Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Wade appreciates role will evolve over time
He entered at point guard, spent a good deal of the night working off the ball and ended as a lategame defensive substitution.
The Miami Heat obviously know who Dwyane Wade is. There is 13 seasons of history there. But now, in this encore, the question becomes what he will be.
One game into this second chapter, even Wade isn’t sure.
“I have no idea,” he said as the Heat headed into a three-day break before resuming their schedule Tuesday against the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre. “That’s a good thing about this. We have a good team and being 36 and being a veteran, I understand what I can bring to the game.
“I’m not really concerned with it. I’m not worried with it. So whatever coach asks from not only me, but all of us to do, that’s what we have to do if we want to win. We just all have to be selfless. So Dwyane Wade will be selfless to make sure whatever it takes for this team to win, that I can hopefully bring.”
The Heat have had a revolving door behind Dragic at point guard this season, without another veteran playmaker on the roster. Justise Winslow had handled that assignment in recent weeks until his return to the starting lineup at power forward the past two games.
Based on Friday’s approach, it appears Wade’s minutes will come in reserve, with the victory over the Milwaukee Bucks just the 12th time he has come off the bench as a member of the Heat and the first time with the Heat since a Jan. 1, 2016, game against the Dallas Mavericks. The bench transition began in earnest this season with the Cleveland Cavaliers, when 43 of his 46 appearances came as a reserve.
“I’m comfortable,” he said. “I finally got into a groove. I had to learn how to get prepared for a game coming off the bench. Today in the locker room, ‘17’ (assistant coach Juwan Howard), he asked me if I wanted hot packs. We were sitting in the locker room, I was like, ‘No, there’s no need for it right now. But I’ll get it when I get on the bench.’
“But the way he looked at me when I said, ‘No I don’t need it,’ because I’ve adjusted to coming off. So for me, I like it. Right now, my career with the time I’m at and the point I’m at, and if something happens and coach needs me to get in there to start for a game or two and calls my number, I’ll do it. But I’m definitely comfortable with it.”
After averaging 23.2 minutes in his 46 games this season with the Cavaliers and 29.9 last season with the Chicago Bulls, Wade played 22:02 Friday, closing with three points on 1-of-6 shooting, two rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocked shots.
“One thing is, I don’t have to control that,” he said, contrasting to when he was a starter and would have to consider taking breathers. “The minutes I’m on the floor are the minutes I will play. I will be better at those minutes as I get more comfortable with everything. I’m not really worried about it.
“I was playing 23 minutes before I got here and I played 22 [Friday]. I’m right around my season minutes that I played.”
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra went nine deep with his rotation in the victory over the Bucks that snapped a five-game losing streak. That was with big man Kelly Olynyk sidelined for a second consecutive game with a strained left shoulder and with newcomer Luke Babbitt not seeing action.
“You have to understand when you’re coming to a new team, there’s somebody whose minutes went down because of you,” Wade said. “That’s 22 minutes that I played and somebody else didn’t. So I respect that and I understand that and I just want to be my best for that, because I have taken a few minutes from someone else.”
Wade said he appreciates the competition for minutes, with guard Rodney McGruder expected to soon be added to the equation as well, as he returns from preseason leg surgery.
“As a leader and a player in this league, I want to do my best. I definitely want to do better next game,” Wade said of having to earn his minutes. “I look at the plusminus these days and I don’t like the negative-3. So I have to do better than that the next time I step on the floor.”