Some might label this offseason for the Miami Heat as a failure after missing out on Bradley Beal, Jrue Holiday, and most notably, Damian Lillard. As the team ends their week of training camp, head coach Erik Spoelstra is confident with the current roster heading into the season.
While that can easily be seen as “coach-speak,” Spoelstra doubled down and said during training camp this week that he feels the team is deeper than last year, even though they lost key pieces like Gabe Vincent and Max Strus to free agency in the summer.
“I think we're deeper than we were last year. So guys are fighting and competing,” Spoelstra said. “We're not really talking about the rotation or that kind of thing. Yeah. I have some time. Not a lot of time, but we'll figure it out.”
Heat have a good mix of veterans and youth
The Heat do have an intriguing roster with a solid mix of returning players that have brought past success, as well as a young core that can take a next step. Some of those players include exciting prospects such as Nikola Jovic, rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr., R.J. Hampton, and others.
For star Bam Adebayo, those young players have stood out to him and said it's made this particular training camp more unique than the rest.
“The young guys made us better,” Adebayo said to the media. “You know, they've been in the gym this whole summer learning our system, learning how we uphold ourselves to a certain standard.”
A different ‘vibe' to Miami
It seems to be a good balance of returners and youth on the Heat, an observation that Spoelstra has made himself. He said during training camp that this team has a different “vibe” to it.
“I really like that. It felt different enough, but we were able to be actually up and move quick because we did bring a lot of guys back, but the team definitely has a different feel every season and every team is different,” Spoelstra shared. “When you're bringing back a lot, other main players tend to think that there will be quite similar and it just has a totally different vibe. But of course, it's early on, but we had a very productive week.”
Heat had successful week of training camp
Talking about the “Heat Culture” sounds like a broken record to this point, but it's hard to turn a blind eye to the system Pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra have built in rewarding competition and overcoming adversity. Even for Miami's standards however, Spoelstra said that the competition has been on a high level and it's been a successful week of training camp.
“I just think we got a lot accomplished. We checked the boxes we wanted to coming into this start to build that connection,” Spoelstra told the media. “Definitely had some great competition and ended on a great note. Last night we had a barbecue and today we had a good-focused practice.”
The depth of this team will be put into test next week as Monday marks the “Red, White, and Pink” game–which is a scrimmage within the team. On Tuesday, the Heat will play their first preseason game of the season as they face the Charlotte Hornets at the Kaseya Center.
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