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Parks can fill in at the big spots off the bench

Miami HEAT President and Head Coach Pat Riley announced this afternoon that the team has signed free agent forward/center Cherokee Parks. As per club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Parks, a 6’11”, 240-pound forward/center, has averaged 4.4 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 16.0 minutes in 460 regular season games during his eight-year NBA career. He has shot 47.0 percent (864-1838) from the floor, 63 percent (308-489) from the foul line and 21.1 percent (8-38) from three-point range while playing for the Dallas Mavericks (1995-96), Minnesota Timberwolves (1996-98), Vancouver Grizzlies (1998-00), Washington Wizards/L.A. Clippers (2000-01) and the San Antonio Spurs (2001-02).

A former first-round draft choice (12th overall) by the Mavericks in 1995, Parks averaged 6.3 points and 4.4 rebounds and 21.6 minutes in 30 games played for the Clippers last season. He started 18 games and led the team in both rebounding and blocked shots six times. He missed 29 games due to back spasms during three different stints on the injured list. Parks scored a season-high 18 points on March 12th at Houston and pulled down a season-high 10 rebounds vs New Orleans on March 3rd.

Parks averaged 12.5 points and 6.7 rebounds over his four-year college career at Duke University. He played in 131 games during that time and finished his career ranked second on Duke’s all-time blocked shots list with 221. He became the 40th player in school history to top 1,000 career points. He was a freshman on Duke’s 1991-92 NCAA Championship team and averaged 5.0 points and 2.4 rebounds.