{"id":52624,"date":"2023-08-18T23:06:51","date_gmt":"2023-08-19T03:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=52624"},"modified":"2023-08-18T23:06:51","modified_gmt":"2023-08-19T03:06:51","slug":"nba-rumors-heats-erik-spoelstra-happy-with-roster-despite-uncertainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/08\/18\/nba-rumors-heats-erik-spoelstra-happy-with-roster-despite-uncertainty\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Rumors: Heat&#8217;s  Erik Spoelstra Happy With Roster, Despite Uncertainty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Miami Heat are still hoping to convince the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/06\/21\/blazers-not-trading-damian-lillard-confirm-woj\/\" target=\"_self\">Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> that they should help Damian Lillard land in his preferred destination. Currently, Portland doesn&#8217;t seem inclined to send him to Miami, as Barry Jackson of\u00a0 The Miami Herald tweeted.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Meanwhile,  as of early this week, Portland was still showing no interest in doing a deal with Heat, who visit Blazers in late Feb. in what is reportedly Portland&#39;s only national TV game. To me, Lillard has much of leverage based on how messy he&#39;s willing to make this (unknown) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/y3cxhIbI2A\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/y3cxhIbI2A<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Barry Jackson (@flasportsbuzz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/flasportsbuzz\/status\/1692183062388609406?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 17, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>NBA Rumors: Heat&#8217;s Erik Spoelstra Happy With Roster, Little To Do<\/h2>\n<p>Miami hasn&#8217;t done much this offseason, as they hoped to have a deal done for Lillard by now. Through the first month of free agency, the Heat had 15 players under contract, including two with two-way deals. Their biggest moves were trading <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/strusma01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Max Strus<\/strong> <\/a>and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/o\/oladivi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <strong>Victor Oladipo<\/strong><\/a> to free up some money for Lillard and re-signing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/loveke01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Kevin Love<\/strong><\/a>. They also lost<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/v\/vincega01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong> Gabe Vincent<\/strong><\/a> to the Los Angeles Lakers in free agency.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Heat decided last week that they couldn&#8217;t wait any longer to complete their roster. Last Friday (August 11), Miami <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/08\/12\/nba-rumors-miami-heat-and-golden-state-warriors-adding-players\/\" target=\"_self\">officially announced the signing<\/a> of free agents <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/peterdr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Drew Peterson<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/willial06.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alondes Williams<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/willial06.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">,<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/champju01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Justin Champagnie<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/danieca02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Caleb Daniels<\/strong><\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/swideco01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Cole Swider<\/strong><\/a> to Exhibit 10 training camp deals. Jamal Cain also finally signed his qualifying offer to return to the team on a two-way contract that day.<\/p>\n<p>Adding those six players gives Miami 21 players, the maximum a team can take to training camp.<\/p>\n<p>While Miami is still hopeful of landing Lillard at some point, head coach Erik Spoelstra is content with the Heat&#8217;s offseason and ready to move forward with the roster as it is. Spoelstra, who is with Team USA in Abu Dhabi preparing for the FIBA World Cup, spoke to ESPN&#8217;s Brian Windhorst on NBA Today on Thursday.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NBA Today | Erik Spoelstra tells US on Heat offseason after losing in NBA Finals last season\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hzdBzQxfaqo\" width=\"853\" height=\"480\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWe had most of our work done. We\u2019re bringing back the majority of our players and that\u2019s a luxury in this league. Things are so transient, things are moving fast. It seems like it\u2019s moving faster now than even four, five, six years ago. We feel great about our group.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201c<\/em>We feel great about our group. We made some nice additions, we feel.\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/richajo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-08-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jo<\/a><\/strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/richajo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-08-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sh<\/a><\/strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/richajo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-08-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Richardson<\/a><\/strong>, getting another family member back into our program.\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bryanth01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-08-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">T<\/a><\/strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bryanth01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-08-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">h<\/a><\/strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bryanth01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-08-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">omas<\/a><\/strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bryanth01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-08-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> B<\/a><\/strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bryanth01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-08-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ryant<\/a><\/strong>, who we\u2019ve been a big fan of. And\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jaqueja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-08-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">[Ja<\/a><\/strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jaqueja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-08-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ime]<\/a><\/strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jaqueja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.hoopsrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-08-18_bbr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Jaquez<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0as our draft pick. We\u2019re excited. He\u2019s a guy you can plug and play right now. He\u2019s a little bit older and he has a great deal of experience. So we\u2019re adding those guys to our mix and bringing everybody back.