10Nov

#Heat guard Dwyane Wade opens up about #LeBron James and the struggling #Cavaliers

November 10, 2014 by

By Joe

Dwyane Wade has played in every game this season and he’ll be in the starting lineup on Sunday night here in Dallas. He’s feeling good, his body has responded well to the beginning of the season and his team has a better record than his good buddy LeBron James up in Cleveland.

In other words, it’s a good time to weigh in on the NBA’s biggest story to start the season, the early struggles of those very same Cavaliers and LeBron’s role on the team. Any advice Wade would give LeBron at this point in the season?

“He has all the tools he needs,” Wade said. “We’ve been through it together where we ran into struggles as a team. You’re going to do that in the season whether it’s in the beginning of the season, or sometimes in the middle or sometimes at the end. He’s a four-time MVP. He’s a two-time champion. I’m sure he’ll figure it out as a leader.”

The Heat is 4-2 entering Sunday’s game against the Mavericks and the Cavaliers are 2-3 with a home game against the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday night. In a sense, both the Heat and Cavaliers are starting from scratch this season, …read more

Source:: Raanan Katz – Miami Herald – Miami Heat

09Nov

Here’s that full video clip of Michael Beasley trying to eat a basketball in China.

November 9, 2014 by

By Joe

Kinda makes me sad.

…read more

Source:: Raanan Katz – Miami Herald – Miami Heat

06Nov

#LeBron James is channeling his inner Erik Spoelstra in Cleveland (Let’s run through the #Spoisms checklist)

November 6, 2014 by

By Joe

LeBron James is sounding a lot like Heat coach Erik Spoelstra these days, and NBA insiders familiar with the Heat’s locker-room culture have been taking notice.

James and the Cleveland Cavaliers dropped below .500 on Tuesday with a loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, and afterwards James began reeling off a list of classic Spoelstra catchphrases and go-to nuggets of wisdom about team development. The unique and repetitive jargon or “coach speak” — known as “Spoisms” — has become one of Spoelstra’s most endearing trademarks.

“It’s going to be a process,” James said at Portland’s Moda Center after the loss to the Trail Blazers. “I keep on harping on that word, but it’s the truth. I’ve been there before and understand it. But you do have to go through it even though you don’t like to go through it.”

Or, as Spoelstra might say, the Cavaliers just need to “respect the process,” and avoid listening to “outside noise” because those distractions are just “someone else’s truth.”

James scored just 11 points in Portland, including two points over the final three quarters of the game. He never scored 11 or fewer points in a regular-season game with the Heat and the last time he has …read more

Source:: Raanan Katz – Miami Herald – Miami Heat

04Nov

With corporate logos on the way, Josh McRoberts is just ahead of his time with the jersey-ripping thing

November 4, 2014 by

By Joe

Heat forward Josh McRoberts is still an unknown quantity with his new team, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t already made an impression on fans. In his first home game since coming back from offseason toe surgery, McRoberts wasted no time in cultivating his appeal when he ripped his jersey down the middle like Hulk Hogan.

The destruction of McRoberts’ jersey looked intentional — like a baseball player breaking a bat over his knee — but on Monday the former Bobcats man said that wasn’t the case.

“It looked crazy,” McRoberts said. “It looked like I was trying to rip it apart. I usually just pull on it and hold onto the top of it…When it started to go, it just went and it made it look like I was ripping it even more. But it wasn’t cool.”

So, it doesn’t sound McRoberts is going to make the jersey-ripping thing part of the nightly show, and that’s too bad. Just think of all the marketing and sponsorship opportunities…OK, I can’t think of any off hand, but when the Heat and other NBA teams slap corporate logos on their jerseys in a few years, players who rip …read more

Source:: Raanan Katz – Miami Herald – Miami Heat

04Nov

Luol Deng compares offensive philosophies for #Heat and #Bulls

November 4, 2014 by

By Joe

A long-time player for the Chicago Bulls and now a starter for the Miami Heat, forward Luol Deng has played for two of the best coaches in the Eastern Conference. On Tuesday, he offered some insightful commentary on the difference between the Bulls’ offensive philosophy under coach Tom Thibodeau and the offensive principles that Heat coach Erik Spoelstra uses:

“Here our guards are more pick-and-roll and trying to find the open guy and the next guy is making a play and it’s becoming contagious. In Chicago we slowed the game down, we got stops and we slowed it down and tried to get the best shot possible that we could get. We stuck to the plays. Here it’s more of reads. You read the game, and guys have a high IQ and they’re just making plays after plays and making each other better.”

Deng has fit in well with his new team through the first three games of the season. He’s averaging 15.0 points per game while shooting 57.6 percent from the floor.

…read more

Source:: Raanan Katz – Miami Herald – Miami Heat

13Oct

Luol Deng on facing the Hawks following this summer’s controversy: ‘Obviously, that’s going to be in the back of your head’

October 13, 2014 by

By Joe

Heat forward Luol Deng plays the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday for the first time since the organization used offensive language to describe him in a scouting report.

“Obviously that’s going to be in the back of your head, but it’s the players that you’re playing against,” Deng said. “They’re not the ones who said what was said.”

