Seeking a strategy
Team juggles the lineup as injuries have depleted the position
Tyler Johnson’s injury has Heat scrambling.
MILWAUKEE — Plan B proved rejuvenating for the Miami Heat. Plan C got the Heat through an unexpected rough patch. But when you start moving toward Plan D, that’s when it can get, well, a bit daunting.
With Tyler Johnson going down at the start of this five-game trip with what appeared to be a significant ankle injury in Monday’s loss to the Chicago Bulls, the Heat again are left to consider a replacement strategy at shooting guard.
The initial approach was to move Johnson into the role when Dion Waiters went down with the ankle sprain that will lead to season-ending surgery. The Heat went 8-2 with that alignment.
Then, when Johnson came up with a sudden shoulder/neck ailment last week, the Heat survived with Derrick Jones Jr., in the midst of a two-way contract, stepping into the starting role for road victories over the Toronto Raptors and Indiana Pacers.
Now, after an injury so severe that it led to Johnson being rolled to the Heat’s locker room in a wheelchair at the United Center, coach Erik Spoelstra finds himself at another crossroads, with Johnson listed as doubtful for tonight’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
Among the options, short of a return to health as quick as last week’s by Johnson, could be moving Jones back into the role,
starting 3-point specialist Wayne Ellington, pushing Josh Richardson into the backcourt and starting Justise Winslow at small forward, or going with a big alignment that has both Kelly Olynyk and James Johnson at forward.
“We’re down so many guards,” center Hassan Whiteside said, “I feel like it’s a team of big men now.”
In addition to Tyler Johnson and Waiters, the Heat have been without Rodney McGruder since preseason leg surgery, a return not expected until next month.
“It seems like all position twos are going down,” point guard Goran Dragic said of the Heat’s shooting guards. “You got Rodney, Dion, Tyler. Basically we don’t have position twos. OK, J-Rich, Wayne, but hopefully it’s nothing, so we can get him back soon.
“We still want Rodney back. That’s going to help us a lot.”
The Heat already had been in experimentation mode before Tyler Johnson’s injury, with Spoelstra on Sunday reinserting James Johnson as his starting power forward in place of Olynyk. The ensuing results have been uneven, with a home victory over the Milwaukee Bucks and then Monday’s loss in Chicago.
There also has been the attempt to work Winslow back into rotation minutes, his Sunday return preceded by a 14-game absence with a strained left knee.
Winslow, who has started at power forward this season, but not in the backcourt, said he believes he can make the transition if needed, with Wednesday’s game just his third back.
“I’m very comfortable, for the most part,” he said of playing shooting guard. “It’s kind of [that] point guard and the wings are interchangeable. It’s pretty much the same. I’m comfortable pretty much everywhere.
“Right now, I’m more thinking about Tyler than how we’re going to replace him. We got a couple days. Hopefully, nothing too serious, and he can be back out there soon.”
Spoelstra initially mentioned an MRI after X-rays Monday in Chicago came back negative, but the team later said no MRI had been scheduled. Johnson remains on the trip with the team.
“Unfortunately,” Winslow, the No. 10 pick in the 2015 draft, said, “we’ve been injury prone since my time here. It’s a good thing and bad thing. You never want to see a teammate go down, but, at the same time, guys get more responsibility and opportunity.
“Unfortunately, that is the way opportunity and all that comes about. It’s a good opportunity for everyone to step up.” Again. Out of necessity. “I want him to come back as soon as possible,” Whiteside said of Tyler Johnson, “because our backcourt already has been through enough. We’re going to miss him. I hope it’s a speedy recovery.”
James Johnson said with Winslow back and McGruder expected to return, it is a transition period.
“As we have guys going down, we also have guys getting back, getting back in their groove, Justise Winslow” he said. “So next guy up, and hopefully it’s going to give another guy a chance to emerge.”