Lots of stuff from Heat media day today:
### New Heat forward Danny Granger, limited to 46 games because of knee injuries the past two seasons, said Friday he underwent minor arthroscopic surgery on his left knee two months ago but expects to be available for the Heat’s regular-season opener Oct. 30 against Washington.
Granger said he will be on the “maintenance program” the Heat has used on Dwyane Wade, an approach that appealed to him when he was recruited by the Heat in July. He said there’s no soreness in the knee, which has been surgically-repaired twice, but it still needs to get stronger.
“It’s making sure it’s there before I go out and try to make some move and my muscle is not strong enough and something happens to my knee,” he said. “We don’t want to burn me out through training camp and the preseason. I’m doing everything fully now. Every day I’m getting a little stronger.”
Granger, 31, averaged 24.1, 20.5, and 18.7 points for Indiana over three consecutive seasons before the knee problems limited him to five games in 2012-13 and 41 games for the Pacers and Clippers last season, when he averaged 8.2 points on 37.8 percent shooting.
“The skills are always there, just a matter of if your body is going to let you do it or not,” he said.
Coach Erik Spoelstra said the Heat has “a history of taking on players like Danny that are still young and in their prime, and helping them achieve things they want to with a lot of work and commitment. He has been very committed this summer.”
Granger said he embraces the sixth-man role that he might assume here. When he was traded to the Clippers last season, guard Jamal Crawford --- voted the NBA’s top sixth man last season --- sold Granger on the idea of coming off the bench.
“Jamal kept telling me it’s not that bad, you get a lot more touches,” Granger said.
He said he asked Spoelstra what position he will play and “Spo said, ‘We don’t have positions.’ He keeps telling me that.”
Granger said when he committed orally to the Heat (two years and $4.2 million), he thought LeBron James would be re-signing with Miami.
He spoke to several teams, including Indiana, after James signed with Cleveland, “but still came to the conclusion this would be the best place for me. Trying to come back to where I was, it gives me the opportunity to play more with him not being here, so it was a good place for me either way. [And] it’s Miami. We have a dock behind our house, can go fishing with my son.”
Granger, who changed his jersey number from 33 to 22 because Alonzo Mourning’s 33 jersey is retired, said he gained respect for the Heat as a member of the Indiana Pacers during contentious playoff battles.
Friday’s media day “was the first time I put the [Heat] jersey on and it’s kind of weird,” he said.
WADE’S TAKE
Some snippets from Dwyane Wade’s media briefing:
### Asked how his knee is: “It’s feeling all right.” And that was that.
### How many games will he play? Wade, who missed 28 games last season, said in August that he wanted to play in at least 75. He didn’t give a number Friday but said he wants to be available as much as possible.
### Any LeBron-decision hangover? “There’s no hangover. Everyone in the organization has had time to get used to the idea it’s going to be a different team…. We can’t replace LeBron. We’re a different team. Everybody’s opportunities [and] responsibilities will be different.”
### “Training camp will be more teaching and learning that the last couple of years.”
### Wade is in very good shape. He said he is still “trying to adjust” to the diet that Ray Allen used last summer. Wade said the first 30 days, with no carbs, “sucked” and he had mood swings.
“After 30 days, it becomes part of your lifestyle. It was a challenge I wanted to do. It worked out well. I was able to lose some weight. I’m not going to say how much. When other people want you to do something, you don’t want to do it. When you want to do it, it makes it easier to do.”
Wade said he is somewhere between the 212 pounds he weighed as a rookie and the 225 he weighed last season. “Losing weight doesn’t do anything,” he said. “You have to put on the right muscle as well.”
### On how his role will change: “I don’t know for sure. Obviously I’ll have the ball in my hands a little more. I have always been a playmaker for this team. I will continue to do that. I’ve always been someone who’s scored the ball at a high rate. And I will always try to do that. I’m not coming in looking like I have to do anything that LeBron did, that I have to do anything that I did before the Big Three…. I’ve always been a leader in this organization. That doesn’t change.”
### On Luol Deng: “Tough, hard-working, professional, consistent. That’s a comfort for the coaches and us as players. It was a good pickup by the organization.”
### On Granger: “We’re happy to have Granger here. Hopefully, he can bring to us what he brought to Indiana: a dynamic scorer at times. We understand he has something to prove, and when he’s physically ready to be able to do it, we’re excited.”
### On Chris Bosh: “He’s really looking forward to the challenge. I don’t want him to put too much on himself. We have enough. He’s one of the most talented guys at his position. He’s just got to be Chris Bosh.”
