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Players will come off the bench

MIAMI – The Miami HEAT announced today that free agent forward John Wallace and center Loren Woods have signed contracts with the team. Per team policy, terms of their respective deals were not released.

Wallace, a six-year NBA veteran spent the 2002-03 season playing in the Greek A1 League for Team Panionious in Greece. In 10 regular season games, the 6’8” Rochester, New York native averaged 24.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 6.0 steals. During the FIBA Champions Cup, he averaged 15.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.0 blocked shots in three games of action. Most recently, Wallace played five games for the Minnesota Timberwolves entry in the Pepsi Pro Summer League in Orlando. He averaged 14.2 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 25.2 minutes per game.

Drafted in the first round (18th overall) by the New York Knicks during the 1996 NBA Draft, Wallace played two different stints in New York, the first in his rookie season and again during the 1999-2000 year. He has played for three other franchises including the Detroit Pistons (2000-01), Phoenix Suns (2001-02) and the Toronto Raptors (1997-99) averaging 8.0 points, 2.9 rebounds, while shooting 46 percent from the field for his career. A former standout at Syracuse University, Wallace was a First-Team All Big-East and NCAA Final Four Team selection in his senior season.

Woods, a 7’1” center from St. Louis, Missouri was drafted in the second round (46th overall) by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2001 NBA Draft. In two seasons, Woods has averaged 1.9 points and 2.2 rebounds in just 98 career NBA games. A collegiate standout at Arizona, Woods averaged 14.3 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 3.38 blocked shots in 55 games during his two-year stint at the University (1999-2000 and 2000-01). He sat out the 1998-99 season after transferring from Wake Forest. The Associated Press as a junior and senior at Arizona named him Honorable Mention All-America. He also was named Pac-10 Newcomer of the Year, West Region Player of the Year and First-Team All Pac-10 selection. He tied an NCAA record versus Oregon (Feb. 3, 2000) by blocking 14 shots, tying the record set by David Robinson (Navy) and Shawn Bradley (Brigham Young) and Roy Rogers (Alabama).