BOCA RATON — Vlad Goldin stopped short of saying this was a moment he envisioned, being back Tuesday at one of his collegiate stomping grounds while going through an NBA training camp.
But two years ago, as he sat in the balconies at Eleanor R. Baldwin Arena and studied the Miami Heat’s 2023 training camp, the hulking former Florida Atlantic University center allowed himself a few moments to consider the possibilities.
“I did look at how they warmed up, what they did to prepare for the practices, how they carried themselves through the practice, how they finished the practice,” Goldin said after the Heat finished the first of their training-camp practices at the gym affectionately known as The Burrow.
And so, from FAU Owl to this opportunity on a two-way contract after going undrafted in June.
“I mean, it’s beautiful, especially because I was able two years ago to see the Miami Heat, how they were practicing in here,” he said. “Now I can see from a different perspective as a player. It’s obviously like a life-changing moment.”
When he attended that 2023 Heat camp, it was months after helping lead Dusty May’s Owls to the Final Four.
“That,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Tuesday, “was a magical team. We all watched it in South Florida.”
With his bulky build, Goldin arrives with some limitations, but also a healthy endorsement from May, who took Goldin with him when he left FAU for a coaching job at Michigan last year.
“He said,” Spoelstra said of May, “there’s some things you can definitely count on: his size, his motor, his physicality. He does have some limitations, but he’s committed to the process of development. We’re open-arms with him.”
With Goldin already providing bang for his buck.
“We’ll just have to see how he progresses,” Spoelstra said. “He’s delightful. He comes in every day, he works hard as heck. He hits the crap out of our bigs and then smiles with them afterward.”
As for the emotions of Tuesday’s return to campus, Goldin said they were limited for a reason.
“About a week ago or two weeks ago, there was a volleyball game, so I was here,” he said of the very court where he had just finished practice.
Larsson out
Second-year guard Pelle Larsson was held out of practice due to a bruised left quadriceps sustained in Sweden’s Sept. 6 loss to Turkey in the Round of 16 at EuroBasket.
“It was that last game that he played in,” Spoelstra said, with Larsson helping lead Sweden into the knockout round of the event for the first time. “It was that collision he had, and also a thigh contusion. He’s been doing more and more each day. I don’t have a timeline on it, but he is doing a bunch of work on the side. He’s young, so I’m sure he’ll heal fast.”
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The only other player held out Tuesday was guard Tyler Herro, who is recovering from ankle surgery.
Smith works
Less than 10 months after tearing his left Achilles tendon in a December Heat victory over the Brooklyn Nets, guard Dru Smith was among those scrimmaging in Tuesday’s opening contact work.
“I want to keep making sure that he’s progressing the next few weeks,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat’s exhibition opener on Saturday and their regular-season opener on Oct. 22. “But we all love it, because he inspires other guys. They see what he’s doing. They see the toughness. And he was in the scrimmage.
“We knew we wanted to rehab him and get him back.”
Television time
FanDuel Sports Network announced Tuesday that all six of the Heat’s exhibitions will be televised, starting with Saturday’s 8 p.m. game against the Orlando Magic in Puerto Rico, with that game on FanDuel Sports Network Sun . . .
Former Heat forward Udonis Haslem, who again is doubling as a team executive and television analyst, was among those on the court working during Tuesday’s opening session of camp.
