The latest on the availability of Heat’s Herro and Leonard. And Waiters to join Lakers
The Miami Heat will continue to play without rookie guard Tyler Herro and veteran center Meyers Leonard on its upcoming two-game trip.
Herro (right ankle soreness) and Leonard (sprained left ankle) did not travel with the Heat on Thursday afternoon to New Orleans for Friday’s game against the Pelicans. The quick trip ends Sunday against the Washington Wizards.
With Herro and Leonard expected to be unavailable for the trip, it would mark the 14th and 15th consecutive games both have missed with their respective injuries. Miami has posted a 6-7 record over the first 13 games without them.
The positive news is Herro and Leonard have both been out of their walking boots for about two weeks. But it looks like Herro is closer to a return than Leonard, with Herro going through on-court workouts before games since getting his boot taken off.
Leonard has not been seen doing much on the court yet.
Herro, 20, is averaging 13.1 points while shooting 41.4 percent from the field and 39.3 percent on threes, four rebounds and two assists in 46 games (six starts) this season.
Leonard, 28, is averaging 6.1 points while shooting 52 percent from the field and 42.9 percent on threes, 5.1 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 49 games (all starts) this season.
Both Herro and Leonard are in their first seasons with the Heat. Herro is a rookie and the Portland Trail Blazers traded Leonard to Miami as part of the Jimmy Butler sign-and-trade deal this past summer.
WAITERS TO JOIN LAKERS
Former Heat guard Dion Waiters has agreed to a deal with the Los Angeles Lakers for the remainder of the season, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
Waiters met with the Lakers earlier this week and “owned up to his mistakes and errors in Miami and explained to them what went wrong in Miami,” according to Charania. That was enough to convince the Lakers that Waiters was the right fit to fill out their title-contending roster.
Waiters, 28, served three team-issued suspensions for a total of 17 games with the Heat over the first two months of the season. The first suspension was for unprofessional conduct, the second suspension was for conduct detrimental to the team (including an alarming medical situation on the Heat’s flight from Phoenix to Los Angeles on the night of Nov. 7), and the third suspension was “for his failure to adhere to team policies, violation of team rules and continued insubordination.”
Waiters ended up making his season debut in the Heat’s 45th game. He averaged 9.3 points while shooting 38.5 percent from the field and 47.1 percent on threes, 3.7 rebounds and one assist in three games with Miami this season before the Heat traded him along with James Johnson and Justise Winslow to the Memphis Grizzlies for Andre Iguodala, Jae Crowder and Solomon Hill on Feb. 6.
Waiters, who will still get the remaining money he is owed from the four-year, $52 million contract he signed with the Heat in the summer of 2017, was released by the Grizzlies following the trade. Memphis is responsible for the remaining money on Waiters’ $52 million contract.
This story was originally published March 5, 2020 at 5:52 PM.
