Heat bench working through early season kinks: ‘Just adjusting to new roles.’ And Herro out
The Miami Heat’s bench rotation is filled with players who return from last season’s roster. But the results have been very different.
After closing last regular season as the the NBA’s highest-scoring bench among the 30 teams at 40.5 points per game, the Heat entered Monday night’s matchup against the Portland Trail Blazers at FTX Arena with the eighth-lowest scoring bench in the league at 29.8 points per game through its first 10 games this season.
“Just adjusting to new roles, new situations and everything,” said Heat forward Duncan Robinson, who has played as a reserve this season after spending most of last season in the Heat’s starting lineup. “That’s part of early season stuff and figuring it out.”
The Heat bench’s noticeable dip in scoring from last season can be explained by guard Tyler Herro’s promotion to the starting lineup. Herro was the league’s leading bench scorer at 20.8 points per game and became the first player in franchise history to be named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year last season.
But there are also other noticeable changes to the Heat’s bench rotation this season, which has consistently included Max Strus, Gabe Vincent, Dewayne Dedmon and Robinson when the starting five of Kyle Lowry, Herro, Jimmy Butler, Caleb Martin and Bam Adebayo are available.
▪ Strus is coming off the bench after playing as a starter during last season’s playoff run that ended in the Eastern Conference finals.
▪ Robinson is being used as a reserve after playing as a starter for much of his first four NBA seasons. He entered this season with 209 starts in his 239 career regular-season appearances.
▪ Martin is playing as a starter after spending last season mostly in a bench role with the Heat. He played as a reserve in 48 of his 60 regular-season appearances last season.
▪ Guard Victor Oladipo, who was expected to help fill the sixth man void Herro left behind, has yet to play this season because of left knee tendinosis.
“That’s part of every season,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra when asked about the process of finding the right combinations off the bench early in the schedule. “Right now, the identity is help contribute and help us win. Sometimes that can be the best clarity of all. Take all the clutter out of your head, play productive minutes, really defend at a high level, share the basketball and help us win until we start to find some rhythm and a flow. That won’t necessarily happen right away, but you can still win games and you can still be productive. That’s just what we have to wrap our minds around right now.”
Injuries have already forced the Heat to tweak the bench rotation a few times through the first three weeks of the season, as Strus has needed to start three of the first 10 games.
Through it all, the Heat continues to work through different bench combinations to find what works and what doesn’t. Miami best bench lineup, among those that have logged at least 10 minutes together this season, has been one that’s anchored by Butler.
Entering Monday, the lineup of Vincent, Robinson, Strus, Butler and Dedmon had outscored opponents by 47.1 points per 100 possessions in a limited sample size of 13 minutes together this season.
“It’s just getting used to having him with us,” Strus said of that bench lineup led by Butler. “We’re obviously going to play through [Butler]. So it’s just where does Dedmon fit in with that, where does he get his screens in? So it’s just stuff like that of how guys are going to play and how we’re going to play as a unit.”
But as individuals, the only Heat reserve who entered the week with a positive plus/minus when they have been on the on the court this season was Vincent (plus-15).
“That’s part of what the early season is about, just kind of feeling out what lineups fit, what lineups go together,” Robinson said. “It’s part of the growing pains of the early season. We’ve learned a lot throughout these [10] games or so.”
IN THE G LEAGUE
The Heat’s G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, opened its season Saturday and also played Sunday.
Two-way contract forward Jamal Cain played in both games, totaling 40 points and 21 rebounds. The Skyforce is 0-2 to start the season.
Cain was with the Heat in Indianapolis for Friday’s loss to the Indiana Pacers amid Miami’s injury issues, but returned to the Skyforce immediately after that game to be available for the start of the G League season.
Cain, 23, has been on the Heat’s active list for three games. He’s only eligible to be on the Heat’s active list for as many as 50 regular-season games under the NBA’s two-way contract rules.
ADEBAYO INVOLVED
Along with LeBron James, Donovan Mitchell, Bradley Beal and Zion Williamson, Adebayo is featured in a new NBA public-service announcement to encourage voting ahead of Tuesday’s Election Day.
The NBA said in a release: “This season, every team has engaged their local community to promote civic engagement including through nonpartisan partnerships, in-arena theme nights, voter education and voter registration tools as well as using facilities for election-related activities.”
The Heat collaborated with the Miami-Dade County Public School District and Miami-Dade County Elections Department to pre-register voters and provide transportation to young voters.
INJURY REPORT
The Heat remains without Cain (G League assignment), Oladipo (left knee tendinosis) and Omer Yurtseven (left ankle impingement) for Monday’s game against the Trail Blazers. Oladipo and Yurtseven have yet to play this season.
Herro (sprained left ankle) and Heat forward Udonis Haslem (personal reasons) will also miss the contest. That leaves 11 available players for the Heat on Monday.
On the other side, the Trail Blazers ruled out Gary Payton II (return to competition reconditioning) and Olivier Sarr (right wrist sprain) for Monday’s game in Miami.
This story was originally published November 7, 2022 at 11:23 AM.
