For Heat’s Jamal Cain, two-way again proves to be the only way

MIAMI — Perhaps this stands as a vote of confidence, even if it’s not necessarily the vote of confidence that Jamal Cain has spent the past year pursuing.

With the Miami Heat’s G League affiliate with a pair of games this weekend that will decide that league’s Western Conference regular-season title, the Heat sent center Orlando Robinson and two-way contract holders Cole Swider and Alondes Williams to the Sioux Falls Skyforce as reinforcements.

Cain, by contrast, remains with the Heat.

But also remains on a two-way contract, with it becoming increasingly apparent that that is the way his second NBA season will come to a close, and come to a close with the Heat’s April 14 regular-season finale against the Toronto Raptors at Kaseya Center.

“I understand the business part.” Cain said, with the Heat concluding a four-game homestand Friday night against the Portland Trail Blazers. “So control what you can control.”

The split for Cain has been 20 games this season with the Heat, nine with the Skyforce. While the two-way contract allows Cain to be eligible for up to 50 games on the Heat active roster, that number entering Friday stood at 39, leaving him eligible for the remaining games on the Heat regular-season schedule.

But that’s also when it will end. Players on two-way contracts are ineligible for playoff rosters. The only allowable playoff appearances for Cain would be with the Skyforce.

As with last season’s Heat ride to the NBA Finals, Cain would remain eligible to train, practice and travel with the Heat throughout the postseason.

But there also was an expectation of more from the forward who went undrafted out of Oakland University in 2022.

Instead, ahead of summer league last July the Heat shifted Robinson to a standard deal, with Cain left on Aug. 11 left to settle for another two-way contract, a deal that pays half of the standard minimum salary.

The thought at that point was the open competition during training camp for the final available standard-contract spot. Instead, that deal went to point guard Dru Smith.

All the while, there remained the carrot of when the luxury-tax allowed the Heat to sign a 15th standard deal,  as well as the possibility of Smith being waived after his November season-ending knee injury.

Those two spots instead went to veteran free-agent guards Delon Wright and Patty Mills, each added off the buyout market.

So Cain did what he had done as a rookie, maximized his G League opportunities, averaging 23.7 points on .503 shooting and 11.6 rebounds this season with the Skyforce.

“I mean, any chance you get to hoop, you feel like you want to take full advantage of it,” Cain, 25, said. “With the circumstances here, I’m not playing. So the chances I get to go to Sioux Falls, I want to showcase what I also can still do. So I use it as a way to still get better.”

Along the way, with the Heat’s injury woes, there have been the 20 Heat appearances, with the efficiency not quite at the Skyforce levels.

“It’s only one person I know that can just turn it on, and that was Jimmy (Butler) last year in the playoffs,” Cain said of the uneven NBA minutes. “But I’ve been doing this my whole life. It’s still getting a chance to get back and play in the Heat environment.”

For now, it remains about opportunity on the NBA level, to again hit free agency this summer.

But there also will be an eye on the G League, where a playoff role might yet again await under Skyforce coach Kasib Powell.

“They’ve done such a good job, with so many guys called up,” Cain said. “I mean that’s Sioux Falls in a nutshell, we get so many guys called up, which is a compliment to Sioux Falls and Kasib. I love it. It gives you a new challenge, new guys to bond with.”