Besides the work the Heat done on the court to play faster on offense, they took in the scenery that is the Bahamas which is the fourth time the team has done training camp in the location with last season being at Florida Atlantic University. Talking specifically about the work on the court, Spoelstra would describe the camp as “productive” according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.

“We’ve loved it,” Spoelstra said. “It’s been a very productive camp for us here in this place where we have the court and then it’s also been good for us being outside, taking in the Bahamas air. We’ve had some good dinners. All of it has just been really good.”

Heat’s Erik Spoelstra speaks on training camp in the Bahamas

The three other times Miami came to conduct training camp at the Bahamas came before the 2013-14 season, the 2016-17 season and ahead of the 2022-23 season. In two of those times, the Heat went all the way to the NBA Finals as they are hoping the same happens this upcoming season.

“We love it down here,” Spoelstra said. “All the players love it, the staff loves it, Micky [Arison] loves being down here in the Bahamas. They have such a presence down here with Carnival [Cruise Line]. We’ve had great experiences when we’ve come down here. I believe the last time we were down here, we went to the Finals. So if you can guarantee that and then get us to that next step, we’ll come down here every year.”

Unfortunately for them, the Heat can’t come to the Bahamas every offseason for training camp as there is an NBA rule that doesn’t permit teams from having sessions outside the United States of America or Canada in consecutive seasons. Despite the physical aspect of training camp, Spoelstra sees the start of it as a “new beginning” to what it hopefully a successful season to what their standard is to be.

“We can’t come [to the Bahamas] every year,” Spoelstra said. “We have to come every other year. But it’s something different. I think what it does is it signals that it’s training camp, it’s a new beginning, it’s an opportunity to lay down the foundation hopefully for a very good season.”

Heat’s Erik Spoelstra talks about the team’s “foundation”

With training camp now ended, the schedule in the immediate future has Sunday as an off-day for the team after a week straight of practice with Monday being the annual “Red, White, & Pink” scrimmage at Kaseya Center which is open to the public. Right after, they travel to Charlotte to take on the Hornets in the aforementioned preseason opener.

“We laid down the first few bricks of the foundation for this season,” Spoelstra said. “It was a very productive week all across the board. The work in the gym, the connection pieces outside the gym. Everybody was also able to just kind of relax and spend some time together in the evenings, and then now we just continue. The preseason starts on Tuesday. We view that still as an extension of training camp.”

At any rate, fans are locking in their season predictions for the Heat as they look to improve after the second straight season finishing at the eighth seed where they were eliminated in the first round by the Boston Celtics in the playoffs. The regular season starts on Oct. 23 against the Orlando Magic.