2012 Heat Media Day/Training Camp Thread

[Jace]

Hate to humor 2014 talk, but I wonder if Dwyane would be willing to opt-out and opt-in for much less, considering the new 10mil/yr Li-Ning deal.

[Wade2Bosh]

I think all 3 will opt out and if they all do re-sign, then they'll all take another pay cut.

[Jace]

From Heat Index

As LeBron James walked toward the bench with his Miami Heat ahead by 35 points at the end of the third quarter in Thursday's preseason game, a Detroit Pistons assistant approached the scorer's table with a white towel over his shoulder and a befuddled look.

He resisted the urge to throw in the towel.

Instead, he tossed a staggering rhetorical question at the game's official stats crew.

“If they're going to go 82-0 this season, then why the hell are the rest of us even here?” he said, half-jokingly, while shaking his head in disbelief. “We're all wasting our time.”

Was thinking yesterday, Detroit could wind up better than people expect. Their starting back court is well-rounded and talented, their eventual starting power duo compliments each other immensely, and they have a slew of promising wings behind Prince. Still, it just seems like they're a mess over there right now.

OT: Man, the '6ers are looking pretty good without Bynum. We'll have to see if Cpt. YOLO's presence disrupts their flow or chemistry, though. They've been so perimeter-driven. Adding a big who needs plenty of touches will force adjustments.

Damn, Dorell looks great. Miss my homie.

[Wade2Bosh]

must suck to coach for a team that you know has no chance from day 1. And that game last night probably beat that point home for that assistant coach.

Yup, hard to judge that team right now without Bynum. That's an entirely new style of play they'll have to get used to. Definitely a team that will be much scarier come March.

[Jace]

Took me a minute to realize they were missing Turner tonight. Pretty impressive.

Their opponent, the Nets, somewhat impressed me with their depth. I knew they had signed all those players, but never really thought of them as a whole. They have a pretty nice mix of skillsets. If they come together properly, I honestly think they'll be the better NY team.

[Jace]

Skolnick on Shane becoming our 4-man

It’s not accurate to call Shane Battier a forgotten man, not after he started the final 16 games of the playoffs – six more than he had started during the entire 2011-12 regular season – and not when he now appears to be a certain starter as the Heat sets out to defend its title.

Still, it is fair to say that there has been far more attention on how Chris Bosh will manage his transition to center than on how Battier – who has played on the wing for most of his 12-season career — will adjust to his insertion as the Heat’s nominal power forward.

There is always an assumption, after all, that Battier can handle anything that he encounters, as seamlessly as he handled guarding the brawnier David West and Brandon Bass in the 2012 playoffs.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Battier said, smiling.

Sometimes, competence can be a curse.

Some of the switch shouldn’t be much to master. Battier’s primary role – “bring energy” – won’t change, and he’ll still often spot up in the corner as part of Erik Spoelstra’s position-less offensive approach. Defensively, however, is where Battier is still trying to get comfortable.

“Learning a position that I’ve been familiar with my whole career, but now I really need to know it,” he said. “Just instinctually I’m not there yet.”

To illustrate that unease, he pointed to one situation in Thursday’s preseason rout of Detroit.

He was primarily assigned to power forward Jason Maxiell, who had leaked out to the opposite high post. In his old defensive role as a wing defender, Battier would have been expected to serve as the low man on the opposite block, which would mean sliding over to take a charge against a baseline driver. In his current role, that wasn’t his job.

“Well, instinctually, I ran over there and stopped the drive, even though that’s incorrect according to our defense,” Battier said.

Battier can retrain himself over time, through study and repetition, and he insists that he will. He can’t grow, however, not up, and not really out either.

“I’m going to be undersized every single night,” said Battier, who is 6-foot-8 and 225 pounds. “I know that.”

That puts a premium on positioning, both his body and his feet.

“I have to know personnel like the back of my hand,” Battier said. “I have to know play calls like the back of my hand.”

He doesn’t yet.

