In the lane
FARM REPORT: Heat forward Jarnell Stokes, who was joined on the Heat’s D-League team last week by Josh Richardson for two games, said there is little minor-league about the approach with the Sioux Falls Skyforce. Stokes said former Heat assistant coach Dan Craig is keeping it interesting as Skyforce coach. “He has us motivated every game,” Stokes said. “We watched Ray Lewis highlights some games just to keep us motivated.” Stokes said the continuity between the Skyforce and Heat makes for easy transitions for players such as himself and Richardson. “I like everything about it except the commercial flights and the cold weather in Sioux Falls,” Stokes said, with Richardson spared from a South Dakota trip with his two games with the Skyforce coming in suburban Toronto. “But other than that, I like the team. We really compete. And Coach Craig, he’s really done a great job of just keeping me in tune with what’s going on in Miami.”
FARM REPORT, TOO: Stokes said it’s not what some might expect from a minor-league affiliate. “The team, in general, we play with such a defensive tenacity,” he said. “A lot of games in the D-League are like AAU games. We brought an NBA competitive spirit to the D-League.”
SUNS SET: When the Heat open their six-game western swing Friday, it will be against the remnants of the Phoenix Suns. In the wake of Goran Dragic forcing his way to the Heat at last season’s trading deadline and then the offseason trade of Marcus Morris to the Detroit Pistons, comes the latest two-game team suspension of Markieff Morris, the season-ending knee injury for Eric Bledsoe and the dismissal of two of Jeff Hornacek’s assistant coaches. So what’s the external view? “It’s self-explanatory,” Marcus Morris told Detroit’s Free Press. “You see what’s going on. Sorry to say it, but it’s self-explanatory. I don’t know what’s going on over there. It’s like a [clown] show right now.” Of Markieff, Marcus said, “He’s still looking to get out of there.”
THE LONG VIEW: Now a broadcaster with the Pistons, former Heat forward Grant Long recently spoke with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about his career. Included was an anecdote about his ill-fated (from a Heat standpoint) trade to the Atlanta Hawks along with Steve Smith for Kevin Willis on Nov. 7, 1994. “It is a great story,” Long, now 49, said. “We were getting on a plane about to go to a game out of town and Steve Smith and I are told we are going to be traded. So we are sitting there on our luggage on the tarmac talking to our agents. It was going to be either New York or Atlanta, and I had planned on moving to Atlanta in the offseason. Interestingly, we had played Atlanta in the playoffs just a few months before, and we got into this big fight with them and it was total mayhem on the court. I remember my assistant coach [current New Orleans Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry] jumping on my back and flinging him off of me and he broke his arm. Now fast-forward a few months, Steve and I were going to Atlanta.”