{"id":869895,"date":"2026-10-03T23:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T23:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/869895\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T23:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T23:40:08","slug":"heat-notes-larsson-giannis-haslem-portis-donaldson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/869895\/","title":{"rendered":"Heat Notes: Larsson, Giannis, Haslem, Portis, Donaldson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pelle Larsson<\/a> earned a substantial raise with his play last season, but the impact of the four-year extension<\/a> he recently signed didn\u2019t register right away, Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel<\/a> writes in a subscriber-only story. The Heat showed their confidence in the third-year shooting guard by giving him $60MM and making him a long-term part of the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I was pretty blank,\u201d Larsson said. \u201cI mean, it was not until later, I think, really, when I talked to my parents that they kind of made me realize how crazy it is. \u2026 I\u2019ve been playing basketball for free for mostly my whole life, so to have this now is insane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larsson saw limited playing time as a rookie, but he moved into the starting lineup last season and proved to be worthy of the promotion, averaging 11.4 PPG in 70 games. He quickly impressed new Heat star Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> during offseason workouts and said he got positive feedback from coach Erik Spoelstra and team president Pat Riley during extension talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of similar things of they\u2019re giving me this extension for a reason, so just keep doing what I\u2019ve been doing and being who I am on the court,\u201d Larsson said. \u201cAnd, now we\u2019re bringing in some new guys that I think I\u2019m going to fit well with and I can continue to do the same thing, just try to be more efficient in the things I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more from Miami:<\/p>\n

Antetokounmpo is expected to make his Heat debut in tonight\u2019s preseason game against Toronto in Quebec City, according to Winderman (Twitter link<\/a>), who states that all the team\u2019s projected rotation members are available to play.
\nLongtime Heat player Udonis Haslem<\/a> is now an executive with the team, but even at age 46 he\u2019s been running through drills with the players, according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald<\/a> (subscriber link). Antetokounmpo and fellow newcomer Bobby Portis<\/a> said Haslem\u2019s feedback has been valuable. \u201cMe and UD are kind of similar in using our voice and being a leader and things like that, so it\u2019s been fun to have him around,\u201d Portis said. \u201c\u2026 Especially in practice, giving me little pointers, trying to pick up on things a little faster. Obviously, I\u2019m new to the system with the cutting and spacing back out and things like that. So I\u2019m trying to get acclimated to it. So I think it\u2019s good to have guys that\u2019s already been here, that know the system, that can help the new guys.\u201d
\nTwo-way player Tre Donaldson<\/a> is among the young players who\u2019ve stood out at training camp, Chiang adds in the same piece. The 22-year-old guard, who went undrafted after playing his senior season at Miami, has made an impression on his teammates with his style of play. \u201cHe\u2019s just a dog,\u201d Davion Mitchell<\/a> said. \u201cIt kind of reminded me of myself when I was in the league, just trying to figure it out. Playing hard. Still making mistakes, obviously, but you learn from those mistakes. But he\u2019s playing really well with all the confidence in the world. I\u2019m excited to see him grow.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pelle Larsson earned a substantial raise with his play last season, but the impact of the four-year extension…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[72270,359,355,72500,99,366713,143807],"class_list":["post-869895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-bobby-portis","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-nba","tag-pelle-larsson","tag-sports","tag-tre-donaldson","tag-udonis-haslem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}