Media mania
Heat need to show bringing back nucleus was best offseason plan
Goran Dragic and Udonis Haslem of the Miami Heat share a joke during Media Day at American Airlines Arena in Miami on Monday. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra on having most of his roster back: “This, ultimately, is what everybody wanted.” Coverage, Commentary by Dave Hyde,
Here’s a really good question to ask the Miami Heat as they start training camp with as many players from last year as any team in the NBA:
If they’re the 30-11 team that finished last season, won’t we see it immediately?
The Heat went out and bought one good player and good roster fit in Kelly Olynyk, a big man with an outside game. But good players who are good chemistry fits describe the full appeal of this team. It’s why Pat Riley kept this garage band together in the hope they grow into a concert band.
It’s why on Monday, on the edge of camp, Hassan Whiteside said, “We showed we can play together. We know how to win together. We just need to do it now.”
It’s why Tyler Johnson said, “We come from all different walks, but part of the reason we work together is we have a similar story. We all were overlooked a little bit. A lot of guys had been in the [development league] like me. A lot of guys hadn’t made their mark on the league. That’s what really allowed us to jell.”
It’s why Goran Dragic said: “We know what we are, and we’re an attacking team. We have a lot of guys who can attack with the ball bring down their [defender] into the paint. We’ve got guys to play off that, too. And [Olynyk’s] ability to spread the floor gives you a different game in that.”
There is more than a little symbolism with the fact that after Dragic led Slovenia to the European championship a few days ago, he flew back to Miami with a coach-class ticket. He tried to get a businessclass ticket, but they were sold out.
That fits the working motif. The Heat is a coachclass-ticket team. No AllStars. No pampered pedigree. Just a lot of players who overcame some doubts and got paid in the past couple of years with the hope the elevator is still going up on their careers — if the elevator is going up any more at all.
Which brings us back to the original idea: We’ll know about this team right away. If they are who they think they are, you’ll see their March and April carried into October and November. You’ll see them take advantage of an offseason marked by little change against newly assembled teams finding their footing.
“We had the best the offseason in terms of being able to bring everyone back,” Johnson said.
Part of that was Gordon Hayward turning them down for Boston. Part of that was the fact there was no whale for Riley to chase. But once the move was made for this blueprint — to bring back Dion Waiters and James Johnson — any move for Dwyane Wade would be more about marketing than winning.
Wade, at a low cost after his Chicago buyout, would be a smart move for most teams. But for a Heat team that will need to kill it in the regular season? For a roster full of perimeter players looking for time? For one built in the chemistry lab?
“We’d love him back,” Dragic said.
Riley said the same. Coach Erik Spoelstra, too. But Cleveland would be a better fit. Or Houston. Or San Antonio. You’d love Wade to finish in a Heat uniform. But this is a different team with a different outlook than the one he left.
It was just five months ago the Heat beat Washington to end the regular season, miss the playoffs and cause Spoelstra to say, “I don’t know if I’ve ever felt this way about a team before.”
He won two titles as coach and another as an assistant. But that team was special to him despite not making it out of April. Five months later, they’re all back again, all the key components. They like their team in a different way than most NBA teams this year.
They know who they are.
They just don’t know how good they can be.
In three weeks, we’ll start finding out, right from the opening tip-off.
We’ll know about this team right away. If they are who they think they are, you’ll see their March and April carried into October and November.