Yurtseven working his way back from ankle injury
Center Omer Yurtseven entered training camp with the goal of earning a consistent spot in the Heat’s rotation this season. But an ankle injury put his plans on hold.
With Yurtseven ruled out for Saturday night’s matchup against the Toronto Raptors at FTX Arena, he has now been unavailable for each of the Heat’s first three regularseason games because of a left ankle impingement. The 24-year-old also missed Miami’s final four preseason games and has not played in a game since the preseason opener on Oct. 4.
The Heat has labeled Yurtseven as day-to-day and there’s no definitive timetable for his return.
“It’s frustrating being sidelined and not being able to help in places and roles that you think you can help,” Yurtseven said Friday.
Yurtseven was competing with veteran Dewayne Dedmon for the backup center role behind starter Bam Adebayo. Since Yurtseven has been out, Dedmon has held on to that job to begin the season as the only healthy center on the roster besides Adebayo.
There was also some buzz surrounding a potential Adebayo-Yurtseven frontcourt after the Heat used the double-big look for extended stretches during training camp and in the preseason opener before Yurtseven was sidelined.
“I feel like everything is for the best,” Yurtseven said when asked how he has approached this latest setback. “I just try to think that God was protecting me from something worse. But other than that, it’s not in my control. What I’m trying to do right now is control the recovery and maximize it, and that’s the process for me right now.”
When did the ankle start bothering Yurtseven? Yurtseven said he started to feel pain in the Heat’s preseason opener earlier this month, which is the last game he played in.
“Even in the fourth quarter, I couldn’t put weight on it but I just pushed through it,” he said.
The good news for the Heat is there doesn’t seem to be any structural damage to Yurtseven’s injured ankle.
“They said structurally [it’s fine],” Yurtseven added. “I went to like five different doctors just to make sure everything was fine just to double-, tripleand quadruple-check.”
The bad news is Yurtseven had yet to resume court work as of Friday. He has instead stayed active by working on the AlterG, an anti-gravity treadmill that’s designed in part for physical therapy and to aid in the recovery from certain injuries.
“I’ve been doing a lot of AlterG, you can adjust 80 percent of your body weight or 75 percent of your body weight that you run on,” Yurtseven said. “So I’ve been doing that a lot just to speed up the recovery and increase the blood flow there.”
But Yurtseven is still “100 percent” optimistic that he’ll be able to make his return soon.
“It’s a process. But there’s been progress, which is exciting,” he said.
OLADIPO ALSO REMAINS OUT
Along with Yurtseven, Heat guard Victor Oladipo has been ruled out for Saturday’s game against the Raptors because of left knee tendinosis. And like Yurtseven, Oladipo has missed the Heat’s first three games of the regular season.
There’s no timetable for Oladipo’s return, but the team has labeled him as day-to-day.
When asked if the Heat is taking an extra cautious approach with Oladipo because of his injury history that includes two surgeries on his right knee in the past three-plus years, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Friday: “I wouldn’t say extra cautious. I would say appropriate and measured approach with this. We’re looking at the long game. This has been about investing in him and his health for two years and we just want to make sure that we’re taking all the necessary steps to get him back out there where there’s not a setback.”
There were no other Heat players on the injury report for Saturday’s game on the second night of a back-to-back following Friday’s 111-104 home loss to the Boston Celtics.
The Raptors ruled out forwards Chris Boucher (left hamstring strain) and Otto Porter Jr. (left hamstring strain) for Saturday’s game in Miami.
THREE-POINT TALK
The Heat averaged 27 three-point attempts per 100 possessions through its first two regular-season games, which is the fifthfewest in the NBA entering Saturday’s matchup against the Raptors.
It’s still early, but that represents a noticeable dip from the the past two seasons when the Heat averaged 36.8 three-point attempts per 100 possessions last season and 37 three-point attempts per 100 possessions in 202021.
“I think [on Wednesday against the Bulls] the turnovers had a lot to do with it. I think this game [on Friday against the Celtics], more schematics,” Spoelstra said when asked to explain the very early season trend. “The way that Boston defends, there’s not going to be a ton of open [threes].
“It’s a big strength of ours. But you have to do whatever you have to do against really good teams. And I think there were some swing moments also where we were defending at a high level and then more importantly it wasn’t necessarily about the three ball, it was more importantly about quality shots.
There were some moments in the game where we got it to four and we didn’t get the ball where it needed to go and then all of sudden you look up and it’s 10 points.”