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/herroty01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong> Tyler [Herro]<\/strong><\/a>is healthy,\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/butleji01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jimmy<\/a><\/strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/butleji01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> [Butler]<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/adebaba01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ba<\/a><\/strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/adebaba01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">m<\/a><\/strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/adebaba01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> [Adebayo]<\/a><\/strong>, that\u2019s a great core. So we\u2019re excited about it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h4>Heat&#8217;s Training Camp Roster<\/h4>\n<p>PG &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lowryky01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Kyle Lowry<\/strong><\/a>, Jamarea Bouyea (2-way), Alondes Williams (TC)<\/p>\n<p>SG- Tyler Herro, Jason Richardson, Jaime Jacquez, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/smithdr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Dru Smith<\/strong><\/a> (2-way), Caleb Daniels (TC)<\/p>\n<p>SF &#8211; Jimmy Butler,\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/robindu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Duncan Robinson,<\/strong><\/a> Jamal Cain (2-way), Justin Champaignie (TC), Cole Swider (TC), Drew Peterson (TC)<\/p>\n<p>PF &#8211; Kevin Love, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=CalebMartin%2C+basketball+referene&amp;rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS1062US1062&amp;oq=CalebMartin%2C+basketball+referene&amp;aqs=chrome..69i57j0i13i512.12601j0j4&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Caleb Martin<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/highsha01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Haywood Highsmith,<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jovicni01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nikola Jovic<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>C- Bam Adebayo, Thomas Bryant,<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/robinor01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Orlando Robinson<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>2-way: Players on two-way deals<\/p>\n<p>TC: Players on training camp contracts<\/p>\n<p>As indicated above, despite having a full training camp roster, Miami still has things to figure out. The Heat only have 13 players on standard contracts, one below the league minimum. Robinson&#8217;s $1.8 million contract is only partially guaranteed.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/sports\/nba\/miami-heat\/article278221577.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald<\/a> noted that a new NBA rule states that teams can have fewer than 14 standard contract players for no more than 28 total days or 14 consecutive days at a time.<\/p>\n<p>Miami does have a pretty versatile roster. In addition to figuring out, who will take the 14th spot and potentially the 15th spot on the roster, the Heat needs to settle on a starter at power forward. Love and Martin are the two leading candidates for the job.<\/p>\n<p>The following is what<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2023\/07\/31\/ask-ira-does-kevin-love-set-up-as-the-heats-starting-power-forward\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sentinel<\/a> about the Heat&#8217;s power forward situation.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIt possibly could wind up like during the playoffs, where it\u2019s situational, with Kevin Love starting against bigger front lines and\u00a0Caleb Martin starting against small-ball alignments.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut\u00a0Erik Spoelstra\u00a0has shown during the regular season that lineup continuity is the preference. Still, several factors could come into play.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cForemost, if\u00a0Jimmy Butler misses the expected 20 or so games, then Caleb could be the option to start at small forward (if it\u2019s not Josh\u00a0Richardson). And I also could envision Spoelstra toying with Love as his backup center, which could reduce the chance of Kevin starting. Still lots of moving parts, and lots of time before a decision is needed. Heck,\u00a0Haywood Highsmith\u00a0could potentially also enter the equation at power forward.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Miami also could use a veteran backup point guard.<\/p>\n<h3>Miami Has Options For Final Roster Spot<\/h3>\n<p>While Miami has to carry 14 players on its roster, it is unlikely that the Heat will carry a full 15 to start the season. Teams like to keep an open spot to add players down the road. Not maintaining a full roster allows them not to have to cut a player if they decide to add someone, which is highly beneficial, especially if there is a major injury.<\/p>\n<p>Everything could change if the Heat can bring Lillard in before the season. If that happens, the Heat&#8217;s entire roster will change, as there have been rumors that the Blazers may want to include Jusuf Nurkic in any trade.<\/p>\n<p>But for now, let&#8217;s assume the Heat will have their current roster.<\/p>\n<p>In that case, Cain, Smith, Swider, and Champagnie are the most likely players to earn the 14th spot. All have NBA experience. When Swider agreed to a training camp invite, Chiang tweeted that he would have a chance to compete for a two-way spot or a place on the 15-man roster.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Cole Swider agreed to sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the Heat, according to a source. He&#39;ll have a chance to compete for a two-way contract or possibly a spot on the 15-man roster in camp.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Anthony Chiang (@Anthony_Chiang) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Anthony_Chiang\/status\/1688286681131085825?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 6, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In his article, Chiang also said that free agents <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/08\/11\/nba-rumors-christian-wood-immanuel-quickley-and-giannis-antetokounmpo\/\" target=\"_self\"><strong>Christian Wood<\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/08\/15\/nba-free-agency-top-five-small-forwards-still-available\/\" target=\"_self\"><strong>Kelly Oubre Jr.<\/strong><\/a> are candidates for the final spot. Wood, who the Los Angeles Lakers are also pursuing, makes the most sense of all the options. Wood has said that he would love to join Miami. However, the Heat are currently only able to offer Wood around the veteran minimum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Miami Heat are still hoping to convince the Portland Trail Blazers that they should help Damian Lillard land in his preferred destination. Currently, Portland doesn&#8217;t seem inclined to send him to Miami, as Barry Jackson of\u00a0 The Miami Herald tweeted. Meanwhile, as of early this week, Portland was still showing no interest in doing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3146,"featured_media":52586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,62,4721],"tags":[4964,1010,3145,187,583,142,1315,1382,1896],"class_list":["post-52624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heat","category-nba","category-trade-rumors","tag-2023-nba-free-agents","tag-bam-adebayo","tag-christian-wood","tag-damian-lillard","tag-erik-spoelstra","tag-jimmy-butler","tag-kelly-oubre-jr","tag-nba-trade","tag-tyler-herro"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}