Healthier roster comes with tough decisions for Spoelstra
The depth and versatility within the Heat’s roster is its biggest strength. But with that comes challenging rotation decisions.
Coach Erik Spoelstra hasn’t necessarily been faced with such decisions over the first four games. Wayne Ellington (sore left ankle), James Johnson (sports hernia surgery), Dion Waiters (left ankle surgery) and Justise Winslow (hamstring tightness) have been unavailable to start the season.
But Spoelstra knows those decisions are coming, with Ellington and Winslow set to make their season debuts Saturday against the Trail Blazers.
Even with Johnson and Waiters still out, there are 11 rotation-level players competing for playing time — Bam Adebayo, Goran Dragic, Ellington, Tyler Johnson, Derrick Jones Jr., Rodney McGruder, Kelly Olynyk, Josh Richardson, Dwyane Wade, Hassan Whiteside and Winslow.
“I don’t know right now,” Spoelstra said in advance of Saturday’s game when asked about his plan for the Heat’s rotation. “All I’ve asked the guys is to be pure, give in to the team and be patient. It’s a long season.
I’m not going to force anything right now, particularly so early in the season when we’re finding out really hours before the game how many people we have available.
“I’ll do my job and I’ll pencil in, and I’ll communicate as much as possible. And when it’s tip-off, we’re going to do and play whoever we think gives us the best opportunity for that night. And I’m not perfect, either. I’ll make mistakes.”
Spoelstra used a 10-man rotation at times last season, and that seems like a realistic prediction for how deep he will go this year, too. For the most part, he’s gone with a nine-man rotation over the first four games because of the Heat’s injuries.
The issue is, when everybody is healthy, there will be quality players left watching from the bench. But the Heat doesn’t see that as a problem.
“When you have a whole bunch of depth on your team, it’s great,” said
Jones, who was probable to play Saturday after missing Wednesday’s win over the Knicks with a foot injury. “We have a whole bunch of guys that can start and we have a whole bunch of guys that can play a whole lot of minutes. Whatever the coaches decide to do, there’s nothing you can say about that. That’s the coach’s decision. You got to live with it.”
And Spoelstra will have to live with the result of his rotation decisions.
“I would rather have that challenge of having our guys available to play,” Spoelstra said. “Even if that means a couple of them won’t play that deserve to play and are worthy of playing.”
Even with all the discussion regarding the bigger offensive role Richardson is taking this sea- son, Miami still has had a different leading scorer in each of its first four games.
Dragic, Richardson, Wade and Whiteside have already finished games as the team’s top scorer.
“Certainly the strength is in our depth and our versatility, that we have guys that can do different things and have different strengths,” Spoelstra said. “We have to maximize that as much as possible. So whether that’s a different scorer every night, I don’t know. But J-Rich has to be assertive for us. That doesn’t necessarily translate to being our leading scorer, but he can’t be passive.”