BOCA RATON — For the Miami Heat, Saturday means getting back to work, at the start of their exhibition schedule. For one of the hopefuls on the team’s preseason roster, it means a homecoming.
When the Heat face the Orlando Magic on Saturday night in San Juan at Coliseo de Puerto Rico, it will bring guard Ethan Thompson back to a place he has represented numerous times in international competition.
“It was more than a dream come true, for sure,” Thompson said when he found out his new team’s first exhibition would be in San Juan. “I dreamed about playing in the NBA and then having the ability to be part of the game that’s in Puerto Rico, an island that I love and has shown love to me, and growing up in the culture, being half Puerto Rican from my mom’s side, growing up with my grandparents, it’s a blessing for sure.”
On an Exhibit 10 tryout contract, there are no Heat guarantees for Thompson, 26, beyond the preseason. But for one night, there will be an opportunity to play as a featured attraction.
“I’ve been there countless times. I go pretty often, representing the national team. And then I played in the BSN, as well, one summer,” he said of Puerto Rico’s national professional league.
“Definitely once we step on the lines, it’s no different than any other game. But I feel like I try to represent Puerto Rico to the best of my abilities everywhere and this game happens to be on the island, so definitely a blessing.”
Undrafted out of Oregon State in 2021, Thompson began his professional career with the Chicago Bulls’ G League team, before moving on last season to Orlando’s G League affiliate.
That means plenty of familiar faces in a familiar place, as Thompson competes for the Heat’s remaining vacant two-way contract, with Vlad Golden and Myron Gardner holding the others.
“I feel like it’s going to be very special, for sure,” Thompson said. “They love the game of basketball, for sure.”
While the Heat are at the NBA maximum of 21 players under offseason contact, Thompson said the competition in the four-day training camp at Florida Atlantic University under coach Erik Spoelstra proved competitive.
“He’s given everybody an opportunity to go out there and compete,” Thompson said.
There also will be some familiar faces for other Heat players, with former Heat players Orlando Robinson and Jamal Cain on the Magic’s roster on two-way- contracts.
While only preseason, to Spoelstra this is the next, needed step in developing a gameplan for what is hoped to be a bounce-back from last season’s 37-45.
“We require a lot of flexibility,” Spoelstra said. “I have an idea, and we’ve been working on it pretty intentionally. That play against real competition will let us know. It has to lead to success. It has to lead to winning. It has to lead to where you can see progress and a style of play that makes sense.
“We have to chart this course right now. If we have to course-correct, we will. Hopefully they’ll be minor course corrections, but we’ll see. I like what I’ve seen so far.”
So yes, at least to a degree, a preseason with meaning.
“Guys are intentional about it,” Spoelstra said. “We just have to keep on taking these steps and then the real competition will let us know.”
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For now, continued strides that will be needed until it begins for real with the Oct. 22 regular-season opener against the Magic at Kia Center.
“I look at it like all the way up to the first game,” Spoelstra said of getting his team in order. “So we play six preseason games, we’ll have several practices to install everything, hopefully get on the same page, feel comfortable with what we’re trying to do.”
The Heat’s schedule of six exhibitions is the NBA maximum.
“We’ll be able to manage that,” Spoelstra said, with the home exhibition opener Monday night against the Milwaukee Bucks at Kaseya Center. “We’ll prioritize the shootarounds. Early on I don’t think you’ll see guys playing 42 minutes.”
