Although it might’ve happened sooner than most would’ve predicted, the Miami Heat saw two realities on Thursday night. One, was that they lost convincingly to the Boston Celtics after leaving most of their offense at Dallas and two, their historically-dominant start to the 2021-22 season was practically erased.
In a substandard 17-point defeat, the Heat crashed down to earth against a Celtics team who were in deep search of regaining their team-continuity. To twist the knife further, an ankle-injury would transpire for Kyle Lowry near the end of the third quarter, as the Heat’s floor-general wouldn’t return on a night where not much else could go wrong.
The good news, though, is that Lowry reportedly didn’t suffer any ligament damage, as he shouldn’t miss extended time going forward. However, a gaping-hole in the Heat’s rotation has been magnified, as they’re are already without key-reserve, Max Strus.
Strus had recently endured a left knee injury on Saturday against Memphis and is expected to miss, at least, a couple of weeks. As a result, the deck has now shifted for the Heat’s 14-year coach, Erik Spoelstra.
He now faces another challenge. That would be constructing a a successful rotation, which has been a heavily criticized characteristic of his Miami tenure.
Miami Heat: Erik Spoelstra Facing Familiar Challenge With Lineup Improv
After using a total of 24 different starting lineups last season, Spoelstra will need to dig deeper into his rotations once again and now, without his leading assist-man and floor-general. There’s a slew of pathways and it begins with his starting lineup.
IT DOESN’T REALLY MATTER WHO COACH SPOELSTRA STARTS… KIND OF.
When you’re given a lineup that features Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Duncan Robinson, and P.J. Tucker — your chances of winning basketball games are significant.
Regardless of if your top three-point option has had a sluggish start or if your two star talents have had moments where they could be more aggressive, Spoelstra has a competitive foundation within his first five and it leads to everything else falling in place.
That measure was advanced after Spoesltra started Gabe Vincent in place of Lowry (injured right ankle in season-opener against Milwaukee) during the Heat’s overtime road-loss against Indiana. Although Vincent didn’t play terrible, he wasn’t great, either.
His role there was to primarily get the ball up without committing turnovers, hustle, and find open looks through small gaps. There are a ton of people that definitely say he shouldn’t have been the one though.
Miami Heat: Many Want Tyler Herro To Start… Spo Will Make The Right Call
To address the elephant in the room, there probably isn’t a larger concern on how Spoelstra will handle his lineup decisions going forward, than how he deploys third-year guard, Tyler Herro.
Showing strong improvements in nearly all facets of his game, Herro has demonstrated growth in his shot-creation, handle, finishing, defending, and most importantly, is simply making the right reads with the ball in his hands.
Although a six point effort during Thursday’s loss won’t encourage any of that, the question looms whether he should provide those abilities right at the opening tip.
While Herro has undeniably become an important player going forward, coach Spoelstra shouldn’t feel any pressure to insert his highest scoring reserve directly into the starting lineup.
Despite improving overall as a player, having a balance throughout a long 82-game season is vital, especially with Tyler playing north of 30 minutes a night. In 15 games as a starter last season, Herro averaged 17.1 points on about 45 percent shooting.
However, he struggled in many of those starts as Miami’s starting point guard, particularly handling the ball and reacting to double-teams. Since then, Herro has looked comfortable as the first player off of Spoelstra’s bench and is already leading all Heat players in second and fourth quarter minutes (10.7 and 9.2 per game).
Miami Heat: Coach Spo Has Helped Shine Gems Before, He Is Up To The Challenge
Whether Miami sees several slow starts in the near future or not, it’s unfair for Spoelstra to leave his second unit rotation without a desired go-to option, as trust should be instilled in his two marquee starters to pull their own weight.
NONE OF THIS IS NEW TO SPO — WHO’S MADE SOMETHING OUT OF ENTIRELY NOTHING.
As he’s done previously, we’ve seen players thrive when Spoelstra allows them to see the floor. A top example was Derrick Jones Jr., who signed a two-way contract with Miami shortly after he was waived by Phoenix in late 2017.
During his three seasons with the Heat, Jones Jr. would see 38 starts and played just under 25 minutes per game through the 2019-2020 regular season. While it’s hit-or-miss for the Heat to have someone as impactful as Jones Jr. was, the familiar challenge awaits Erik Spoelstra to find a proper rotational balance with this group.
It has been mentioned here that Caleb Martin is the designated forward, as Max Stus continues to miss time and should continue seeing the backup wing role. The Heat’s other assigned two-way talent, Marcus Garrett, while raw offensively, could have an immediate impact as a point-of-attack defender with his length to defend opposing guards.
The Heat will enter a difficult portion of their early-season schedule, as they’ll host the Utah Jazz on Saturday before kicking off a six-game Western Conference road-trip. While their questionable depth doesn’t help their chances, this isn’t uncommon territory for Miami and most especially, not for Erik Spoelstra.
He once started a lineup of Herro, Robinson, Butler, Jae Crowder, and Meyers Leonard in an NBA Finals game.
"“The league is constantly going to adjust,” Spoelstra said. “It’s not like whatever we’re doing now, that this is just going to be it for the rest of the season. You have to continue to adjust and do things sharper, and do things with more purpose and more intention. “And we’ll learn from this and get better.”"
It’s not always about who starts or who finishes but more about who steps up, as the Heat and coach Spoelstra will have a huge test ahead of them. Whether his methods may often seem bold, “Staying The Course” remains a popular Spoism for this team.
Ironically enough, it’s also a very relatable one in professional sports. As it’s still relatively early in the season, it’s never early enough to start embracing that mantra.