There were some good signs during the Heat‘s preseason loss to Charlotte on Tuesday, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel writes.
Jimmy Butler played his first preseason game in two years and contributed 11 points in 15-plus minutes. Bam Adebayo made two of his five 3-point attempts as he looks to expand his offensive game. And Nikola Jovic had nine points in 16 minutes while starting alongside Adebayo up front.
“It was good to get that game conditioning in,” coach Erik Spoelstra said of the preseason opener. “It always feels a little bit different no matter how many years you’ve played. Our guys have been working extremely hard. But it was good to face somebody else.”
We have more on the Heat:
- Terry Rozier projects as the starting point guard on opening night. He battled a neck injury late last season and into the offseason. “This whole offseason, when I first got hurt, I definitely appreciated the game way more than I ever did,” Rozier said, per Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald. “That’s why I said everything happens for a reason. I really feel like this happened for a reason to make me lock back in, to focus. Now I’m just not looking back.”
- All current and future courts at Miami’s home arena will be dedicated to team president Pat Riley, Chiang notes. The Heat’s home court will now be known as “Pat Riley Court at Kaseya Center,” with the new name and Riley’s signature inscribed onto the court. Riley will become just the second coach in NBA history to receive such an honor, Chiang writes, joining Red Auerbach of the Celtics.
- Zyon Pullin is participating in camp on an Exhibit 10 contract. The former Florida guard knows he’ll be ticketed to the Heat’s G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce. “It’s really just been definitely spend time in Sioux Falls and really just trying that development program, the history and track record it’s had,” Pullin said, per Winderman. “It’s a reason why I wanted to be here in the first place. So I think it’s just continue to lock in once we go down there and keep developing and see where it goes from there.”
- In case you missed it, the Heat’s Thursday preseason game vs. Atlanta has been pushed back to next Wednesday (October 16) due to Hurricane Milton.
Butler will be injured before November and miss 3 months from playing in preseason.
I guess the Heats working plan is have Butler ready for the post season by getting him injured earlier in the year…
Pat Riley exudes the collective boomer energy of an entire generation. Just like boomers refuse to sell their multiple single-family homes to people who need them, Patty is going to refuse leaving behind his godfather image for the next generation. The preceding leaders of the Miami Heat will be constantly forced to be in his shadow, as he has commanded to have the court renamed after himself with his signature inscribed on the floor, and will not give up control of the team despite himself being nearly 80 years old. He is a classic boomer who constantly takes credit for his younger colleagues work. Case in point firing Stan Van Gundy and hiring himself as head coach when it became apparent that the Miami Heat were a championship squad.
His old school GM tactics have dragged this Heat squad down for the past few years – the most obvious being he thought he could simply bully and embarrass a younger Joe Cronin into giving him Dame Lillard. Pat Riley still thinks he’s coaching the Showtime Lakers out there. It’s the 21st Century Pat!
And what happened after he took over for SVG?
Depends how you spin it. You’re assuming they win that chip without Riley.