Miami Heat superstar Jimmy Butler gave some major love to big man Omer Yurtseven for his play as of late.
The Heat big man has been a key piece of the puzzle for Miami with Bam Adebayo sidelined and Dewayne Dedmon missing time as well. He has started Miami’s last four games.
“He’s getting more and more comfortable every game that he plays,” Butler said of Yurtseven. “I feel like the game’s slowing down a lot more for him now. He’s picking and choosing his spots very wisely. He’s rolling hard, popping, getting in the right spots when he needs to.
“He’s been a monster for us lately.”
Butler isn’t wrong about Yurtseven’s impact. The 23-year-old has put up 14.5 points, 14.5 rebounds, 1.0 assist and 1.5 steals per contest in his four straight starts.
While he’s only played in 28 games this season, Yurtseven showed that he was ready to take on a bigger role when called upon.
For the entire season, he is averaging 5.3 points and 5.3 rebounds per game while shooting 48.5 percent from the field.
Kyle Lowry has seen the growth in the young big man as well, and he believes that the extended playing time has helped Yurtseven’s confidence.
“I think he’s just getting more confident,” Lowry said. “I think the confidence that he’s gaining by playing more minutes and getting the experience and getting the repetitions on the floor, understanding what we want him to do, pick, roll, be big, rebound the ball, he’s gonna get shots.
“We have enough players to get him easy looks. His next thing is just continue to get better, continue to get more physical and on the defensive end, just get stronger.”
The Heat are 23-14 on the season and hold the No. 4 spot in the Eastern Conference despite dealing with health issues and injuries this season.
