What is Heat getting in rookie Ryan Conwell? His college coach weighs in

Miami Heat admin September 21, 2026 0 Comments

What is Heat getting in rookie Ryan Conwell? His college coach weighs in

As Miami Heat rookie guard Ryan Conwell prepares for the start of his first NBA training camp next week, his last coach believes he’s ready for the next level.

“The basketball stuff speaks for itself. He’s a terrific scorer, terrific shooter, high-IQ player,” said Louisville men’s basketball head coach Pat Kelsey, who was Conwell’s coach for his senior college season last season. “All the stuff that you see, he’s a really, really good player.

“The thing to me that really separates Ryan are the things you can’t measure with statistics. It’s the intangibles, it’s the work ethic and the character, the caliber of teammate he is, his coachability. When your best player is all those things, everybody else falls in line because your best player is the best self-starter that gets there the earliest, that stays the latest, that is meticulous in his preparation, in his film study and all those things. You don’t coach a player of the caliber and character of a Ryan Conwell very often in your career.”

Conwell, who the Heat traded up to acquire with the 37th overall selection in the second round of this year’s draft in June, will battle for a spot in the Heat’s bench rotation when training camp opens on Sept. 29. The Heat will hold its annual media day on the eve of the first day of training camp on Sept. 28 at Kaseya Center.

Conwell’s outside shooting is what gives him a real chance to play early in his NBA career, with the Heat in need of three-point shooting around its new leading duo of Bam Adebayo and Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Conwell averaged 18.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.1 steals per game while shooting 40.8% from the field, 34.5% on threes and 83.2% from the foul line as a senior at Louisville. He averaged 9.6 three-point attempts per game last season.

Conwell made 38.4% of his 800-plus three-point attempts during his final three years in college, including 41.1% of his 567 catch-and-shoot threes, according to The Athletic.

“He’s an elite shooter,” Kelsey said. “There is no question about that. He’s been guarded a certain way for a long, long time, just because of his ability to put the ball in the basket. And he knows all the little tricks of the trade. He’s an elite shooter.”

But Kelsey made clear Conwell isn’t just a three-point specialist, highlighting other areas of his offensive game that he has developed to use against opponents that try to run him off the three-point line.

Conwell, 22, flashed that skill set during four summer league appearances with the Heat this offseason. He averaged a team-high 21 points, five rebounds and 3.3 assists per game while shooting 40.9% from the field and 9 of 28 (32.1%) from three-point range across three California Classic summer league games, and then totaled 19 points on 7-of-16 shooting from the field and 2-of-8 shooting on threes, one rebound and three assists in his lone Las Vegas Summer League appearance.

“If you look at his metrics throughout his career, he gets to the free-throw line, too. He has a good balance,” Kelsey said. “Although he shoots a lot of threes, he also gets downhill and gets fouled and has a good rim rate as well. Sometimes when you talk about that, like his three-point shooting, and you’re like, man, you got to just run him off the line. Well, he also will get downhill and put foul pressure on you, as well. He had to play a ton of point guard for us as well. And I think he did a really, really good job of that.”

Conwell also held his own as a point-of-attack defender at the college level, with the help of his sturdy 6-foot-4 and 215-pound frame.

“He’s a big strong, physical kid,” Kelsey added. “He’s got a linebacker build, but he’s quick and agile as well. He can really body guys up, moves his feet well, and a very, very willing defender as well. He’s very accountable in his assignments, which I know is huge at the next level.”

The NBA will be a new challenge for Conwell, but he’s used to new challenges after playing for four different schools during his four-year college career.

Conwell, who is due $1.4 million in his first NBA season, began his college career at South Florida before transferring to Indiana State for his sophomore season and Xavier for his junior season, and then closing his college career at Louisville. The driving force behind four different schools in four years for Conwell were coaching changes after each season.

“That’s way more the norm than the exception anymore,” Kelsey said of Conwell’s winding college journey. “But there were, on several occasions, there were coaching changes where he was at. But sometimes when you say, ‘Oh, somebody’s been to four schools in four years.’ Talk to every single head coach that coached him. It was circumstances in today’s day and age. The business aspect of it, coaching changes, the transfer portal, NIL, there are just a lot of things that went into that. But everybody sings his praises, and I’m no different.”

Kelsey then recalled a conversation he had that served as further proof of what Conwell’s college coaches thought of him.

“I remember talking to [former Xavier coach] Sean Miller last summer when we got Ryan in the portal and he just asked how he’s doing,” Kelsey said. “I said, man, what an unbelievable leader and kid. And Sean just says he never changes. He never changes amidst the adversity. He’s very strong in his faith, in his core beliefs. He’s magnetic. His energy and just the way about him just rubs off on other people.”