After taking part in practice on Thursday, Heat guard Tyler Herro spoke to the media for the first time in several weeks and confirmed a report that he fractured three ribs last month, as Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald writes.
“There’s not too much discomfort anymore compared to where I was three or four weeks ago,” Herro said. “I couldn’t even get out of bed. It was crazy. There was nothing I could magically do to fix my ribs. I had three fractured ribs. My ribs were in a lot of pain. Doing normal lifestyle things, I couldn’t do. There was no way I could play basketball. I can fully move how I’m supposed to now. Just focused on staying healthy the rest of the season.”
After missing Miami’s past 15 games, Herro will make his return on Friday in Atlanta, having been upgraded to available for the divisional matchup with the Hawks. In fact, the Heat’s roster will be as healthy as it’s been all season, with only Terry Rozier and a pair of two-way players listed as out on the injury report because they’re not with their team.
Of course, describing Herro as fully “healthy” might be a stretch. Although he’s ready to play, he’ll be wearing an NFL-style flak jacket under his jersey in his first game back to protect his ribs, per Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel (subscription required).
“They had like a sewing person come in and sew a whole new pad in for me,” Herro said. “So I got quite the flak jacket. I look like a football player almost out there. So I’m going to see how it goes, try to feel it out a little bit. Ultimately, just want to feel safe. Hopefully I just don’t get hit there and we’ll be good. But yeah, I’ll be protected.”
Here’s more on the Heat as they prepare to embark on their post-All-Star schedule:
- While Miami will be focused on securing a top-six postseason seed in the Eastern Conference over the season’s final two months, there will be plenty of other Heat-related stories to watch in the coming weeks, Jackson writes for The Miami Herald. Those subplots include Herro and Norman Powell making their case for offseason extensions and the Heat evaluating whether Nikola Jovic, whose four-year, $62MM rookie scale extension goes into effect in July, can be relied on as a rotation player heading into next season.
- Rookie wing Myron Gardner, who signed a new three-year contract with the Heat this week after spending most of the season on a two-way deal, referred to the promotion as a “dream come true.” Head coach Erik Spoelstra says he’s earned it, per Adam Lichtenstein of The Sun Sentinel (subscription required). “He had to do it the hard way,” Spoelstra said. “We wanted to take a look at him this summer. And then in the summer there were some intriguing things, and preseason was a little bit up and down. And then he just continued to work, and every opportunity he had, either in practice and then eventually in the games, he just made us watch him. And you couldn’t not notice his energy. I mean, it’s relentless, whether he’s just crashing the glass or crashing into people. And it just intrigued us to be able to say, all right, can we develop the fundamentals and the details to be able to harness some of that energy and direct it in a positive way? And he’s been able to do that.”
- With Gardner promoted to the 15-man roster, the Heat’s next developmental project is Trevor Keels, who was signed to a two-way contract to take Gardner’s old spot. Spoelstra raved about the guard’s offensive ability, referring to him as a “sniper,” and suggested he’s committed to improving defensively too. “He has made improvement, and we want to invest more resources and time into that development,” the Heat coach said, according to Jackson. “(He) still has a way to go in terms of getting in Miami Heat shape, but he’s come a long way.”
- Davion Mitchell, Dru Smith, and Kasparas Jakucionis aren’t stars, but the Heat’s point guards all “bring something different” and are “really important to our team,” Spoelstra said on Friday. Writing for the Sun Sentinel (subscription required), Winderman explores the strengths of each player and considers whether there will be room for all of them in the rotation with Herro back.