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Dwane Casey To Transition To Pistons’ Front Office

April 9th, 2023 at 2:35pm CST by Luke Adams

Dwane Casey will still be part of the Pistons‘ organization next season, but the team will be in the market for a new head coach this spring.

Following Detroit’s regular season finale on Sunday, Casey told reporters – including Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter link) – that he’s transitioning from the Pistons’ bench to a front office role.

“(Team owner) Tom (Gores) is giving me an opportunity to move into the front office,” Casey said, per James L. Edwards III of The Athletic (Twitter link). “I’m excited to go to the next phase of my life. Time to spend more time with my family. This team is on the right track. They probably need to hear a new voice. This is my decision.”

Casey joined the Pistons in 2018, fresh off earning Coach of the Year honors in Toronto. He was let go by the Raptors due to the club’s disappointing postseason results. In Detroit, Casey led the team to a playoff berth in his first season, but was swept out of the first round and didn’t make it back in any of his four subsequent seasons as the Pistons embarked on a rebuild.

In total, Casey led the Pistons to 121-263 (.315) record across five seasons. Speaking to reporters today, he said that – while he’s not running away from his win-loss record – he hopes his legacy in Detroit is more about the growth of the team’s current young core than the underwhelming results on the court (Twitter link via Edwards).

Bucks assistant Charles Lee and former Celtics head coach Ime Udoka are expected to be among the candidates to replace Casey on the sidelines in Detroit, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link) confirms those names and adds a couple more, identifying Raptors assistant Adrian Griffin and Heat assistant Chris Quinn as possibilities.

Edwards and Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link) suggest that former Pistons star Jerry Stackhouse, who is now the head coach at Vanderbilt, could also be an intriguing target, though it’s unclear if that’s just speculation or if he’s actually on Detroit’s wish list.

The Pistons will join the Rockets as the first two teams launching head coaching searches this spring.

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Top Six, Play-In Tournament Now Set For Eastern Conference

April 7th, 2023 at 9:20pm CST by Rory Maher

The Eastern Conference’s postseason picture is much clearer after Friday night’s games, though we’ll still have to wait until next week’s play-in tournament to determine who will emerge as the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds.

The top six seeds are now set after Brooklyn defeated Orlando:

  1. Milwaukee Bucks
  2. Boston Celtics
  3. Philadelphia 76ers
  4. Cleveland Cavaliers
  5. New York Knicks
  6. Brooklyn Nets

Two first-round playoff matchups are finalized: Philadelphia will face Brooklyn, and Cleveland will face New York.

As for the bottom end of the postseason picture, Toronto lost to Boston tonight, which means the play-in tournament has been finalized for the East (Twitter link via Mark Medina of NBA.com).

  • No. 7 Heat will host No. 8 Hawks on April 11 — the winner advances as the No. 7 seed to face Boston.
  • No. 9 Raptors will host No. 10 Bulls on April 12 — the winner advances to face the loser of Miami vs. Atlanta.
  • Loser of the Heat/Hawks matchup plays the winner of the Raptors/Bulls on April 14 — the winner advances as the No. 8 seed to face Milwaukee.

The first round starts on April 15, according to the NBA. The Bucks have locked up the best record in the league and will have home court advantage throughout the playoffs.

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Heat Notes: Strus, Zeller, Oladipo, Postseason, Haslem, More

April 7th, 2023 at 7:31pm CST by Rory Maher

Heat wing Max Strus has been reinserted into the starting lineup over the past three games as a small-ball power forward, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. The impending free agent admits it has been a challenging season.

“It’s been tough,” Strus said of his ever-changing role. “I’ve learned a lot this year on and off the court. It’s been a hell of a year. But I think just being consistent with my mental, everything staying consistent with that has been a huge thing for me. I’ve really grown up and matured a lot throughout this whole season. I think that’s what I’m most proud of and what I’ve learned the most.”

As Chiang notes in another Miami Herald story, Miami’s rotation has been trimmed down to eight players: Gabe Vincent, Tyler Herro, Jimmy Butler, Strus and Bam Adebayo as the starting five, and Kyle Lowry, Caleb Martin and Kevin Love off the bench. Love had previously been the starting power forward, but now he’s the primary backup center, with Cody Zeller — the former backup center — being a DNP-CD the past couple games before Friday’s matchup with the Wizards.

However, head coach Erik Spoelstra says that eight-man group isn’t set in stone.

“Right now I do like the fact that we have our depth and we have options, and we plan on utilizing any or all of them based on what we need for that night, that game,” Spoelstra said.

