The Miami Heat have an extremely talented roster heading into the 2015-16 NBA season and they feel they have a really good shot of representing the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals. Miami's roster, while deep, does have some players that are older and have dealt with injury issues and they are well aware of that. Amar'e Stoudemire is one of those players who has had injury issues and the Heat are considering sitting him during back-to-back situations this season, according to Jason Lieser of the Palm Beach Post.
Stoudemire signed a one year deal for the league minimum this season to join the Heat and he is expected to be a big part of their second unit. Since 2011 Stoudemire has never played in more than 65 games in a season and over that span he has averaged just 50 games per season due to multiple knee surgeries.
The Heat know that they are very likely to make the playoffs so this plan would be in place to ensure that Stoudemire is healthy when the postseason comes around. Head coach Erik Spoelstra said that he hasn't officially decided whether they will sit Stoudemire in back-to-back sets but it is something that they are seriously considering.
"We'll see. All of that with all of our players, we have to get there and gauge a lot of different things. It's too early to say, but we've also proven as an organization that we're open-minded to that," said Spoelstra.
The Heat are reportedly also considering the same type of plan with Josh McRoberts who is coming back from a torn meniscus in his right knee. The Heat used a very similar approach with Dwyane Wade in 2013-14 and it worked extremely well as Wade had the most efficient season of his career. Stoudemire is reportedly okay with the plan because he knows what the end goal is here and he wants to be able to contribute when it counts, in the playoffs.
Fortunately for Miami they only play one back-to-back set before Christmas and it comes during the second week of the season so they may not need to implement this plan until later in the year. McRoberts and Stoudemire are the two big men the Heat are expected to bring off the bench this season so if they sit we will likely see a lot of Chris Andersen and Udonis Haslem.
Stoudemire is entering his 14th season in the NBA and has racked up more than 25,000 minutes in his career despite being just 32 years old. Stoudemire isn't the dominating presence he once was in his career but in about 20 minutes per game he can still be an extremely productive player on the glass and scoring the ball so the Heat are taking the proper steps to make sure they have him for the full season.
