Heat news: Erik Spoelstra surprised Goran Dragic was willing to take role coming off the bench

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was surprised that veteran guard Goran Dragic was willing to come off the bench.

Goran Dragic is thriving with the Miami Heat, but doing so under a new role. The veteran point man has excelled as one of Erik Spoelstra's first men off the bench, but the helmsman couldn't have predicted a transition so smooth.

Spoelstra first reached out to the Slovenian international after he returned from a clean-up procedure in his right knee. Dragic accepted, knowing Spoelstra was asking with the best intent in mind.

“I didn’t know necessarily which direction it would go,” Spoelstra told Shandel Richardson of The Athletic. “Goran is one of the ultimate winners in this league. He’s been on a lot of good teams. He’s been Option 1 or Option 2 for the last decade for every team that he’s played on. You have to have somebody like Goran who thinks about the big picture, thinks about what’s best for the team. He has that kind of emotional stability that allows us to have a coherent, open discussion. When we put together the basic framework of potentially bringing him off the bench, it was not decided that day. It was just a discussion that this may actually be effective.”

It was a tall ask for a veteran player that had led teams to playoff series and was named an All-Star as recently as 2018. But the 6-foot-3 floor general chose to do what Spo knew was best for the team.

“At the end of the day, it’s just playing basketball,” said Dragic, who is averaging 16.8 points and 4.9 assists on 47% from the floor this season. “I’m doing my job and I’m just ready to help my team. Nothing has changed. Of course, everybody is looking to be with the starters. I don’t look at it that way. It’s all good. I’m playing well. Most of the game, I’m in the game at the end. All that matters is we win. We have a deep bench. As long as we share the ball and we play together, we’ll be good.”

The Heat are 7-3 and looking much better than most analysts and pundits expected them to this early in the season. Spoelstra and the Heat benefitted from Dragic's unselfishness — and now both parties are reaping the beautiful fruits of it.