Spygate for Heat? No, but Goran Dragic considering scout team

It is a common sight during the NCAA Tournament, a team wins the first game of an early-round doubleheader and then moves to the stands to scout its upcoming competition.

Now the approach could be coming to the NBA.

With all of the league's remaining games to be played at the Wide World of Sports Complex at Disney World, amid the new coronavirus pandemic, it affords players the opportunity to handle their own scouting.

"Sometimes you don't have much to do here," Miami Heat guard Goran Dragic said. "If you explore all the options, then definitely I want to go and watch some games, especially if that team you're playing next is playing, then, yeah, why not?

"Hopefully, we can get some info before they play, before we play against them, and try to get better like that."

The league has made allowances for socially distanced players to attend other games, with all involved in the league's strict quarantine and testing for COVID-19.

For Dragic, it will be similar to watching his brother Zoran, the former Heat guard, compete last year for the Slovenian national team. For others, it will replicate the AAU experience of multiple games the same day in the same gym.

The Heat typically have director of scouting Chad Kammerer on the road to chart opposing plays in advance of those teams’ games against the Heat. But with the league’s Disney set-up limiting such up-close perspective, and with Kammerer not in the bubble, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra instead plans to use his staff for such advance work, with the Heat’s last two video coordinators, Eric Glass and Dan Bisaccio, both among the traveling party.

As it is, with so much uncertainty within the Disney bubble, the makeup of opposing rosters and opposing game plans could change on a nightly basis.

Spoelstra, in fact, said he is not yet at the point of reestablishing his rotation, particularly with Bam Adebayo and Kendrick Nunn yet to be part of the Disney practice mix.

"I'm not really trying to check that box right now," Spoelstra said before giving his team Saturday off. "There's a lot of other things that we're just preparing and getting our team ready, getting them five-on-five conditioning, reacclimating everybody to the system, to each other, to understanding how we want to play, what the pathways are to our success as a team.

"So I'm focused on those things and who's available in the gym right now."

State of Heat

Spoelstra said the work is ongoing in advance of the Heat's exhibition opener, Wednesday against the Sacramento Kings at 8 p.m. (Fox Sports Sun).

"I see some rhythm and conditioning that still needs to happen," he said. "But I'm encouraged by the work and the guys' competing in five on five."

Spoelstra said the three exhibitions arrive at the right time, with the same sense about the Aug. 1 resumption of the regular season.

"So I think it'll be the right timing for those to keep everybody fresh in the mind," he said.

Dragic agreed.

"I can't wait to start playing games," he said, "because that's why you're here."

For now, it has been about resetting the thinking, after the league's four-month layoff.

"We've needed to go through some detail work," Spoelstra said.

Head games

Forward Andre Iguodala said focus remains challenging in the quarantine setting.

“It’s a different environment that we’re in, something that a lot of guys aren’t used to yet,” he said. “You’re still trying to figure out what your days are going to look like at different practice times every day, different testing times. Your schedule is here and there. You’re trying to figure out how to decompress and get yourself in a good mental space.” ...

With limited options, Dragic bought clubs earlier this week in advance of his golf debut. Asked if he appreciated that the sport tends to include its share of side bets, he said, “I don’t gamble, so I’m not afraid about that. They can get money from somebody else.”

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