MIAMI – As the Miami Heat face the Boston Celtics on Monday night, it will be the home debut of the team's new additions Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson, and Davion Mitchell. The Heat are still coming off of trading Jimmy Butler to the Golden State Warriors which was preceded by many months of drama which Erik Spoelstra feels there was a bright side to the events.

Butler would go through three suspensions during January where it was a back-and-forth of questions of if the disgruntled star would be traded by the deadline or kept on the roster. Spoelstra would say after Sunday's practice that there was a huge portion of time “not having full clarity,” but through it, the team gained “some grit.”

“It was six, eight weeks of not having full clarity,” Spoelstra said. “But I think that helped our team develop some grit. Even though our record isn’t where we want it to be, it could have been a lot worse. You go through a lot of circumstances like that, I’ve seen a lot of teams just fall apart. So we were able to develop some grit that I really like when you have those opportunities during a regular season.”

Heat's Erik Spoelstra on loving the “challenge”

Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra challenges a call against the Philadelphia 76ers in the fourth quarter at Wells Fargo Center.
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Though the Heat's season has been “super mediocre” as Terry Rozier put it with a 25-25 record, Spoelstra acknowledged the challenge of the Butler drama while embracing the hurdles that came along with it.

“In general with this team, I love the challenge. I love the challenge of even the last six weeks,” Spoelstra said. “I really, really enjoyed that, I haven’t been in a circumstance like that as a head coach. And it doesn’t show with the record, but it could have been a whole lot worse. So I really enjoyed that.

“I enjoy coaching this team. It’s an ambitious group,” Spoelstra continued. “This group has the right intentions, they have big thoughts. So I want to honor that and prepare this team to play at its highest level, certainly higher levels than we’re playing right now. And that’s not only the young players, I want to drive them to a higher level. I think we’re seeing that with the young guys. Now it’s about consistency with them. But also the vets, can we get our vets to be at a 2x, 3x, 4x better level than where they are right now. We want to pour into our guys as a coaching staff and see if we can help drive improvement.”

Miami hosts Boston Monday night as they are 25-25 as said before which puts them seventh in the Eastern Conference.