Nick Richards has started 114 NBA games. He has spent six seasons in the league, carved out a career as a productive rebounder and, as recently as 2023-24, averaged 9.7 points and eight rebounds over a 67-game season.
Yet when free agency unfolded this summer, the 28-year-old center found himself accepting something he did not expect: a non-guaranteed contract.
Richards signed a one-year, $3.1 million deal with the Miami Heat last week, filling Miami’s 14th standard roster spot after an offseason that already reshaped the team around Giannis Antetokounmpo. His salary becomes fully guaranteed if he remains on the roster on opening night in October, according to a league source cited by the Miami Herald’s Anthony Chiang.
Richards admitted the structure caught him and his representatives off guard.
“From my team’s standpoint, my agency and myself, (a non-guaranteed contract) wasn’t really what was planned,” Richards said Tuesday. “But I think we just got to take advantage of the opportunity that I have right now.”
That makes the next several weeks unusually important for a player with his résumé.
Nick Richards Has to Earn Guaranteed Heat Deal
Richards’ $3.1 million salary would become fully guaranteed if he survives Miami’s final roster cuts, though his cap hit would be only about $2.5 million because of NBA veteran-minimum rules.
For the Heat, the structure is advantageous.
Miami needed another true center behind Bam Adebayo and Bobby Portis. Before Richards arrived, two-way big man Vlad Goldin was the only other center on the roster. Richards has played 99% of his NBA minutes at center, according to Basketball Reference, giving Erik Spoelstra a conventional 6-foot-11, 245-pound option without requiring the organization to guarantee another salary before camp.
For Richards, it creates an audition.
“I’m still going to come in every single day, be myself, do what the team needs me to do and prove myself to the coaching staff and everybody,” he said.
Spoelstra has already given him a straightforward mandate.
“Right now, it’s more of just come in and give great energy every single day,” Richards said. “Try to be the hardest worker on the floor.”
Richards Believes His Game Fits Miami
Richards is not a floor-spacing center or an elite shot blocker. He has made just six career 3-pointers and averaged 0.8 blocks per game.
His value is elsewhere.
He has averaged at least 11 rebounds per 36 minutes in four consecutive seasons and at least four offensive rebounds per 36 minutes in three of the past four. Among players who appeared in at least 25 games last season, Richards ranked 24th in rebounding percentage.
That profile explains why he believes Miami could be the right landing spot despite the contract uncertainty.
“The Heat have been known for guys that play physical, guys that play hard, and players that play their role,” Richards said.
He described his own game similarly: physicality, dirty work, extra possessions and screening.
Miami currently has 18 players under contract — 14 on standard deals, three on two-way contracts and one on an Exhibit 10 agreement — entering training camp Sept. 29.
Richards will arrive with more NBA experience than the typical player fighting for a roster spot.
But the contract does not care about résumé.
For Richards, opening night now carries an extra meaning: make the team, and $3.1 million becomes real.
Heat’s Nick Richards Makes Candid Admission About Non-Guaranteed Contract