Does he need to be Toronto Chris Bosh? “No, we go to the playoffs!” Wade said. “He didn’t go to the playoffs much when he was in Toronto. I don’t want that Chris Bosh. I want the playoff Chris Bosh.”
### Who’s the Eastern Conference favorite? “The Heat,” he responded.
BOSH MUSINGS
Highlights from Chris Bosh’s media briefing:
### As we reported in this space two weeks ago, Bosh confirmed he is going to play in the post more, “working in the mid-post areas and being able to be effective anywhere on the court.”
Of playing more in the post, he said: “I know I can do it. The question for me is how consistent and how much. Just the quantity and volume of touches is going to change. That’s why I worked so hard this summer so I could be ready for that.”
### He said he didn’t bulk up. “I’m done with that. I play fast. My advantage is my quickness. When you bulk up, you want to get into a wrestling match and that’s no good for my game. I’m focusing on being light, strong, being quick, being effective. I can’t do that if I’m wrestling with other big guys. That’s not up my alley.”
### Asked if he has extended his prime by not playing a lot in the post during the past few years, he said: “Maybe. I’m 30. I feel 29. I feel good. There is a physical demand when you’re down there in the post, shouldering that load night in and night out. Maybe it has preserved my legs a little bit and now I’m ready to give this team a lot more.”
### Bosh said “this is a huge opportunity for this team and every individual who’s here to really show what they can bring to the table.
“I think I can bring a lot to this team. I had to play a role the past four years. Moving forward, I can show the city and the organization what value I can be, how much I can turn up the intensity, how much I can put more weight on my shoulders and bring more wins to Miami. It will be a bigger challenge. I’m really looking forward to it.”
### He said “I’m a much better player, more complete player, a better leader” than when he played in Toronto. “I know I can score 20 points a game. What I always had more focus on was winning at the same time."
### Though he said he would put Chicago “ahead of the pack” in the East, Bosh also said he believes the Heat is as good as any team in the East --- “We’re not better, but we’re as good.” It irks him when people refer to the Heat as a middle of the pack team.
“I don’t like that. It gives you a lot of motivation. Middle of the pack. My thing is, ‘Who’s supposed to be better?’ That’s the question I ask. We are trying to be one of the elite teams in this league. You don’t want to come from going to the Finals four years in a row to being the fifth, fourth seed. We want to be better than that.”
### Is there a letdown that the Heat didn’t have a chance with LeBron to make a fifth straight Finals, and beyond?
“I was disappointed. There was a letdown initially from not being able to keep that going. You get over it. You have to move on. We would have liked to have seen that run keep going. But when we look back at it, it will be a very special time because it was only a short period of time we had. It was a great four-year run. It was a special time, a special era. It’s over.”
### More Bosh on LeBron: “We owe that respect to each other to knock each other’s heads off when we’re playing.” He said even beyond LeBron’s on-court greatness, he will miss James because “he’s very funny, put everybody at ease.”
### Bosh said “it wouldn’t have been easy to leave [Miami]. It would have been hard to leave. I didn’t want to be the enemy in my household. I didn’t know how I was going to tell my wife and kids we were moving. This was an easy decision, based on what this organization has done for me, what they accomplished before we even got here.”
THIS AND THAT
### Josh McRoberts, who committed orally to the Heat before James left for Cleveland, said he never reconsidered that decision after James bolted.
Spoelstra said even though McRoberts “had a breakout season last year,” he told McRoberts in their first meeting that there is potential for more.
“Who knows what the ceiling is?” Spoelstra said. We don’t want to put a ceiling on him. His skill is very unique. It’s hard to put him in a box, the type of versatility he brings, the ability to play inside and out, see the floor, make the game easier for other players. We always respected that skill set, but when you competed against him in a playoff series [with Charlotte] it went to a different level because of his ability to compete.”
### Spoelstra said he wants to use his bench and as an example, said he has no desire to play Bosh 41 minutes a night.
### Chris Andersen said he lost 10 pounds this summer. Udonis Haslem said he lost 10 pounds over seven days on a no-carbohydrate diet, but discontinued it, joking that he “almost shriveled up and passed away.”
### A prediction from Haslem: “We are going to surprise a lot of people. They will not be disappointed in the way we play the game. People will be proud of this team.”
### Haslem also said: "We are going to find out who the real Heat fans are."
### Luol Deng said he has spoken to Hawks general manager Danny Ferry, who is on leave, and forgiven him for offensive remarks that he made about Deng during a meeting with Hawks ownership in June. Ferry has said he was reading off a scouting report that he did not write.
Among the comments Ferry read: that Deng has "some African in him."
Deng said he doesn't believe Ferry is a racist. He also said he nearly signed with the Hawks before opting for the Heat.
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