How are Heat coaches handling practice time? And more from Miami’s eighth Disney practice
Here are quick hits from media availability following Sunday night’s Miami Heat practice at Walt Disney World, as coach Erik Spoelstra, center Meyers Leonard and two-way contract guard Gabe Vincent spoke to reporters on a post-practice video conference call ...
▪ With extended practice time at Disney to prepare for the restart after a four-month hiatus, Spoelstra was asked how the Heat’s coaching staff has balanced the desire to make schematic adjustments while also not messing with what worked before the stoppage.
“A little bit of both,” Spoelstra said after the Heat’s eighth practice on the NBA’s Central Florida campus. “Mostly trying to build on the habits that our team has established already, through 60-plus games. That’s the most important thing. We created an identity and we’ve have some success with that. But we also have some areas that we need to improve in, in particular the defensive end, and that’s some of the things that we’re working on right now. ... I would say it’s not like we’re trying to reinvent the whole wheel right now.”
Even though Spoelstra admitted “we all had some thoughts” about making schematic tweaks after the four-month break, he said the focus has been on getting players back into game shape and rhythm.
“We know how we want to play. We know what we stand for,” Spoelstra added. “We know what our most important principles are, on both ends of the court. It’s not like a typical training camp, where you’re introducing yourself to each other. We already went through that.”
▪ How will Spoelstra handle the Heat’s first scrimmage Wednesday against the Sacramento Kings?
“I have a bunch of things I want to accomplish,” he said. “And then I told my staff to tell me to calm down. You can’t accomplish it all that first scrimmage. So I’m not even going to try. Let’s just see who’s available. Everybody that’s available will probably play in that scrimmage.”
▪ Spoelstra, who normally wears a suit and tie for games, did not pack a tie for the Disney trip. He plans to coach the remainder of the season in casual attire, like others around the league.
“I look at it like not summer league, but more like international basketball, the attire for those tournaments,” he said. “We had already addressed it as a coaches association that we’re not going to wear suits and ties. So I did not bring any of that.”
▪ Spoelstra said guard Goran Dragic is “ready to roll” for the restart. Dragic, 34, missed practices during training camp in October after undergoing surgery on his right knee last season, but he has not had to miss extended practice time since arriving at Disney earlier this month.
▪ How does Leonard define the Most Improved Player Award? “There’s one answer,” Leonard said. “It’s Bam [Adebayo]. That’s what it is. You talk about a young player who’s developing into a superstar right in front of our eyes.”
▪ Of spending weeks in the NBA bubble without his wife, Leonard said: “I know that [Udonis Haslem] and I had a quick conversation, and he’s like: ‘Man, I miss my wife.’ I’m like, ‘You’re telling me.’ It’s like a piece of you is missing. But you just have to do your best to lock in and do your job. That’s what I’m here to do.”
Player guests are not allowed inside the NBA bubble until late August following the first round of the playoffs.
▪ Vincent said Heat coaches have had him watch film edits of elite catch-and-shoot players like JJ Redick, Kyle Korver and Reggie Miller.
“A lot of this time over quarantine, I’ve been trying to work on my off-the-ball catch-and-shoot package,” Vincent said. “As we’ve gotten closer to being in the bubble, I’ve been working on being on-the-ball more myself. So trying to work on both facets of my game, being kind of an undersized two-one combo. Try to be able to do a little bit of both.”
▪ Leonard on owning the NBA bubble’s beer-chugging title: “When somebody asks you, ‘Oh, what’s your hidden talent?’ I got to say mine might be chugging beer. People just can’t touch me, brother. It’s not close. It just isn’t. Shotguns, chugs, it doesn’t matter. Get them out of here. It’s too easy.”
▪ As of Sunday evening, Heat All-Star forward Jimmy Butler was still waiting on a definitive ruling from the NBA and National Basketball Players Association regarding his request to play without his last name on his jersey when the season restarts, according to a league source. More than 30 players have requested a blank nameplate on their jerseys, according to Vincent Goodwill from Yahoo Sports.
Butler is also the only player on the Heat’s 17-man roster who opted not to wear a social justice message on the back of his jersey.
“I hope that my last name doesn’t go on there, as well, just because I love and respect all the messages that the league did choose,” Butler said last week. “But for me, I felt like with no message, with no name, it’s going back to who I was. If I wasn’t who I was today, I’m no different than anybody else of color. I want that to be my message in the sense that just because I’m an NBA player, everybody has the same right no matter what.”
▪ The Heat is currently preparing for the resumption of the season at Disney with 15 of its 17 players. Adebayo and guard Kendrick Nunn remain in Miami, but the hope is they will join the Heat in Central Florida soon.
▪ Spoelstra began his session with the media by acknowledging the passing of John Lewis.
“He has been incredibly inspiring,” Spoelstra said. “And I love the saying that he had, ‘When you see something wrong, when you see something unjust, that it is your moral obligation to do something about it.’ I think that’s what we’re seeing really across the nation and in our NBA community right now.”
This story was originally published July 19, 2020 at 11:23 PM.
