Heat Coach explains the decision behind McLemore’s departure

Surrey Heat yesterday announced the release of third year forward, Martelle McLemore.

McLemore, 24, enjoyed a strong start to the season and was a key player in Heat’s excellent 7-1 early season form. However, an ankle injury suffered against the Plymouth Raiders in late October sidelined McLemore until mid-January and has ultimately led to his release.

Surrey Heat Coach, Creon Raftopoulos, has explained to UKAmericanSportsFans.com that McLemore’s departure was discussed with the player following a further injury sustained last weekend.

“He had a great game against Worcester where we felt he was coming back to himself but then early on in the game against Leicester, he tweaked his ankle pushing off and so him and I had a discussion,” revealed Raftopoulos. “I said ‘If you feel you are 100% then I’m going to let you play but if you don’t feel you’re 100% then we have to do something about it because you’re not going to do yourself any justice after starting off the season as great as you did and then putting up sub-par performances’ – he kind of agreed with that.”

“As a club, I want it clear that we take care of our players. So it’s not one of those things where ‘you’re injured, we need to get somebody else in, goodbye’.”

Heat suffered a fourth loss in five games last night away against Manchester Giants (83-70) with a mostly seven-man rotation, a man short from the Heat’s normal eight-man team. A replacement will eventually be brought in to fill the hole left behind by McLemore, but Coach Raftopoulos is unsure who that player will be.

Talks have been held with Travis Holmes, who averaged 16.4ppg and 3.8apg in McLemore’s absence earlier in the season, but wages have so far proven to be the stumbling block to re-signing the twin brother of Heat player, Chavis.

“I’m really in a position where I’m not certain where I’m going to go next,” admitted Raftopoulos. “Honest to God, I have no-one in mind. This has been as much a bombshell to Martelle as it has to myself in that, natural progression would have been to pick up Travis but Travis has turned down the offer and to find someone that’s readily available is at least a week, or two weeks, down the line.

“I am looking, I know that my email will be exploding following the press release so hopefully someone will call me that I’ll like.”

McLemore started the season averaging 19.2ppg and 6.8 rpg. Since he returned from injury, his minutes have dropped slightly and he has posted averages of 10.75 points and 5.25 rebounds a night.

At the time of writing, McLemore was unavailable for comment.