Luke Babbitt back; Okaro White gone.
Teammates welcome back his threat from outside
MIAMI — And in other news ...
On a day when every other bit of Miami Heat news was overshadowed by the stunning revelation of the team reacquiring Dwyane Wade in a trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Heat created another reunion.
Amid growing concern of the shoulder injury that has outside-shooting big man Kelly Olynyk sidelined, the Heat traded injured forward Okaro White to the Atlanta Hawks for forward Luke Babbitt.
Babbitt, who left the Heat in the offseason as a free agent, returns to the team that he helped lead to a 30-11 finish last season before a late-season injury coincided with the Heat missing a 2017 playoff berth in a tiebreaker.
White, who has been out since early-season leg surgery, was immediately waived by the Hawks, ineligible to return to the Heat this season.
Heat President Pat Riley said it was the right move at the right time.
“We wanted to sign Luke again last summer but really ran out of roster spots,” Riley said of his consultations with coach Erik Spoelstra. “Spo loves Luke and loved the fact that he spaces the floor. He’s a no nonsense player. When you take a look at his numbers from his 3-point range this year, even though it’s a small sample size or a smaller sample size, from all areas of the court he’s above average and I think way above average.
“Of a lot of the guys that were traded today, he was the very best 3-point shooter out there. So we’ve been talking about Luke and others for a while.”
Babbitt’s once-andagain teammates embraced the reunion.
“Luke is a player that gives you that outside shooting,” guard Goran Dragic said. “Especially the defense, they cannot shrink for him so much. If they do, you have a really good 3-point shooter who is knocking down those shots. He kind of gives us the spacing on offense, for us attackers, we can get inside the paint and make plays.
“He can help us in a lot ways. Luke, he already knows the system from last year.”
Olynyk injured his left shoulder in Monday’s loss to the Orlando Magic and then was held out of Wednesday’s loss to the Houston Rockets, as well as Thursday’s practice.
“We’re not looking at it long term,” Spoelstra said, “but we want him feeling right and feeling healthy.
“He is feeling slightly better. So that’s progress. We don’t have a timetable on him.”
In addition to Babbitt’s outside ability, the Heat’s 3-point shooting figures to be bolstered by a return today against the visiting Milwaukee Bucks of guard Wayne Ellington, who missed the loss to the Rockets with a sore right shoulder.
“Wayne was able to do a lot more shooting today,” Spoelstra said. “That’s a good sign. He feels a lot better from yesterday. Don’t have a timetable on him.”
As for Thursday’s lesser trade, Babbitt, who was originally acquired by the Heat on July 10, 2016, has appeared in 37 games (nine starts) with the Hawks this season, averaging 6.1 points, 2.2 rebounds and 15.4 minutes while shooting 47.6 percent from the field, 44.1 percent on 3-pointers and .773 percent from the line. He led Atlanta in 3-point percentage and shot at least 50 percent from beyond the arc in 17 games.
In his lone season with the Heat, Babbitt made a single-season career-high 87 3-pointers and hit multiple 3-pointers in a game 23 times, also a single-season career best.
White, who was originally signed by the Heat as a free agent on July 15, 2016, has appeared in 41 games with the Heat (four starts) averaging 2.9 points and 2.3 rebounds in 13.4 minutes while shooting 38.8 percent from the field. He appeared in six games with the Heat this season before having surgery on Nov. 16 to repair the fifth metatarsal fracture in his left foot.