In the lane
STILL WAITING: The Josh McRoberts unveiling with the Dallas Mavericks has been eerily similar to his tenure with the Heat — he’s not playing. “He’s wearing out the exercise bike, I’ll tell you that. He’s doing well and his health situation, I think I would say, is progressing,” coach Rick Carlisle told reporters in Dallas, channeling his best Erik Spoelstra amid McRoberts’ absences. “He went through a lot last year. He had three broken bones in his foot. He’s got a toe thing that has been a problem in his career. We are being cautious with him.”
MIGHT HAVE BEEN: It is nine years after the first chance for Dwyane Wade, when it comes to teaming up this season with Derrick Rose with the Cavaliers. Like many, Wade thought that the Heat careering to 15-67 in 2007-08 would lead to the No. 1 pick in that draft and the selection of Rose. Instead, the Heat fell one spot in the lottery and wound up with Michael
Beasley, who had a knack of driving Wade to distraction until dealt to the Minnesota Timberwolves prior to the start of the Big Three era. “I thought the Miami Heat was getting the first pick in 2008,” Wade told Cleveland’s Plain Dealer. “I thought we was going to play with D-Rose. Didn’t get that one.” The irony was that Rose then attempted to recruit Wade to the Bulls at the start of that 2010 free agency that instead had Wade delivering LeBron James and Chris Bosh to the Heat. “Then in 2010 came an opportunity and that didn’t happen,” Wade said of possibly pairing with Rose with Bulls. “And then the time when you least expect it, it happens.” HEATING UP: It’s not quite Kevin Garnett shouting “Anything is possible!” after winning his championship with the Boston Celtics, but the Heat’s 30-11 finish last season is providing hope in places where the roster otherwise is saying hopeless. With the Hawks losing
Paul Millsap and Dwight Howard in the offseason, guard Malcolm Delaney said the Heat’s 2016-17 example is one worth emulating. “We are going to be a scrappy team. If you saw how Miami played in the second half of the season last year when they went on that run, that’s kind of how we have got to play,” Delaney told Atlanta’s Journal-Constitution.
TROPICAL DREAMS: The one advantage of having a plethora of arenas is that it doesn’t get cold inside for South Florida basketball teams. That’s no longer the case for the Detroit Pistons, with their new shared accommodations with the NHL Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena. “It really sucks to shoot around there,” guard Reggie Jackson said of practicing the morning of game days without fans to warm the setting. “Places like that, it’s freezing cold. You’re playing a winter sport. I would love for everywhere to be like Miami, nice and warm. But those are the conditions I’m playing.” The Heat no have such immediate concerns, with their initial visit to Detroit an afternoon game on Nov. 12, and therefore no morning shootaround.