Heat Notes: Dragic, Injuries, Richardson

Things in Miami have changed significantly since Goran Dragic was acquired at the 2015 trade deadline, with Dwyane Wade no longer in the picture and Chris Bosh seemingly on his way out as well. The Heat are in a retooling phase, and the injury woes plaguing the team this season have made it difficult for the new-look roster to gel. Still, Dragic tells Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders that he remains optimistic about the club’s future.

“This is a young team,” Dragic said. “We have a lot of newer faces than last year, and we just need to find that good chemistry that we had in the preseason. But, it’s kind of hard because with all those injuries, players are out, [so] it’s always a different starting lineup or different players on the floor. Hopefully, that won’t happen in the future.”

Here’s more from Dragic, along with a couple more Heat notes:

  • Dragic on Wade’s decision to leave the Heat for the Bulls this past summer: “I was in shock because he was there 13 years. I would never imagine he was going to go somewhere else because, the Miami Heat, everyone knows that was D-Wade’s team. But I understand, this is a part of the business. When that happened, I was talking with him and I wished him all the best in Chicago. He’s a good friend of mine, and it is what it is. We’re all professionals, so we need to do our jobs and I had to embrace a new, bigger role, but I’m fine with that.”
  • The Heat had a busy offseason, having been active in free agency, which means next Thursday is a big day for the team, writes Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. As of that day, December 15, nearly all the players the team signed in the summer will become trade-eligible. Of course, as Winderman notes, Pat Riley has never made a trade in December since taking over as Heat president, so we shouldn’t expect the team to make a move right away — particularly since some potential trade chips are injured at the moment.
  • Speaking of injured players, Winderman provides an update on Josh Richardson‘s status in a separate piece for The Sun Sentinel.
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