Heat maximizing preseason opportunities
The preseason means nothing in terms of wins and losses, but the Miami Heat believes the preseason is important for other reasons.
Getting players in rhythm and into game shape for the regular season, allowing new faces to adjust to the team’s system and giving young developmental players an opportunity to play in an NBA game.
Those are some of the reasons the Heat is one of only three teams playing the league-maximum six preseason games this year, along with the Los Angeles Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies. Most teams are playing the minimum of four games.
“Part of that was scheduling, because of the truncated preseason last year,” coach Erik Spoelstra said, with the Heat playing its second preseason game Thursday night against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center. “So some of the games got pushed. So what’s the perfect sweet spot? I think that’s adjusting from what it used to be. I don’t know where I stand, whether I definitely want six or five. But we had to do that this year.”
The Heat is the only team in the NBA playing two back-to-back sets during the 13-day preseason. Four teams are playing one back-to-back and the other 25 teams are not playing any this preseason.
The Heat’s first back-toback set of the preseason began Thursday in Houston and ends Friday with a game against the Spurs in San Antonio (8:30 p.m., Bally Sports Sun). Miami then ends the preseason with a back-to-back that includes matchups with the Hawks in Atlanta on Oct. 14 and Celtics at FTX Arena on Oct. 15.
“We have a couple backto-back sets. So I think everybody is going to get a chance to play,” Spoelstra said. “But it will also give us a chance to not play guys every single game. We have some new guys, it’s a new feel, a new mix. I will try to balance that. But we have to get up and running pretty quickly.”
Most players on the Heat’s 20-man roster are not expected to play both games of its current backto-back. Udonis Haslem (personal reasons), Gabe Vincent (left groin strain), Caleb Martin (right ankle sprain) and Victor Oladipo
(right knee surgery rehabilitation) have already been ruled out for Thursday’s game against the Rockets.
Two-way contract guard Marcus Garrett is also out for the contest due to lower back spasms.
“The benefit for us is we got a lot of new faces,” Martin said of the Heat playing the maximum six preseason games. “Any type of chemistry you can build before the regular season before these games count is big. Even though it’s a lot and some guys probably don’t want to play that many games. But at the end of the day, it’s
big because all that stuff will come full circle whenever you start the season.
“Those games when you’re still trying to figure it out for those first 10 games, you might only need three as opposed to 10. You’ll need a shorter amount of time opposed to other teams.”
But much of that work has also occurred on the Heat’s practice court, with Spoelstra noting that the team’s core trio of Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry have already begun to build an on-court rapport in practice when asked about Butler not playing in Monday’s
preseason opener.
“It has been going well,” Spoelstra said. “We’ve been able to do a lot on our practice court. We’ll continue to try to take advantage of practices and these preseason games. But I like the progress.”
Playing the maximum amount of preseason games also gives more opportunities for the entire roster to play, especially those working to earn a spot in the NBA.
“It gives the young guys and it gives the guys like us on two-ways and it gives guys on Exhibit 10s, it gives us the opportunity to have some film and to be seen and get that chance to get out there and show what you can do,” Martin said. “It benefits everybody to a certain extent.”
GM SURVEY REACTION
Spoelstra was voted as the best head coach in the NBA in the league’s preseason survey of general managers for the second consecutive year.
What was Spoelstra’s reaction to that honor?
“When you’re a coach, you just can’t listen to anything because more days than not we have no idea what the hell we’re talking about,” said Spoelstra,
who still has never been named the NBA’s Coach of the Year. “We get criticized like crazy and that’s part of this position.
“I take my job here with this organization very seriously. I have a responsibility for the organization and I just try to do the best job that I can. But if you get that, you know there’s going to be 10x the other way soon enough. In this position and in this chair, you realize that pretty quickly.”
Of not receiving a vote from general managers for the best defensive player in the league, Adebayo said: “Man, I don’t pay attention to that [stuff]. The GMs can have that survey. I don’t care about that stuff. The dudes in the NBA know who I am, they know what I’m capable of.”
Haslem has been away from the Heat since the start of training camp in the wake of the recent passing of his father, Johnnie Haslem. But in an Instragram post Thursday, Haslem said he will be rejoining the team “soon.”