The Heat are preparing for a Giannis Antetokounmpo arrival that won’t be plug-and-play, and Erik Spoelstra isn’t pretending otherwise. After 13 years in Milwaukee, the adjustment figures to take time, and Miami’s coach said the organization has to be ready for that process from both sides.
“You change your address after such a long period of time where you’re comfortable, you know how to operate and know what to expect. It’s different,” Spoelstra said.
“We want to be mindful of that, but we also want to be open to the possibilities of change. That includes us changing as necessary to make sure that we’re bringing out the best in him.
“This ends up being a symbiotic relationship. Hopefully, we’re bringing out the best in him.
Hopefully, he’s bringing out the best in our organization. And there will be a process.
We have to work through that. I’ve been at this a long time, and I never have hit it on the bullseye on the first day of training camp.”
Even with that learning curve, Spoelstra sees the upside clearly once Antetokounmpo settles in. His view is that Miami’s new star will force defenses into impossible choices and open things up for everyone else.
“We’ll try to find some other ways to maximize his gifts, but he’s pretty much done it all,” he said. “Pick-and-rolls at the top of the floor with bigs, pick-and-rolls with smalls.
Same thing on the wings. But I think more than anything, it’s been his ability to force not a second defender, a third defender.
And that creates a bunch of havoc to someone’s defense. We lived it.
One extra defender is not enough. And then you get a third one, and his willingness and his improvement with his passing over the years gets you in scramble mode.
You have to really be moving and be ahead of things. That part of his IQ and his vision and his playmaking, we’ll be looking forward to exploring that as well.”
Miami’s point guard situation is still taking shape. Davion Mitchell is projected to start, with Dru Smith and two-way player Tre Donaldson behind him.
If the Heat decide to add another point guard to a standard roster that currently sits at 12 players, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel pointed to Gabe Vincent as a possible fit, provided he would take the veteran’s minimum. Vincent ended last season with the Hawks and spent his first four NBA seasons with Miami.
Winderman also raised the question of whether the Heat are moving too slowly on the free-agent market, but he doesn’t think that’s the case. His view is that Miami already has its three or four best players in place and can afford to let the market develop before filling out the rest of the roster.
Then there’s the shooting. Miami’s top 3-point options from last season, Tyler Herro and Norman Powell, are gone, and The Athletic’s Eric Nehm noted that the Heat added Bobby Portis and Tim Hardaway Jr. But even with those moves, the spacing around Antetokounmpo still depends on internal growth to fully come together.
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