Heat guard Victor Oladipo expects to have surgery later this week on his torn left patellar tendon, sources tell Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. Although this will be Oladipo’s third major surgical procedure in roughly four years, doctors believe he’ll be able to make a full recovery and he plans to continue his basketball career, Chiang adds.
Oladipo will travel to New York to have the operation performed by Dr. Jonathan Glashow, who handled the second surgery on the quadriceps tendon in Oladipo’s right knee two years ago. Glashow anticipates a six-month recovery process, according to Chiang, although an official timeline won’t be established until the operation is complete. If all goes well with Oladipo’s rehab, he could return to action early in the 2023/24 season.
Chiang notes that Oladipo wasn’t in Miami’s rotation at the end of the season, but coach Erik Spoelstra turned to him after Tyler Herro broke his hand in Game 1 of the playoffs. Oladipo played 26 minutes in Game 2, scoring 15 points, and had eight points in 19 minutes before getting hurt Saturday.
“This year and last year, he worked his way back to be healthy and back in it,” Spoelstra said. “But all those times where he was just rehabbing and not available to play, those can be very frustrating times. But you’d never see that on his face, he was always with a positive attitude and a smile.”
There’s more from Miami:
- The injuries to Oladipo and Herro, along with the back spasms that have sidelined Nikola Jovic, leave the Heat with just 12 available players, writes Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel. NBA rules prevent teams from adding replacements in the postseason as long as they have at least nine players who are capable of taking the court. “The next guy’s going to have to step up,” said Kyle Lowry, who has been listed as questionable for each game in the series due to an ongoing struggle with knee soreness. “And we understand that we’ll get more minutes from Gabe (Vincent) and more minutes from myself, Caleb (Martin).”
- Haywood Highsmith could be part of the rotation if Spoelstra wants to use more than eight players, Winderman notes in a separate piece. With Udonis Haslem not a realistic option, Winderman states that Spoelstra’s only choices are Highsmith, Cody Zeller and Omer Yurtseven.
- Duncan Robinson has excelled since Herro’s injury, leading the team with 10 made three-pointers while shooting a sizzling 76.9% from beyond the arc in the first three games of the series, Chiang adds in another Miami Herald story. It’s a gratifying conclusion to a season that saw Robinson move in and out of the rotation and miss 20 games due to finger surgery. “Some ups and downs just personally and as a group, as well,” he said. “And that’s the beautiful thing about this time of the year, you just got to commit everything you can to try to help us win.”
Maybe Duncan Robinson is shooting the ball well because he doesn’t have to look over his shoulder? Everyone’s hurt so he has to play LOL
Remember when GS stopped using Klay Thompson after he was terrible defensively, and then couldnt make shots, even though he still helped their spacing? O that’s right; they didnt do that b/c that would have been dumb. This is actually Duncan’s worst matchup, but Herro being out allows him to fall back into his role he previously had, which the Heat has desperately needed ever since they stopped using him last playoffs
I’m not understanding the analogy. The Warriors did NOT bench Klay they kept playing him knowing he would come around eventually. The heat DID bench Duncan Robinson because of poor shooting and poor defense. He’s only playing now because of the injuries to other guys. What am I missing in your analogy?
My point is both were playing very similarly, with Klay actually worse than Duncan, but they didnt stop playing him for obvious reasons. Duncan Robinson should have been playing this entire time
Okay got it. He shouldn’t have been benched in your opinion. Makes sense to me. Thanks.
So what I’m saying is it’s great for Robinson because if he misses three or four shots he won’t get pulled now as before or even benched entire games. He can be himself and shoot the ball and not worry about it. Good for him and good for miami.
Great news so far on Oladipo, if that’s the case. That indicates the dr thinks it’s just a partial tear, and not fully ruptured, but obviously they wont know until surgery
As for the team moving forward with their rotation, that was an issue previously, and I think that doesnt change much.
I think 1 thing to think about is how they used Oladipo and Lowry in tandem, and their roles. I think they played 2 sides of the same role, and supplemented each other. Both as guard defenders and playmakers, but Oladipo more as a scorer/slasher as well as his playmaking, and Lowry more as a playmaker and occasional floor spacer…Now I think they need Kyle Lowry to be full Kyle Lowry, and possibly play 40+ minutes, and look for his own shot more. They desperately need him defensively against Holiday…
The other idea could be to use Jimmy more at guard, shorten the rotation, and trust guys Spo has refused to use most of the year, which I still dont agree with. They’re going to need Caleb to be more aggressive offensively as well
Lowry, Duncan, Jimmy, Highsmith, Bam
Kevin Love, Caleb Martin, Strus, Nnamdi
Ultimately, I’m really curious to see if Milwaukee starts using their rotation a little better, regardless if Giannis is back. Lineups with Portis or Giannis at the 5 are extremely dangerous in this matchup, in my opinion, so Giannis being back makes it easier to play Lopez less. I also think they should use Crowder a lot more, and I would use Dragic against the Heat in this matchup
I wish they let either 2 way players play in the playoffs, or if guys get hurt seriously in certain ways, they should let you add to your roster from your own G-League…then we could easily replace Herro and Oladipo right now, and it could make some of these playoff matchups where series are being so effected by absence a little more interesting…I probably actually dont wish that, but that’s my current biased thought process showing a little bit lol
Heat should have picked up depth
Why? They have Jimmy.
One word for the fourth quarter tonight. Jimmy.
JIMMY IS HIM