Heat fail to shed weight; scrawny minutes to follow?

MIAMI — It has been four months since Pat Riley said, “We have too many good-togreat players. We have too many. We have like 11 or 12 guys.”

In the interim, like so many with optimistic summer plans, the Miami Heat have been unable to shed (roster) weight.

An argument could be made the Heat again will have just as many plug-andplay parts when training camp opens at the end of the month, perhaps even one more, depending on where you stand on the summer strides of Derrick Jones Jr.

While there is something to be said about depth, NBA attrition is nothing like what the NFL experiences. This remains a game when only five play at a time.

That again will have Erik Spoelstra in the middle of it all, either having to make difficult decisions to allow specific players to thrive in bigger minutes, or back to somewhat of the equalopportunity approach of last season, when no true star or leader emerged.

To the base that matters most, Spoelstra remains with support.

“Because Spo does a great job — he’s a championship coach — he’ll find a way to fit everyone in to help us and keep everyone in tune and everyone on the same page,” guard Rodney McGruder said at the

Heat’s recent back-toschool event. “Everyone will have an opportunity to go out there and be beneficial for the team. I just have tremendous faith in Coach that he’ll put us all in the right situation to succeed.”

But that’s the rub, no coach can put “all” in the right position to succeed. There simply aren’t enough minutes. Instead, you wind up with the type of unease that festered with Hassan Whiteside last season. There still are more power players than minutes (counting Whiteside, Kelly Olynyk, Bam Adebayo and James Johnson). There still are more than enough shooting guards to fill out a lineup of their own, when counting McGruder, Dion Waiters, Tyler Johnson, Wayne Ellington and Josh Richardson (with Riley, himself, listing that as Richardson’s natural position). And that doesn’t even get into Dwyane Wade.

Adjustments assuredly will come throughout the season — often, and likely early. Last season, the starting power rotation of Whiteside and Olynyk in the opening-night loss to the Orlando Magic turned into Jordan Mickey and James Johnson in the season’s second game, with Whiteside sidelined by a knee issue that would prove chronic.

As it is, it is possible that the Heat, for only the second time in the franchise’s 31 seasons, go with the same opening-night lineup for a second consecutive year, an opening-night five of Whiteside, Olynyk, Richardson, Waiters and Goran Dragic certainly not out of the question on Oct. 17 in Orlando. The only time the Heat went consecutive years with the same opening-night lineup was in 1998 and ’99, with the five of Alonzo Mourning, P.J. Brown, Jamal Mashburn, Dan Majerle and Tim Hardaway.

This season, McGruder should be ready for the start of the schedule, after being sidelined in camp last season by a leg issue. And this time, Waiters is anticipated to be beyond the ankle ailment that carried over into last season, leading to January surgery. Beyond that, there are the strides that have been made in the interim by Adebayo, the willingness to go into the luxury tax to retain Ellington, the aforementioned summer growth by Jones and the potential need to again have minutes for Wade.

All of that said, players expected to play. That certainly is the case for McGruder, who views his lack of playing time at the end of last season largely as the result of time lost at the start of the season.

“I wasn’t really into a rhythm,” McGruder said. “I missed four months of the season. I was kind of behind when everyone else was hitting their stride because they’ve been playing all season long. That’s the past. I could just look forward to the future and just prepare for training camp and see where the chips lay for me this time.”

Which likely will be the approach from Whiteside, Olynyk, Adebayo, James Johnson, Winslow, Richardson, Jones, Waiters, Dragic, Ellington, Tyler Johnson and possibly

Wade.

That’s 13 players who justifiably should expect to play.

There are 240 minutes per roster in a regulation NBA game, divide that by the 13 aforementioned players and it works out to 18 1⁄ per player.

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Which works for nobody. Because of that, it leaves Spoelstra on the clock perhaps more than at any point of his coaching career.

MIKE STOCKER/STAFF FILE PHOTO Coach Erik Spoelstra will have a difficult time splitting minutes for the Heat’s “good-togreat players.”

Ira Winderman