Wayne Ellington is back with Heat, this time as a coach: ‘This is like home for me’
Wayne Ellington played for nine different teams through 13 NBA seasons, but his short time with the Miami Heat left a lasting impression on him.
“When I came in here, I was going into my eighth season and my trajectory as a player, I’m not exactly sure what it was because I wasn’t paying attention to that,” said Ellington, who spent two full seasons with the Heat before he was traded in the middle of his third season with the organization in February 2019. “But when I got here, I know that I bought in and I think I changed that trajectory. I think I was able to reinvent myself as one of the top shooters in the NBA.
“When I got here, I really bought into what the culture was about, I really bought into what the coaching staff was preaching and I put the work in and I saw that change and it helped me become who I thought I could be as a player. That connection I feel like embedded me here for life. People talk about ‘Heat Lifer’ and stuff, and it’s not just guys who play here for their whole career. It’s guys that make the relationships, build the relationships and grow the relationships. Even when you leave, you maintain them. I came back for some playoff games this past year and when I came back in the building, it felt like I never left. Even that was just a good example for me that this is like home for me.”
Maintaining those relationships paid off, as Ellington, 35, was hired this offseason to join Erik Spoelstra’s Heat coaching staff as a player development coach. This season marks Ellington’s first NBA coaching experience after last appearing in a game on April 10, 2022, as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Ellington replaces Anthony Carter, who left the Heat this summer to join the Memphis Grizzlies’ coaching staff.
“Wayne and I have kept in touch every single year,” Spoelstra said. “We’ve constantly texted throughout the seasons, and he’s a perfect fit. I’ve gotten to this point in my career now, I don’t know if it’s a good thing or bad thing but it just makes me feel older, that I’ve had a lot of former players now that have retired that have reached out about getting into coaching. So the list was a lot longer than I anticipated, and Wayne was on that list. He reached out right away and it was a name that when I brought it up to everybody in the building, everybody said yes and said it was just the perfect fit.”
So far, so good for Ellington as the Heat goes through training camp this week at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.
“It’s been great, honestly,” Ellington said when asked about his first training camp as a coach. “There have been some moments where I’m like ready to jump in line and participate in a drill. But at the same time, it’s been great. It’s been a learning experience. I never knew really how much was put into the coaching side of things. I’ve been able to show up and hoop and shoot and focus on that end of it. But there are a lot of details, there are a lot of meetings, there are a lot of conversations, there’s a lot of strategizing that goes into the coaching side of it that now I’m learning.”
While Ellington’s time with the Heat as a player wasn’t long, it was productive. Labeled the “The Man with the Golden Arm” because of his excellent three-point shooting, he shot 38.4 percent on 6.9 three-point attempts per game in 164 regular-season games (27 starts) with the Heat.
Some of the best seasons of Ellington’s career came in Miami. He hit a career-high 227 three-pointers during the 2017-18 season to set a Heat record for the most three-pointers made by a player in a single season that Duncan Robinson has since surpassed.
Naturally, the Heat’s best three-point shooters have already begun working with Ellington before, during and after practices during training camp this week.
“I’ve worked with I think all the shooting guys so far,” Ellington said. “It’s just a natural fit. Duncan, I obviously already knew. Tyler [Herro], we got some work in already. I show up and guys already call me ‘Weezy,’ my nickname. It’s fun.”
Ellington is the fourth member of the Heat’s coaching staff with NBA playing experience, joining Chris Quinn, Malik Allen and Caron Butler. All four spent time with the Heat during their playing careers.
“It’s honestly not that hard,” Ellington said when asked whether it’s hard to not be on the court as a player at training camp practices. “If I felt like it was going to be hard, I wouldn’t have taken the position because I didn’t want to create any confusion for myself. That’s primarily why I took that year off with my family to really make that adjustment and make sure that this is something I want to do.”
Ellington took last season off, spending time with his family and using the opportunity to decide what he wanted to do next. What he learned was that he wanted to stay around the NBA.
“That’s the most time I spent at home ever,” Ellington said of last season. “I got comfortable. I played my daddy duties, I was picking my kids up from school and dropping them off and all the things in between. It was fun and it was good and it was healthy for me. But at the same time, that whole time I was doing it, something was missing. Being back here in the gym, I think that’s exactly what it was.”
The only players who are currently on the Heat’s roster who were also around during Ellington’s time with the Heat from 2016 to 2019 are Bam Adebayo, Josh Richardson and Robinson.
“It’s funny, while I was playing I got asked that question a lot like, ‘Hey, when you’re done, you got to consider coaching,’” Ellington said. “Even on different teams that I went to. People were like, ‘When you’re done, you should really consider coaching.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t know. We’ll see. That’s a lot to manage.’ But here I am.”
Now, Ellington feels like this is exactly where he should be.
“I’m here to help, I’m here to serve,” Ellington said, “I’m here to help the guys continue to get better and ultimately help win a championship.”
This story was originally published October 5, 2023 at 9:00 AM.
