Oladipo out for opener with new knee injury. And Heat’s Herro, Strus adjust to new roles

A six-pack of Miami Heat notes on a Tuesday:

▪ Heat guard Victor Oladipo will miss Wednesday’s season opener with a knee injury and his status for the immediate future also is now in question.

Oladipo was held out of practice Tuesday because of left knee tendonosis and has also been ruled out of Wednesday’s game against the Chicago Bulls at FTX Arena because of the issue. According to Baptist Health, tendonosis “is a chronic condition characterized by the degeneration of collagen in the tendons. Tendinosis symptoms might feel like pain or stiffness when you try to move or touch the affected area.”

“This is part of the process when a player like Vic ramps it up and then you add the workload and everything,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said following Tuesday’s practice. “I think this is normal. We want to proceed with care, and that’s all this is right now. He’s day-to-day. We want to make sure we take care of this so it doesn’t linger.”

The Heat will be especially cautious with Oladipo, 30, because he has been through two surgeries on his right knee in the past three-plus years. This time, it’s his left knee that’s bothering him.

Oladipo endured two long recoveries stemming from a ruptured quad tendon in his right knee in January 2019 that ended up requiring a second surgery in May 2021. He waited until March 7 to make his season debut last season following an 11-month recovery.

While the tendinitis is not in his surgically repaired knee, the pain could be indirectly connected to his injury history.

“When you really start to ramp it up, there’s still a little bit of overcompensation and a lot of load on the other leg,” Spoelstra said. “Everybody downstairs feels like this is the normal process. I know how badly he wants to be out there right now. But we’re looking at this big picture still and we don’t want to skip steps. We want to make sure his body is feeling great and so things like this don’t linger.”

The Heat has continued to take a patient approach with Oladipo even though he’s coming off his first full healthy offseason since 2018. He sat out the Heat’s first three preseason games as he continued to work with the training staff to prepare his body for the long season ahead, but did play in the team’s final two preseason games last week.

Oladipo totaled 10 points on 4-of-18 (22.2 percent) shooting from the field and 1-of-7 (14.3 percent) shooting from three-point range, four rebounds, nine assists and three steals in 37 minutes during his two appearances this preseason.

With the NBA’s reigning Sixth Man of the Year Tyler Herro expected to move into the Heat’s starting lineup this season, the team’s hope is that Oladipo can help fill that void as a sixth man spark off the bench.

This past season, Oladipo signed a two-year, $18.2 million contract, with a second-year player option of $9.5 million.

Along with Oladipo, center Omer Yurtseven (left ankle soreness) was the only other Heat player who did not practice Tuesday. Yurtseven has been sidelined for the last two weeks because of his ankle injury and he’ll also miss Wednesday’s opener.

▪ Why was starting important for Tyler Herro this season?

“Because I’m a young great player coming up in this league and which one isn’t starting?” he said last week. “I was the only one that wasn’t starting. Not that that matters. I’m on a great team with a bunch of great players who have a chance to win a championship at a young age. It’s kind of hand in hand.

“I think I’m a starter. I’m a four-year player now. It will speak for itself as my game continues to rise.”

▪ Herro knows he needed to improve defensively, and there have been signs of that, including four blocked shots in the preseason finale.

“Four blocks, that’s an anomaly,” Spoelstra said good naturedly. “His commitment defensively is something he’s really taken to heart. He really worked at it. He worked on on his body to handle bigger matchups. He’s always been one of our quicker guys laterally. To the average fan, they don’t really notice.

“He’s great on closeouts. It was adding to his strength to handle second moves you’re facing in this league quite often. His activity with his hands, getting hands on the ball on passes is a point of emphasis.”

▪ Though Herro won’t handle the ball playing with starters as much as he did playing off the bench, there will still be opportunities to get the team into offense, particularly because point guard Kyle Lowry can play off the ball effectively.

“Kyle has proven over the course of his career he can be that ball-dominant guard, and get everybody organized, or he can literally play extensive minutes off the ball and still be really effective,” Spoelstra said.

“That championship year with Toronto, he was almost a two-guard, because that’s what he probably sensed and felt, and their coaching staff, that other guys need the ball in their hands. And he easily shifted. And I think that’s a great luxury.”

▪ Among the positives of preseason: Bam Adebayo’s more aggressive offensive bent has resulted in more free throws.

Per 36 minutes this preseason, Adebayo averaged 31 points on 19.4 field-goal attempts and 12.1 free-throw attempts.

Per 36 minutes last regular season, Adebayo averaged 21.1 points on 14.4 field-goal attempts and 6.7 free-throw attempts.

Only twice in his career had Adebayo attempted at least 12 free throws in a game playing 23 minutes or less, per Hoops Habit. He did in it twice in preseason.

“Just assaulting the rim,” Adebayo said of drawing fouls. “I’m forcing the refs to make a decision. Just trying to manipulate the game.”

▪ Max Strus, inserted into the starting lineup in place of Duncan Robinson in late March, said going back to the bench is “an adjustment for sure, just getting used to getting back in the flow of things, sitting. Nothing I haven’t done before. I’ll be all right.”

Will he have a different mentality off the bench?

“Maybe,” he said. “I’m still trying to figure it out, how we’re going to play and how that second unit is going to play. I would imagine I would be more aggressive in the second unit because I’m not playing with Jimmy, Kyle, Bam. Maybe I’ll look for my shot a little more. But I am still going to play the same way I always do, get everybody else involved and find my shots throughout the offense.”

NOTABLE

P.J. Tucker, who needed knee surgery this offseason after leaving the Heat for the 76ers, admitted to Philadelphia reporters that “honestly, me and James [Harden] were trying to come the year before.”