The Miami Heat continue their six-game preseason trek with a Wednesday bout against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs.
Miami lost Monday in its preseason home opener to the Giannis Antetokounmpo-less Milwaukee Bucks, though the result hardly mattered. The Heat got very encouraging performances from Nikola Jovic, Andrew Wiggins and Norman Powell, who scored 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting (3-6 3PT) in 16 minutes.
The Heat will get back two guards (Kasparas Jakucionis, Pelle Larsson) back from injury after both sat out each of their first two preseason games. They will still be without Tyler Herro, Davion Mitchell, Terry Rozier and Simone Fontecchio.
The Spurs will also be without multiple vets ahead of Wednesday’s contest, including De’Aaron Fox, Kelly Olynyk, Stephon Castle and Jeremy Sochan. Devin Vassell and Victor Wembanyama, however, will play.
Here’s our game thread!
Miami Heat Starters:
- Dru Smith, G
- Norman Powell, G
- Andrew Wiggins, F
- Nikola Jovic, F
- Bam Adebayo, C
San Antonio Spurs Starters:
- Devin Vassell, G
- Julian Champagnie, G/F
- Keldon Johnson, F
- Harrison Barnes, F
- Victor Wembanayama, C
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I saw some bright spots tonite. Kaspar is another elite white athlete, so now, along with Ty, we have two and there are not many others in the league that are finesse players like them. You could see the agility and quickness on display a few moments last night. I see now what people thought so highly about him for. Powell continues to impress and Dru is definitely going to contribute somewhere. We got a glimpse of what Ware can do last night, no more questioning him as he is good and going to get better. I liked Jovic very much last night, thought he was very solid on defense, helped on the boards, distributed well. I still see him, not as a starter, but useful in the rotation., JJJ had his moments too, some nice dunks.
Having said all that we are still 0-3 in the preseason, which doesn’t mean much except it does hint at the likely reality that we are just a middling team, as expected.
There is no question in my mind that now that we see how much potential Kaspar has, trading Ty and packaging him perhaps with JJJ is our best move. Ty’s contract, redundancy at the position, and the definite need to improve this team dictates that move.
I think there is no doubt, that picking KJ in the draft was a good idea.
Yes, especially because he fell to where he did. I believe Pat may have an affinity for drafting this particular type player, as he likely sees himself a little in Ty and Kaspar. Most of us probably know this already but Pat was quite a gifted athlete way back in the day.
Bam is not a center! Maybe he can play against small ball teams but not against taller centers. He can’t guard or outrebound them. He’s a natural power forward. Spo is messing with his head by expecting him to be the primary center on a team with a 7’er sitting on the bench. BTW, Miami got outrebounded again 49-36.
Riley needs to trade for a good back-up center and allow Ware and Bam to start together. Meanwhile, Spo should try to incorporate Precious or Goldin as a back-up center until Riley brings in a serviceable free agent (Kai Jones, DeAndre Jordan) or trades for a better one. If Jovic is going to play PF he should be pulling down rebounds like a PF. Otherwise, he should be on the second unit as a relief player for Wiggins (SF) and Bam (PF).
Other observations:
Good stuff Sun, especially using Bam as a forward. I did see some bright spots tonite.
atl orl miami 3 fairly even teams
Hard to say until we see who is healthy what their rotations will be.
If we are as good as those two, that would be nice. I think they are both potential 45 win teams. And Milwaukee, with their new center, is in that grouping too. Then there’s Philly, who if they get healthy, are a fifty win team. And if Tatum comes back around February, which now seems possible, the C’s could win fifty. And then there’s NY and Cleveland, who look like 55 win teams. I just say this to make it real that even though the Heat do have some nice players, and look to be slightly better than last years 37-45 team, the conference has plenty of good teams and we should try to improve more if the roster allows us too. And I believe trading Ty with another player in a package, would do just that if we got a quality two way wing back.
One easy takeaway. Spo just can’t hand the starting job to Jovic after seeing the impact Ware can have. You can give him the Babbitt minutes if he is a non factor like tonight. If he’s on a play making role, run with it, but Ware is a force.
Some good stuff-
Ware
Kas
Jaquez
Powell
Dru
Stock down
Bam
Jovic
Keshad
Wiggins
jakucionis was probably wanting that double digit score to go with his 10 assists
nice to see a very good game for ware and jjj
what do u do with ware u have bam .wares ceiling i believe is higher tham ajas hubby.he just looks lost on offense with ajas hubby on ct
If you were a 6’9″ power forward and expected to guard 7’4″ center, you might look a little lost too.
nice game?
Lots of good things, but should have won.
ws ls dont matter the way ware played was incred
Yes, duh, but getting a win is always nice
jjjs played lots minutos
jjj banked that way to hard jeez
Kas should’ve had his 11th assist there
Ware wants his 30
Jaquez are you kidding me?
looking good
im more impressed with jjj than jovic
kasper looking great
how many dimes for kasper?
9!
nice!
double dribble there wow refs wake up
JJJ: i dont want to get traded
jjj def looks better this year
That’s encouraging
the friendly ghost looks good not sure about his d but hes a playmaker
Been focusing on his d and he looks solid there
hes long not dav small
Great assist by Kas!
ware going leftry wow the wemby of the east play the man spo
Ware on fire!
the warewolf with 20 already
wares gotta get 35 mins a night,
cornettes bullying ware on lots rebounds
fancy dressed lady back
power to mr powell!
getting outrebounded.
again
bams effort on that tip in by wemby was terrible
Only bright spots so far are Ware and Jaquez. Everyone else, not so much.
Powell coming on
heat need a ja morant type player
jovic and jjj playing in slo mo looks like
no pg on ct is dru hurt manila
turd?
still got to much vanilla on team
take bam out hes not trying or not giving a sht
Wrong. He’s just playing like dog doo. Not about effort and not about Wemby, just can’t hit the side of the barn.
and your in his head
As much as you are anyway
keles legit 7ft ajas hubby maybe 6 8
hmmm…dunno what to make of that first half. up and down but encouraging to see a very active Kelel Ware
i hope in a reg season game ware would have played some more in 2nd qtr.he had that great 5-7 minute spurt hit bench and just sat while bam was building bricks on his future wifes house
getting out athlecized now
bams kryptonite good centers over 7ft
hope that keeps bam going
hes prob monitoring the wnba game
He is building his future wife’s dream house with all those bricks.
wiggins suking now jeez typical wigg
bams to worried about ajas game tonight
bam looking like he wants to be traded
ja?
if bam suks can we trade him for aja
wheres goldin spobot
ok so maybe kelel can be our ss i know bam and ty arent
coming out party for kelel
Ware going for 30