Miami Heat: What changes when Justise Winslow returns?

1 of 3

MIAMI, FL – OCTOBER 20: Music Artist DJ Khaled talks with Justise Winslow #20 of the Miami Heat after the game against the Charlotte Hornets on October 20, 2018 at American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Justise Winslow is making his way back to the Miami Heat lineup, but not without some major impacts to current rotations.

Every season, barring lockouts, the NBA is host to 1,230 games.

Spread out among those contests are 295,200 playable minutes per team. And last year, it took just five of those—or one one-hundred thousandth (.00001 percent) of the season, before Gordon Hayward suffered a season ending injury.

Basketball’s high-octane, mile-a-minute style breeds injury with an unrelenting frequency.

From minor tweaks and aches to blood curdling fractures, players are in a constant battle just to stay healthy enough to compete.

For the Miami Heat, the reality of injuries struck well before preseason. Four key Heat players missed the first three games to injury—Justise Winslow, James Johnson, Wayne Ellington and Dion Waiters.

Miami’s roster has done its best to step up. Despite a 1-2 record through the first three games, Josh Richardson and Goran Dragic are certified offensive powers.

Efficiency has been a snag both have run into—Richardson and Dragic are shooting 36 and 39 percent from the floor respectively, and even worse from 3. But the duo’s combined 36 points per game provide a level of comfort, as the Heat feature two of the NBA’s 50 best scorers through the season’s first week.

The rest of the team fills in as hot-swappable pieces fit for any situation.

Dwyane Wade is busy making the idea of linear time question itself, while Rodney McGruder and his 15 points, seven rebounds and three assists per game, are providing nightly reminders that he indeed did start on that 30-11 Heat team.

Still, playing at half mast is not a sustainable formula.

Any of Miami’s missing players would have been welcome in any of the team’s first games, especially in the hard-fought losses to the Orlando Magic and Charlotte Hornets.

With time, each of Miami’s missing four will make a full recovery. Ellington is already practicing with the hope of playing against the New York Knicks, and Johnson has made strides, too.

But while Waiters represents what could be the longest absence among the bunch and is sorely missed for his go-ahead tenacity, Winslow is the missing link that could have helped the Heat start the 2018-19 season off right.

Home/Heat News