Dru Smith has taken another step on his road back from an Achilles injury. He's begun five-on-five work on the eve of the start of Miami Heat training camp, which gets him closer to returning to the floor on a full-time basis.
There's still hope that Smith will be ready and cleared for the start of the season. At the very least, the idea is that Smith will be back in the rotation at some point during the early portion of the season. With Tyler Herro set to miss the first month of the year due to an injury of his own, Smith's availability could factor in how Miami plans on surviving without its All-Star guard.
While the signing of Smith last month was viewed as somewhat polarizing, there's no question that he can be another comfortable option that Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra can turn to off the bench. When he's been healthy for the Heat, he's looked promising in spurts.
Of course, injuries have been his biggest issue over the last few years. He's suffered significant injuries in back-to-back seasons for the Heat, tearing his ACL during the 2023-24 NBA season and then blowing his Achilles this past year.
If Smith can put those injuries in the past, there's promise for him as a contributing two-way player in the backcourt. You'd have to imagine that's what the Heat is banking on.
Training camp on the horizon for the Heat
After a long offseason, the Heat are preparing for the start of training camp. Some teams across the league will begin their festivities this week, but the Heat will officially report and begin the 2025-26 NBA campaign next week.
Media Day for the Heat is Monday, September 29, with the first practice of training camp coming the very next day. For a team that may not have a ton of expectations on their shoulders, it will be interesting to see how they approach this "low-key" start to the season.
I'm sure many players on the Heat will be entering the new year with a huge chip on their shoulder. And with so many budding young players on this team, it's almost foolish to know for certain what to expect from the Heat this season.
There's just so much variance that could take place for Miami this year, and it'd be foolish to limit them with concrete expectations. With training camp around the corner, we should find out a lot about this team in the next couple of weeks.