Heat are hopeful as training camp opens
Heat determined to show same lineup can produce better results.
The playing rotation is back, but if all else fails, there always is the Dwyane Wade Farewell Tour to keep the interest level up.
To get a glimpse of
BOCA RATON — what the Miami Heat can be this season, just pull up a clip of any game from the final three months of last season.
Not much has changed. All but two players from the team’s 15-man roster return and one of those final two spots is occupied by Derrick Jones Jr., who was part of the 17-man roster last season.
“We believe in continuity, we
believe there’s a lot of different ways to build teams,” coach Erik Spoels-
tra said. “The bottom line is there’s
one team that’s figured it out. Golden State has figured it out. They have the template right now. Everybody else is just trying to figure it out. And
some people think they have a better crack at it than others.
“Prove it.”
The Heat are trying to prove it with a team that won 44 games. And it would be hard to find another team, even those that won 60 games, returning every rotational player.
But, unless Pat Riley can pull off a deal for Minnesota’s Jimmy Butler, this is what the Heat are as they opened camp Tuesday at Florida Atlantic University. And Spoelstra has no choice but to hope the baby steps taken the last two years turn into one giant leap ... soon.
“We think that we have a unique group, a special group if we’re fully healthy,” Spoelstra said. “We have some depth and some talent that we like. That’s the only thing that mat-
ters. We think we’re better and have an opportunity to be better than last year. We don’t really care what anybody else thinks about it.”
And if all else fails, there always is the Dwyane Wade Farewell Tour to keep the interest level up. The Heat are banking on health and a full season of Wade to push this team to another level.
Center Hassan Whiteside had a nightmarish 2017-18 season that ended with him mostly being reduced to a spectator in Miami’s brief ( fifififififive games) stay in the playoffs and often venting his frustrations publicly.
Forward James Johnson was not right after suffering a sports hernia midway through the season. He had surgery in May.
Guard Dion Waiters continues to rehab after missing most of last season following ankle surgery. He is unlikely to be ready for the start of the season but should return sooner rather than later.
But take away Wade, a 12-time All-Star well beyond his prime at 36, and this team has one All-Star appearance — guard Goran Dragic. Which is why the Heat continue to push the “good to great” theme.
“We like our good to great players and our opportunity to be good to great as a team,” Spoelstra said.
Spoelstra is not wrong. The Heat’s roster is loaded with “good” players, some would say too many good players. But this is a stardriven league, where it takes superstars, usually more than one, to contend.
“We’re a team that has to play together,” guard Wayne Ellington said. “We’re a team that has to use every man. We got to use every piece to our advantage and I think we do a really good job of that.
“This is our third year of all these guys being together and I think we have no other option but to get better and show that we’re growing.”
For the second straight year, camp started without formal introductions. This group has been together so long each practice is like a family gathering.
“This probably felt more like a practice (than a camp), kind of an extension of last year’s playoff because we have so many familiar faces,” Spoelstra said following Tuesday’s practice.
For Wade, Tuesday was the start of his 16th training camp, 14th with the Heat. He knows Spoelstra so well he said Spoelstra could have gone “back to the hotel” and Wade and fellow veteran Udonis Haslem could have run practice.
“( Day 1) is the day for excitement, energy,” Wade said Tuesday. “I’m not worried about today, it’s tomorrow and the day after that, especially Thursday is the day you really worry about.
“Today is the day everybody comes in and gets it all out of your system. And now with the intensity we got to bring each day we also got to bring our minds. And that’s the thing as the days go on ... trying to keep everybody sharp in their minds and continue to get in shape.”