Why is the Heat using Udonis Haslem more this season? ‘I don’t trust anybody more than UD’
Forward Udonis Haslem’s impact is mostly felt off the court at this stage of his NBA career as a team captain who hasn’t been a consistent part of the Miami Heat’s rotation since the 2014-15 season.
But Haslem, 41, was called upon to play meaningful minutes for the short-handed Heat on Wednesday and didn’t disappoint in a 113-98 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. With two members of Miami’s frontcourt rotation unavailable due to injury in starting center Bam Adebayo and forward Markieff Morris, Haslem entered as the Heat’s first substitution in the second half and helped spark a third-quarter run.
Haslem was called into the game with the Heat ahead by one and 6:21 remaining in the third quarter. He played the rest of the period and posted a plus/minus of plus-10 to help send Miami into the fourth quarter with an 11-point lead.
“I just try to preach to stay ready so you don’t have to get ready to these guys,” Haslem said with the Heat right back at it Thursday against the Washington Wizards at FTX Arena (7:30 p.m., Bally Sports Sun). “Obviously, when I get an opportunity to go out there and play, I can’t just talk about, I got to be about it. So for me, I try to preach to my guys that I am who I really say I am and I want those guys to be who they say they are every night we step on the floor.”
Haslem, who is in his 19th season, contributed two points, three rebounds, one assist, one block and a drawn charge during his six-minute stint to close the third quarter. He also played the final minute of the first half on Wednesday.
“UD gives you that emotional ignitability,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “That’s tangible, but you can’t put an analytic to it. But he gave us a great emotional spark, made some plays. Of course, he’s going to take a hit. But the block and then running the floor. All of that, you could just feel it lift up our team, which was great to see. I’ve seen that so many times, that emotional lift.”
Although there are some who claim he’s just occupying a valuable roster spot as a player who barely gets into games, Haslem doesn’t feel that he needs to prove anything because he’s still confident in his abilities even as the oldest active player in the NBA.
“I think everybody is so critical. Every time I make a mistake, it’s my age,” Haslem said. “Anybody can trip. A 5-year-old can trip, a 6-year-old can trip. But if a 40-year-old trips, he’s old. So for me, it’s funny. But at the same time, I tell people all the time: As long as I stay healthy, I can still play this game. My body is key right now, but my mind still moves at a rapid pace. I’m ahead of the plays, I can get to charges, I can get to recovery, I can switch pick-and-rolls and stay in front of the ball. For me, it’s just about health at this stage of the game.”
The Heat has turned to Haslem early this season more than it has in a long time. In part because of injuries, but Spoelstra also admitted that the coaching staff discussed finding more minutes for Haslem this season.
Haslem, who has spent his entire NBA career with the Heat, played in just one game last season and five games in the last two seasons. But he has already appeared in four of the first 15 games this season.
“That’s one of the things that we looked at last year during the summer,” Spoelstra said. “We spent a lot of time. It felt like we had a super long offseason. But in those situational minutes out of reflection, it was like I don’t trust anybody more than UD.
“You can trust him to execute offense, to do his job defensively and he’s just going to kind of settle everything. Then the second thing is, you know, this year this team is a little bit more of a veteran team, and I think it just fits for those kind of spot minutes. He’s right in his element. Those guys, they all speak the same language.”
Haslem said Heat president Pat Riley told him this past summer “that you can be called on more so than years in the past.”
“I really respect the fact that he gets in there, he takes a charge, he gets a bucket, he gets a block, he’s rebounding,” Heat star Jimmy Butler said. “He’s doing everything that everybody doesn’t want to do and that just goes to his character and why he’s been playing in this league for so long.”
Heat guard Tyler Herro added: “He’s the lifeblood of this team even though he doesn’t play. He’s a guy that’s going to continue to come in every single day. You would think it’s his first year the way he’s communicating and helping guys get through certain things.”
Haslem has remained ready in recent seasons despite little play time with the help of one-on-one games against Butler on the Heat’s practice court before games and after practices.
“We play together all the time,” Butler said. “We’ll be upstairs [on the practice court], but don’t nobody see it. He makes everybody better, seriously. He’s up there contesting shots, playing some hard-nosed defense on myself and Bam sometimes, on whoever else. It’s keeping everybody ready. Making sure that everybody is in a rhythm, everybody is in shape and everybody is comfortable out there on the floor. I’m grateful for it.”
Haslem is the oldest player to appear in a game for the Heat in franchise history. He’ll turn 42 in June and also currently holds the longest streak by any active player with only one team in the league.
That streak could continue, too, as Haslem recently told the Miami Herald that his goal is to get to 20 NBA seasons as “a gift to myself, my family and my father.”
Haslem knows his impact is mostly felt in the locker room and on the practice court at this stage of his career. But Wednesday was important because it proved what he has been insisting for the past few years: He can still impact winning on the court.
“For me, I want the emotional lift to come from my actions, what I do on the basketball court,” Haslem said. “I don’t want it to come from the crowd cheering just because I checked in. I can check in and be a minus-50 and the crowd is still going to cheer. That’s not what I’m here for. I’m here to contribute to wins. I don’t want just the burst just because UD checked in. UD still has a job. When I step on the basketball court, my job is to help us win games and contribute.”
This story was originally published November 18, 2021 at 10:13 AM.