Here’s more on the Heat, who ruled out a handful of players tonight:

  • Victor Oladipo was noncommittal when asked whether being out of the rotation lately might make him decline his $9.5MM player option for 2023/24, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. However, a scout tells Jackson the 30-year-old would be a poor financial decision not to pick it up. “He would be crazy to opt out,” the scout said. “At best, maybe he would get half a mid-level (exception) on the open market.”
  • Thursday’s blowout victory over the Sixers guaranteed the Heat will at least be the No. 7 seed in the East (there’s still a slim chance they could get No. 6), which means they’ll be playing a home game in the postseason, per Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. If they remain at No. 7, the Heat would host the No. 8 seed in the play-in tournament. If the Heat lose that game, they would host the winner of the matchup between the ninth and tenth seeds.
  • The 2022/23 season is Udonis Haslem‘s 20th and final one with Miami. The longtime veteran and members of the organization recently reflected on his journey, writes Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press.
  • Jason Quick of The Athletic spoke to several former and current players, as well as former assistants, to get a better idea of Spoelstra’s coaching methods. Outsiders may no longer view the Heat as contenders amid an up-and-down season, but the veteran coach instills confidence in his team. “From the outside looking in, I’m sure it looks like we don’t have anything figured out,” Martin said, per Quick. “But we really, genuinely feel we can still do something great. Everybody says that, but we know, and we feel it. In our minds, we are still working toward a championship.”
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Injury Notes: Heat, Sixers, Robinson, Mavericks

April 7th, 2023 at 1:38pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

With the seventh seed in the East now sewn up, the Heat will rest their three priciest players and their first-round rookie draft pick tonight against the Wizards, the team has announced (Twitter link).

All-Star center Bam Adebayo will be unavailable due to a left quadriceps tendon strain, small forward Jimmy Butler will miss the bout with a right hand contusion, and veteran point guard Kyle Lowry will rest with a knee ailment. Rookie power forward Nikola Jovic will also be out due to a back injury.

Three other players are considered questionable with various maladies. The statuses of guards Tyler Herro and Max Struss are uncertain due to a right quad contusion and a hyperextended right finger, respectively. Veteran big man Kevin Love‘s availability is murky due to a right rib contusion.

Here are more injury notes:

  • The Sixers will sit All-Star center Joel Embiid, a 2023 MVP hopeful, point guard James Harden, forward P.J. Tucker and shooting guard Tyrese Maxey against the Hawks, per Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Forward Tobias Harris and reserve guard Jaden Springer are questionable to suit up.
  • The Knicks have announced that they will rest starting center Mitchell Robinson tonight against the Pelicans (via Twitter). At 47-33, New York is now locked into the Eastern Conference’s fifth seed, as the team is three games ahead of the Nets in the East standings with just two games left in its regular season schedule.
  • The Suns will sit their top four players tonight against the Lakers. Sources inform Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter) that Phoenix, playing in the second night of a back-to-back set of bouts, will be without All-Star forward Kevin Durant, All-Star shooting guard Devin Booker, future Hall of Fame point guard Chris Paul, and maximum-salaried center Deandre Ayton against Los Angeles tonight. Charania notes that the Suns have locked up the West’s fourth seed.
  • The Mavericks tweet that All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving, guard Josh Green, wing Tim Hardaway Jr., and frontcourt players Maxi Kleber and Christian Wood will all sit out tonight’s game against the Bulls. Dallas is just 0.5 games behind the Thunder for the West’s No. 10 seed, but sitting all these key rotation players appears to signal a subtle surrender of the club’s season. The Mavericks are currently tied for the 10th-worst record in the NBA, and given that they owe a top 10-protected first-round pick to the Knicks this year, it makes sense that they would hope to preserve their future draft selection.
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Heat's Arena Now Called Kaseya Center

April 4th, 2023 at 5:23pm CST by Dana Gauruder
  • The Heat’s home arena is now called Kaseya Center, the team announced in a press release. The building was called American Airlines Arena from 1999-2021 and FTX Arena from 2021-23. Kaseya is a global provider of unified IT management and security software for managed services providers and IT professionals.
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Heat Notes: Adebayo, Robinson, Cain, Love

April 4th, 2023 at 11:43am CST by Luke Adams

Heat big man Bam Adebayo, who missed Saturday’s game due to a right hip contusion, should be back in action on Tuesday when the team visits Detroit. Adebayo has been upgraded to probable for tonight’s contest, tweets Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Additionally, since the Sioux Falls Skyforce’s season came to an end on Sunday with a playoff loss to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the Heat’s two-way players – Orlando Robinson and Jamal Cain – are back from the G League and will be available on Tuesday vs. Detroit, per Winderman.

Robinson piled up 28 points, 16 rebounds, six assists, and three blocks in Sunday’s NBAGL Western Conference Finals loss, but Cain struggled, scoring just four points on 1-of-6 shooting.

