Dru Smith on road to recovery after season-ending Achilles injury ... and back on road with Heat
Sunday marked the two-month anniversary of Miami Heat guard Dru Smith’s latest setback, suffering a season-ending torn Achilles tendon during a Dec. 23 win over the Brooklyn Nets. Over the last two months, Smith has experienced the various stages of grief.
“It was very, very unfortunate,” Smith said in his first comments to the media since the injury. “It was tough for those first couple days, first week or so just trying to process it all. I felt like I was in a really good spot, things were going well. So in a sense, it felt like something was taken from me. But it really wasn’t. It was just something that I had to process and move on after that.”
Smith has since also reached a stage in his recovery that allows him to travel with the team, joining the Heat for its current three-game trip that continues Sunday against the Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum and ends Monday against the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena (7:30 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun). It’s the first time that Smith has traveled with the Heat since going down with his Achilles injury.
“Just a little bit easier to get some work in with [Heat Senior Director of Rehabilitation] Jeff Ruiz,” Smith, 27, said of joining the Heat on the road. “It’s always good to get out and be with the guys, and just be here to support.”
Heat coaches and players also enjoy having Smith on the road.
“We love having him around,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “This was really for him to come on the road trip and get out of the building, lift his spirits up.”
The reality, though, is the Heat would rather have Smith on the court.
Even while on a two-way contract, Smith made himself an important part of the Heat’s bench rotation this season before suffering his non-contract Achilles injury in late December.
Smith logged double-digit minutes in eight straight games before the injury, establishing himself as a reliable and solid offensive option while also turning into a standout point-of-attack perimeter defender. In addition, he played the entire fourth quarter in five of the seven games leading up to his injury.
Now, Smith is left rehabbing from a significant injury for the second time in the last year after also sustaining a season-ending knee injury in November 2023 last season. He was cleared to resume full-contact basketball after that setback when the Heat opened training camp in October, only to suffer this latest season-ending Achilles injury in December.
“I’m going to say this is my least favorite of them all,” Smith said when asked to compare the rehabs for both injuries. “This has been the toughest one, I would say. Probably because it’s also coming right off of another major rehab. So that kind of made it worse. And also it’s just a much slower process at the beginning. So just been kind of having to be really patient. I feel like I’m taking things slowly, but it’s just the pace that you kind of have to move at.”
Smith is making progress, though.
Not only is Smith now able to move around without his protective boot in most situations, but he’s also walking without much of an issue less than two months after undergoing surgery on his ruptured Achilles on Dec. 27.
“I’m in awe of just how science has improved so much,” Spoelstra said. “You see him walking around the building without his boot, it’s as if he was 100 percent healthy. No limp, there’s nothing wrong with his gait. You can see why Aaron Rodgers was saying he could come back in three months.”
But Spoelstra then made sure to stress the need for patience when discussing Smith’s situation.
“The real key is patience right now,” Spoelstra said. “You feel great, but you can’t push it right now. You’ll set yourself up for great success if you’re patient now, summer will look a lot better.”
There’s a chance that Smith could be ready for the start of next season, but there’s still no clear timetable for his return to full-contact basketball work at this early stage of his recovery.
“I have no idea, honestly. It’s just kind of as it goes,” Smith said when asked about a timeline for his return to basketball. “I think in general, they say around six months that you should be back to basketball activities. Around eight months, you should be doing pretty well, moving really well. I think that’s a normal timetable. I don’t think that I’m necessarily ahead or behind or anything like that. So just kind of playing it by ear.”
All the while, Smith remains thankful for the Heat’s investment in him.
The Heat has waived Smith four different times after initially signing him as an undrafted prospect in 2021. But the Heat never lost confidence in him, eventually bringing him back each time.
And after Smith was ruled out for the rest of the season in December, the Heat has kept him on a two-way contract despite there being no salary-cap penalty for swapping him out for a healthy player. But with March 4 marking the final day of the season that a player can be signed to a two-way contract, the Heat still faces a decision on whether to again waive the sidelined Smith to open a two-way contract slot for a healthy and available developmental prospect ahead of that deadline.
Whatever happens, history shows that the Heat will continue to support and stand by Smith.
“The way that this organization has taken care of me and things like that, I can never thank them enough,” Smith said. “I’m just really appreciative to be here and be a part of this organization. Hopefully things will progress in the right way and we’ll see how things shake out.”
