{"id":881972,"date":"2026-10-14T12:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T12:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/881972\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T12:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T12:16:14","slug":"dru-smith-or-someone-else-behind-davion-mitchell-for-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/881972\/","title":{"rendered":"Dru Smith or someone else behind Davion Mitchell for Heat?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Q: Ira, who\u2019s our backup point guard? \u2013 Stephen.<\/p>\n<p>A: You mean sort of the question that was attempted to be asked before Saturday night\u2019s exhibition against the Timberwolves (and was quickly swatted aside by Erik Spoelstra)? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2026\/10\/01\/another-injury-for-dru-smith-moves-heat-youthful-depth-at-point-guard-to-the-forefront\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">If Dru Smith were healthy<\/a>, instead of dealing with a calf strain, that likely would have been asked and answered with the preseason rotation. Then, it was Pelle Larsson taking on the role during the preseason opener, only to be limited since by illness. That opened the door for Tre Donaldson to start against Minnesota and Ryan Conwell to finish. The thought here remains that there won\u2019t be a definitive backup point guard and that Spoelstra will instead seek ballhandling and playmaking elsewhere in the rotation. But also keep in mind that the Heat open the regular season with three games in four nights, so it\u2019s not like you can run Davion Mitchell into the ground from the outset.<\/p>\n<p>Q: Ira, you confuse us sometimes. Was your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2026\/10\/13\/as-a-second-round-pick-ryan-conwell-making-quality-first-impressions-with-heat\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">piece on Ron Conwell<\/a> suggesting he will or won\u2019t be in the rotation? \u2013 Edd.<\/p>\n<p>A: Neither, since only Erik Spoelstra knows that answer, and even then it probably would take some time to formulate a definitive answer. The point was to show that while Ryan is capable of doing NBA things at the moment, the reality is that on this Heat roster he arguably, at the moment, stands no better than 13th or 14th man. And on NBA rosters, the 13th or 14th men don\u2019t typically play. That said, it\u2019s not as if NBA injuries, and even injury epidemics are not typical. So, yes, he likely will get his chances, but it certainly won\u2019t be a given at the start of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Q: Next week\u2019s game is more important. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2026\/10\/13\/heats-pelle-larsson-limited-by-headaches-fatigue-one-week-before-season-opener\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Let Pelle Larsson rest<\/a>. He shouldn\u2019t even have played the last game we had. He didn\u2019t look like himself in that game. \u2013 Dee.<\/p>\n<p>A: And he basically has taken himself out of consideration for Wednesday night\u2019s exhibition against the Nets at Kaseya Center. The good news with Pelle Larsson is whatever he had likely is not considered contagious, considering he has been back around the team on the practice court in recent days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Q: Ira, who\u2019s our backup point guard? \u2013 Stephen. A: You mean sort of the question that was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[71475,2558,8173,71476,355,99],"class_list":["post-881972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ask-ira","tag-latest-headlines","tag-miami-heat","tag-miami-heat-blog","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}