Strength in numbers
Wade is a championship-caliber talent, will help augment roster, coach says
MIAMI — Amid the emotion of the moment, there also is a basketball element to Dwyane Wade’s return to the Miami Heat.
That, on Friday, shifted the focus from Pat Riley making things right with his franchise icon to Erik Spoelstra formulating a game plan for Wade’s second Heat chapter, one that began with Friday night’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks at AmericanAirlines Arena.
“I know exactly where Dwyane can help this basketball team,” Spoelstra said after a single game-morning shootaround with Wade back in Heat gear. “I think he’s confident he can help this team. He’s followed us. He’s seen us play. Is the role specifically defined right now? That’s elementary.
“You’re adding a championship-caliber, proven talent to this team. Say this is about winning, we feel really good about this team right now with incredibly high expectations. We feel this is a move that helps us with our ultimate goals.”
Spoelstra cautioned that the expectations are not of 2006, ’12 or ’13 championship-winning Wade, but of a player, now 36, who still had his moments with the Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers in these 1 1⁄2 intervening seasons away from the Heat.
“We want him to fit in and be a part of this group,” Spoelstra said. “We’re still a team that’s built on strength of our numbers and our versatility and multiple guys contributing. You add a player of his caliber to
“I just want to come in and just be who I am. I’m not afraid of any moment.” Dwyane Wade, Heat guard
“He’s proven over the course of his career that he can reinvent himself.”
Erik Spoelstra, Heat coach
this and he can augment and help everyone become better versions of themselves.
“Dwyane will find a way to fit in. He’s proven over the course of his career that he can reinvent himself many times over to help winning, and that’s one of the things that makes him so unique as a Hall of Famer. A lot of times the Hall of Famer has to be the Hall of Famer throughout his entire career. Dwyane sacrificed during championship runs. He’s reinvented himself over the last couple of years.”
Wade said he returns without expectation, appreciative of entering a work already in progress.
“At this point,” Wade said, “Just to see from afar to see the development of Josh Richardson, to see Goran [Dragic] be an AllStar at this level, to know what [Hassan] Whiteside is capable of with 20-20 nights . ... I just want to be a part of it and bring what I can to this team.
“I’m not a coach. It’s not my job to coach and say where I should be. Coach will figure out where I fit in and how I fit in, and I just try to be the best in the role that’s presented to me either way it goes.”
With Kelly Olynyk sidelined with a shoulder injury and Rodney McGruder not yet back from preseason leg surgery, Spoelstra said Wade is returning to an evolving roster.
“We’re not fully healthy right now,” Spoelstra said, “so some of the answers are not readily available to us right now on what the rotation will be. Right now, it’s just about everybody contributing. We’ll figure out an exact rotation at some point. Let’s figure out winning right now.”
Another of the Heat’s injuries, which led to last month’s season-ending ankle surgery for guard Dion Waiters, made the move for Wade even more timely.
“Sometimes,” Spoelstra said, “things happen and you look back on it and you just think, ‘Wow, this was absolutely great timing for both parties,’ and this was one of those cases.”
Waiters had emerged as the Heat’s closer in Wade’s absence. But Spoelstra stopped short of reinstating
Wade to such a requirement.
“He could. That’s another area of his incredible greatness,” Spoelstra said. “Again, we’re not asking him to come in here and bail us out in all these situations. Other guys have developed. What he absolutely does is help everybody.”
But if a winning shot is needed ...
“First of all,” Wade said, “Dion definitely last year did an amazing job of not only making the shots, but taking them, being the guy who wanted the ball. That’s not saying guys in the locker room can’t do that. But he’s a guy who wanted it.
“I just want to come in and just be who I am. I’m not afraid of any moment. If it’s fourth-quarter time, I know what to do and that’s play the game of basketball. That’s all you do. You go out there and play your game, and you use your teammates and you go from there. If I’m in that position on this team, I’ll try to deliver as I have before — and if I don’t, sorry.”