First, Victor Oladipo. Now, Markieff Morris ready to return. What it means for the Heat
With just four weeks remaining in the regular season, the Miami Heat added depth to an already deep rotation a few days ago. More depth is on the way.
Heat guard Victor Oladipo returned to make his season debut in Monday’s win over the Houston Rockets after undergoing surgery to repair the quadriceps tendon in his right knee last May. He will skip Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at FTX Arena (8 p.m., Bally Sports Sun) because the Heat is holding him out of one game in back-to-back sets as a precaution.
Besides Oladipo, Jimmy Butler (big toe irritation), Kyle Guy (G League), Caleb Martin (knee hypertension) and Javonte Smart (G League) also were ruled out for Saturday’s game. P.J. Tucker is questionable to play because of left knee pain.
But the Heat will get veteran forward Markieff Morris back on Saturday, as the team announced just a few hours before tipoff that he’ll be available against the Timberwolves after missing the last four months of games.
Morris, 32, hasn’t played since sustaining a neck injury on Nov. 8 when Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic shoved him to the court, with the injury initially termed “whiplash” before he began being listed as out because of a “return to competitive reconditioning” in mid-January.
A league source confirmed a report from The Associated Press on Friday that Morris, 32, received clearance from the NBA to play again. Morris had to receive clearance from the NBA’s Fitness-To-Play panel to return.
Morris has been hoping for weeks to make his return, but medical clearance stood in the way. Liability issues were among the concerns that kept him out for so long, with a previous neck injury complicating the situation. The Heat never cleared him, instead deferring to the NBA, which had a mechanism in place to deal with such issues.
With the NBA’s ruling, the Heat will not have liability concerns if Morris has another neck injury.
As for Oladipo, he’ll be held out of Saturday’s game against the Timberwolves on the second night of a back-to-back as a precaution after the Heat defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 117-105 on Friday night at FTX Arena. In his third game since returning from knee surgery, Oladipo recorded five points on 2-of-6 shooting, two rebounds, two assists and one block in 17:35 against the Cavaliers.
“We’re not going to get ahead of ourselves,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Friday, again downplaying outside expectations surrounding Oladipo. “I love where Vic is. But I’m looking at it much differently than everybody else. Everybody is looking at it like what’s next. How’s it going to fit? How’s it going to work? How fast we’re going to fast track this? It’s not about that. It’s about discipline.
“The biggest win is just him getting back out there and he’s healthy. And [Saturday], he won’t play but he’s going to be able to do his routine. That’s a major win and then he’ll be available on Tuesday [against the Detroit Pistons], which is great.”
Oladipo, 29, has played on a minutes restriction of 15 to 18 minutes in his first three games since returning from injury, and the expectation is his minutes will continue to slowly increase. He played 14:38 in his season debut on Monday against the Rockets, 16:39 on Wednesday against the Phoenix Suns and 17:35 on Friday against the Cavaliers.
Oladipo has totaled 20 points on 8-of-18 (44.4 percent) shooting from the field and 2-of-8 (25 percent) shooting on threes, five rebounds, nine assists and one block in 49 minutes off the bench during his first three games in 11 months.
“I’m not going to try to fast track this,” Spoelstra said of Oladipo. “This is going to be about us tempering the expectations. This is just about getting him game minutes, getting in rhythm. Helping us win. Then we’ll be able to build it from there. But this is just three games. That is the biggest win of all. The fact that he had three straight years of frustrating health and injury things that he was dealing with.
“We all want more. I’m sure he wants more. He has been great about it. The staff would want more, everybody else. But this is about discipline. We all have to all be disciplined about this and just keep on getting him more comfortable and just making these wins with those 15 to 18 minutes.”
Oladipo returned to an already crowded Heat bench rotation and Morris’ return will force more tough rotation decisions.
“In many ways, our depth, we said it from the very first day in the media session that that’s one of our biggest strengths and we want to utilize that,” Spoelstra said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean, even though it’s a strength, that it’s easy. But in many ways, a rotation is like a baseball rotation. Everybody might not be an everyday player, but they’re very impactful when they do play. And we have great situational players. Not good, but great situational players.”
AN EXAMPLE OF HEAT’S DEPTH
With Martin unavailable on Friday against the Cavaliers because of a hyperextended left knee, the Heat played Max Strus in Martin’s place in the bench rotation.
Strus delivered, finishing the win with 17 points on 5-of-11 shooting from deep in 19 minutes off the bench.
Strus has been a regular in the Heat’s bench rotation this season. But Strus had logged just a total of 15 minutes over the previous two games, as Oladipo’s recent return pushed him out of the rotation until Martin’s injury provided an opportunity for more playing time.
“Max is one of those guys where he didn’t play, but he keeps himself ready,” Spoelstra said. “I’ve seen him behind the scenes. Those days where he doesn’t play, the next day it’s the same routine and I always think about what [Udonis Haslem] says. You have to stay ready so you don’t have to get ready, and that’s a prime example of that.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2022 at 10:50 AM.
