By Ira Winderman/Sun Sentinel
Amid a changing NBA landscape, the Miami Heat took a minimalistic approach to free agency: They brought back their own.
Because this never was about the type of splash the San Antonio Spurs made with LaMarcus Aldridge, even with Heat President Pat Riley breaking bread with the free-agent power forward.
Because it never was about the big-money, big-dream seduction that so overwhelmed the league in 2010, when Riley quite literally blew smoke in the faces of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh at the Heat’s Big Three signing gala AmericanAirlines Arena.
No, this offseason was about quiet steps forward for the Heat. Nothing more.
Actually, it was about what came well before the July 1 start of free agency or the July 9 start of the NBA’s offseason signing period.
It was about Nov. 24, when the NBA’s transaction wire read, “Miami Heat sign center Hassan Whiteside, waive guard Shannon Brown.”
And about Feb. 19, when the league’s transaction wire read, “In three-team trade, Suns send Goran and Zoran Dragic to Heat in exchange for Danny Granger and two draft picks, while also acquiring John Salmons from Pelicans; New Orleans gets Norris Cole, Justin Hamilton and Shawne Williams from Miami.”
Since then, it essentially has been about building toward 2015 training camp, with Wade and Goran Dragic re-signed, Luol Deng opting into the 2015-16 portion of the two-year contract he signed last July in the wake of James’ free-agency defection back to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Justise Winslow snatched with the No. 10 pick in the NBA draft.
The rest? Mostly ancillary, such as the signing of backup guard Gerald Green and backup forward Amare Stoudemire, both at the NBA minimum salary.
“Not the start of a new era,” Riley said this past week, with so much of the Heat’s 2014-15 core returning, “but the real retooling that we talked about of this team.”
Even “retooling” might be a stretch. The Heat’s projected 2015-16 starting five of Whiteside, Chris Bosh, Deng, Wade and Dragic have been together on the Heat roster for months.
But have yet to spend a single minute on the court together.
At the very moment Dragic was acquired, Bosh was lost for the season with blood clots on his lung.
“If they are healthy,” Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said during the just-completed Orlando Pro Summer League, “that’s a hell of a team.”
Bosh says he now is healthy, seemingly proving it with his offseason hike to Machu Picchu. Wade has posted Instagram photos showing a 12-pound weight loss. Whiteside has been a regular on the Heat’s practice court. And Dragic and Deng have offered no indications of injury or illness amid their globetrotting offseasons.
For the Heat, that transcends any July transaction wire.
“The most important thing,” Dragic said, “is going to be how the team is playing together.”
Cohesion ultimately became an abstract last season. In fact, when the Heat regroup in October, it will be the first training camp with the team for both Whiteside and Dragic. Quite literally, it will be the new beginning.
“In terms of style of play, we still have time to figure it out,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We still have time to develop the best plan, and that’s my job, to try to pull out the strengths of all the players and put it together where it’s a collective strength.”
While the Western Conference seemingly has been as dominant in free agency as in last season’s standings, there has not been a game-changing free-agency signing in the East. Instead, the moves largely have been subtle, save, perhaps, for the Milwaukee Bucks’ addition of center Greg Monroe and the Toronto Raptors’ signing of DeMarre Carroll, a move that only weakened the defending-conference-champion Atlanta Hawks.
Otherwise, no one is about to equate seismic change to the New York Knicks’ additions of Robin Lopez and Arron Afflalo, the Indiana Pacers’ signing of Monta Ellis and Jordan Hill, the Washington Wizards’ moves for Alan Anderson, Jared Dudley and Gary Neal.
In fact, the East-to-West movement during free agency may even have further diluted the East, when considering Paul Pierce’s shift from the Wizards to the Los Angeles Clippers, Lou Williams’ relocation from the Raptors to the Los Angeles Lakers, Roy Hibbert’s trade from the Pacers to the Lakers.
Instead, success through stability appears to have been the preference of teams at the top of the East, such as the Cleveland Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls, and, perhaps once again, the Heat.
“You have to have high expectations,” Riley said of himself and Heat movers and shakers Micky Arison, Nick Arison and Andy Elisburg. “I’ve always had them. I think we have always had them. I know Erik does. I know Micky, Nick, Andy, we all have expectations, even when you may have a down year. But we don’t feel like we’re in that cycle right now.
“We have moved on from what happened last year. The fact that it was an injury-plagued year, we never made excuses about that. That was a reality. And we moved on from not making the playoffs. And, out of that, was borne something we feel is pretty good in Justise Winslow, another player we can add to the roster.”
For the past two weeks, amid the NBA free-agency frenzy, the Heat mostly have been on mute.
But that doesn’t diminish from the reality of again being a team back in the mix.
“If they’re all healthy for 82 games and the emergence of Whiteside, that’s an Eastern Conference contender,” Van Gundy said. “Now, I guess the question would be: How realistic would it be, based on what’s gone, that Bosh and Wade are healthy for 82 games? That’s the challenge. And that’s an easy thing to say, ‘If they’re healthy.’ “
By midseason last season, the Heat stood as an afterthought, with Bosh, Wade, Josh McRoberts and even Dragic, at times, watching from the sideline. But now, expectations are on the rise. After finishing ninth in the Eastern Conference last season, the Heat recently were given the third best 2016 championships odds by Las Vegas’ Westgate sports book, behind only the Cavaliers and Bulls.
“I think all the players are coming back highly motivated,” Riley said. “And I think with a complete roster, that then we can contend in the East.
“And I think that’s how it all starts. I think that’s the way it’s been for the last 20 years. We’re going to go for it.”
Amare Stoudamire has signed for the Miami Heat.
