Bradley poised for return, Butler is getting closer
Miami Heat guard Avery Bradley is targeting a Wednesday return from his bout with COVID-19, with teammate Jimmy Butler two days behind Bradley in the NBA’s pandemic protocols.
Bradley said on a Yahoo podcast that he has resumed court work and is hopeful of playing Wednesday night against the Denver Nuggets at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Butler, who, according to an NBA source, is about two days behind Bradley in the testing process, was expected to be cleared for court work Monday, left then to work on his conditioning after two weeks away from the court.
Both Butler and Bradley have been out of action since the Heat’s Jan. 9 victory over the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena.
The Heat’s game the next day against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden was postponed due to the Heat lacking enough players, as the NBA put the team through contact tracing.
Bradley and Butler then returned to South Florida on Jan. 11 along with six other teammates: Bam Adebayo, Goran Dragic, Moe Harkless, Udonis Haslem, KZ Okpala and Kendrick Nunn.
Those six, all believed to be out due to contact tracing, returned for the Jan. 16 home game against the Detroit Pistons.
The Heat and the NBA do not announce players who have tested positive, or those sidelined through contact tracing. Instead, such players are listed as out due to “health
and safety” protocols.
Butler is behind Bradley in the return-to-play protocols because of the timing of his latest test and the intervening weekend.
In addition to playing without Bradley and Butler, both Tyler Herro and Meyers Leonard also have been away from the Heat. Herro is out with neck spams, while Leonard has been sidelined with a shoulder strain.
Bradley, a member of the eventual NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers at the time, had opted out of last summer’s NBA quarantine bubble at Disney World due to COVID-19 concerns. He then signed with the Heat in the offseason.
Bradley said he warmed up in a mask in the game before he received his positive test.
“The first few days were a little rough for me,” Bradley said on the Yahoo podcast, “but I started feeling a lot better. The taste and smell, thank God, I never had an issue with that. But I’m feeling a lot better.”
With the shorthanded Heat closing out a fourgame trip Monday against the Brooklyn Nets, the team likely will not have practice time before the Wednesday game against Denver. But Bradley nonetheless is optimistic of a return.
“Hopefully, I can play,” he said of Wednesday’s game. “So hopefully I can back on the court, as soon as they get back.
“I’m just excited to get back on the floor.”
The Heat’s Adebayo, Nunn and Herro previously have confirmed previous bouts with COVID-19, as did former Heat forward Derrick Jones Jr. when he was with the team, having since moved on to the Portland Trail Blazers in free agency.
While the game in Boston was the lone postponement due to the team’s involvement with pandemic protocols, the Heat also lost twice to the Philadelphia 76ers at Well Fargo Center when they had only eight available players, the NBA minimum. It was during those two games that Herro exacerbated his neck spasms.
The Wizards and Memphis Grizzlies, by contrast, each were removed from the schedule for two weeks by the NBA to allow their pandemic situations to stabilize.
“I think they’re doing the best that they can do,” Bradley said of the NBA. “Like I said, it’s the new normal for everybody. It is unfortunate that a lot of teams are having to postpone games.”
Bradley said there was a sense of guilt through the process.
“To be honest,” he said, “I was upset because I come to work and I do the right things. I come to work every single day and do all the protocols to make sure I’m protected so I can protect my family. To come up with the news knowing that I got it at work, I was a little frustrated, to be honest. I was frustrated because I felt like it compromised my family’s safety.”