver last week, minutes before departing for practice ahead of Game 1. “I definitely fit as far as the way that I was brought up and my journey and that I’ve always been the underdog and undrafted my whole life.

“The Heat find diamonds in the rough like me. I was a person that fit what they were looking for … just grinding my way up and just showing them that I’m a tough guy and I fit the Heat culture.”

Highsmith acknowledges he has not always had the mindset that would click into Miami’s well-documented demands. As a high schooler at Archbishop Curley in Baltimore, he said he was “kind of lazy” and did not garner much interest from Division I college programs.

Shortly after arriving at Division II Wheeling Jesuit University, however, “I just flipped a switch, and I never looked back.” He worked out multiple times per day in the weight room and on the court, “telling myself, ‘Hey, it’s time to take that next step.’” In 2018, he was Division II’s national player of the year, after averaging 22 points, 12.5 rebounds, three assists, 1.9 steals and 1.8 blocks per game.

“I honestly don’t know where it came from,” Highsmith said of the mentality shift. " … Every year since then, I was pushing myself each year to get better and just keep my head down, keep grinding, keep going.”

Highsmith went undrafted the ensuing summer, then signed with the G League’s Blue Coats off of an open tryout. In January of 2019, the Sixers signed Highsmith to a two-way contract to split time between both teams — including when he played in a game in Wilmington and Philly on the same day. He played in five Sixers games that season, then was waived by the organization in June.

He spent the 2019-20 season back with the Blue Coats, then went to the Crailsheim Merlins of Basketball Bundesliga in Germany for the 2020-21 season. Though he said doubts about his NBA future “crossed [his] mind a few times” during those years, Blue Coats coach Coby Karl immediately noticed Highsmith’s eagerness “to do whatever it took, and kind of ignore the noise” when he came back to the G League for the start of the 2021-22 season.

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That included improving his shooting percentage, which began as a summer project. Highsmith combined that with the “invisible stuff,” as Karl described, that he already naturally provided. For the Blue Coats, that showed up in the way Highsmith would “always be in the right spot when it really mattered” for offensive rebounds, Karl said. And in Highsmith’s “very nuanced” off-ball defense, where he did not necessarily record the steal or block but created small advantages with his positioning. While guarding bigger opponents, Karl noted Highsmith has “this willingness to look stupid,” which many young players avoid in an era bombarded with social media and instant reactions.

“There’s a willingness to get dunked on,” Karl said. “This willingness to fall over and give effort while you’re trying to guard a Kyrie [Irving] or you’re outmatched physically or skill-wise or quickness-wise. The courage to step up and understand that it’s just a matter of playing the odds and keep trying as hard as you can is what has allowed him to have the success that he’s had.”

After the Blue Coats won the G League Showcase Cup championship in December of 2021, Highsmith became one of several players from that level to get a 10-day contract via the hardship exemption while NBA rosters were decimated by the omicron surge. Highsmith coincidentally was already familiar with Miami, where his girlfriend and daughter reside. He also shares the same personal trainer with Bam Adebayo (Ronnie Taylor), knew Gabe Vincent and Cody Martin from the G League, and briefly shared a locker room with Jimmy Butler during their Sixers stints in 2018-19.

So Highsmith hopped on a plane to join the Heat on a Western Conference road trip. During those initial 10 days, he aimed “to show them the type of person I am, on and off the court” while playing in four of five possible games during that stretch. Though Miami let that initial deal expire, prompting another return to Delaware, about a month later the Heat signed Highsmith to two more 10-day contracts.

That ultimately led to a standard three-year deal, finally providing Highsmith with some NBA stability.

“[I did] not try to put too much pressure on myself,” Highsmith said. “But [my goal was to] stick and make an impact.”

Those early months also gave Highsmith his first exposure to the elements of “Heat Culture,” including lifting weights on playoff game days and completing conditioning and body-fat checks. Karl has noticed Highsmith’s transformed physique this season, leading to better lateral quickness, flexibility and strength while guarding perimeter ballhandlers.

“That’s the one thing I’m really proud of,” Karl said, “just to watch him embrace his opportunity and continue to maximize it by putting the work in. … That allows you to have confidence when you get on the court.”

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Now deep into his first full season with Miami, Highsmith says he feels much more comfortable in the offensive and defensive systems. He averaged 4.4 points and 3.5 rebounds in 54 regular-season games with 11 starts. He views himself in the mold of current Sixer P.J. Tucker, who was Highsmith’s Heat teammate last season. And he trusts Miami’s renowned developmental program to “[put] you in situations that you know you can succeed at.”

“They’re not going to ask you to do things that you weren’t brought there to do,” Highsmith said. “But they’re going to help you get better at the things that you’re not so great at when you get there. They do a great job, overall, of just making you believe in yourself and bringing you into the culture and making you feel like you’re one of them.”

Entering Wednesday’s Game 3 in Miami, Highsmith has played double-digit minutes in six contests during the Heat’s stunning run from the play-in tournament to the NBA Finals. He totaled 15 points in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Boston Celtics. He has grabbed two steals in four postseason games.

But Highsmith made his biggest statistical impact in Game 1 in Denver.

In the first half, he took a feed from Kyle Lowry for a reverse layup and threw down a cutting dunk. He scored seven consecutive points to help Miami slice a 21-point second-half deficit to single digits, including a deep shot that made the score 96-87 and prompted Van Gundy to say, “Every time he gets his chance, he responds.” Highsmith took on challenging defensive assignments, including one Nuggets possession when he began on Jamal Murray and then got switched onto Jokic. Karl also noticed one of those “invisible” plays, when Highsmith tipped a ball off the rim away from a Nuggets player trying to nab the offensive rebound, and to his own teammate to go the other way.

“That’s what we need from everybody,” Spoelstra said of Highsmith in his news conference following Game 1, “regardless of when you’re coming into the game, the minutes you’re getting. Those inspiring minutes, that’s what our team is about — having a roster of guys that just come out there and [are] making great efforts. You’re impacting the game, and it inspires the next guy to do it.

“We need more of those kinds of things. But [Highsmith has] kept himself ready.”

Ready to ascend from longtime G Leaguer, to emergency 10-day signee, to capable contributor in the NBA Finals.

“To be here in this moment is pretty crazy, considering where I came from and my path here,” Highsmith said. “I’ve reflected a little bit, but the end goal is not to get here, to be honest with you. It’s to win the whole thing.”