Eastern Notes: Splitter, Wade, Millsap

The Hawks announced via press release that Tiago Splitter was diagnosed with a grade 2 hamstring strain, which he sustained during a recent practice. An MRI taken Monday at the Emory Orthopaedics and Spine Center revealed the injury and he will be out a minimum of four weeks. A four-week timetable would mean that the earliest Splitter would return would be the second week of November, missing at least seven regular season games as a result.

Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

• Bulls guard Dwyane Wade says he’s trying to evolve as a player to compensate for age and the loss of athleticism that accompanies growing older in an effort to prolong his career, K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune writes. “The goal is to be around for as long as you can play the game and still be effective,” Wade said. “I’m in the moment. I have to come here and prove to not only my coaches but my team that I can help make them better. I can [play basketball with my pedigree] when I’m done playing to my kids: ‘Hey, this is what Dad used to do. While you’re playing this game, you get your butt tore up if you walk around with that facade. I’m out here at 34 trying to keep up with these young guys. They’re going to come after me. So I got a lot of work to do.“
• The Heat elected to schedule the league-maximum of eight preseason games because of the need to integrate all their new players who need as much action as possible in order to develop chemistry, Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel writes. “I think we’re going to need every one of those eight games,” said coach Erik Spoelstra, who is working with 10 new players. “With previous teams, when we had veteran-laden teams and you bring a large portion of your team back, arguably it might not be as important.“
• Hawks forward Paul Millsap, who has a player option for next season worth $21,472,407, says he hasn’t decided whether or not he’ll opt out, Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution relays. “I think the plan is to see how this season goes and go from there,” Millsap said. “I can’t predict what is going to happen. For me, it’s focus on basketball. Get through this year, try to get a championship for this team first of all. We’ll deal with all that during the summer time when we have all our options on the table.”