Erik Spoelstra has spent plenty of seasons trying to squeeze value out of whatever he had left on the bench. This year, though, the Miami Heat aren’t dealing with a wave of injuries forcing his hand. They’re simply not getting enough from that group.
That has helped drag Miami to a 4-6 start, with one game left on the road trip - Tuesday in Utah against the Jazz - before a tough back-to-back at home against Cleveland and Detroit. Through 10 games, the Heat rank 26th in the NBA in bench scoring per game and dead last in field goal percentage.
Pelle Larsson was part of that reserve mix in nine of those 10 games, and he had actually been Miami’s most dependable bench option until Spoelstra moved him into the starting lineup Sunday in Sacramento for the struggling Andrew Wiggins. The Heat still won 114-108 against the clumsy Kings, but the bench hardly carried its weight: four players combined for 78 minutes and only 16 points.
One answer Spoelstra has found early is Ryan Conwell Jr. The second-round pick has already earned trust because he competes, and that edge shows up on both ends.
That’s helped him get into the rotation faster than most rookies do under Spoelstra. For now, Conwell has been playing a lot alongside starting point guard Davion Mitchell, which lets the four-year collegian work off the ball.
At some point, though, Miami may need more from Conwell as a creator. He’s not polished as a playmaker, but the Heat don’t exactly need more dribbling from Wiggins or Tim Hardaway Jr.
Spoelstra could also pair Conwell with Dru Smith to spell Mitchell, after Smith previously worked with last year’s rookie combo guard Kasparas Jakucionis before Jakucionis was sent to Milwaukee in the Giannis Antetokounmpo deal. However Spoelstra sorts it out, Conwell doesn’t look like someone who’s going to be pushed out of the picture.
Nikola Jovic is a much trickier case. Over the past four-plus seasons, he’s gone from a first-round pick valued for his playmaking to a player Miami now seems to trust more on defense than offense.
Even after signing the extension that took effect this season, he still hasn’t found a steady role. And with his minutes so limited, he hasn’t been able to settle into his outside spot-up game either.
The simplest move might be to give Jovic a longer stretch on the floor. It wouldn’t be clean, and turnovers would likely show up, but a couple of six-minute runs per game could help him find some rhythm again.
The question is who he’d be playing ahead of. At this point, Bobby Portis Jr. shouldn’t be locked into nightly minutes.
After a strong start, Portis has struggled to shoot over the last couple of weeks, and when that shot isn’t falling, his defense becomes a problem.
Myron Gardner has also been mostly out of sight since Anthony Edwards took issue with him in the season opener and then used that as fuel to torch Kaseya Center with his shooting. Spoelstra wasn’t pleased with Gardner’s bench behavior, but that shouldn’t automatically keep him off the floor. Miami has invested time in developing him, and he showed flashes last season, even as a starter.
If the Heat are going to jolt this bench into something useful, they may need to stop waiting for everyone to be perfect. Wiggins and Hardaway Jr. still have to come around eventually if Miami is going to get rolling. But right now, even 12 minutes of “Mayhem” in one game might be enough to breathe some life into the group.
In Other News...
Heat Win Revealed A Rotation Problem Spoelstra Cant Ignore
The Heats latest win over Sacramento came with a look that felt more like a test drive than a permanent answer. Miami rolled out a new starting lineup and still found a way to finish with a 114-108 victory, with Pelle Larsson getting the nod before fouling out in the fourth quarter and Davion Mitchell supplying a double-double in a game that asked plenty of the teams perimeter defenders. Even with Giannis Antetokounmpo scoring 29 points and Klay Thompson adding 23 for the Kings, the bigger takeaway was how much the Heat continue to shuffle pieces while trying to settle on a group that can hold up on both ends.
That uncertainty is hard to ignore for Erik Spoelstra, especially with defensive concerns lingering on key wings and the rotation already forcing him to lean more heavily on younger options. Rookie Ryan Conwell is among the players seeing a larger role as Miami searches for answers, and the win only sharpened the question of how long this patchwork approach can last. The result was encouraging, but it also made clear that the Heat are still sorting out who belongs where when the games tighten up. [Read more 🡒]
Heat Already Face A Bigger Question After Early Lineup Shakeup
Erik Spoelstra wasted little time making a notable tweak to Miamis starting five, turning to Pelle Larsson for the teams 10th game of the season and moving Andrew Wiggins out of the opening unit. It was the kind of early-season adjustment that signals more than a one-night message, especially with Larsson bringing a shooting touch above 40 percent while Wiggins has been stuck below 30 percent and has had trouble holding up on defense.
For the Heat, the change is less about one swap than about what comes next. Spoelstra and his staff are expected to keep adjusting rotations and testing different roles as they search for a better fit, which means this lineup shakeup may be only the first step in a longer evaluation of how Miami wants to organize its perimeter minutes. [Read more 🡒]
Giannis Sends Clear Message About Leaving Bucks Drama Behind
A viral clip from the Bill Simmons Podcast put Doc Rivers back in the spotlight this week, with the former Milwaukee Bucks coach revisiting the challenges of coaching Giannis Antetokounmpo. For Miami Heat fans, it was a reminder of how quickly the league moves on from old friction, especially when the names involved are still among the most recognizable in the game.
Giannis answered the noise by making it clear Rivers is no longer his coach and by steering the conversation back to where his attention is now. The Bucks difficult stretch under Rivers is part of the backdrop here, but the bigger point is simpler: both men have moved on from Milwaukee, and Antetokounmpo is focused on his current team rather than reopening an old chapter. [Read more 🡒]