Miami Heat live updates: What Spoelstra, Butler, Lowry, Adebayo are saying at media day
For the first time since March 2020, reporters are at FTX Arena on Monday to conduct interviews with Heat personnel.
Here’s a live blog from Miami Heat media day, with Erik Spoelstra, Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Kyle Lowry speaking at the podium, and other players slated for media briefings elsewhere in the arena.
ERIK SPOELSTRA SPEAKS
▪ Spoelstra said he doesn’t know when Victor Oladipo will return from May knee surgery: “I don’t have a timeline. He’s had a tremendous offseason. He’s encouraged by the work and progress.”
▪ On adding Kyle Lowry: “Kyle is somebody we’ve had great respect for. He’s a great winner. He knows how to impact winning. He’s a decorated player. All of it is earned. When you weave through all of that, the All NBAs, All Stars, it boils down to him finding a way to impact winning. He can really control a game from a classic point guard position. His mind for the game is as high as anybody in the league. He also has a unique way to be able to play off the ball. .. He can score and make plays.. Defensively, he’s physical, tough, smart.”
Spoelstra said he loves that Lowry likes to push the pace.
▪ On adding PJ Tucker: “The way he competes and puts himself out there just screams Miami Heat culture. He’s fierce, he’s tough, he’s edgy. Doesn’t give you an inch [from a defensive standpoint] when competing against him. He’s been one of the best corner space three-point shooters in this league. [All his coaches during his career] thought he was one of the more impactful players.”
▪ On adding Markieff Morris: Spoelstra likes “his versatility, positional size at 4 or 5 [power forward or center]. I respect how he’s played a lot of different roles for a lot of different programs and has found a way to make an impact in those different roles. Sometimes to be featured, sometimes to not be featured. Sometimes to come off the bench and make an impact. When we competed against him in the [2020] Finals, he played his best basketball of the entire year. That stuff matters.”
▪ He said the offseason recharged everyone: “The offseason felt long, like we were able to get away.”
▪ Spoelstra said Bam Adebayo “is one of the unique younger players in this league. It’s always been about impacting winning. That’s his greatness. He has an incredible work ethic. What I’m thrilled about this summer is he was able to go into a situation with immense pressure [the U.S. Olympic team] and find a way to be an important, winning cog in that program.”
Spoelstra said the fact he “makes free throws is really important. His range will increase. He’s a unique player. You can’t look at him from a conventional way.”
▪ Spoelstra said “we have to be agile when we need to” with COVID-19. According to a source, the Heat’s top players are all vaccinated and the Heat doesn’t expect any major issues with COVID.
▪ Spoelstra said Tyler Herro “has had a great offseason, a springboard from last season. Everything his first year was roses and compliments and easy sailing. Everything he did was considered great. If you look at last year from a statistical standpoint, his year was better in many regards. One of the keys with a young player is to handle some adversity and forge ahead and learning the league and learning how to impact winning.
“Tyler is committed to that process. It’s notable he added 10 plus pounds of muscle. We sat down and talked to him about that and he was on board with that. That will help him with durability and physicality defensively and help him be able to handle contact offensively.”
▪ The Heat won the 2019-20 Eastern Conference championship a year ago today. Spoelstra said it feels like three years ago.
▪ Spoelstra, on the offseason: “I’m just as curious to see as anyone how this all works together. We checked some boxes of things we wanted to accomplish from a personnel standpoint. We acquired some like minded people.”
▪ Spoelstra said he visited a few coaches but left “no social media trail” and declined to identify them. He said he treasured working with the U.S. Olympic basketball program this summer: “It was one of the most fruitful experiences I’ve had as a coach. It felt like a master’s class in coaching,.. strategy.”
▪ Asked about his receptiveness to playing two genuine bigs together at times, Spoelstra said: “We have the ability to play positionally big. We have the ability to play bigger centers but still have the skill in some of the things we value. There are some other ways we can go too that are really important to our team.”
▪ Spoelstra, on Gabe Vincent and Max Strus: “Those guys will be important. We’ll figure out the roles as we get going.”
▪ Spoelstra, on Omer Yurtseven: “Dwayne Dedmon and Omer give us 7-foot positional size. Omer is unique because of his skill set, shooting touch, around the basket and with range. He has a feel you can’t necessarily teach. Good instincts for rebounding. With a full year in our defensive program, he will be even more disruptive at the rim... without fouling.”
BAM ADEBAYO SPEAKS
▪ Adebayo said the “chip” on his shoulder “will never leave. It’s embedded in me. A chip can make a monster. I try to find stuff that will motivate me, like UD’s rebounding record. Seeing what D-Wade has done in his career in Miami is motivation.”
▪ He said Lowry “picks up the pace” and that will help.
▪ Where did Adebayo want to improve this offseason and where he believe he did?
“Obviously shooting. That’s everybody’s big take on me. Attacking the basket more often. Being more assertive and picking my spots where I can really excel at. And not getting bored with scoring off that every play. I did at times go in a scoring streak from one spot, and then I would go away from it.”
Will he shoot more threes? “Yeah,” he said, without expanding on that.
▪ How will Adebayo help Lowry? “I set great screens. That’s a great thing for Kyle. Gets him open, gets downhill. He really likes that pocket three. Every once in a while, he doesn’t have to be the point guard all the time. Instead of being a point guard, he can score.”
▪ Adebayo, on Tyler Herro: “He sees a lot of the doubt and a lot of the hate and he wants to prove people wrong. He’s going into the season with a bigger chip on his shoulder.”
▪ He said “my goal is to win so I can be an All Star.”
KYLE LOWRY SPEAKS
▪ Lowry said he hasn’t spoken to any of his Heat teammates yet, but noted that he’s close friends with Jimmy Butler.
▪ After spending the past nine seasons with the Raptors, Lowry said it will be an “adjustment” moving to the Heat. “It’s different for me. ... But it’s the next chapter,” he added.
▪ Lowry said he has thought about how he fits with the Heat, but he declined to share it with the media.
▪ Lowry said he hasn’t had an opportunity to play with Jimmy Butler day in and day out yet, “but that’s what training camp, preseason and the regular season is for.” He noted that he knows some of Butler’s tendencies from playing against him over the years, but it will be different as teammates.
▪ How is Butler different than other All-Star perimeter players he’s played with in the past? “He’s a little bit more crazy,” Lowry said with a laugh of his close friend.
“He wears his emotions on his sleeves,” Lowry said of Butler. “[DeRozan] and Kawhi are very quiet. [Jimmy] makes sure everyone knows there’s no [messing] around. You appreciate players like that.”
JIMMY BUTLER SPEAKS
▪ Butler on the additions: “We gained some really good players... We’ve played against one another. We know what they look to do. Spo will do a good job catering to guys’ strengths. All these new guys, we know how to play basketball.”
▪ Butler feels recharged: “I feel great. A lot of vacation time. See the world. Work on my tennis game. I got back to being away from basketball a little bit, so much that I started to miss it.”
▪ Butler said “you need those glue guys who know how to win. We added three. Each one of those guys beat me in the playoffs the last three years, which was pretty incredible.”
▪ On Lowry: “Kyle is a damn near genius knowing how to get players the ball. He takes pressure off me and Bam. He facilitates, can finish, gets to the line. He gives Bam the room to just go and be who you are and just go and not worry about too much else.”
This story was originally published September 27, 2021 at 10:17 AM.
