Heat training camp: Let the battle begin!!

The Heat got off to a quick start when they began training camp at the American Airlines Arena yesterday.  It was a well-known fact that the Heat coaching staff was expecting every member of the team to show up in the best possible shape, and to be prepared for a very physically demanding camp. 

The very first 30 minutes on the court the team worked as hard as you'd expect them to in March.  While the results may not have been as good as you'd hope for in mid-season, the Heat still held their own. 

"There's no one out there who was out of shape," Wade said, "(But) I'm going to say the first 30, it felt like the first day of training camp, because it was non-stop. But after that first 30, we settled in to breaking things down and working on basketball. But that first 30 was (brutal)."

Today the focus was more on defense, which I imagine will be a constant focus throughout the pre-season.  A couple guys who I'm expecting to see (or really really hoping to see) consistent D from all season are James Jones and Quentin Richardson.  Both have been working hard all summer in the attempt to have ‘bounce-back' seasons. 

Jones could have a bit more pressure on him, as he is expected to claim the starting small forward job that should have been his all of last season.  Towards the end of the season he finally began to show signs of the player the Heat we're expecting when they originally signed Jones last summer, and he should be out to prove to a lot of people, including himself, that he is still he lethal shooting scoring threat he's always been. 

Richardson is a bit of a question mark to me, mostly because we have no idea where he is going to fit into the lineup.  Obviously he is going to get playing time, and I'm confident that he will make a bigger difference then many seem to think, but he may have to do it from different positions. 

Right now the reports are that Richardson is going to back up Wade at shooting guard, but also playing some minutes at small forward along side of Wade.  We still have Daequan Cook backing up Wade at shooting guard, and he is a guy who we're not going to want to see lose minutes. 

You figure that at small forward the majority of the minutes will go to Richardson and Jones, bumping Yakhouba Diawara down on the depth chart.  The Heat also have a healthy Dorell Wright looking to resume his once promising career, so it will be a battle for minutes amongst last years regular backups. 

I'm purposely not including Beasley in the mix of small forwards because now that we have Richardson, we have more then enough guys at that position battling for time, and Beasley will be better suited as a power forward anyway.   We didn't want to see Joel Anthony paying the 4...

This is all under the assumption that Richardson will be playing well, although all indications point towards him doing just that. 

Richardson, the Heat's lone offseason addition, has lost about 25 pounds and shaved off 3 percent body fat in the six weeks since he was acquired by the Heat in a trade with Minnesota.

"They asked me right after the trade if I wanted to come in and get to work, and I said 'Yeah,' " Richardson (right) said of the Heat's training staff. "They pushed me from the start harder than I've ever been pushed before. And here we are."

The only guy I'm hoping doesn't lose a lot of minutes is Daequan Cook.  I still think he is a very promising talent, and hopefully he can get off to a similar start as he did last season, but this time hold on to it past the All-Star break.

One positive thing about Cook, Diawara and Wright possibly seeing less playing time is that none of them have big salaries.  We don't need another Mark Blount, making $8 million a year and never playing or doing anything significant.  All three of the aforementioned players are in the bottom half of the team's salaries.  Wright makes $2.7 million this season, Cook makes $1.3 and Diawara makes $945k.