Heat let Haslem injury exception expire, send Pittman back to D-League

The Miami Heat has chosen to let the "Udonis Haslem" injury exception granted by the NBA expire. Today, January 6th, was the last day to use it to sign a free agent or include it in a trade. With the late season addition of Erick Dampier and the recent return of Mike Miller the Heat have chosen to stand pat with their roster, at least for now but the trade deadline or veterans bought out from lesser teams could change that. Miller has struggled a bit as he returns to game shape. Adding a player with the exception would have meant that the Heat would have had to cut a player because they already have the maximum 15 players on their roster. In other news, the Heat will send rookie Dexter Pittman back to the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the D-League to continue his solid work there. He had returned to the Miami Heat team for the holidays. Given the fact that they'll be on the road for the next two weeks there wouldn't be much of an opportunity to practice and he won't be making the active roster any time soon. Here is the press release: The Miami HEAT announced today that Dexter Pittman has been re-assigned to the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the NBA Development League. The Skyforce are the HEAT’s NBA D-League affiliate. Pittman was previously assigned to the Skyforce on November 26 and was re-called on December 20 after appearing in eight games (all starts) and averaging 16.6 points, 9.0 rebounds, 1.63 blocks and 30.6 minutes while shooting 60.2 percent from the field. He recorded four double-doubles after posting 18 points and a team-high 10 rebounds at Iowa on December 1, 18 points and a game-high 15 rebounds vs. Iowa on December 3, 15 points and a team-high 10 rebounds vs. Austin on December 7 and then a game-high 27 points and a game-high 10 rebounds vs. Utah on December 17. Pittman, the 32^nd overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft, blocked a Sioux Falls season-high six shots vs. Utah on December 17, his third multi-block game. Additionally, during his stint he led the team in points three times, rebounds six times and in blocks on three occasions.