“That drives me crazy,” Battier said. “But I’m confident I’ll figure it out. In the meantime, I just hope I don’t mess up too badly, and get too overzealous in trying to do more than I’m used to doing. I’ve been dealt bigger challenges in my career.”

And this one, he actually appreciates.

“To be honest with you, at this point of my career, it’s what I needed,” Battier said. “Not that I was bored, but this is an unbelievable challenge for me. I’m 34 years old, and I enjoy a good challenge. This is a great challenge that I look forward to figuring out.”

[Jace]

Shandel Richardson on Ray in the post, and more if you click the blurb

One of the areas the Heat could possibly use Allen is in the post. It was a big part of his game during the early portion of his career before he became identified mostly as a jump-shooter. Allen said he often pleaded with Celtics coach Doc Rivers to play more in the post, but it was not part of the plans.

"In practice, I always posted up," Allen said. "I just could never convince my coach to allow me go down in the post. He was always telling me he wanted different matchups. I've had so many matchups in the post throughout the years. It gives me a different scoring angle. It takes pressure off having always to shoot 3s."

Playing in the post would force teams to rethink their strategies of defending Allen. Opponents generally place a smaller defender on Allen because his tendency to run off screens and tire bigger players. The presence of a post game all but eliminates the possibility.

"What teams try to do is when they want a guy to chase me they bring a small guy that's quick," Allen said. "So you roll to your next stunt and you post them and get them out of the game. The way we play here just creates so many different opportunities. You put the other team in so many complicated situations that it forces their defenses to play more uncomfortable."

Although Allen rarely played in the post the past five seasons, he doesn't expect rust to play a factor. He would often practice just in case the Celtics' offensive strategy changed.

"If I knew I had a smaller opponent, I always practiced after practice, before practice, I'd always go to the post," he said. "Before games, I'd always post up. It wasn't like I wasn't working on it or I was able to do it. Coach wasn't focused on that positioning. A lot of my teammates were always like, 'Man, put me in the post."'

[Wade2Bosh]

They have a preview of another new heat intro vid on heat.com. They're for the new "white hot" unis. Which ones are those?

[Jace]

Whoa - Heard a rumor they were going to have a White Hot jersey, but when I investigated I only saw pictures of a fan mod loaded into NBA2K. Makes sense. Surprised they kept this under wraps so well.

White
Black
Red
Winter Court Red
90's Red
White Hot

That's a lot of different jerseys. LeBron seems happy about it though.

Wonder if we'll wear these for ring night, or the regular homes with HEAT and the player names outlined in gold like these:



Hope the latter, because the reg whites would look cool with the gold outline since it fits our color scheme.

[Smithian]

I'll be shocked if we go the entire season with that small ball look.

The rest of our bigs should be ashamed that Spoelstra was forced to start Battier at power forward over them.

[Dee-Zy]

Battier is actually 6' 9.5" in shoes with a wingspan of 6' 10.5" and he weighted 229lbs in his pre-draft measurement. Chris Bosh is listed at 235lbs.

Battier is not really "undersized".


http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Shane-Battier-1619/

Great interview though.

[Jace]

Yeah, Shane, Mike, Wade, and even Bosh are all underlisted. Its weird, players are usually over-listed.

Shane doesn't seem to have a problem with playing at PF, so I won't until it looks terrible. I thought in the playoffs last year he showed more efficacy guarding bigs than perimeters (Melo/Durant destroyed him, recall.)

[Wade2Bosh]

Lebron, Wade, UD, Mario and Ray are at the FSU/Miami game.

[Wade2Bosh]

I believe NBA tv is playing the 2012 Heat championship DVD right now. Ahmad rashad is narrating and it has interviews with players, coaches, Riley and Micky sprinkled in.

[Jace]

Caught that. At the end they said there's more on the DVD. Anyone know how much more?

Originally Posted by Wade2Bosh

Lebron, Wade, UD, Mario and Ray are at the FSU/Miami game.

LeBron has quite the arsenal of Heat hats. He got to watch both his teams win today (FSU).