Rashard Lewis played well for the Miami Heat down the stretch filling in for an over-the-hill Shane Battier but, with the LeBron James chase on early this offseason, Lewis wasn’t a priority for the organization. Lewis, whose contract expired at the end of last season, agreed to a deal with the Dallas Mavericks.

However, that deal didn’t come to fruition because Lewis failed his physical due to a knee surgery. Dallas since then acquired forward Chandler Parsons and won’t likely try to sign Lewis again.

According to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, Sweet Lew would like to return to Miami.

Rashard Lewis, whose Dallas contract was voided because of knee surgery, conveyed to the Heat that he would love to return here, but Miami already signed Shawne Williams for that role (backup stretch power forward). Williams essentially has had only one good season (2010-11 with the Knicks) but performed well in offseason workouts.

Jackson is right, the Heat have seemingly moved on and signed Williams to fill that role. However, it isn’t like cutting Williams would break the bank. Now seeing that Lewis is an option, Miami could opt to bring both into training camp and open up a competition for the backup stretch-4 position.

In a straight competition, Lewis may have the advantage because of his familiarity with the organization. But Williams impressed enough for Miami to move on from Michael Beasley as well, so the team hold him in relatively high regard.

Other than the nicety of competition, I don’t see much of a reason to rock the boat over a fringe rotation spot if the Heat are comfortable with Williams.