DJ at camp aims to mute outside noise

BOCA RATON — The soundtrack of the Miami Heat’s training camp at Florida Atlantic University has been the ringing of whistles, the bouncing of balls, the deflection of trade rumors . . . and healthy doses of scribbling, spinback, stutter.

Because even if they don’t have Jimmy Butler, there always is the DJ booth at the northeast corner of the gym to help mute the outside noise.

“I love it,” coach Erik Spoelstra said of again featuring a live DJ and booth to accompany the weeklong drilling.

While the upgrade in the sound system on the practice court at AmericanAirlines Arena goes back to the Pat Riley coaching era, to allow for his high fidelity preference for Springsteen and Motown, the mobile DJ booth is in its second year of operation during Heat camp at FAU.

The idea was sparked when Spoelstra, in making his annual rounds to observe coaching at football camps, visited with Chip Kelly at Oregon nearly a decade ago.

“He was doing this far before anybody else,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat’s camp and soundtrack to continue at FAU through Saturday’s public scrimmage. “I walked into his first practice and I said, ‘This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,’ and we brought it back to back to Miami. We didn’t have a DJ those years, but we always played music.”

For the Heat, it is a carryover from its game-day experience, which features the beats of Ian Groucher, better known as D.J. Irie.

It also is a carryover from the team’s practice court, where playlist approval goes through Dan Bisaccio, the team’s assistant video coordinator who offers his own high-octane approach to running drills alongside and against players.

“He feels that he’s our home DJ in our practice facility,” Spoelstra said. “He’s the one that controls the playlist. I really honestly have to give him money to play the music I want to play. I’m far down the pecking order with the players.”

Spoelstra said he hardly had to be sold on the idea.

“No,” he said, “I had to be the seller. I love it.”

Waiters’ weight: With various photos of Dion Waiters circulating on social media, Spoelstra on Thursday downplayed conditioning concerns, saying the sidelined guard was where what could be expected.

“Taking everything into consideration, yes,” Spoelstra said, with Waiters working his way back from January ankle surgery, not expected to return until after the Oct. 17 regular-season opener. “He’s working. Either you’re going to be on the court with us . . . if you’re healing from something, we’re going to find something you’re able to do to work your cardio and be smart about it. That’s the biggest thing.”

Spoelstra added that Waiters is meeting the expected conditioning thresholds.

Skyforce showdown:

Spoelstra changed things up at Thursday’s practice by playing Heat vs. Skyforce.

The six players on the camp roster eligible to be sent to G League Sioux Falls are Briante Weber, Jarnell Stokes, Malik Newman, Marcus Lee and two-way players Duncan Robinson and Yante Maten.

“Today we spiced it up a little bit,” Spoelstra said. “Sioux Falls guys played on their own team today. That added a little bit more competition. They wanted it, so they got it.

“But I think this is part of the training camp where you can make the most gains. This was our most competitive, but most coherent intentional practice and that’s what you want to see. You want to see it when the guys start to have excuses or bodies aren’t feeling like they want it to feel and they’re able to respond in the right way.”

Lee, the undrafted forward out of Cal, missed the latter stages of practice with a calf injury.

Point guard Goran Dragic, who had missed Wednesday’s session due to a sore ankle, returned Thursday.

“He was able to go through the majority of the practice,” Spoelstra said. “I finally had to pull him at the end. He didn’t have anything to prove in this one. He was going to go through the whole distance, but I kept him out of the very last scrimmage.”