Miami Heat Fantasy Basketball: Kyle Lowry Dominant in Week 9

The Miami Heat played all four of their games on the road in Week 9. Going 2-2 over those four games, the Heat return home to start Week 10 of the fantasy basketball season.

Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Caleb Martin, and Markieff Morris rode the bench due to a variety of injuries and ailments. Tyler Herro played the first game of the week and then joined the aforementioned quartet of Heat inactives.

With several key Miami Heat pieces missing for the majority of the week, this opened an opportunity for many role players to increase their minutes and usage. The Heat’s favorable four-game schedule paid huge dividends from a fantasy perspective too in Week 9.

Kyle Lowry led the Heat in total value for the week. In a standard eight-category setting, Lowry finished the week with top-25 value, per Basketball Monster.

The Miami Heat played four Week 9 road games, while several role players provided exceptional value during that span. Kyle Lowry was at the top.

Lowry averaged 16.5 points, 2.8 triples, and 8.8 assists, which helped make up for his low steal (.3 steals per game) and field goal (39.1 percent) numbers for the week. Managers should keep Lowry locked and loaded for Week 10.

P.J. Tucker (41st) and Gabe Vincent (44th) both attained top-50 value for the week. Providing extremely different fantasy skill sets, Tucker and Vincent should be able to maintain their respective rankings for as long as Herro and Butler remain sidelined.

This is providing that P.J.’s new lower-leg situation doesn’t keep him out that long. Dewayne Dedmon cashed in a top-75 week due to incredibly consistent shooting (67 percent) and decent rebounding (7.5 rebounds per game).

With Adebayo scheduled to miss several more weeks, Dedmon should hover around the top-75 to top-100 mark for most weeks, which makes him quite valuable. The final Heat player to rank inside the top-100 for the week was Max Strus, who finished just outside the top-75 and at 76th overall, specifically.

Strus was catapulted into a larger scoring role with Herro missing most of the week. Strus capitalized on this increased workload and delivered an impressive shooting split of 47.7 percent from the field and 75 percent from the foul line.

He also averaged 16.3 points, four rebounds, and over three triples per contest. Once Herro and Butler return, Strus, Vincent, and Tucker are likely candidates to drop significantly in value.

Until that happens though, keep them locked into fantasy lineups and reap the benefits of a banged-up Heat team. The Heat have a three-game week coming in Week 10, which means that value should decrease across the board for the players listed above, but they should all remain top-100 candidates for the week.