ORLANDO – The Miami Heat are getting ready to face the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the NBA Playoffs starting on Tuesday.
For the Heat, one of their keys to success is veteran leadership from players like Andre Iguodala.
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Iguodala brings championship experience from Golden State and is a former NBA Finals Most Valuable Player.
Iguodala said he thinks the young players will be ready for the big stage.
Iguodala said, “The culture that we have, the guys are being prepared for these moments throughout the year. It’s just the culture of the Heat, the hard-core prep throughout the season it’s natural. It’s not this huge overhaul of very intense prep for the playoffs. It’s in their DNA now.”
Iguodala said for the young players, it’s now a matter of getting experience and learning from it.'
Iguodala said of the veterans, “We’ve been through a lot of battles, we know how to have other guys’ backs within the game. Whether it’s helping a guy normally it would linger for 2-3 games, it will linger for 2-3 minutes because of the experience that we have.”
The Heat forward also had a little fun with his teammate Jimmy Butler.
Butler has been charging teammates $20 for a cup of his special coffee.
Iguodala who has vast business experience shared his selling advice to Butler.
Iguodala said, “Usually when you start a company, you give out free samples to give the community a taste of what you’re offering to the consumer. His approach and his go-to-market strategy, I don’t think has quite been there. It’s good marketing in terms of his name, but people need to have access to the product with samples. You see companies out there give you a sample size and you gravitate towards it. I think he’s trying to build a monopoly.”
On the basketball side, head coach Erik Spoelstra said that Derrick Jones Jr. went through the team’s walk-through today, but his status for Tuesday’s game is not yet known.
Guard Kendrick Nunn said that he’ll be coming off the bench to start the Playoff series.