Erik Spoelstra isn't looking at it as either a wealth of riches or a coaching burden.
He's looking at it as, finally, having hard decisions to make with a nearly full roster.
"Bring it on," Spoelstra said Tuesday night before the Miami Heat faced the Philadelphia 76ers at AmericanAirlines Arena. "I mean this is what I get paid for. I would rather have these issues."
With Kelly Olynyk back after missing six games with a strained left shoulder, and with Rodney McGruder in uniform for the first time since preseason leg surgery, Spoelstra said he is more than willing to deal with the fallout.
"These are high-class issues rather than dealing with trying to figure out if we have enough guys to play and enough perimeter guys in the rotation," he said. "To accomplish what we want to accomplish, we need contributions from many people. And if you want to be a great team, you have to have guys willing to sacrifice.
"Does that make it easy? No. But we have the right kind of guys that have the right character and understand that concept, that team chemistry matters, and filling a role and also being a supportive teammate and enjoying someone else's success."
And if feelings are hurt or feathers ruffled when it comes to playing time, well, he said, that ship has sailed, with the Heat in a final sprint for playoff position.
"I want to be mindful and empathetic to each player and their ambition and how they want to help and to contribute to this team," he said. "But as we say here all the time, 'The main thing is the main thing.' There's not a whole lot of time to just focus on trying to keep people happy. That's not what this is about.
"This is about — contribute whatever your role may be, and that might be not be in concrete right now. We have to move, it's time. I mentioned that before — there's no time to mess around or walk on eggshells and people will be bent out of shape about minutes. No, there's no time for that right now."
Spoelstra said it was important to bring McGruder along according to protocol rather than the pressure of the playoff chase.
"Knowing Rodney, that also made us make sure we checked all the boxes, protected Rodney from Rodney, made sure we're doing it judiciously and not skipping any steps, not trying to rush it, the process," he said. "Players and different body types will heal on their own time. So you can't necessarily compare the same injury to somebody else, because your body is your own.
"We just wanted to monitor him. He was always pushing the envelope, so most of the time we were pulling the reins and making sure that he was going methodically through that process. But then he's here. Then you realize time moves. I'm sure it was tough dealing with it, but he passed all those hurdles and now he's available and there's still a lot of time left in the season."
Spoelstra said having Olynyk back adds to his team's possibilities.
"We look different when he's out there," he said. "So many of the strengths that we have right now, we talk about it as the versatility, he just adds to all of that. And he has a way of making things look better when he's out there on both ends of the court. Smart players, guys that have good feel for the game, tend to do that."
Guard Josh Richardson quipped about the elements that make Olynyk unique.
"He changes the whole complexion of our team and not just by his skin," he said. "He's a great, great playmaker for us. He makes outside shots. He stretches the floor. He talks. He understands time and score and pace and all that."
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