Miami Heat basketball is back! With Media Day out of the way, the Miami Heat kicked off their first practice on Tuesday to open training camp.
With a ton of new guys to get integrated, this early camp work will be essential, necessary, and integral to get the team to where they need to be as the season begins to ramp up. With the Miami Heat’s history in mind though, you know that whatever they set about doing, it will be with full effort and intensity.
That’s because, well, that’s the only way that they know how to do things. In the Miami Heat Way and Culture, with maximum purpose, intent, and especially effort is the only way to do things.
That’s something that a lot of their guys have, innately, especially in thinking about Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler. That’s also, especially, what made Kyle Lowry a fit for the Miami Heat for a long time up until now.
The Miami Heat can change certain guys, but then there are also guys that just “fit”. P.J. Tucker is certainly one of those dudes and it shows.
While guys like Markieff Morris, Victor Oladipo, and Dewayne Dedmon also certainly fit that mold as well, there is one more guy, particularly, that embodies these principles on a level that is quite like no other.
That guy would be P.J. Tucker. Here is what he had to say of his first official Miami Heat practice.
P.J. Tucker on his first Heat practice, “Every second of it was intense.”
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) September 28, 2021
When thinking about a guy who gets as fired up as he does about playing defense or big defensive plays, alone in some situations, it’s no wonder why this was his description. He’s as intense as they come.
For that reason and obvious other ones that draw parallels between Tucker and the Heat, he seems to be in a great place for him. Prior to the move being made or announced and heck, even prior to his offseason, it didn’t take a genius to be able to see the fit between Tucker and Miami.
If they could ever make it reasonably happen, it should have been a no-brainer. Well, they did this offseason and the Miami Heat will be all the better for it.
As assumed by this statement after his first practice, he’s right at home with his new franchise. And you just love to see it.