Things in Miami have changed significantly since Goran Dragic was acquired at the 2015 trade deadline, with Dwyane Wade no longer in the picture and Chris Bosh seemingly on his way out as well. The Heat are in a retooling phase, and the injury woes plaguing the team this season have made it difficult for the new-look roster to gel. Still, Dragic tells Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders that he remains optimistic about the club’s future.
“This is a young team,” Dragic said. “We have a lot of newer faces than last year, and we just need to find that good chemistry that we had in the preseason. But, it’s kind of hard because with all those injuries, players are out, [so] it’s always a different starting lineup or different players on the floor. Hopefully, that won’t happen in the future.”
Here’s more from Dragic, along with a couple more Heat notes:
- Dragic on Wade’s decision to leave the Heat for the Bulls this past summer: “I was in shock because he was there 13 years. I would never imagine he was going to go somewhere else because, the Miami Heat, everyone knows that was D-Wade’s team. But I understand, this is a part of the business. When that happened, I was talking with him and I wished him all the best in Chicago. He’s a good friend of mine, and it is what it is. We’re all professionals, so we need to do our jobs and I had to embrace a new, bigger role, but I’m fine with that.”
- The Heat had a busy offseason, having been active in free agency, which means next Thursday is a big day for the team, writes Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. As of that day, December 15, nearly all the players the team signed in the summer will become trade-eligible. Of course, as Winderman notes, Pat Riley has never made a trade in December since taking over as Heat president, so we shouldn’t expect the team to make a move right away — particularly since some potential trade chips are injured at the moment.
- Speaking of injured players, Winderman provides an update on Josh Richardson‘s status in a separate piece for The Sun Sentinel.
Originally, I thought the Heat either needed to move a couple of pieces (James johnson, Wayne ellington, derrick williams) for an expiring 4. Then, I thought they should possibly move Dragic….Now, I think they HAVE to get rid of Whiteside. I thought I could live with it, but I cant, and if I cant, I know Pat Riley cant. Hassan Whiteside is a selfish, quitter. He is not a Miami Heat player. Lack of effort is unacceptable, and it’s happening on a nightly basis. He is a Stat chaser. Constantly chasing blocks allows for easy dump off passes to free baskets, or free offensive rebounding opportunities for other teams. Doesn’t help on defense, and is terrible defending pick and roll. He also slows the pace b/c he refuses to let his team mates get a rebound. On offense, he is a black hole. He stops the ball, obviously, and then he refuses to pass under any circumstances. Meanwhile, he is one of the least efficient post players in basketball, and is prone to turnovers. And for some reason, he decided it made sense to stop doing the free throw routine he did last year, in which he shot like 75-80% from the line for a significant amount of time. Now, he is back into that 50-58% range. And then he has the audacity to question why he gets benched? Please get rid of this dude. I can’t stand the fact Dwyane Wade isn’t on this team, while we have to watch this guy disrespect the game of basketball on a nightly basis
The young guys are very intruiging. They even found another cheap 3 and D wing, in Rodney McGruder, who is the opposite of Whiteside, and plays so hard. Definitely a team that has a good nucleus. Even with the injuries, the heat haven’t been fully healthy for even 1 game yet, they’re in every game, with the exception of last night. They’re so close. Defense has been good, but they can’t make free throws. If everyone is healthy, I think theyre much better than their record. Should be interesting to see how the next few weeks play out. I’m just done with Whiteside
I been knew Whiteside was all hype, doesn’t know when to pass, and he’s not interested in elevating his game. I hope they do trade him,Wayne Ellington I would keep, he’s a threat if used properly, waiters, Ellington, dragic, and Johnson maybe. Mcgruder is alright, trade mcroberts, no get rid of him period, reed definitely let him go.Josh Richardson is good by he needs more confidence, I would have picked up Rudy gay. coach spo is alright, because you can’t make your team better but he needs to push this team, I wish bosh could play. all it takes is a different kind of offense and put more pressure on this team. all it takes is determination from this team every night, ain’t no such thing as a bad team, you have to be determined to win, yeah there’s competition, so what. Miami and spo need to have that attitude, if we play harder make good decisions we can win, stop settling for less, LeBron, wade, and bosh gone time for spo to reinvent and make this team better. I believe even if we get draft picks it don’t mean nothing, the organization has to be strong, it’s like you bringing in players to score, when the core you got should already be confident, a team is only bad when they settle for less. get in the gym fellas, and you’ll see better results.
I dont question the work ethic, or the abilities, of Spo, or the rest of the roster, with the exception of Hassan Whiteside. When Dion Waiters is more mature than you, there is a problem.
You cant gauge the young guys and say that they arent good enough when they havent been healthy. Rudy Gay was who I was talking about when I said that I initially thought they should move guys like Johnson/Ellington/Beasley 2.0, but its probably too late for that. Honestly, I like the outlook of this roster if they can stay healthy. They’ve had a massive hole at the 4, but James Johnson has been really good there, and when Winslow comes back, he could see time there as well, as McGruder has been good seeing minutes at the 3. The problem is that it gets late early in a league where there is so much competition, and almost winning games doesnt mean anything. Nobody is going to feel sorry for you, with injuries. Still, it could end up benefiting the Heat. I honestly dont think this team is bad enough to get a draft pick in the top half of the lottery, but if they cant get healthy, it might allow them to do that, and if they can trade Whiteside, and add 1 young player and another draft pick next year in a really deep draft, the core all of the sudden looks really good, and then they’d have cap room to sign a free agent or 2 like Heyward and/or Milsap
Core would be Dragic, Tyler Johnson, Josh Richardson, Justise Winslow, Rodney McGruder, young player from Whiteside trade, Heat 1st round draft pick, 1st round pick from Whiteside trade, which is a really good start, especially when they’d have a lot of cap room