In the lane

BACK AT IT: The first major step since his recovery from last season’s achilles tear came Wednesday for former Heat guard Mario Chalmers, with his tryout with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The irony is that the Cavaliers are seeking a veteran playmaker at the request of LeBron James, the same player who successfully lobbied for Chalmers to be replaced by Ray Allen in the starting lineup in James’ final game with the Heat, Game 5 of the 2014 NBA Finals. But that was then, apparently, and this is now. “There’s a brotherhood that we’ve built,” James said when asked of Chalmers’ audition. “I stayed in touch with pretty much everybody I played with in Miami.” James since his return already has offered refuge in the Cleveland locker room for former Heat teammates Mike Miller, James Jones and Chris Andersen. It is the type of atmosphere that Chalmers, writing in The Players’ Tribune, said he again wants to embrace. “I want to get back to the Finals,” Chalmers wrote. “Once you know what it takes to get there, you can’t play any other way.” HIM, TOO: Included in the Cavaliers’ tryout was James’ former Indiana Pacers nemesis Lance Stephenson ,heof the blowing in James’ ear during the height of Heat vs. Pacers in the 2014 playoffs. “I just want to win, man,” James said when asked about Stephenson potentially going from rival to teammate. “That’s all that matters to me. I got no personal problems with nobody.” CHANGING TIMES: Among the reasons mentioned by Charlotte for adding Roy Hibbert in the offseason was to have a counter to Hassan Whiteside, after falling to the Heat in last season’s opening round of the playoffs. But that was then, and now the Heat are a playoff long shot. So Hibbert is now with Milwaukee, traded for Miles Plumlee. “I think that we had pretty high expectations when we signed Roy and, as you know, he had a really good first game, but then he had some injuries, and it’s kind of tough to get in a rhythm, into a groove, when you’re up and down with the injuries,” Hornets general manager Rich Cho said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t work for Roy here, but one thing that you have to do when you’re a team, when you feel like something’s not working, try and move on quickly.” Hibbert had 15 points and 10 rebounds in the Hornets’ season opener, then no points and one rebound the next game, against the Heat, when his knee swelled up four minutes into that game. REPRESENTING: Jason Williams and Rashard Lewis now have something in common beyond winning championships with the Heat. The two former Heat players have been named co-captains of the 3 Headed Monsters team that will compete in the Big3 offseason three-on-three league, one of eight five-player teams in the halfcourt league headed by former Heat guard Roger Mason Jr., who will serve as commissioner. The league opens June 24 on Saturdays at venues across the country, with no set home-designated cities. Among other former Heat players committed to the league are Mike Bibby and Jermaine O’Neal. HONORED TO BE HONORED: Feted as part of the Rockets’ 50th-anniversary celebrations, ex-Heat forward Shane Battier said only now do such moments truly resonate. “I’m much more nostalgic now as a 38-year-old retiree looking back at what I accomplished than when I was in the middle of it,” he told the Houston Chronicle.