Good things coming up
The questions were finished, but Erik Spoelstra wasn’t done. If no one was going to ask about Kelly Olynyk during the Miami Heat coach’s annual season-ending media session, then Spoelstra was going to be proactive with his audience.
“I still always go back to Kelly and that free-agent call that he and I jumped on before he made the decision and really recruited him,” Spoelstra said at AmericanAirlines Arena. “but also told him how much we respected him because of the battles that we’d been in and thought that this could be a great fit for him, to transform and become even more, with a little bit more opportunity.
“And he bought into it wholeheartedly with both feet.”
For all that Olynyk added to the mix, his unique blend of 3-point shooting and how-slow-can-you go forays to the rim, the marriage between the Heat and the 7-footer in many ways was a shotgun wedding.
The Boston Celtics had to excise Olynyk’s cap hold because of their impending signing of Gordon Hayward; the Heat had to quickly turn to Plan B after losing out in their freeagency courtship of Hayward.
Olynyk not only stood as the Heat’s prized free-agent addition of last summer, but may be the last big-money free agent the Heat will be able to add for a while, capped out for the next two years with the current mix.
To Spoelstra, the Heat only are getting started with Olynyk’s possibilities.
“He already is a tremendous worker, very skilled, very well coached over his college and pro careers, that it was really fun to see his growth and his progress this year,” he said. “He became a player that I think on every team we played, just like Wayne Ellington, he was high on their scouting report — that you have to handle him to be able to handle the Heat. And it was a lot of fun.”
Spoelstra stressed from the outset that he wanted Olynyk to expand his game, to explore his ballhandling and playmaking — and never, ever shy from any and all 3-ponit attempts.
“Definitely had the best year of my career,” Olynyk said, “and keep building on that this summer. Hopefully keep expanding my game.”
Last summer, the pitch from Spoelstra and Heat president Pat Riley was an abstract. Now there is no turning back, with Olynyk appreciating that even more is expected in the wake of the Heat winding up with nothing more than a single playoff victory to show from his first season.
“Just kind of taking that same role that I have this year and just expanding it,” he said of his next Heat phase. “I’m going to do those things better. Obviously, I’ll meet with Spo and Pat and see what they have in mind and their vision.”
Olynyk said he was heartened to learn about Spoelstra making a point to reference the first year of the partnership as an expected success.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “You’re going into a new situation. Obviously, the stuff in June, the free agency happened so fast. They called me and I was signed the next day. I never came down here, I never had a face-to-face meeting. It was nothing like that. I kind of just took a leap of a faith and jumped in here.
“They were arms wide open in welcoming me and trying to help me elevate my game and take my game to the next level. It was great. It was great to be welcomed like that and to be utilized in such a different manner than I have been before.” But wait … there’s more. “Working with him,” Spoelstra said, “I think he has that kind of upside, still, at 26, that he can make another big jump this summer, particularly the way he works. He can come back something different next year.”
iwinderman@ sunsentinel.com. Follow him at twitter.com/iraheatbeat or facebook.com/ira.winderman