Marcus Garrett again out with wrist injury. Also, is Heat preseason dress rehearsal needed?
For the second time this year, Miami Heat guard Marcus Garrett will miss an extended period time because of a right wrist injury.
Garrett, who is one of the Heat’s two-way contract players, is dealing with a fractured right wrist that will have him in a cast for at least the next four weeks. He will be re-evaluated following that four-week period, the Heat announced on Tuesday.
This injury comes just months after Garrett, 23, underwent surgery to fix the instability in his right wrist in January.
“You really do feel for him,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said following Tuesday’s practice at FTX Arena. “He’s had such a tremendous summer. He’s really been diligent with first of all getting his wrist healthy and then preparing him for summer league. He had some great moments and then August and September have just been outstanding. So we’ll take care of that with him and get him healthy.”
The Heat waived Garrett from his two-way contract last season when he had to undergo surgery on his right wrist. But Miami still has not made a decision on Garrett’s two-way deal this time around in the wake of his latest wrist injury.
“I don’t even know yet,” Spoelstra said when asked if Garrett will remain on a two-way contract with the Heat. “Right now, let’s have some empathy for the guy. We’re not making any business decisions right now. It’s more about what can we do for Marcus to get him healthy.”
When Garrett lost his two-way contract with the Heat last season, he remained around the team for rehabilitation all while circling summer league as the target for his return.
The defensive-minded Garrett indeed made his return as part of the Heat’s summer league team this year and impressed enough to earn another two-way deal from the organization in July.
Garrett, who was named the Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year as a junior at Kansas before going undrafted in 2021, averaged 3.3 points while shooting 6 of 23 (26.1 percent) from the field and missing each of his eight attempts from three-point range in four appearances this preseason. He played 10 minutes in Monday’s preseason win over the Houston Rockets, finishing scoreless but with two rebounds, two assists and one steal.
The Heat recently waived forward Darius Days to promote forward Jamal Cain to a two-way contract, with Cain and Garrett currently occupying the team’s two two-way contract spots. Two-way deals can be swapped out at any time.
If the Heat again chooses to release Garrett from his two-way contract, internal candidates to fill the spot include Dru Smith, Mychal Mulder, Jamaree Bouyea and Orlando Robinson. Smith, Mulder, Bouyea and Robinson are currently on Exhibit 10 contracts with the Heat and are on track to be waived this weekend ahead of the regular season if they aren’t converted to a two-way deal in the coming days.
“This is the journey for young players sometimes,” Spoelstra said of Garrett. “Sometimes you just can’t predict it, sometimes it doesn’t go how you want it to. But he has that perseverance and grit to get healthy and get back at it.”
DRESS REHEARSAL?
The Heat has yet to use a preseason game as a dress rehearsal for the regular season, with at least one key player missing each of the first four exhibition games.
But will the Heat’s fifth and final preseason game on Wednesday against the New Orleans Pelicans at FTX Arena be the regular-season dress rehearsal?
“I don’t know,” Spoelstra said Tuesday, with the Heat prioritizing practices and shootarounds over preseason games to prepare for the regular season. “Tomorrow we’ll get an injury status report and we’ll go from there. I feel like we’ve had a bunch of dress rehearsals. But I guess you haven’t seen them.”
Heat star Jimmy Butler doesn’t believe a dress rehearsal preseason game is needed because the regulars are getting the necessary court time together behind closed doors in practices.
“I mean practice is another way of a dress rehearsal,” Butler said. “We’re all here getting at it every day. Whenever you get in the game, I think that’s the easy part. You just need to maintain your conditioning, and then make sure you’re in a rhythm. I think everybody’s gonna be that. Whenever you put five really good basketball players out there and then the role players we have coming off the bench, we’re gonna figure it out.”
The Heat opens the regular season on Oct. 19 against the Chicago Bulls at FTX Arena.
▪ Bam Adebayo (rest), Omer Yurtseven (ankle soreness) and Garrett (fractured wrist) did not practice on Tuesday. The rest of the Heat’s roster was able to practice.
This story was originally published October 11, 2022 at 2:19 PM.
