Southeast Notes: Heat, Wizards, Leonsis, Hawks

Ahead of a 138-122 Game 2 loss against the Bucks, necessity dictated that the Heat use a rare starting five, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. Starting shooting guard Tyler Herro has been ruled out for the next four-to-six weeks after breaking the ring and middle fingers of his right hand, so head coach Erik Spoelstra had to make a change.

Miami started its 27th different five-man lineup of 2022/23, with Gabe Vincent running the point, Duncan Robinson in for Herro at shooting guard, Max Strus at small forward, Jimmy Butler at the four, and Bam Adebayo manning the middle. Though Robinson was inserted into the starting lineup due to his three-point shooting acumen, he only scored in fourth quarter garbage time with the contest already out of hand.

There’s more out of the Southeast Division:

• After the Wizards fired team general manager Tommy Sheppard yesterday, David Aldridge of The Athletic believes Washington’s path back to contention must start with the club admitting it needs to embrace a full rebuild. Aldridge believes that team owner Ted Leonsis needs to look to add a starry front office name, with Raptors vice chairman Masai Ujiri and Warriors president Bob Myers at the top of his list.
• Letting Sheppard go was a surprisingly proactive move from Leonsis, who had just inked Sheppard to an extension at the start of the Wizards‘ 2021/22 season, writes Candace Buckner of The Washington Post. Buckner is less optimistic that poaching Ujiri or Myers from their respective gigs would work, but is excited that Leonsis is receptive to such a key change at a position that has stewarded the Wizards to zero play-in appearances in the last two years. In a terse press statement, Leonsis indicated that he would look outside the organization for a new top executive.
• Though the Hawks have lost to the Celtics by 13 points per game in a series they trail 2-0 and may be headed for a sweep, Jeff Schultz of The Athletic writes that the experience is still preferable to tanking. Beyond the marginal difference in selecting a draft pick right outside of the lottery and choosing one around its fringes, new head coach Quin Snyder believes the playoff series will have value as a teachable moment for a generally young Atlanta club. “Similar to the regular season, close games, the more you’re in those situations, you learn from them, and in the playoffs you’re learning to adjust to situations by how a team plays you,” Snyder said. “There’s the physicality of the playoffs, so many things you take from it. The experience is an indirect benefit of the playoffs.”