Miami Heat’s Kyle Lowry and coach Erik Spoelstra at odds?
BOCA RATON – For now, the Miami Heat state of affairs at point guard has been reduced to semantics.
Three days after re-staking his claim Tuesday as the team’s starting point guard, and three days after coach Erik Spoelstra said that such a decision would come later, Kyle Lowry said it hardly was a case of ultimatum.
“I didn’t say I wanted,” Lowry said following Friday’s morning session of training camp at Florida Atlantic University, “I said I expected to be.
“As a player, I expect to be the starting point guard.”
For Spoelstra’s part, the platitudes, if not necessarily the desired decree, continued to be offered.
“Kyle obviously is our decorated champion,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat to conclude training camp Saturday. “So playing on those words, he’s one of the great quarterbacks and quarterback minds in this league, and he’s critical for what we do.”
The Heat have been drilling mostly with Lowry, Josh Richardson and Dru Smith at point guard. Richardson returned to the Heat in July on a veteran-minimum free-agent contract. Smith returned for his third Heat camp on a two-way contract.
“J-Rich has been playing some there, just kind of getting reacclimated to a little more of the role he played with us previously,” Spoelstra said. “And Dru Smith has quietly, or not so quietly, had a very good camp. He’s improved considerably.”
That rotation has left Tyler Herro, another option at point guard, working almost exclusively these first four days of camp on the wing.
For Richardson, the only time he has played point guard since his initial Heat run ended in the 2019 offseason was during his brief 21-game run with the San Antonio Spurs in 2021-22.
“I played it here. I played it in San Antonio for a little bit,” he said following Friday’s practice. “That’s probably about it. But the system we have doesn’t really call for a true point guard, like a real, true point guard, who will get it into someone.
“It’s been an adjustment back to it.”
For his part, Lowry, 37, said he has put last season’s uneven run in his rearview mirror.
“As a player like myself,” he said, “you’re able to separate the seasons.”
While the best way for Spoelstra to maximize the team’s talent and also keep Lowry’s minutes in check might be to feature Herro at point guard, that hasn’t particularly been the case in camp.
That, in turn, has opened the door for Smith, the guard who went undrafted out of Missouri in 2021 and ended last season on a two-way contract with the Brooklyn Nets.
“I’ve said this many times about young guys that have taken that path, you have to develop a fortitude,” Spoelstra said of Smith being back in Heat camp. “What we admire about him is that he keeps on coming back, and coming back improved.”
Herro’s sizzle
As for Herro, Spoelstra said the fifth-year guard continues to do his thing.
“Tyler, he’s been on,” Spoelstra said. “There’s no off button on him this week and that’s on both ends of the court.”
Herro had been linked to Heat offseason interest in Damian Lillard, who instead was traded last week from the Portland Trail Blazers to the Milwaukee Bucks.
“I think everybody immediately sees his skill level,” Spoelstra said of Herro. “It’s not hyperbole when the coaches say he’s one of the most skilled players in this Association. He is and we have talked about how he’s going to show everybody. And we need it. The things that he can do fill in so many gaps for us that help our offense exponentially.”
