Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Quinn on the bench for summer league
MIAMI — Chris Quinn’s ascension on the Miami Heat bench will have him as the team’s leading man this summer, assigned by coach Erik Spoelstra to coaching the team’s summer-league entries in Orlando and Las Vegas.
Quinn, 33, who entered the NBA as an undrafted free-agent point guard with the Heat in 2006, has been with the team coaching staff for three seasons, including time with the team’s affiliate in the NBA Development League, the Sioux Falls Skyforce.
“It’s exciting for me, individually, and also a huge responsibility,” Quinn said after pushing the Heat’s summer roster through the first of three days or workouts at AmericanAirlines, in advance of Saturday’s summer-league opener in Orlando.
“Summer league is not something we take lightly.”
Among those featured on the Heat’s summer roster are first-round pick Bam Adebayo, the center out of Kentucky taken with last week’s No. 14 pick, and returning forward Okaro White, the lone player with NBA experience in the roster.
Having made his Heat playing debut in the Orlando Pro Summer League in 2006, Quinn follows in the footsteps of fellow Heat assistant coaches Dan Craig and Juwan Howard as coach of the team’s summer program.
“There is nothing like sitting in that seat and making decisions,” Spoelstra said Wednesday. “This will be a great opportunity for the next three weeks. He’s more than ready and he showed it already in the first practice.”
The Heat open their summer schedule at 11 a.m. Saturday on the practice court at the Amway Center against a similar roster of rookies, free agents and young players from the Charlotte Hornets, with the games in Orlando closed to the public. The Heat then move on to the larger Las Vegas league, which is open to the public.
After spending the 2014-15 season as an assistant coach with the Skyforce, Quinn spent the start of the 2015-16 season working from behind the Heat bench, before taking a bench role due to the illness of assistant Keith Smart. Quinn worked the bench alongside Spoelstra this past season, along with Craig and Howard.
Quinn carries the title of assistant coach/director of player development and has been a mainstay with the Heat’s summer program.
Quinn’s 3 1⁄2 seasons with the Heat including playing under both Spoelstra and Pat Riley. He also played for the New Jersey Nets, San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers, also with stints in the D-League and in Spain and Russia.
Prior to Howard coaching the Heat’s summerleague team last year, Craig had coached the Heat’s summer rosters from 2013 through 2015.
Haslem’s words
Udonis Haslem addressed the Heat’s’ summer roster at Wednesday’s session. “What better message,” Spoelstra said, “is that than a guy who graduated, literary survived and graduated, from the summer program 13 years ago, became our team captain, threetime champion and will have his numbers up in the rafters?” ... Josh Richardson worked out following the summer team’s session. He said he is halfway toward adding 10 pounds of muscle this offseason and said he did not require surgery for his wrist that was braced for much of the season . ...
Quinn said he was pleased with Adebayo’s session. “He was awesome in the first practice,” he said. “He’s a 19-year-old and he was really soaking everything in. He played really hard.” ...
White said Adebayo fit right in. “He’s a Heat guy,” he said. “Just sitting here watching him, he’s definitely a Heat guy. He works hard and he plays hard. That’s our team in general.”