Miami Heat: Why didn’t Meyers Leonard play in restart opener?

After starting every game of his Miami Heat tenure, Meyers Leonard saw no playing time on Saturday against the Denver Nuggets. Why?

The Miami Heat’s restart opener against the Denver Nuggets wasn’t without surprise. Mostly in part to Erik Spoelstra and a change he made to the team’s starting lineup.

It was announced shortly before tip-off that the Heat would be going with Jae Crowder at power forward next to Bam Adebayo. For all 49 games he was healthy, its Meyers Leonard who’s shared the frontcourt with the Heat’s second All-Star.

And their output has been incredibly productive as a duo, which made the switch up all the more confusing for fans. Leonard’s averaging just 6.1 points and 5.1 rebounds per game but is knocking down 43 percent of shots from behind the arc.

That ability to space the floor has helped Miami to cover up that weakness in Adebayo’s offensive arsenal. He’s only connected on one of his 13 attempts from deep this year and only hit on three of his 22 attempts from his first two seasons.

When the final buzzer sounded and the Heat had secured their win Leonard-less, fans began asking if he was injured, or somehow had fallen out of the rotation. If neither of those, then why was the big men held out of a game as important as the restart opener?

Coach Spoelstra offered up a simple answer when asked about it postgame:

"“This is one game,” Spoelstra said. “I have not forgotten about Meyers. He is fully on our mix. It’s just the way the game went tonight.”"

Not that we expected anything less from one of the league’s more stoic personalities. It could have been just that, a circumstance, and nothing more. Surely it didn’t help that his teammate Kelly Olynyk exploded for 20 points in the fourth quarter, and he too plays the center position.

Leonard also missed the 16 games prior to the league’s suspension in March, so Spoelstra could be (very) slowly reworking him into the rotation. He didn’t play the big man more than 15 minutes in any of the Heat’s pre-restart scrimmages.

It doesn’t help Leonard’s case that the starting lineup did so well on Saturday, either. With Crowder and Adebayo in the frontcourt, Miami’s defense was stout and strong to start the game. There’s also the matter of the Heat’s All-Star big man and his growth on the defensive end.

Adebayo did a great job of defending Nikola Jokic in the first quarter. As Miami moves on to play more teams with versatile big men, it’ll be him and not Leonard tasked with guarding them. Or Jimmy Butler on occasion, as he showed he’s up to the task as well on Saturday.

If Leonard does make it onto the floor in their next game, expect it to be with the second unit and not as a member of the starting five. Coach Spoelstra has found something that works or at least is working for the team right now. These games leading up to the playoffs are crucial for Miami.

The Miami Heat will look to string together two consecutive wins on Monday when they play Pascal Siakam and the Toronto Raptors, the NBA’s reigning champs. Tip-off is at 1:30 pm est.