Miami Heat Insider: The Next Chapter Begins

MIAMI — As the Miami Heat locker room opened for the first pregame media session of the 2016-17 NBA preseason, the biggest presence was an absence.

Two of them, actually.

The circular room was almost silent, a stark contrast from the raucous scene it often has been. All 19 players on the active roster set up camp elsewhere as reporters scrolled through social media and held recorders that had nothing to record. There was the sight of Dwyane Wade's longtime locker now occupied by journeyman point guard Beno Udrih. A few spots down, Chris Bosh's nameplate hung above the sanctuary's only empty locker.

They were jarring images, even though everyone in the room knew they had been coming. For anyone still coming to grips with the end of the Big Three era, the renovations showcased the severed ties.

"That team is something that we'll always remember, but we move on," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "There's a lot of change in this business. It's inherent. But the change happens slower with the Miami Heat."

Change is here now, and it's accompanied by an identity built around youth, athleticism and searing internal fires.

The first two elements could serve to boost an offense that finished 12th in efficiency and 25th in pace last season. The Heat have five players age 25 and under—six if Briante Weber makes the final cut—and only three on the wrong side of 30. Of those 30-somethings, only Goran Dragic is guaranteed a rotation spot, and he plays at a young gazelle's speed.

"I can be myself this season," a beaming Dragic said. "It helps that the roster that we have, those players kind of fit my game. They can space the floor. A lot of players can run."

Miami could construct a two-deep rotation with plus athletes at each position. Even those who don't fit the mold can complement their teammates' explosiveness through precision quarterbacking (Udrih), bone-rattling screens (Udonis Haslem) and floor spacing (Wayne Ellington and Luke Babbitt).

The new-look Heat will look to play like their turbo button is stuck. Picture a souped-up version of what they unleashed after losing Bosh to more blood clots at the 2016 All-Star break, a prolonged push of the gas pedal that launched Miami into a new offensive stratosphere.

Even though this group lacks the name recognition of that one, it's better-positioned for a modern pace-and-space style. The Heat have fresh legs now, not the high-mileage ones of Wade, Luol Deng and Joe Johnson. Through three preseason games, Miami has skyrocketed its three-point volume (10.3 per game, up from 6.1) and efficiency (40.8, 33.6).

"It's a lot different when there is so much space," Hassan Whiteside said. "Guys really can't leave the shooters as much as they used to."

Brilliant ball movement is still required to tie all the pieces together, which means that manufacturing chemistry is a must. It's also a potentially thorny issue on a roster loaded with short-term contracts and only one player with more than two years in the organization (Haslem).

That's where the shared fuel comes in.

"This is the first time where I think you've got a group of guys where they all feel like—not just collectively as a team because people have written us off, but as individuals—everybody feels like they have something to prove," Haslem said. "Everybody has a chip on their shoulder. Everybody's hungry. Everybody's thirsty."

Rocky Widner/Getty Images

Whiteside, the de facto franchise face, had to tour the basketball globe before finding his way back to the league. Before Tyler Johnson drew a contract offer so massive it made him ill, he took the treacherous undrafted route to the NBA—a path he shares with Haslem and Willie Reed. Dragic and projected starting shooting guard Josh Richardson are two of the four second-round selections likely in Spoelstra's rotation.

Derrick Williams is on his fourth different team since being the second pick in 2011. Dion Waiters, the No. 4 pick a year later, is on his third. This is the seventh NBA stop for former first-rounders Udrih and Wayne Ellington and the sixth for James Johnson.

Justise Winslow seems like the exception to the rule. He's been a McDonald's All-American. He's a centerpiece for the franchise that grabbed him with a top-10 pick. He spent part of this summer with the Team USA Select Team.

All of that may be true, he said, but he's chasing the same carrot as his teammates.

"There were nine guys picked ahead of me. I was projected to be the fourth pick or whatever," Winslow told Bleacher Report. "Everybody in this room has something they can fall back on that motivates them. There's a lot of edgy guys."

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Miami needs an edge. The South Beach backdrop is the same, but the glitz and glamour are gone. Three seasons back, the Heat employed three Hall of Fame locks.

Now they have none.

