Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Josh McRoberts is sidelined with another injury.
Forward says he plans to be back this season
MIAMI — The Miami Heat plan during the 2014 offseason was to put together what essentially stood as the LeBron James recruitment package. Now the final component of that trio, power forward Josh McRoberts, again is offering a reminder of how that plan went south, out indefinitely with a stress fracture in his left foot, the latest of his ongoing series of injuries.
“I wish I had something philosophical, a good quote to say to help other people through tough times,” McRoberts said before sitting out Tuesday night’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder at AmericanAirlines Arena. “But I think that’s part of it. You just keep it in perspective. It could be a whole lot worse. It’s an injury and I’ll be back. It’s never a good thing. It’s always frustrating, always disappointing, but you try to stay as strong as you can and get through it, keep things in perspective.”
With James entering free agency in July 2014, the Heat first selected the player James called the best point guard in that draft, UConn’s Shabazz Napier. Heat President Pat Riley then signed Indiana Pacers forward Danny Granger and McRoberts, then a Charlotte Hornets forward, at the outset of free agency.
James never played a game with any of the three, leaving days after those Heat additions to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
With the Heat announcing Tuesday that McRoberts will be out for an indefinite extended period, it is the latest reminder of the unsuccessful bid to retain James, at the cost of a first-round draft pick (Napier) and salary-cap space that continues to limit the team (McRoberts).
“I feel for Josh, right now,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He wants to be out there and he was starting to get into a great rhythm. We’ll use all of our resources to come with the solution for him.”
McRoberts’ three-year Heat career has been an ongoing cycle of injuries. He arrived in 2014 dealing with a toe issue and was lost for the balance of that 2014-15 season on Dec. 10 with a torn meniscus in his right knee. Last season he missed 26 games at midseason due to a bruised right knee. This season, he missed all of training camp and the start of the season as the result of a broken foot sustained during last season’s playoffs, an injury that led to a stress reaction. Now that left foot again is at issue, although McRoberts said this is a different injury.
“I think it happened probably a couple weeks back,” he said. “I just tried to get through it. Eventually it wasn’t getting much better and they just took a look at it and figured it out what it was.”
Spoelstra said there is not thought of the injury being career threatening.
“We don’t feel that it will,” he said, “but we are going use all of our resources, put our minds together and come up with a solution with him, to get him back out on the court and feeling healthy and good. We haven’t been able to do that right now. But we feel confident we’ll be able to find a solution.”
McRoberts had started the previous 14 games before Tuesday’s announcement.
“Definitely plan on being back this season,” he said. “I want to be out there tonight. It’s just not possible.”
The question now becomes whether the Heat will become locked into McRoberts’ $6 million player option for next season, at a time they are expected to seek to maximize their available salary-cap space. The Heat, according to a person close to the process, unsuccessfully attempted to unload McRoberts’ contract during 2016 free agency when they also were seeking to maximize salary-cap space.
In addition to McRoberts’ limited ability to contribute to the Heat, Granger appeared in only 30 games for the Heat before he was unloaded in the Feb. 2015 trade that brought Goran Dragic from the Phoenix Suns. Napier appeared in only 51 games for the Heat before he was dealt to the Orlando Magic in the 2015 offseason after his rookie year.
“I’ve been feeling it for a couple weeks,” McRoberts said, “and finally took a look at it and it was bad news.
“I don’t think this one is quite as bad as I’ve had in the past, which I guess is the silver lining, I guess, to it. I think we caught it a little bit sooner than the other one.”