Spoelstra offers no excuses for last season, expects Heat to bounce back
MIAMI (AP) -- Erik Spoelstra isn't spending too much additional time looking back at what went wrong for the Miami Heat last season.
To him, the exercise would be pointless.
The easiest thing for the Heat to have done this summer would be to have blamed a 37-45 record -- which kept them from the playoffs -- on the illness that struck Chris Bosh and the injuries that limited Dwyane Wade and others over the course of the year. But Spoelstra, in a roundtable session with the team's beat writers Thursday, said he wasn't accepting any excuses for what went wrong.
"Yes, there's some things I would have done differently," Spoelstra said. "Is it necessary for me to go through the whole autopsy right now? No. I take responsibility for it and that's where it should be. It should be on my shoulders. I'm not running away from that. And now my energy and my focus is on this team, with big expectations. And you know what? That's the way we like it."
So with Bosh healthy again, Wade re-signed for another season and with starters Goran Dragic and Hassan Whiteside about to go through their first full season in Miami, the Heat will gather next week for training camp -- the first step toward what Spoelstra fully believes will be a bounceback season for a team that has reached the postseason 10 times in the last 12 years.
"Guys are refreshed," Spoelstra said, referring to both players and his coaching staff.
Spoelstra said Bosh -- who missed the second half of last season after a blood clot was discovered on his left lung -- will be fully cleared for the first practice, an indicator that the All-Star forward is no longer on bloodthinners. Also expected back for camp is forward Josh McRoberts, who missed nearly the entire 2014-15 season after knee surgery.
The Heat also added Amare Stoudemire to the big-man rotation during free agency, and drafted forward Justise Winslow from Duke.
"We like the talent, we like the depth, we like the experience, we like the skill set we have with our front line," Spoelstra said. "And we like the expectations that it brings."
