![]() ![]() If he had another year left on his contract, it would make sense to bring him back and hope to get a better sense of his development with a healthy season. They’ve developed him and appreciate his upside as a productive scorer and rebounder, but the defensive miscues go back to last season. It’s unclear if the Heat would like to bring Yurtseven back. Perhaps the scene that underscores Yurtseven’s season the most is when Spoelstra threw his clipboard down during a timeout after Yurtseven made multiple defensive errors. He played five straight games from March 11 to March 19 before Spoelstra benched him in favor of other options like Cody Zeller, Kevin Love and Haywood Highsmith. Yurtseven’s run in the rotation didn’t last long. “It was tough to constantly watch and know that I could be playing and contributing,” Yurtseven said. Yurtseven spent a lot of those games watching from the bench as injuries and inconsistency afflicted his teammates. 500 at the time and had been toiling through a frustrating season. When he did return, he did so to a Heat team that was four games over. One-hundred-and-fifty days separated Yurtseven’s lone preseason trial and his first regular-season game. “I love doing that constantly and taking that away, I realized, takes out such a large portion of it all.” ![]() “It was so boring to not be able to play basketball, work out, lift, because that’s my life,” Yurtseven said. Yurtseven had never dealt with such a long-term injury and he felt as if his whole life was put on pause. I try to stay on the positive and strong side.” “Optimism is strength and pessimism is weakness. Doctors told him there was no reason why he couldn’t return to his peak physically. Yurtseven, always the optimist, took solace in the fact that it was a bone injury and not a more complicated soft-tissue injury. “But I think it gives you more power if you do so willingly yourself and embrace that, no matter what happens, you still have a healthy body at the end of the day.” “That initial period was brutal because you don’t have a choice really but to accept it,” Yurtseven said. With no concrete timeline, all Yurtseven had was the recovery work, family and occasional Twitch stream. Yurtseven spent the first month on crutches and began rehabbing. On November 15, he underwent surgery for a bone spur in his left ankle and the Heat did not provide a timeline for his return. “And that made sense when they called it a bone spur.” “It felt like something was hitting the bone,” Yurtseven said of the pain he felt leading up to the doctor visit. Then Yurtseven was sidelined for the remainder of the preseason with a left ankle injury. In the preseason opener against the Timberwolves, Yurtseven started next to Adebayo and recorded 11 points and nine rebounds while shooting 1 for 3 from 3-point range. His combination of size, shooting and knack for rebounding are an ideal fit next to Adebayo on paper.īut on the court, Miami never got more than one game to see the duo. Yurtseven, the 24-year-old center who impressed as a rookie with the Heat last season, has shown flashes of 3-point range in summer league and during his collegiate career at N.C. The Heat invested meaningful time during training camp test-driving an Adebayo-Yurtseven frontcourt. When asked about restricted free agency, Yurtseven said, “I have no idea, but right now I’m just worried about this play-in tournament.” Still, Yurtseven makes it clear he’d like to continue his development and get a chance to show what he could do alongside Adebayo. Plus, as a restricted free agent this summer, it’s unclear if the Heat will elect to give him another chance. In Yurtseven’s case, he feels as though he could have helped if his season had not been derailed before it began. ![]() 8 seed, a series with the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks is what awaits. A disappointing season could come to an end as soon as tonight’s play-in game against the Chicago Bulls. Reasons for optimism has been hard to come by for Yurtseven and the Heat. “There’s a lot more to look forward to than to be looking back and being let down,” Yurtseven told All U Can Heat. Still, Yurtseven is choosing to look at the bright side. Instead, a bone spur injury limited him to just nine games and what had appeared to be a season of opportunity ended up being a disappointment. Miami Heat center Omer Yurtseven had high hopes before the season of playing big minutes and, perhaps, being frontcourt partners with Bam Adebayo.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |