Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Spoelstra and team turn focus to cuts, chemistry, pace
Next stop is the start of the regular season
MIAMI — What matters next for the Miami Heat is what counts the most, Wednesday night’s season opener against the Orlando Magic.
But Erik Spoelstra nonetheless took a moment Friday before his team closed the preseason at 4-4 with a foulfilled 113-110 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers to reflect on what has been accomplished over this past month.
“We’ve made progress,” he said, eight exhibitions down and 82 regularseason games to follow, “and that’s what we set out to do, is create an identity of how we want to play.
“Our guys are getting a better understanding of what’s important to us on both sides of the ball. Guys also have worked at connecting, communicating better. I think the last month has been productive.”
The group, however, will not look the same when the Heat take the court Wednesday at the Amway Center. Already Stefan Jankovic and Keith Benson have been waived, with five more cuts required from the current pretime season-maximum 20-player roster by 5 p.m. Monday. Some of the cuts will come as soon as the 5 p.m. Saturday waiver deadline.
“It is tough, because this is their livelihood,” Spoelstra said. “And the guys in particular that have spent the entire summer with us, they’ve put in a lot of investment, sweat investment with us, and we have reciprocated everything we have to offer to them, and serve and help them to become, hopefully, better basketball players.”
As is the expectation with Jankovic