It’s available, but Spoelstra’s not sure he’ll go to the video

MIAMI — The coach who made his rise from the Heat’s video room is not sure there will be room for streaming video on his bench.

For the first time this season, the NBA is allowing teams to hardwire video directly to benches, allowing coaches to almost immediately look at video replays during timeouts.

Yet as progressive as he has been with his approaches, Erik Spoelstra is concerned about information overload when it comes to teaching points during stoppages.

“Knowing my style, I don’t think I’ll be showing video,” he said.

That doesn’t mean as a former video coordinator that he doesn’t appreciate the possibilities.

Instead, Spoelstra, whose team opens the regular season Wednesday night against the Orlando Magic at the Amway Center, said he would rely on his assistant coaches to scan such edits and pass along relevant teaching points before he addresses his players.

“If assistants can glean something on the bench and communicate that, I still think it’s quicker to have the eye-to-eye communication with the players,” Spoelstra said of declining to introduce video to his timeout huddles. “But that could change as we see how it’s used.”

Video use in nearly real time became an issue in the NFL last week, when New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick addressed technological pitfalls with the league’s allowance of video tablets on the sidelines.

“As you probably noticed, I’m done with the tablets,” Belichick said during a conference call. “I’ve given them as much time as I can give them. They’re just too undependable for me. I’m going to stick with pictures, as several of our other coaches do as well, because there just isn’t enough consistency in the performance of the tablets. I just can’t take it anymore.”

Spoelstra said the Heat would monitor how other NBA teams utilize the new allowances, remaining open-minded to the possibilities.

“It’ll be interesting to see how teams use it,” he said. “We’ve talked about it as a staff.”

Spoelstra said he could not envision having time to scour video while also managing a game.

“Probably not,” he said. “I think it would be the staff relaying messages or potentially on a call that is being reviewed, anyway.”

As with technology use in the NFL, the NBA will cut off use of the technology to the opposing team if either direct video connection becomes inoperative.

McCenter

Josh McRoberts said Monday not only has he has returned to contact drilling for the first time since suffering an offseason relapse of a foot injury, but said he expects most of his minutes this season to come at center.

Having played as a stretch power forward for his first two seasons with the Heat, McRoberts said the evolution of the game has him putting in most of his defensive work in the middle.

“I’m sure I’ll play mostly five,” he said. “I think that’s kind of the way the league’s going at this point.”

The Heat mostly utilized journeyman free agent Willie Reed at center behind Hassan Whiteside during the preseason.

While McRoberts has resumed contact work, guard Josh Richardson said he has yet to take that step from his September knee injury.

“It’s not looking too good,” Richardson said of being available Wednesday. “But hopefully I’ll be back as soon as possible. I don’t know. I’ve been doing some non-contact stuff, so I’ve still yet to get full, live reps.”

The Heat’s backcourt will likely be at least two players short for the opener, with Wayne Ellington still dealing with the bruised quadriceps sustained during Friday’s preseason finale.

“I’m making some progress,” he said after Monday’s practice, “but I’m not quite ready yet. I’ve still got some swelling going on. I’ve been doing treatment every day.”