During a meeting with Hawks executives and owners over the summer, Hawks general manager Danny Ferry disparaged Deng by calling into question his character. Ferry also inferred that Deng’s African heritage somehow detracted from his abilities as a basketball player. Following the controversy, Ferry was granted an indefinite leave of absence from the team.

Deng hopes to use the incident to “do something so someone benefits for the mistaken that was made,” but the Heat’s forward hasn’t had any contact with Ferry or the Hawks. Deng said on Monday after practice that he was closer to signing with the Hawks than the Heat at one point during free agency, and that interest from Chris Bosh helped sway Deng to the Heat.

…read more

Source:: Raanan Katz – Miami Herald – Miami Heat

07Oct

Vague and Tenebrous Tweets by Almario Vernard Chalmers: Did Chalmers get benched today?

October 7, 2014 by

By Joe

This is a running blog post of all the entertaining stuff Mario Chalmers writes on Twitter and/or Instagram…

This is a great thing, this new blog-post idea, because I can pretty much speculate about whatever I want because Mario Chalmers is so enjoyably vague and tenebrous when he communicates with … his fans? … his teammates? … his coaches? … his family? … himself? I’m not quite sure, but does it matter? That’s also part of the fun, obviously. Who the heck is Mario Chalmers talking to and what on Earth is he talking about?

Monday, Oct. 6, 2014

Is Mario Chalmers benched?

I raise this question based on purely anecdotal evidence, if you even want to call it that. After a long day of practice, in which the team ran over its scheduled stopping time by at least an hour, Chalmers posted this to Instagram:

“After the day of negativity I had it’s good to b around some positive energy…”

Why would Chalmers be depressed? Well, being demoted to second-string point guard is enough to put anyone from Miami in a bad mood. (Of course, so is being in stuck in traffic on Biscayne Boulevard waiting on that damn …read more

Source:: Raanan Katz – Miami Herald – Miami Heat

07Oct

Josh McRoberts might not be fully healthy for the #Heat season opener, which is kind of a problem.

October 7, 2014 by

By Joe

Last week we asked the all-important question “Is it time to start worrying about the Heat’s projected starting power forward?” and the answer appears to be yes. Yes, it is time to worry.

On Monday, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra indicated that Josh McRoberts might not be cleared medically in time for the start of the regular season. The Heat opens the season on Oct. 29 with a home game against the Washington Wizards. McRoberts is recovering from offseason surgery on is left great toe.

“It’s too early to tell, but he’s doing a lot,” Spoelstra said. “I anticipate he’ll increase his workload significantly in the next week to 10 days.

The Heat plays the Orlando Magic at AmericanAirlines Arena on Tuesday before flying to Brazil for a preseason game against LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers. McRoberts certainly isn’t expected to play in either game unless, of course, Spoelstra is being completely evasive, which sometimes he is wont to do.

But, for the purposes of this blog post, let’s assume McRoberts is out for at least the next 10 days, which means at best he’ll be back for the Heat’s preseason home game against the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 17. That …read more

Source:: Raanan Katz – Miami Herald – Miami Heat

05Oct

Here are three things to think about after tonight’s loss by the #Heat

October 5, 2014 by

By Joe

STUFF I’M THINKING ABOUT

1. Could rookie forward James Ennis average more than 10 points per game as a rookie?

If that actually happened, everyone in the Heat’s scouting department should get raises. An unexpected offensive infusion this season from someone like Ennis would certainly help compensate for the loss of LeBron James. Ennis led the Heat with 17 points tonight in Miami’s 98-86 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. Ennis, who played in Perth, Australia, last year, is an athletic wing who has put in the work developing his outside shot since graduating from Long Beach State. The Heat is hoping for big things from Ennis as a back-up to Luol Deng, and he delivered in his first NBA preseason game.

2. Birdman and Josh McRoberts didn’t play. Is it time to start worrying?

Probably not, but it’s not a positive sign that Chris Andersen finished last season with an injury and he’s nursing another injury after the first week of training camp. Soreness and aches and pains are common in the preseason, of course, but for someone who relies so much on athleticism, it’s at least worth noting. Josh McRoberts is being held out …read more

Source:: Raanan Katz – Miami Herald – Miami Heat

02Oct

Stuff I saw at the Heat scrimmage and other things from training camp like the depth chart and also some craft beer

October 2, 2014 by

By Joe

So, let’s start this blog post by first making note that, while I was setting up my laptop and munching on some carrots courtside on Wednesday night before the Heat’s scrimmage, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra walked up for some small talk and asked, “What could you possibly write about this scrimmage or take away from it?” or something like that.

And then I wrote this: MY STORY IN TODAY’S PAPER ABOUT THE HEAT’S SCRIMMAGE

Spoelstra also asked me if I was on a gluten-free diet because I was eating carrots and almonds, and I assured him that, no, I prefer gluten over all other protein composites because, well, obviously and also and such and such and so on.

Well, turns out, there were things worth observing from the scrimmage — important things, actually. As in, who didn’t play.

Chris Andersen didn’t compete in the scrimmage and neither did Josh McRoberts. Andersen has a sore calf muscle, and of course you would have known this immediately last night if you follow me on Twitter. McRoberts still hasn’t been fully cleared by the Heat’s training staff after having …read more

Source:: Raanan Katz – Miami Herald – Miami Heat