Erik Spoelstra on Goran Dragic’s evolution into becoming a ‘steward’ of ‘Heat Culture’
It has been almost six years since Goran Dragic was traded to the Miami Heat in the middle of the 2014-15 season. A lot has changed since then.
Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade have since retired, other players have come and gone through the Heat organization, and Dragic has continued to evolve as a player and leader.
With Bosh and Wade out of the locker room and 40-year-old team captain Udonis Haslem left leading from the bench, Dragic has become one of the Heat’s primary on-court leaders. After all, the 34-year-old Dragic is in his sixth season with the organization.
“I just think he has gotten a lot more comfortable with his stature, not only in the league but with this organization and as a winning player in this league,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Dragic’s evolution into a team leader before Miami and the Indiana Pacers faced off in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series Monday. “I have been able to see this firsthand. When you go see him with his Slovenian national team, he is the team captain, the leader, the vocal leader, the emotional leader, the leader by example. Then on many of his teams in the NBA and early on with us, he was the leader by example.”
But Dragic is no longer a Heat newcomer. The veteran guard is the second-longest tenured Heat player on the current roster behind only Haslem, who has spent each of his 17 NBA seasons in Miami.
“He has gotten much more comfortable in our culture, he is now becoming a steward of the culture much like UD and Dwyane and CB before,” Spoelstra said of Dragic. “Those guys helped guide him early on, but now he is the veteran experienced player. I see him so often guiding Tyler [Herro] and Duncan [Robinson] and [Kendrick] Nunn. It has been a beautiful thing to see evolve in him. He has such great leadership qualities about him. He can communicate and connect with virtually every kind of personality in this association.”
That’s high praise for Dragic from Spoelstra.
Dragic has impressed on the court, too. He averaged 22.7 points on 48.1 percent shooting from the field and 47.8 percent shooting on threes, and 5.7 assists in the first three games of the series.
Considering Spoelstra called Dragic “a steward of the culture,” it’s hard to imagine Dragic leaving Miami as a free agent this offseason.
Dragic is in the fifth and final season of the $85 million deal he signed in the summer of 2015, but Miami has an advantage over other teams in the Dragic free-agent sweepstakes because it owns his full Bird Rights that allow for the Heat to exceed the salary cap to sign him to another deal. But with Miami looking to preserve max cap space for the 2021 offseason, it could be limited this offseason to offering Dragic a lucrative one-year deal before using his Bird Rights to sign him to another deal in 2021.
“That’s my guy,” Heat All-Star wing Jimmy Butler said of Dragic. “He’s just a great human being. He does whatever it takes to win, whether it’s coming off the bench, when he knows that he’s a starter and he knows that he’s an All-Star, or starting like he’s doing right now. He’s just so smart and he’ll do anything, absolutely anything for anybody. But more than anything, he’s a proven winner.”
THE HEAT’S NEW ONE-THROUGH-FIVE
Spoelstra was asked Sunday if he could think of a player he has coached who carried as much responsibility as Heat All-Star center Bam Adebayo currently does on both ends of the court.
“I can,” Spoelstra answered. “But I’m not going to mention the name. You guys can probably figure it out from there. But yeah, I have. Bam, I challenge him daily to take on all the one through five responsibilities on both ends of the court and he just gobbles it up. He’s one of the most dynamic, unique and impactful players in this entire association. He will continue to get better because of his approach. When I say better, everybody just assumes I’m talking about numbers. I’m talking about winning. This guy is going to continue to figure out how to win bigger and help your team advance.”
It was well-documented during the Big 3 era that Spoelstra gave superstar LeBron James the nickname of “one-through-five” for his ability to play and defend all five positions. Spoelstra has also made the most of Adebayo’s versatility, using him to play and defend almost every position on the court.
▪ Heat rookies Chris Silva (strained left groin) and Gabe Vincent (sprained right shoulder) missed Monday’s Game 4. Silva and Vincent also did not play in the first three games of the series.
This story was originally published August 24, 2020 at 9:14 AM.