Here’s more on the Heat:

  • With Adebayo sidelined on Saturday, Kevin Love came off the bench for the first time since arriving in Miami and had his best game as a member of the Heat, scoring 18 points in 19 minutes. Now it’s up to head coach Erik Spoelstra to determine whether Love should be reinserted into the starting five or whether keeping him a reserve role makes more sense, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. For his part, Love expressed no preference. “Whatever coach wants,” he said. “I told him that even before I got here. I said, ‘Listen, I’m not tripping about starting, coming off the bench. I just love to play my minutes extremely hard and try to make an impact.'”
  • The Heat have a history of signing developmental prospects to multiyear contracts late in the season and still have their mid-level exception available if they want to do so this week, says Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. However, Miami doesn’t have any openings on its 15-man roster to promote Robinson or Cain or to sign an outside free agent, and it’s unclear whether the club would be willing to cut any of its current players to accommodate such a signing.
  • Nine of the 15 players on the Heat’s standard roster went undrafted, which has been a factor in the team’s tendency to play with a chip on its shoulder in recent years, Jackson notes in the same story. But guard Tyler Herro and Spoelstra feel as if this year’s group hasn’t consistently drawn on that source of motivation. “Having a monster-size chip on our shoulders has always been a big part of guys’ identities,” Spoelstra said. “That could be a chip on the shoulder or could just be savage competitiveness. At our core, that’s who we are. That’s not who we have been consistently the last 12 to 15 games. In pockets, we’ve done that.”
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Bam Adebayo Among Finalists For Sportsmanship Award

April 4th, 2023 at 9:36am CST by Luke Adams
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Bam Adebayo Out With Injured Hip: Orlando Robinson Remains In G League

April 1st, 2023 at 6:23pm CST by Arthur Hill
  • Heat center Bam Adebayo will miss Saturday’s game due to a hip injury, with coach Erik Spoelstra saying, “He’s just not able to move,” tweets Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. Adebayo will undergo treatment on the hip for most of the first half, Spoelstra added.
  • It’s surprising that the Heat didn’t recall center Orlando Robinson to help fill in for Adebayo, notes Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel (Twitter link). Robinson, who served as the primary backup earlier in the season, still has four games of eligibility left on his two-way contract. However, he’s involved in the G League playoffs as Sioux Falls will host the Western Conference finals on Sunday night.
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Strus Not Stressing Free Agency; Heat Arena Expected To Be Called Kaseya Center

April 1st, 2023 at 10:49am CST by Luke Adams
  • Heat guard Max Strus, who will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason, admitted that he can’t help but think about what his next contract might look like and whether he’ll remain in Miami going forward, but he doesn’t feel like it’s affecting his play at all, per Barry Jackson and Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. “It wouldn’t be human to not think about it,” Strus said. “I wouldn’t say it’s added pressure or anything like that.”
  • Following the bankruptcy of crypto exchange company FTX, the Heat‘s arena will be getting a new name. As Douglas Hanks of The Miami Herald details, the arena will be called the Kaseya Center, assuming a $117MM agreement with a local software company is approved next week by Miami-Dade County commissioners.
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Southeast Notes: Yurtseven, Butler, Hornets, Smith, Suggs

March 28th, 2023 at 11:16pm CST by Rory Maher

Omer Yurtseven‘s second season was derailed by an ankle injury that required surgery and caused him to miss the first 65 games of 2022/23. After returning in early March, he struggled to gain traction in the Heat‘s rotation despite feeling “100 percent” healthy, per Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.

“It’s not been, I guess, the best,” Yurtseven said regarding the uncertainty currently surrounding his role. “But in terms of the opportunity, it’s there and I think the toughest part has been not knowing and staying ready. But that’s my job right now, so I’m embracing it.”

As Chiang writes, Yurtseven was getting an extended look during the preseason playing alongside Bam Adebayo in a two-big lineup, and Yurtseven started his lone preseason game before the injury. Now his role and future are uncertain — the 24-year-old center will be a restricted free agent this summer if the Heat give him a $2.2MM qualifying offer, Chiang notes.

Here’s more from the Southeast:

  • Heat star Jimmy Butler was ruled out of Tuesday’s loss to Toronto due to neck soreness, Chiang adds in the same story. It’s unclear if he will be available for Wednesday’s game in New York.
  • The Hornets surprisingly have the NBA’s top defense since the All-Star break, writes Nekias Duncan of BasketballNews.com, who takes a look at how Charlotte has made strides on the less glamorous end of the court. One player making a major impact is point guard Dennis Smith Jr., according to Duncan. Smith, who missed Tuesday’s win over the Thunder due to a sprained right big toe, is on an expiring minimum-salary contract and is set to his unrestricted free agency in the offseason.
  • Magic guard Jalen Suggs had a strong performance in Sunday’s win over Brooklyn following a four-game absence due to a concussion, notes Nathaniel Marrero of The Orlando Sentinel. The 2021 No. 5 overall pick recorded 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting in 24 minutes. Suggs has been hampered by a variety of injuries in his first two pro seasons, but has been playing better the past couple months when active, averaging 10.8 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 2.2 APG and 1.6 SPG on .444/.388/.732 shooting over his past 19 games (25.2 MPG). Unfortunately, he finished just 1-of-10 from the field in Tuesday’s loss at Memphis.
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