That's a steep tumble down the NBA mountain, but regression was inevitable at some point. James' departure dropped Miami out of the contender ranks. Bosh's health and Wade's ticking clock both threatened to spoil any win-now plans. 

The Heat needed a new direction, even if it required backward movement for eventual forward progress.

Their post-Big Three blueprint is taking shape, and that in itself is exciting. There are words on the page of their next chapter, and they aren't the doom-and-gloom ones many around the hoops world have voiced.

"Expectations don't change," Spoelstra said. "It's not like we're sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves or that all a sudden things change and we're going to lower the bar. That doesn't happen in this organization. ... We're excited about this challenge. Sometimes the unknown is very inspiring."

Heat Waves

Lots of Love for Bosh

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The relationship between Bosh and Miami's front office is becoming as uncomfortable as a dental chair. Team president Pat Riley told reporters at media day that Bosh's Miami career "is probably over."

Bosh has since responded through videos on Uninterrupted, saying that he continues working toward making his NBA return somewhere else.

It's a contentious situation, in large part because each party has taken an understandable, defensible stance. But it's an issue between Bosh and Heat executives only. Both Spoelstra and Bosh's former teammates have been unwavering in their support of the 11-time All-Star.

"Everybody knows how much CB means to me and his family," Spoelstra said. "I love CB dearly. ... Your heart just goes out to them. CB and I had a different bond, a player-coach. CB is always the guy that I would go to, especially on those championship teams. I just always really trusted his perspective. My love for him and his family won't change."

A popular media day question was whether the Heat were better off having clarity on Bosh's situation. While most conceded it helped in implementing an offense and building the rotation, the prevailing sentiment was they would much rather have had any chance of Bosh's return.

Leader Says What?

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There are youth movements in sports, and then there's taking the keys from Wade, Bosh and Luol Deng and handing them over to student drivers like Whiteside and Winslow. Tyler Johnson is a 24-year-old with 68 games over two NBA seasons, and he's being asked to take on some leadership responsibilities.

Haslem maintains his role as the adult in the room but set career lows nearly across the board last season. His words draw respect, but there's only so much he can do from the sidelines.

"My minutes come few and far between, so we have to have a guy that's going to be vocal on the floor," Haslem said. "We don't really understand Goran all the time. It's going to have to be Hassan, but we don't usually understand him all the time, either. We have to figure it out."

Haslem laughed through the middle part of that quote, but the leadership questions are no joke. Whiteside and Winslow could prove to be natural court captains, but the Heat are hoping for as few hiccups as possible during these on-the-fly transitions.

Getting Defensive with Briante Weber

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Bleacher Report: What's the formula for being a lockdown defender?

Briante Weber: Will. It's a want to. Most people don't want to. Everybody wants to score the ball. Everybody wants to do this. I can do that, but at the same time I'd rather stop you from doing it. That's just where it came from. I always wanted to stop somebody else, because that's all everybody ever talked about was, 'I can score this, I can do this,' but at the same time, can you stop somebody else from doing it?

B/R: What made you want to be a stopper?

BW: I've been pretty much playing defense all my life, since I picked up a basketball. Pretty much just trying to take the ball away from other people [has] always been one of my knacks. I kind of ran with it, I turned it into a skill and figured out you can get a lot of money for doing this.

B/R: Can you tell when you start getting into your opponent's head?

BW: Just by their body language and how they bring the ball up and how they come across you when they're dribbling. Most people are overly confident with ball-handling, but after a couple of minutes or a couple of times, you can tell how their demeanor changes—how they're handling the ball, how cautious they are of you and how cautious they are of just getting the ball out of their hands as quick as possible. I read things like that.

B/R: The Heat had you around a lot last season, starting in Sioux Falls [with their D-League affiliate] and finally in Miami late. What have you learned about this organization?

BW: They like players of my stature that are just gonna go after it and not really take any plays off—just like Josh Richardson, Tyler Johnson, Justise. They just go after it, like no stop, no matter what. No matter what the clock says, no matter how many points they're down or up, the game stays the same.

All quotes were obtained firsthand. Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com.

Zach Buckley covers the Miami Heat for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @ZachBuckleyNBA.