Spoelstra pleased team brought back

Group wanted chance to build on last season

Even while half a world away, Erik Spoelstra spoke Thursday of how he embraced the reality that little changed with the Miami Heat’s world this offseason.

In advance of his participation in Saturday’s NBA Africa Game in Johannesburg, South Africa, the Heat coach offered his first public comments since the team re-signed Dion Waiters, James Johnson and Udonis Haslem and also retained Wayne Ellington and most of the rest of the core that sparked the team to a 30-11 finish to last season.

“I think it’s been pretty well documented that everybody wanted an opportunity to bring the group back together,” he said. “Nothing is guaranteed, obviously, in this league, but the way the group and the team came together, connected and competed for each other, that the group wanted an opportunity to explore this further and we were given that opportunity, I think everybody obviously is pretty excited about it.”

Even as Spoelstra has spent these past few days involved in clinics and community outreach in South Africa, many of his players have returned to the practice court at American-Airlines Arena.

“You can feel it and you can see it,” Spoelstra said. “So we’re

“But we love our group. We love the fact that we were able to bring the majority of the team back together ...” Erik Spoelstra, Heat coach

getting close to training camp — we’re not there yet — but the guys are really excited about getting back to work.”

Despite the 30-11 finish, the Heat still closed 41-41, missing the playoffs by a tiebreaker. That has had players such as Tyler Johnson and Justise Winslow stressing in recent days that there can be no assumption of picking up where they left off.

“We’re going aim high and ultimately we’ll find out when we start playing games,” said Spoelstra, who was joined on the trip by Heat Assistant General Manager Adam Simon. “But we love our group. We love the fact that we were able to bring the majority of the team back together and add some guys that we think can help.”

Among the newcomers are free-agent addition Kelly Olynyk, the forward signed away from the Boston Celtics, and firstround pick Bam Adebayo, the big man out of Kentucky.

“We think Kelly can help. And we think Bam can help,” Spoelstra said. “Adding Justise back into the mix, we think that’ll help considerably. So we’re excited about it. But we also understand how tough it is in this league.”

It was mere days after an unsuccessful courtship of Utah Jazz free-agent forward Gordon Hayward that Spoelstra and Heat President Pat Riley immediately reached out to Olynyk.

“Usually it’s a couple of things with players,” Spoelstra said of the swift signing of Olynyk. “One, we respected his competitive spirit when we played against him. And we felt that competitiveness fit our personality. You never know until you end up coaching somebody, but our experiences against him were something that we really expected.

“And then, secondly, his skill set is something that we think fits really well with the guys that we have. He’s a very skilled big that can do a lot of different things. He fits well into our position-less style of basketball, because he can play with basically any combination of players, and I think what he does highlights a lot of the strengths of guys that we currently have,”

The additions of Olynyk and Adebayo ultimately left the Heat without minutes in the power rotation for free-agent center Willie Reed, who emerged as a key component during last season’s resurrection. Reed instead signed a one-year contract with the Los Angeles Clippers.

“It is always tough in this league, because it is a business,” Spoelstra said, “but ultimately you still want to be able to build relationships, communicate through the process of business. I called Willie right after he signed in LA and wished him luck and thanked him again for everything that he did with us and his contributions this year. And obviously that relationship will continue. We’re always going to root for him.

“I think he’ll be a great fit there, coming off the bench. I think you’ll see a lot of what he provided us, but out there. So my philosophy on that is we’re always in the business to help players while we’re trying to build championship-level, competitive teams. But we’re here to help players reach their dreams, as well. So if players do sign somewhere, I just hope it’s in the West and not in the East.”