The Miami Heat won’t have their full starting lineup suiting up once again as tonight they face the Brooklyn Nets in their last home preseason game.
A Heat official told the media, which was also posted to the team’s X (formerly known as Twitter) account, that the following players are out with the reason why:
“RJ Hampton (hip), Tyler Herro (thigh), Caleb Martin (knee), Jaime Jaquez Jr. (groin), Jimmy Butler (return to competition conditioning) and Kevin Love (allow others the opportunity to play) have all been ruled out of tonight’s preseason game vs the Nets.”
Heat star Jimmy Butler has missed the whole preseason due to a “dental procedure,” but it’s been labeled as not a serious injury that keeps him out of the regular season opener. His status for the final preseason game against the Houston Rockets on Friday is still up in the air.
When it comes to the second to last preseason game, it’s an opportunity to really showcase the inexperienced players and get them some playing time. Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said to ClutchPoints that this has been the usual process in playing the young guys.
“It’s pretty consistent with our process and preseason over the years and it is a good opportunity to establish how we want to play for sure,” Spoelstra said. “And then we get an opportunity to continue to develop and evaluate our young guys. It’s important for us, that’s what’s really the lifeblood of our depth year after year.”
With that in mind, expect players like Cole Swider, Dru Smith, Jamal Cain, Orlando Robinson, and others to be heavily involved mixing with the veterans that are active. Spoelstra said that they can still accomplish aspects about the team, despite starters missing the preseason.
“We can definitely accomplish things for sure, like our style of play. We want to keep on building these habits. You know, defensively we could do a better job, we’re working on it,” Spoelstra said. “Offensively, it was much better. Last game was way more into our identity and these things are important regardless of who’s on the court.”
While it’s good to show off the young guys, the health of key players is still one to monitor such as guard Tyler Herro, who was injured in practice yesterday according to the Heat. However, when Spoelstra was asked if Herro will be ready to go for the regular season opener, he nodded “yes” and said he’s “day-to-day.”
Another key foundation to the Heat is Caleb Martin who made an impact last season, especially in the playoffs, but he hasn’t played one game this preseason since he’s nursing a knee injury. Spoelstra did say though that he’s encouraged about Martin’s recovery.
“He’s definitely making progress. I mean, he went through the majority of the scrimmage. We went through a Hunger Games practice yesterday. He went through a big part of it. I believe him in the whole thing. And he already has been doing more and more each day. Today he went through shoot around but it was also a little bit of a recovery day and we’ll just see how he feels tomorrow, but I’m encouraged by his progress.”
Heat fans will know more about the injury status of their favorite players in due time, but in the meantime, the team will focus on the Brooklyn Nets tonight in their final home preseason game.