Stretching back to the preseason, the Miami Heat have been decimated by injuries. However, now that Tyler Herro and Kaspars Jakucionis are traveling with the team, they're one step closer to being at full strength.
Both Herro and Jakucionis will be with the team as they take on the San Antonio Spurs Thursday night. While they won't be in uniform, it's certainly a good sign and suggests they may be inching closer toward their returns to the team.
You'd imagine that Jakucionis is probably slightly closer to a return than Herro is, but there's a growing hope that both will be back sooner than later. The original timeline for Herro puts him roughly two and a half weeks out from a potential return. Jakucionis was not necessarily given a timeline, but has already been out for a few weeks as he continues to recover from a groin strain that he suffered during the preseason.
With the way the Heat have looked through the first week-plus of the season, there shouldn't be a huge push to bring back either player before they're ready, but there's no question that having both players back could certainly help this team raise its ceiling even higher.
Other injuries to monitor for the Heat
Aside from the injuries to Herro and Jakucionis, Norman Powell is also set to miss a second-straight game due to a groin injury. Even though he doesn't expect to miss much time with the injury, the Heat are treading water in terms of depth at this point. With Herro and Jakucionis already out, and with Terry Rozier not with the team anymore, and the Heat down a roster spot, Miami is just trying to survive at this point.
Even though they've done a relatively good job at doing so to begin the year, it's only a matter of time until their lack of depth catches up with them. Of course, the question is, will that happen before Herro, Jakucionis, and Powell are able to return from injuries?
Thankfully, Nikola Jovic, who is battling a hip injury himself, has been upgraded to probable for the Heat's game against the Spurs. If he were to miss time, the Heat would find themselves in a pretty bad spot.
It just goes to show how little margin for error the Heat has at the moment.
Nevertheless, looking on the bright side, the Heat is one step closer to being at full strength for the first time this season. That should be an exciting thought for Heat fans already enjoying an unpredictably strong start to the year.