Spoelstra to Wade: Be the maestro
CHARLOTTE — There was a point during Sunday’s preseason opener in San Antonio when, if you didn’t know better, you might have thought Dwyane Wade was planning to go out like Kobe Bryant, as the focus to the final NBA breath.
It may not have been the Heat’s intention — and it certainly wasn’t his, amid his preference for playmaking — but he led the team in shots during his first-half minutes, the only minutes he played.
When it was over, as coach Erik Spoelstra assessed his team’s play in the 104-100 loss to the Spurs, among the takeaways stressed by Spoelstra was that teammates had to stop watching center Hassan Whiteside scrap for rebounds on his own, and instead become active participants on the glass. In a way, the same could be said for viewing Wade, 36, through the prism of former NBA scoring champion.
For Wade, it’s a matter of teammates appreciating he is not the same player as when he helped lead the Heat to three NBA championships. Nor does he want to be. He, instead, wants this 16th and final NBA season to help develop the team’s next rendition.
“I liked the spacing,” Wade said after tying for the team lead with his four assists. “As we get in better shape and learn each other a little bit better with just playing more, you can see better opportunities.
But I wasn’t disappointed at all with the first opportunities that we had together. I think guys got to their strengths and that’s what Coach preaches.”
To Spoelstra, few are as equipped to help maximize this Heat roster.
“I don’t need to even overstate Dwyane Wade, but there’s a reason why we all wanted him back and why I was making a big push to get him back,” he said. “There are a lot of really interesting, versatile pieces that we have on this team, and we have a lot of speed, we have a lot of youth, we have a lot of versatility.
“You need a maestro to be able to bring it all together and that’s what you see. It’s so much more coherent when he’s out there and he’s using his brain and his mind to help the whole team. That’s the genius of a Hall-of-Fame player.”
Wade, acquired at February’s trading deadline, said he is more than willing to conduct, to create shots beyond his own.
“I’m a playmaker,” he said. “That’s just in my nature. It’s: Put pressure on the defense. Score the basketball. Play-make first and then score from there.
“It doesn’t change for me. I’m always trying to put pressure on the basket and get to the middle of the paint, make the defense make a decision — either me or the big with help defense — so I can spray to other guys.
“So when I get in the game, right away I just want to be able to draw two, so I can make plays for others and then give myself the opportunity to strike also.”
Wade said he appreciated the extended early run from his coach, even if he was feeling it afterward.
“I felt good,” he said, with the Heat turning their attention to the second stop on this threegame trip, Tuesday night against the Charlotte Hornets at the Spectrum Center. “Obviously, you get tired and your legs get a little heavy. I left a couple shots out there that I would like to get back. But that just comes over time.
“Coach made sure he pushed me. I played like 17 [minutes] in the first half. I don’t think I’ve done that in a long time. So it was good. It was good to get out there and to move around. So I felt good.”