Miami Heat: Omer Yurtseven focusing on strength and earning rotational spot

The Miami Heat could have stood to add a power forward as the offseason progressed and still could. While they have several viable options on the roster, they need to ensure they do whatever they can to make sure they aren’t that deficient at the position after losing P.J. Tucker.

One such option on the roster currently to take on most of those minutes would be Bam Adebayo. Of course, operating as the Miami Heat’s center for most of his career, that would take another guy being capable of operating as the Heat’s five-man to happen.

That’s where this next guy may come into play. With several big man options on the roster to try and play beside Adebayo, including Dewayne Dedmon, Nikola Jovic, and Orlando Robinson if he makes the final roster, Omer Yurtseven is a fourth option for them if they were to try to operate with dual bigs.

And if Yurtseven has anything to do with it, he’ll have a rotational spot and that’s whether it’s beside Adebayo or as his primary backup. Speaking with BasketballNews.com, Big Yurt would touch on his focuses entering the coming year and his goals within it.

The Miami Heat aren’t certain about the PF rotation yet but freeing Bam Adebayo up at center could help there. That’s where Omer Yurtseven may be huge.

"“Going against bigs like Joel Embiid, [Jusuf] Nurkic — those heavy hitters taught me that I need to be stronger,” Yurtseven told Basketball News in a phone interview. “That’s the best part about basketball: There is no limit that you can cap yourself on if you keep working and keep believing.I saw I needed to add strength. But you can’t disregard agility because you have to keep up with the skinnier and faster bigs, too. Playing against Embiid, though, I think I made it hard for him and contested shots. But I know I can be stronger.”"

While adding more strength should always be a focus heading into a year and especially for a big man in the NBA, Yurtseven should have spent a ton of time trying to improve his defensive recognition, awareness, and other physical traits that can help that process along.

Things like quick twitch reactions and general foot speed could be a great help to a guy that often was a step or two behind on that side of the ball in his minutes last season.

While the recognition and awareness are the core, meaning you can always be in the right spot regardless of physical limitations because you can anticipate for what you are seeing, increasing the physical abilities mentioned can help make up for those times when he doesn’t recognize what the offense is trying to do to him.

Noting that his number one goal “is getting that rotational spot during training camp”, Yurtseven has all the tools to be an outstanding player for the Miami Heat this year. He is a rebounding machine with above-average offensive ability already.

If he can continue to develop the rest of his game, the sky is the limit for the Turkish behemoth.