Rough start for Heat rookie forward Michael Beasley.
Not only did he catch an elbow to the chest on Wednesday that knocked him out of his first practice with Miami's summer league team, he also took a sort of playful shot from teammate Dwyane Wade.
Wade, who worked his camp for kids at FIU on Wednesday, spoke to reporters in Miami for the first time since he returned from Team USA's mini-camp last weekend in Las Vegas and its New York photo shoot earlier this week. Among his topics were Beasley's addition and the Heat's plan in free agency.
Wade said he's attempted to contact Beasley to welcome the former Kansas State stud to the team and league. Beasley's response, according to Wade? Silence.
"He big-manned me. He didn't call me back," Wade said. "I know it's very hectic for him right now. His voice mail is very full. I told him I hope to talk to him this week, hopefully, while I'm in town. I know how busy it is for him. Everyone's calling and wanting to talk to him. He's got a lot going on. But he kind of big-manned me a little bit."
Wade then reminded everyone he also had a hard time connecting with Shaquille O'Neal when O'Neal arrived in a trade from Los Angeles in the summer of 2004. Wade was with the U.S. team at the Athens Olympics then.
"The power of texting and cell phones nowadays is good," Wade said. "I was out of the country when Shaq came as well. You see our relationship was good. But we have a long season (ahead). We have training camp in Paris and London. We'll have plenty of time to get to know each other."
On the free-agency front, Wade said he's given his own "wish list" to Heat president Pat Riley, but did not divulge any names.
"He's the only one who needs to know it," Wade said. "He's making the decisions. We have to be smart. We want to make our team a lot better. But we can't go out and be crazy."
One of the Heat's biggest needs is at point guard. But the list of free agents is already dwindling just two days into the negotiating period.
Baron Davis, who was never really in contention for the Heat, has agreed to a deal with the Clippers.
Beno Udrih, who was on the Heat's radar, has agreed to re-sign with the Kings.
Jose Calderon, who was never a realistic option, said he would re-sign with Toronto.
That leaves Keyon Dooling, Chris Duhon, Carlos Arroyo, Anthony Johnson and Tyronn Lue among the mid-level-or-less crop who might fit the Heat's criteria.
All are serviceable. None are absolute solutions for anything beyond the one or two seasons it might take Heat second-round draft pick Mario Chalmers to potentially snatch and hold a starting role.
The plan is simply to surround Wade with enough building blocks and encouragement to get him to strongly consider staying put when he can opt out of his contract in the summer of 2010.
Last week, Riley said he wasn't sure what Wade would do. But he said the Heat needed to be in position to offer not only Wade an max contract, but to have another available to entice a Chris Bosh, LeBron James, Amare Stoudemire or Carmelo Anthony when they hit free agency.
Wade took the 2010 talk in stride.
"No one knows what's going to happen in 2010," Wade said. "I'm not thinking about it. I'm not worried about it. Me and coach Riley have talked a lot and 2010 has never been a conversation about what I'm going to do. Only time 2010 comes up is when he says we can't do too much this summer because we have to make sure we're right and set up for 2010. And we want to be big players in 2010."
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