South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Offseason moves: Size matters
If you didn’t know better, you might think Erik Spoelstra is considering something big this season for the Miami Heat.
Among the team’s initial moves in the offseason were drafting the powerful presence of Memphis big man Precious Achiuwa at No. 20 and then re-signing 7-foot Meyers Leonard to a two-year, $20 million contract.
That is in addition to bringing back Bam Adebayo, Kelly Olynyk, Udonis Haslem and Chris Silva in the power rotation, as well as adding the muscled possibilities of undrafted free agent Paul Eboua.
At a time the NBA is downsizing, the Heat appear intent on a potential power play.
“I feel like it’ll work because we brought back a lot of skilled big men,” Adebayo said, as the Heat looked ahead to Sunday’s start of team camp drills at AmericanAirlines Arena. “All of us are versatile.
“When you got bigs that are versatile, that can help the team and help the guards do different things; it just makes our team better. Then you have two of us out there on the court at the same time, it’s a big difference. I feel like being so versatile at the big spot is going to help us out a lot this year.”
The Heat were outrebounded by the Los Angeles Lakers in all six games of the NBA Finals while falling 4-2, including 54-36 in the series opener. In the wake of that punishment at the hands of the Anthony Davis and the Lakers’ big men, there could be some recalibration when it comes to muscling up.
“When you want to win at the highest level and get that final win, you have to have pretty much everything,” Spoelstra said. “You have to check a lot of different boxes.
“You have to be tested, but you have to have an incredible versatility. You have to be able to have a lot of different kinds of things for different circumstances. And opponents at that level, the elite of the elite, pose answers for every kind of question.
“So you have to be able to bring a lot of different things. We feel really good about who we’ve added and the versatility we’ve added, not only on the perimeter but also from a size standpoint.”
Leonard who played as a starter during the regular season before giving way to Jae Crowder in the playoffs when the Heat went to a smaller-ball approach, said Saturday he sees the potential of something big again, with Crowder having moved on to the Phoenix Suns in free agency.
“I don’t know that we’re looking at ‘bully ball,’ ” Leonard said. “I’m a unique five. Bam is a very unique four-five. Obviously Bam has size, strength, athleticism, all those things, but he’s incredibly skilled. He can play out on the floor, handle the ball, get others involved.
“And then I’m unique because I shoot 40% from 3 and do something totally different than most traditional centers do. I just think that Bam and I complement each other very well.
“I think it’s going to be good to have big bodies. Throughout an NBA season, that tends to, in my opinion, help a team. You can wear on teams. You can do different things. You can pound the glass.”
Leonard cautioned not to put limitations on the Heat’s size.
“Just because some of us are big men doesn’t necessarily mean we’re put in a box and, ‘Oh, man, if a team goes small, there’s nothing we can do about it,’ ” he said. “No, we still have plenty of athleticism, plenty of versatility at the big position and all the way throughout our roster.”