Help could be on way with Dragic, Bjelica joining Heat on trip. But Oladipo’s debut on hold
On the surface, it doesn’t seem like a hopeful time for the Miami Heat.
The Heat (22-24) has dropped six straight games and entered Sunday in eighth place in the Eastern Conference. The six-game losing skid is Miami’s longest since the 2016-17 season.
But some hope arrived this weekend in the form of veteran guard Goran Dragic and newcomer Nemanja Bjelica, who both joined the Heat in New York on Saturday night and could play Monday against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden (7:30 p.m., Fox Sports Sun). The Heat is still awaiting its other newcomer, Victor Oladipo, who remains in Miami and will miss Monday’s contest because of a head cold.
Dragic missed the past four games because of lower back spasms but he’s probable to play Monday, and the Heat acquired Bjelica in a trade with the Sacramento Kings on Thursday. Dragic and Bjelica flew together from Miami to join the team in New York on Saturday, and both practiced Sunday.
“Today was an important day,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It was really good to have Goran here. He has been putting in a lot of work behind the scenes. He was targeting this and Belly joined him on the flight. They’re very familiar with each other. It was good to have Belly in the mix today.
“To be able to have this practice day overall was important to our whole group. It wasn’t like a training camp practice, but we were able to get some things down. It was very important also for Trevor [Ariza].”
Dragic, who has missed 18 games this season because of multiple injuries, said “I did a full practice [Sunday], so we’ll see how my back is going to react tomorrow. From there on, we’re going to make a decision.”
As for Bjelica (6-10, 234), he participated in his first practice with the Heat on Sunday. As a stretch-four who can make threes and serve as another playmaker, his primary role will be to space the floor for Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Miami’s other attackers.
“He’s a great shooter. He demonstrated that in [Sacramento],” said Dragic, who built a relationship with Bjelica during their time playing with and against each other in Europe. “He’s going to play a huge role in the spacing for our attackers to get inside the paint. He’s so much more, though. I played with him in Europe. He can put the ball on the floor and make plays.”
Dragic played alongside Bjelica, who is Serbian, for a short time with Saski Baskonia of Spain during the NBA lockout in 2011. Bjelica said he received a call from Dragic, who is from Slovenia, soon after he was traded to the Heat on Thursday.
“I’ve know him for a long time,” Bjelica said of Dragic. “What can I say about him. He’s one of the most underrated players in the league and he’s a great player, a great guy and he’s a winner. For me, being around those guys, especially somebody who’s from Europe, it’s much easier.”
Bjelica, 32, has averaged 7.2 points while shooting 46 percent from the field and 29.3 percent on threes, 3.8 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 26 games (one start) this season. He was out of the Kings’ rotation earlier this season, but has earned consistent playing time off the bench in the past four weeks before the trade.
The Kings used Bjelica in a larger role last season, when he averaged 11.5 points while shooting 41.9 percent on threes, 6.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 72 games (67 starts).
“I know I’m here as a stretch guy. They want me to space the floor,” said Bjelica, who spent the first three seasons of his NBA career with the Minnesota Timberwolves and the past two-plus seasons with the Kings. “I think I can do a lot of things also, but at this point I’m just happy to be here. It’s a great opportunity. It’s going to be fun. ... Actually here, this is my sixth year in the league, and it’s the first time I’m in a system where they want to win right now. I’m happy for the opportunity.”
While Bjelica’s Heat debut could come Monday, Oladipo’s Heat debut has been put on hold.
After Monday’s matchup against the Knicks, Miami has one remaining game on its three-game trip — Wednesday against the Indiana Pacers. Spoelstra was non-committal when asked whether Oladipo would also miss Wednesday’s contest because of a head cold.
“I think everything right now is day-to-day,” Spoelstra said. “Continue to make evaluations and do what we think is best from there.”
The Heat acquired Oladipo, a two-time All-Star guard, from the Houston Rockets in exchange for guard Avery Bradley, center Kelly Olynyk and a 2022 first-round pick swap. Whenever Oladipo is ready to play, Miami believes he’ll help its offense that entered Sunday with the NBA’s seventh worst efficiency rating.
“We like the strengths he has as an offensive player,” Spoelstra said of Oladipo, who has averaged 20.8 points while shooting 41.1 percent from the field and 33.3 percent on threes this season. “He can be a downhill, attack, get-you-on-your-heels offensive threat as well as anybody in this league. We need that element right now for our offense to have another guy to break the defense down.”
Oladipo, 28, will also help on the defensive end, as he was voted onto the NBA’s All-Defensive First Team in 2017-18 before he sustained a ruptured quad tendon in January 2019 that kept him out for a year. He has remained a quality and versatile defender even after the injury.
“He’s a former all-league defender,” Spoelstra said. “He has been in a very good defensive system previously in Indiana. He was coached extremely well in college — being held to those defensive habits early when he was a young player. We think he has really good versatility to be able to guard multiple positions. He takes pride in it. As he continues to get healthier, he’ll get back to being that type of all-defensive defender. In our system, we think he can be dynamic with our other multi-faceted defenders.”
INJURY UPDATE
Along with Oladipo, the Heat will also be without starting guard Kendrick Nunn on Monday against the Knicks because of a sprained right ankle he sustained in Friday’s loss to the Charlotte Hornets.
Heat forwards Udonis Haslem and KZ Okpala both remain away from the team because of health and safety protocols.
This story was originally published March 28, 2021 at 6:18 PM.
