Category: Miami Heat Blog

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Ira Winderman) reports: Pat Riley, you see, was leaning toward selecting Central Michigan center Chris Kaman with the No. 5 pick that night. “I looked at him as a little bigger Dave Cowens. And I thought he would develop into a real good interior scorer, rebounder, which he has,” Riley said in a reflective moment recently. “That particular draft, we definitely were in need of a post-up presence, of an inside presence.” While Riley was looking out for a power rotation rocked by the kidney illness of center Alonzo Mourning, his staff was looking out for its leader. The Riley cabinet, which included General Manager Randy Pfund, wanted Wade. Revisionist history offers the tale of Riley, on a treadmill in Milwaukee months earlier, being smitten by the performance of Marquette’s Wade during the NCAA Tournament. But at the 11th hour, there still was need for convincing.

The Miami HEAT announced today that they have hired David Fizdale as an assistant coach, returning the Los Angeles native to where he began his NBA career. Fizdale, who has served as an assistant coach for the past five seasons in Golden State and Atlanta, began his professional career assisting in the HEAT’s video room during the 1997-98 season. Among his responsibilities in his new role he will be assisting in the areas of player development, scouting, game preparation and other duties assigned by Head Coach Erik Spolestra.

“We’re excited to welcome David back to the HEAT organization,” said Spoelstra. “He has proven to be a great teacher and has helped developed a number of young players in his 10 years of coaching on the professional and collegiate level. Additionally, his belief and familiarity with our culture is an added bonus.”

The 34-year old Fizdale returns to Miami after spending the past four seasons (2004-08) as an assistant coach with the Atlanta Hawks where he played an instrumental role in the development of their young players. He helped the Hawks increase their win total in each of the past three seasons and this year earn the franchise’s first postseason appearance since 1999, before being eliminated in seven games in the opening round by the eventual Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics. He began his NBA coaching career as an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors for one season (2003-04).

Directly before joining the Warriors, Fizdale worked as an assistant coach for one season at Fresno State University (2002-03) where his responsibilities included player development and serving as the school’s recruiting coordinator. After concluding his collegiate playing career and spending one year as the HEAT’s video intern in 1997-98, he began his coaching career with a four-year stint (1998-2002) as an assistant coach at his alma mater, the University of San Diego.

The AP reports: Dwyane Wade still believes his knee will be ready for the Beijing Olympics. The Miami Heat guard, who missed the final 21 games of last season because of chronic soreness in his surgically repaired left knee, said Sunday that he’s been playing 5-on-5 games for about a week with “no problems.” Wade is spending much of his offseason rehabilitating in Chicago, with eyes on both getting a spot on the Beijing-bound team—USA Basketball will finalize its Olympic roster later this month—and ensuring that he’s fully healthy when the Heat open training camp in late September.

The AP reports: Alonzo Mourning, whose season ended when he suffered severe knee and leg injuries in a game in December, said that if his body gets healthy, he’d like to play one more season before finally calling it a career. “I just want to get my body right to do it. I need to get my body where my mind is,” said Mourning, while appearing at Miami Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor’s charity golf event. Mourning, 38, has said several times previously that a return wasn’t out of the question – but yesterday’s comments may have been his strongest yet.

The Miami Herald (Michael Wallace) reports: New Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has visions of running an up-tempo, slashing, dunking offense that takes advantage of an athletic nucleus anchored by guard Dwyane Wade. But it’s going to require a gear Wade had been unable to reach the past two seasons. Wade began his latest — and what he hopes to be his last — rehabilitation on his troublesome left knee Monday in his hometown of Chicago, where he is working with Michael Jordan’s former trainer, Tim Grover. It is the latest step Wade has taken in an attempt to put two injury-plagued seasons behind and regain his more-explosive form from the Heat’s 2006 championship season, when Wade was named MVP of the NBA Finals.

The Miami Herald (Barry Jackson) reports: As he passes the coaching reins to Erik Spoelstra, Pat Riley plans to change his approach from when Stan Van Gundy was the coach. Reflecting in a quiet moment, Riley said, ”I distanced myself, I thought, a little too much [from Van Gundy], not in a meddling way. I really showed too much respect, too much distance and wanted to stay absolutely out of the picture because it was his show.” Although Riley wants to give Spoelstra a lot of space, “I think there has to be more contact between me and the head coach on a regular basis, meet once every month or every two weeks.” And Riley said he must ”have a more positive relationship” with his new coach: “I don’t think I ever gave Stan enough kudos because I never needed a pat on the back. When you’re in that position, you never expect one. That’s probably where I’ll come in more than I did the last time.”