Miami Heat
The Miami Heat stunned the East last season, rallying from the 8th seed to win the Eastern Conference. Injuries throughout the regular season contributed to Miami’s place in the standings, but the Heat still managed to become the only team in the InStreetClothes.com Injury Database to finish in the bottom five for total games lost and make the NBA Finals.
No one on the Heat roster was immune to injury as 15 players missed at least one game due to injury with 10 players missing over 10 games throughout the season. Second-year center Omer Yurtseven was the single biggest regular season contributor to the elevated total, missing 63 games following ankle surgery. A fluke hand injury for Tyler Herro forced him out of all but one of the team’s 23 postseason games and the organization itself came under league scrutiny when Miami was fined $25,000 for “failing to comply with league policies governing injury reporting.”
Vice President of Sport Performance Jay Sabol, a well-respected cog in the Heat organization for over 30 years, and Head Athletic Trainer Wes Brown will look to improve on last year’s performance and return the Miami medical team back to the upper echelon of fewest games lost. Fortunately, the Heat enter the season without any noteworthy injury concerns and have a chance to emerge in a suddenly top-heavy Eastern Conference once again.