Heat’s depth continues to be tested. Duncan Robinson out at least a month for finger surgery
Already carrying one fewer player on its roster than the NBA regular-season maximum of 15 players this season, the Miami Heat will need to get through January with at least three of its 14 players on standard contracts unavailable.
The Heat announced ahead of Wednesday night’s road matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers that finger surgery will keep sharpshooter Duncan Robinson out for at least four weeks before he’s re-evaluated.
Robinson, 28, underwent successful on his right middle finger on Wednesday in Los Angeles, with the team announcing that the procedure took 35 minutes. He initially injured the finger during the Heat’s shootaround ahead of a Nov. 18 road game against the Washington Wizards and has been playing through the pain ever since.
“The initial injury was probably like six or seven weeks ago and I was just trying to manage pain tolerance and just figure out a way to keep pushing through it,” Robinson said Wednesday shortly before undergoing the surgery. “It was kind of apparent throughout the whole time that it wasn’t really getting better and I wasn’t basically able to be the best version of myself.
“It’s not like a crazy long recovery. It’s a pretty minor procedure. So it allows me to be back when it matters most and also be back to being the best version of myself, which is most important.”
Robinson opted against surgery shortly after hurting his finger, but he changed course and decided to get the surgery after receiving a second opinion on the lingering injury Tuesday in Los Angeles.
“All the clarity that I needed was if I don’t get a procedure, it’s not going to ever function the way that it did previously,” Robinson said. “When there’s a tear in the ligament like that, it’s not going to reattach on its own, so you need to get a procedure done in order to re-attach it. That’s all I needed to hear. It was a matter of when, not if.”
Robinson, who is in the second season of a five-year, $90 million contract he signed with the Heat in the 2021 offseason, became the new franchise leader for the most career three-pointers made by a Heat player last week.
“I’m not trying to be over dramatic or anything, but like the pain was just an issue that never really went away and it maintained,” Robinson said of how much the finger injury affected him while he was playing. “Pain tolerance is one thing, but like the lack of function was the other in that it doesn’t have the strength or mobility that is required for me to really shoot the ball. I felt like I was adjusting, had to adjust how I was shooting, and that’s a dangerous game to play.”
Robinson has been in and out of the bench rotation this season, averaging 6.9 points on 33.1 percent shooting from three-point range in 28 games (zero starts). But he’s been shooting better recently, making 36.1 percent of his three-point attempts in the Heat’s last 10 games with the team outscoring opponents by 31 points with Robinson on the court during this stretch.
“I really commend him for putting himself out there,” Spoelstra said of Robinson playing the last six weeks through the finger injury. “It’s something that we knew would be required. He was trying to grind through it. And he got to a point where he was OK shooting the ball, but there are so many other aspects — catching the ball, defending, contact, all of those things really have been troublesome. We think this is the best course of action and he’ll be back in a matter of a few weeks. And at least he’ll be able to condition and do everything on the side.”
Robinson’s sudden injury news comes after the Heat announced Tuesday that rookie forward Nikola Jovic will also be out for four weeks because of a lower back stress reaction before being re-evaluated.
When asked Wednesday if the 19-year-old Jovic would play again this season, Spoelstra was non-committal but added that he’s been told it’s “more than probable” that Jovic will make his return before the end of the schedule.
“We’re going to let him heal and then we will start to get him into our full program of working his core, working his lower body, all that stuff,” Spoelstra said of Jovic. “We’re not going to rush into that. But we do feel encouraged.”
Robinson and Jovic join center Omer Yurtseven as Heat players expected to miss at least the next month of games. Yurtseven underwent surgery on his left ankle in mid-November and is not expected to make his return until February, at the earliest.
“Roughly,” Spoelstra said when asked about Yurtseven missing the next month. “But he’s making tremendous progress. If you or I say that to him, he’ll disagree. But I think we’re going to make sure that the plan is most appropriate.”
The Heat does have both of its two-way contract slots filled with Jamal Cain and Orlando Robinson to help add depth and essentially bring the roster up from 14 to 16 players.
The Heat’s depth has already been tested this season, as it entered Wednesday with the second-most missed games in the NBA (147 missed games) this season due to injury, according to Spotrac.
The Heat has an open slot on its 15-man roster to add a player, but luxury tax concerns have kept the team from filling that spot. Miami stands just about $200,000 away from crossing the luxury tax threshold, which does not give the Heat enough space to sign a 15th player to a standard contract for the rest of the season without becoming a luxury tax team.
While crossing the luxury tax line by about $1 million would only result in a relatively small $1.5 million tax bill, it’s another factor that has made the Heat hesitant to become a luxury tax team: the repeater tax.
Avoiding the luxury tax this season would again push back the clock on the ultra-punitive repeater tax (when a team is over the tax at least three times during a four-year period). The last time the Heat finished as a tax team was in the 2019-20 season, but Miami is on track to be faced with the threat of the luxury tax for the next few seasons after signing Tyler Herro to a big extension in October.
But there are ways the Heat can fill its open 15th roster spot while still avoiding the tax. Miami can wait until late March to sign a 15th player, just days before the end of the regular season, and remain under the tax threshold because the prorated minimum salary at that late stage would be less than $200,000. However, that does nothing to help the Heat’s injury-depleted roster right now.
The Heat could also sign a free agent to a non-guaranteed contract at any time and waive him after 10 days to avoid entering the luxury tax. But this would essentially eliminate the possibility of Miami signing a free agent later this season while still avoiding the tax, which is a preferable route because that player would then be playoff eligible if the signing is timed correctly in the final days of the regular season.
It’s worth noting that 10-day contracts can be signed starting on Thursday.
In addition, the Heat could make a trade to change the math and create more room under the tax threshold. Even if Miami decides to make a signing that would push it into tax territory in the coming weeks, it has until the end of the regular season to make a move to again get under the line and avoid the tax.
“We’ll be able to manage it,” Spoelstra said of continuing to play short-handed. “We’ve been doing it all year, even throughout this time when we’ve been playing better, more consistent, we’ve had to deal with it. So the excuses are thrown out that door or any other door.”
INJURY REPORT: LEBRON OUT VS. HEAT
The only three Heat players ruled out for Wednesday’s game against the Lakers were Jovic, Robinson and Yurtseven.
The Lakers will be without their two stars. Anthony Davis (right foot stress injury) was already expected to miss the game, but LeBron James was ruled out just hours before tipoff on Wednesday because of a non-COVID illness. Lonnie Walker IV (left knee soreness) will also miss the game.
This story was originally published January 4, 2023 at 2:49 PM.
