Download the 2004-05 Schedule in Outlook!

Media Day 2004

Join the HEAT.com Message Boards

The Miami HEAT have an electric buzz, a world of expectations and the self-proclaimed Most Dominant Ever on their side now, but they also have a real challenge facing them as the 2004-05 NBA season looms on the horizon:

Get nine new players up to speed on their system.

With just two returning starters in place.

And only five days of training camp to work with before the first exhibition game.

“It’s a lot of new faces,” said guard Eddie Jones, the HEAT’s elder statesman with four years on the team. “Nine new faces. That’s why we’re out here really busting our butts to try to learn it. All the guys that were here last year are trying to help the young guys and the new guys learn the system.”

The HEAT system is a grueling, aggressive, defense-oriented system, one that asks a lot from those who know it best as well as those who are just learning it.

As a longtime assistant under the system’s architect, Pat Riley, second-year HEAT head coach Stan Van Gundy knows that getting everyone to adhere to that system will take time – and hard work.

“What we’re trying to do this first week is just really get some things in place – a framework for how we’re going to play on both ends of the court,” said Van Gundy at the conclusion of the third day of two-a-day practices. “And try to give them an idea of the intensity level that we expect them to play at. I don’t expect that things during this first week are going to be very refined, or that we’re going to look very smooth.”

Play might be a little ragged at times, but plenty of things have looked smooth through the first three days of training camp:

The skill level of first-round draft pick Dorrell Wright, an 18-year-old swingman who jumped to the NBA directly from high school – a first in HEAT draft history.

“The guy’s athletic,” said Eddie Jones, one of Miami’s returning starters. “To me, he’s probably the best youngster I’ve ever seen come from high school, from the standpoint of shooting the basketball. He can really shoot the basketball.”

“He’s shown a lot to me,” said second-year guard Dwyane Wade, the other returning starter. “He’s very mature for his age. He’s a guy that’s come in and has wanted to do everything right. He’s got a tremendous upside; a lot of talent.”

The overall game of Wade, who turned heads around the NBA last season before winning a bronze medal as a U.S. Olympian and refining his defensive skill-set in Athens under the tutelage of legendary coach Larry Brown.

“He has a lot of attributes to his game,” said Damon Jones, one of many free-agent acquisitions and likely Wade’s backup at point guard. “One thing that he doesn’t get a lot of credit for is the fact that he understands the game at such a young age. This is his second year in the league, and he already understands how to run pick-and-roll and do different things out on the floor. It’s going to be fun playing with him.”

And, most importantly, the physique of No. 32 – prized offseason acquisition Shaquille O’Neal, who has shed around 35 pounds since last season and looks, more than ever, like “The Big Sexy,” yet another of his self-applied aliases.

“Today, we did a lot of running up and down – a lot,” said Van Gundy. “We were out blitzing pick-and-rolls, and he was trapping the heck out of pick-and-rolls 30, 35 feet from the basket, and rotating back. He got through everything and did his job. I’m happy with everything he’s doing, particularly with his work ethic and his conditioning.”

“He’s probably the lightest I’ve ever seen,” said Eddie Jones, who played alongside O’Neal for two seasons in L.A. “He’s getting up and down the floor out there, man.”

“He’s running the floor like a deer right now,” said Damon Jones. “He’s doing nothing but getting in shape – more and more every day. Everyone’s saying that he’s getting older, he’s going downhill now. So he wants to get in the best physical condition that he can, lose the weight that he feels is necessary to keep light on his feet. I’m excited to see it.”

HEAT fans are every bit as excited about the possibilities that come with a slimmed-down, amped-up O’Neal, who won three titles while playing at as much as 370 pounds with the L.A. Lakers.

And they’ll get their first chance to see what O’Neal, Wade, the Joneses and the rest of the new-look HEAT have to offer on Sunday, when the team opens its exhibition season against Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady and the Houston Rockets (8:30 p.m., Sunshine).

Just don’t expect Van Gundy to get too high or too low based on the game’s outcome.

“We want to go out there and play hard,” said Van Gundy. “The fact that there may be more people paying attention to it doesn’t change anything in the process for us. I’m not going to be proclaiming us World Champions if we look good and win the exhibition game, and I’m not going to be devastated if we don’t play well in the exhibition game, five days in.”