Rodney McGruder‘s injury could force the Heat to address the imbalanced roster, as Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald details. McGruder is out 3-6 months with a stress fracture in his leg, swinging the door open for Miami to keep or add another wing player, Jackson continues. The bottom of the roster is filled with power forwards and centers — Bam Adebayo, Udonis Haslem, Jordan Mickey and A.J. Hammons — and the Heat may have to waive Hammons and his guaranteed two-year contract to fortify the wing positions. Miami could keep either DeAndre Liggins or Matt Williams Jr. from its training-camp roster to fill the void, Jackson adds.
In other developments concerning the Heat:
- Kelly Olynyk has made a strong case to be the starting power forward, even though James Johnson came into camp as the favorite to win the job, Jackson reports in another story. Olynyk has meshed well with center Hassan Whiteside in preseason action, which is making the decision tougher for coach Erik Spoelstra, Jackson continues. “Their skill sets really complement each other,” Spoelstra told Jackson and other media members. “Kelly does a lot of things very similar to JJ in his own personality, in his own way. We think it fits. We think it works whether he comes off the bench or not, I like the dynamic.”
- Dion Waiters had to wait out the Gordon Hayward free agent saga before the Heat committed to him with a four-year, $52MM contract, Sports Illustrated’s Rohan Nadkarni notes during an in-depth feature on Waiters. A confident Waiters opted out of his deal this summer and the gamble ultimately paid off when Miami lost the Hayward sweepstakes and instead spent a chunk of their free-agent money on Waiters. “He likes to say he bet on himself, but he also bet on the organization,” Spoelstra told Nadkarni. “We bet on him as well. We’re not only about reclamation projects. We wanted to develop a relationship that would last longer than a year.”
I expect Matt Williams deal to be shifted to a 2 way, making him and Derrick Walton jr the 2 way guys…Aj Hammons, Eric Mcree, and Mitchell get waived/go to Sioux Falls with Larry Drew, who I think is right on the cusp of getting with a team…The Heat will keep Jordan Mickey, and Liggins gets the last spot, unless someone else becomes available.
we’re going to need Winslow, Okaro, and JJ to knock down shots and play well out of position at the 3 behind Richardson, who obviously jumps into the starting lineup. The rotations with Winslow at the 3, and JJ at the 4 haven’t looked great offensively in my opinion, so it will be interesting to see how that plays out. I’d also assume this brings Olynyk into the starting lineup, moving JJ back to the bench b/c Olynyk does other things offensively without the ball, including obviously spacing the floor, and adding Richardson to that 1st unit takes away most of those touches…i would assume that Spo will have to stagger minutes in some areas to get the right balance on the floor, but this injury is really significant. Hopefully, McGruder somehow makes it back this year