Depending on the player voting for the NBA All-Star Game starters, Miami Heat players either have some die-hard fans among their peers or are fans themselves.
Because of the 16 players under contract with the Heat, all but three received player votes to start at the Feb. 19 All-Star Game in Utah.
Granted, the votes had no impact on the 10 named starters, with the league’s elite security guarded by a process that gives just 25 percent of the team’s weight to the player vote, with 25 percent to the players. media and 50 percent to fans, but at least they were part of the final tabulations.
The only Heat players who did not receive at least one vote in player voting were center Dewayne Dedmon, forward Haywood Highsmith and two-way player Orlando Robinson. Several NBA players did not participate in the vote.
Among the Heat’s elite players, forward Jimmy Butler finished fifth overall in the weighted process for all three Eastern Conference frontcourt starting spots, including votes from 22 players. Center Bam Adebayo ranked eighth in that combined vote, with 40 player votes. In the weighted process for the two starting spots in the back zone of the Eastern Conference, Tyler Herro was ranked 14th, with 13 player votes.
And then it turned into a lost ticket case for the Heat. And it wasn’t just the players who voted for themselves, if at all, with privately submitted ballots.
Forward Caleb Martin received six player votes to start in the Eastern front zone, with center Omer Yurtseven receiving three votes in that element of the pick and veteran captain Udonis Haslem two. Nikola Jovic, Jamal Cain and Duncan Robinson of the Heat received individual votes. Of that group, Yurtseven has yet to play this season, due to ankle surgery, with the 42-year-old Haslem appearing in just five games, for a total of 37 minutes.
In voting for the East backzone starting spots, the Heat’s Kyle Lowry received five player votes, Gabe Vincent four player votes, Victor Oladipo two player votes and Max Strus 1.
All-Star reserves, which are selected by conference coaches, will be announced Thursday, with Adebayo considered a lock for selection, Butler with a creditable resume and Herro more like a long shot.
isaac out
Jonathan Isaac’s comeback week took a detour, with the Orlando Magic announcing that the forward would not play Friday night’s game against the Heat at Miami-Dade Arena as part of managing his return this week due to a knee injury that has sidelined him since the August 2020 pandemic bubble in Orlando.
Isaac’s first game in that comeback came Monday, when he played 10 minutes in a home win over the Boston Celtics. He then played eight minutes in Wednesday night’s home win over the Indiana Pacers.
The Magic are in the middle of a straight set that concludes Saturday against the Chicago Bulls.
gathering game
With Friday’s opener of the four-game season series against the Magic, Oladipo went head-to-head with the team that drafted him No. 2 overall in Indiana in 2013 and the opponent he scored 40 points against in the finale of the regular season last year. .
With Oladipo now installed in the Heat’s rotation, Butler said the 30-year-old guard has held steady during his comeback from years of knee trouble.
“I think with all the things he’s been through, some people tend to change, mostly for the worse, like, ‘I’m giving up on basketball,’ or ‘I don’t have a chance to be the same. player he was,'” Butler said. “It’s still him, he’s still smiling, he’s still working. , of course, make a stop when you need it.”
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