I'd worked for Pat long enough, that I understood that his vision is always bigger," Spoelstra said. "And it's always going to be more uncomfortable than you would typically want it to be. He's always going to be pushing the bar higher, bigger, more, and you have to be willing to go there with him."
It is why it is not preposterous to consider that for as good as the going is at the moment, there could be some kicking of the tires with Antetokounmpo, Beal, Oladipo, Holiday and others either in trades or, eventually, free agency.
And it is why, when players are bounced from the playoffs, as Antetokounmpo soon could be, that the mind wanders, just as it did with Jimmy Butler after the Philadelphia 76ers were, quite literally, bounced out of the playoffs a year ago by the Toronto Raptors, or, for that matter, when Joel Embiid is sub-tweeting the 76ers while tweeting about Butler.
But that's also where Part B of the speculation has to be assessed and applied to Heat standards.
Before the Heat's final road game prior to the March shutdown, Spoelstra was asked a seemingly innocuous question about the process of a team successfully integrating a star into the mix.
As the Heat did with Shaquille O'Neal.
Most recently with Butler.