BOCA RATON — It has been painted on the Miami Heat’s court and embedded in the franchise’s mindset. And yet what is missing from the team’s touchstone motto is anything about playing at pace.
You won’t find that anywhere in, “The hardest working, best conditioned, most professional, unselfish, toughest, meanest, nastiest team in the NBA.”
And yet just about every year in training camp, dating to even before this 18th season with Erik Spoelstra as coach, the chorus has been in unison about a desire from the roster to play faster, to get out and run.
The 2021 acquisition of Kyle Lowry was going to get the team up to speed; it didn’t.
The injection of Jaime Jaquez Jr. in attack mode as a 2023 first-round pick would pick up the pace; it didn’t.
Even more youth in the mix last season assuredly would mean increased offensive vitality; or not.
At one point, even since-departed Jimmy Butler, he of the how-slow-can-you-go dance of deliberate halfcourt offense, said, “We’ve got to start playing faster.”
And yet?
Last season: 27th in the 30-team NBA in pace.
2023-24: 29th.
2022-23: 29th.
2021-22: 28th.
2020-21: 29th.
2019-20: 27th.
2018-19: 23rd.
2017-18: 27th.
2016-17: 22nd.
2015:16: 25th.
Granted, there were two trips to the NBA Finals over that decade of deliberate, as well as playoff appearances in all but two of those seasons.
But no matter what was said in those camps — just as Nikola Jovic, Davion Mitchell have said in this camp about playing at pace — the franchise overseen by former Showtime Lakers coach Pat Riley has been little more than slow and slower time.
So there was Spoelstra at the start of this latest training camp at Florida Atlantic University being asked of his team playing at pace, of breaking the cycle of no tempo and little offense.
“I have an idea of how we want to play. We’re putting in that plan. We’ll see,” he said, in an almost wry tone.
It was as if his moment almost of been there, seen that, not going to say we’re going to do that.
“Players are full of crap,” he said. “They always say they want to play fast.”
Only this time it’s different. This is the first camp without Butler since 2018. This is a camp where the expectation is that youth is going to have to help carry the day.
So this time, it might be more than camp speak turning into season slog.
“But, yeah,” Spoelstra continued, “I love our speed, our quickness, our youthful exuberance, so it makes sense to try to take advantage of that.
“How much we will? Our play will let us know. But I’m intentional about trying to play to those strengths.”
And yet, for all the youth that would prefer to be off to the races, without Tyler Herro for at least the first month of the season due to ankle surgery, the rotation will feature Norman Powell, Andrew Wiggins and Simone Fontecchio, as in 32, 30 and turning 30 in December. Whether such legs are up to speed assuredly could factor into the approach.
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A year ago, it appeared the Heat were off to the races during their five-game exhibition schedule, closing ninth in the league in pace during the 2024 preseason . . . and then they scored 97 points in their season-opening loss to the Orlando Magic, on the way to a 24th-place close in scoring, their 110.6 points per game paling in comparison to the 120.5 of the NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
So perhaps not wise to read too much into a six-game preseason schedule that opens Saturday in Puerto Rico against the Magic (8 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun).
“We’ve had plenty opportunity to retool,” Spoelstra said of the game-planning goals for this season. “We were able to put together a coherent plan that we think makes sense for this season.”
With a revamped roster, this will be a season of change.
So perhaps one at speed.
Or merely more such rhetoric.
“To me this feels like a different chapter, a different season,” Spoelstra said during Monday’s media day at Kaseya Center, as if attempting to break previous bonds and boundaries. “We have a different plan we feel makes sense for this group, and it has nothing to do with our statistics, our analytics from last season.”
