Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Difficult roster choices abound
Coach has more options with team fully healthy
CORAL GABLES — Just after the All Star Break, as his team looked to begin the 24-game push it hoped would lead to a playoff berth, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra knew he’d soon face a different kind of challenge.
With several players — including Kelly Olynyk and Rodney McGruder — nearing a return from injury, eventually, the Heat’s rotation would get crowded, forcing Spoelstra to have to start making tough decisions.
The time for those decisions is here.
When the Heat took the floor Thursday night against Philadelphia for what would eventually be a 108-99 win over the Sixers, Miami was as healthy as it’s been in nearly two seasons.
Of the 15 players on the Heat’s roster, 14 were available, with only Dion Waiters — who is recovering from ankle surgery — out. That meant options aplenty for Spoelstra when it came to putting together rotations.
By night’s end, Luke Babbitt, Udonis Haslem and Rodney McGruder hadn’t see any playing time, prompting Spoelstra to joke he “got lost in all the sauce,” trying to remember who was and wasn’t available.
Ahead of Saturday’s game against Washington, Spoelstra acknowledged his new problem is one most coaches would envy, particularly when there are just 16 games left in the regular season.
“This is a blessing for us that we have our health at the most important time of the year,” he said. “I have great gratitude for that. It beats the alternative for sure. These are playoff games right now. It’s a playoff rotation, whatever gives us the best chance to win on any given night.”
While their coach may have to deal with the headache of doling out critical minutes, the players who will be affected by those decisions seemed unfazed Friday, even as they may see some of their playing time diminish.
Of the 10 players who made it onto the court Thursday against Philadelphia, only Goran Dragic logged more than 30 minutes. Additionally, along with Dragic, only Hassan Whiteside, Tyler Johnson and Justise Winslow played more than 25 minutes.
If that kind of trend continues — and it may, especially with Spoelstra noting he doesn’t expect to go 12 players deep most nights — that will mean fresher legs. Heat opponents may not be as fortunate.
“It’s a great problem for us. A great problem. There’s strength in numbers, and when we have all our guys and our full threat back, we’re going to be hard to stop,” said guard Wayne Ellington, who returned to the lineup Thursday, finished with nine points and played nearly 22 minutes after missing four games with a bruised left quadriceps. “We play our minutes hard, and we know we have guys behind us that are going to bring that same energy. You go out there, give it your all and somebody comes in behind you and you go get a rest. Then you come back in, give it your all, and somebody comes in behind you. That’s kind of our mentality. We’re going to wear teams out.”
Added forward Josh Richardson: “It’s a good problem to have. There are a lot of teams in the NBA with not great depth and so, they have to play six or seven guys 30-something minutes a game. That’s what’s so hard about being a head coach in this league, and Spo probably has it very tough. He’s got to pick who’s going to get those minutes and that’s not an easy job. It’s great, though. We know if somebody gets tired or gets into foul trouble, we have somebody that can just step right in there and we won’t lose any slack. It’s big for us.”
Against Philadelphia, Spoelstra went with the starting lineup of Richardson, Whiteside, Dragic, Johnson and James Johnson. And Spoelstra said that group “played well” and “had a lot of energy.”
How everything shakes out rotation-wise against Washington and beyond remains to be seen, but if the Heat can continue playing the way they did against the 76ers, Spoelstra said things can only continue getting better.
“I certainly could play what we did last night. Definitely that’s on the table and our guys have embraced that and we need to continue to embrace that. Depth is one of the biggest strengths of this team and we were able to utilize it last night and wear on a team,” he said. “Other than Goran, nobody played over 28 minutes. And everybody played as hard as they could at a high level and it took contributions from everybody. We haven’t had that kind of game in a long time where everybody that played in the game really contributed in a positive way.”