South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Wade eager to see how Spoelstra juggles lineup
MIAMI — The ultimate challenge has yet to arrive. That will come when Goran Dragic makes his expected return in mid-February from last month’s knee surgery.
And then? And then Dwyane Wade expects something “amazing.”
In this case, one man’s “amazing” can be one coach’s ultimate agonizing.
As Erik Spoelstra continues to sort through the Miami Heat’s rotation, Wade said he appreciates the task of having so many options with such finite minutes.
“It’d be amazing if everybody stayed healthy and we got the whole roster,” Wade said ahead of Saturday’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies at AmericanAirlines Arena.
For now, the test has been reworking the rotation with Dion Waiters one week into his comeback from last January’s ankle surgery, an element of the process that further has modified the rotation equation.
“Very tough, very tough,” Wade said of Spoelstra’s decisions. “I mean, you got a lot of guys on that sideline that can play. Obviously, there’s been talk that Wayne Ellington hasn’t played and he can play for almost every team in this league and he hasn’t got in with us. And obviously, when you’ve got guys coming back, you’ve got Dion coming back. And at some point you’re going to have Goran come back.”
To appreciate where Spoelstra stands with a rotation that in Thursday night’s victory over the Boston Celtics had him going 11 deep, consider this is a franchise presided over by Pat Riley, who during his coaching days worked with the playoff maxim of, “You rotate eight players, you play seven, you use six and you trust five.”
Or you mix and match a dozen nearly equally skilled players through a first half of the season.
“Everyone wants to get to a short rotation? Right,” Wade said. “Everyone wants to get to like a nine-man rotation. But we’ve got multiple guys that can play, and it’s a long season, so I think it’s good for us right now.”
Even as the tinkering remains ongoing.
“Coach has done a good job so far, especially getting Dion back in the rotation and playing multiple guys and figuring out time,” Wade said. “But it’s not going to be ideal, it’s not going to be perfect.
“It’s a team sport and only five guys can play at a time. We’ve got a lot of guys on our team. So we’ve got to stick with it and be prepared and ready if things change.”
And ride the wave in the interim. “You play your minutes hard,” Wade said. “We have a lot of light guys, so you just keep bringing in more and more and more to a team. I enjoy it. I enjoy seeing everyone — not everybody — but for the most part, most guys being a part of it.”
For Saturday’s game, the rotation shortened itself organically, with center Hassan Whiteside sidelined by an illness that also had him out of Friday’s practice.
“Just not feeling well,” Spoelstra said. “He wasn’t able to practice yesterday and it just didn’t get any better.”
Bosh’s thoughts: A month from the third anniversary of when he was forced away from the game by a second bout with blood clots, former Heat big man Chris Bosh discussed where he stands in an interview on Fox Sports Radio.
“It’s just an end result that I can’t control,” said Bosh, who has been spending time this month at AmericanAirlines Arena, including in the Heat locker room and assisting on the team’s practice court. “I do think basketball is somewhere in there. And if not, it is what it is. I know I’m getting pretty close to having to really get serious and make a good decision about it. Those things take time.
“But I feel confident about things and where things are going and where I’m at as a person. And my health is good. I appreciate people always asking me is my health good. But people have to remember, I was upright the last time I played a basketball game.”