Robinson’s big night, Vincent’s preseason debut, other takeaways from Heat’s preseason win
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 111-108 preseason win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night at FedExForum:
On the back end of a preseason back-to-back set, the Heat (2-1) gave most of its regulars the night off.
The Heat held out 10 players on Friday following Thursday night’s win in Brooklyn: Jimmy Butler (rest), Kyle Lowry (rest), Bam Adebayo (rest), Victor Oladipo (injury rehabilitation), Caleb Martin (right knee tendinitis), Tyler Herro (right knee contusion), Dewayne Dedmon (plantar fasciitis), Omer Yurtseven (left ankle soreness), Max Strus (rest) and Udonis Haslem (right Achilles soreness).
While most of those unavailable still traveled to Memphis, Butler and Lowry were not with the team on Friday because of an excused absence.
It’s also worth noting that none of the injuries are considered concerning.
The Heat now returns home to play its final two preseason games — Monday against the Houston Rockets and Wednesday against the New Orleans Pelicans — before opening the regular season on Oct. 19 against the Chicago Bulls at FTX Arena.
Oladipo is expected to make his preseason debut on Monday.
That left 10 available players for the Heat in Memphis, and nine went undrafted. Miami still found a way to win despite Memphis playing its regulars.
The 10 available for the Heat on Friday were Jamaree Bouyea, Jamal Cain, Darius Days, Marcus Garrett, Haywood Highsmith, Nikola Jovic, Duncan Robinson, Orlando Robinson, Dru Smith and Game Vincent.
Jovic, who was selected by the Heat with the 27th pick in this year’s draft, is the only player in that group who was drafted. And Jovic shined for the second straight night with 13 points on 4-of-12 shooting from the field and 3-of-9 shooting on threes, eight rebounds, three assists and three blocks in 23 minutes on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Grizzlies played their regulars on Friday. Memphis began the game with its projected regular-season starting lineup of Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, Dillon Brooks, Santi Aldama and Steven Adams.
But there haven’t been many teams better than the Heat at identifying undrafted prospects with upside and developing them into quality NBA rotation players, so Friday’s competitive effort against a quality team playing its regulars wasn’t necessarily that surprising.
Among the new developmental players on the Heat’s roster who shined on Friday were Cain, Jovic, Highsmith and Bouyea.
Highsmith ended the night with 15 points and five rebounds.
Bouyea scored 12 points and dished out eight assists.
“You have to credit the young guys in that locker room,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They’ve been putting in a tremendous amount of work and what they have are those intangibles that you can’t really put an analytic to. They have the perseverance, they have the grit, they have the toughness, competitiveness and they wanted the challenge of playing against some great players and a great team. So it was gratifying to see them, regardless of what happened at the end. It’s the preseason, but they had an opportunity to compete. It’s not just practice time. It was good to see a bunch of them contribute to the win.”
As the most experienced player available for the Heat on Friday, Duncan Robinson made the most of his opportunity.
Robinson, who is entering the second season of a five-year contract worth $90 million, finished with 29 points while shooting 7 of 11 from the field, 5 of 7 on threes and 10 of 10 from the foul line in 28 minutes. He totaled 15 points in a big third quarter before sitting out the final period.
“Just seizing the moment,” Robinson said. “If I have an opportunity to go out and play, I’m going to do it to the best of my abilities.”
It was an an encouraging performance for Robinson, as he looks to have a bounce-back season after losing his starting spot to Max Strus late last season.
Before this late-season role change, Robinson had been a fixture in the Heat’s starting lineup since 2019 because of the spacing his elite three-point shooting provides for Adebayo and Butler. Robinson started 68 of his 73 regular-season appearances in 2019-20, all 72 of his regular-season appearances in 2020-21 and 68 games last season prior to his move to the bench.
This season, Robinson is just working to earn a spot in the Heat’s crowded rotation. Friday was a step in the right direction.
Vincent finally made his preseason debut.
Vincent missed the Heat’s first two preseason games as the team took a cautious approach with his lingering knee tendinitis.
But the Heat guard started in his preseason debut on Friday, finishing with eight points on 2-of-9 shooting from the field and 2-of-8 shooting from three-point range, seven assists and two steals in 24 minutes.
Vincent, who was in the Heat’s playoff rotation last season, is competing to remain a consistent member of the rotation this season.
Vincent, 26, averaged career-highs in points (8.7), rebounds (1.9), assists (3.1) and minutes (23.4) while shooting career-bests from the field (41.7 percent) and three-point range (36.8) last regular season. He then played in each of the Heat’s 18 postseason games and started eight of them while Lowry was out because of a strained left hamstring.
But if Lowry, Herro, Oladipo and Vincent are all healthy, there may not be room in the rotation for all four guards. And with Lowry and Herro expected to be in the starting lineup, the decision on the final spot could be between Oladipo and Vincent if there’s only room for three guards in the rotation.
“He’ll work his way in. He’s proven that,” Spoelstra said prior to Friday’s game when asked about Vincent’s role. “It’s more about just getting him some minutes, getting his feet wet and getting some competition tonight.”
Cain’s strong preseason will force the Heat to make a tough decision in the coming weeks.
Cain, who went undrafted out of Oakland University, finished Friday’s win with 19 points while shooting 7 of 14 from the field and 3 of 7 on threes, six rebounds, three assists and two steals.
This comes after Cain recorded 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field, 11 rebounds and five steals in 27 minutes in Thursday’s win over the Brooklyn Nets.
“He makes you watch him,” Spoelstra said. “There’s no doubt about it.”
Cain, a 6-7 and 191-pound forward, has made his presence felt. In the last two preseason games, Cain has shot 9 of 14 from inside the paint and 4 of 8 from three-point range while racking up seven steals.
Cain’s off-ball movement has been excellent on the offensive end, with most of his points coming off assists. And his length and relentless activity has made him a disruptive force on the defensive end.
“He’s going to make multiple efforts, he’s going to use his athleticism out there and that’s what he did tonight,” Spoelstra said. “He’s pretty much guarding one through five at some point defensively and he has those in between plays offensively. Just those swing momentum plays, whether it’s a lob dunk, a big three or a fast break, things of that nature.”
The problem is Cain is currently not on track to be on the Heat’s roster at the start of the regular season.
As a player on an Exhibit 10 contract that is essentially a training camp deal, he’s expected to be waived by the Heat before the start of the regular season and then moved to the organization’s G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce. Cain will be eligible to sign with another NBA team if he’s waived by the Heat later this preseason.
In order to make sure Cain remains within the organization’s developmental system, the Heat needs to sign him to a two-way contract or use its one open roster spot to sign him to a standard contract.
But Days and Garrett currently occupy Miami’s two two-way contract slots, and the Heat doesn’t have room under the luxury tax to sign Cain to a standard deal.
So in order to make sure Cain remains under the Heat umbrella, either Days or Garrett would need to be waived to create a two-way contract opportunity for Cain or Miami would need to be willing to enter the luxury tax to use the 15th and final roster spot on Cain.
The Heat has until Oct. 16 to finalize its regular-season roster and decide how to handle Cain’s situation.
This story was originally published October 7, 2022 at 10:41 PM.
