Nick Richards sticks with the Heat, $3.1M now guaranteed

Opening day in the NBA is also the day non-guaranteed contracts either turn into real money or vanish, and Richards got the good version.

Some background. Richards signed a 1-year minimum deal with Miami that came with no guarantee. The terms were simple: still be on the roster on opening night and you get the full season's salary. Get cut before then and Miami owes you nothing. For a veteran center, that's a training camp where every rep is an audition.

He passed. According to Hoops Rumors, Richards will make $3,066,143 this season, while Miami's cap hit is only $2,449,421 because of the league's veteran-minimum rules. So the Heat get a real big man for the price of a backup and pay less on the cap than he actually earns. Good business for Pat Riley's front office, and a nice payday for a guy who bet on himself.

Ira Winderman called it exactly that: a gamble that worked. Plenty of players in Richards' spot chase a guaranteed deal somewhere else in free agency. He took the uncertain one in Miami and now has a roster spot for the year.

The timing matters too, because the Heat frontcourt isn't at full strength for the opener vs. Minnesota. Vlad Goldin is listed as questionable with a right ankle sprain, per the team's first injury report. Goldin is on a two-way contract and wasn't expected to be in the early rotation, so losing him won't blow anything up. Still, one fewer body behind Bam Adebayo means Richards is the obvious guy to soak up backup center minutes.

What to watch tonight is pretty straightforward: does Erik Spoelstra actually play him against the Wolves, and for how long? The money is locked in now. What Richards does from here is earn the minutes, because a guaranteed vet-minimum center in Miami can be a real rotation piece or the 15th man nobody sees until garbage time.