When it comes to "maintenance" programs, the Miami Heat have numerous blueprints to draw upon. They practically authored the approach, dating to Dan Majerle's balky back under Pat Riley to the preemptive slants taken in recent years with Mike Miller and Dwyane Wade.
And now, if Chris Bosh is able to make it back from the blood clots that have sidelined him for the second half of the past two seasons, the scheme may yet have to be put in place again, with the team considering truncated scheduling for the All-Star forward.
As recently as 2013-14, the Heat routinely held Wade out of games in order to reduce the wear on his knees and leave him as fresh as possible for the postseason. The year before, Miller was put on a shortened-schedule leash, as he wore down from his body-as-projectile tactics.
"The one thing he does," Miller said at the time of Riley, "is protect his players."
With Bosh, protection might have been prudent at this stage of his career even had there not been blood clots, with Bosh turning 33 in March.
When Wade was put on his Heat maintenance program, he was 31. When Miller's work schedule was curtailed, he was 32. And when Majerle was held back, he was 34.
The Heat mantra since Riley's arrival as franchise steward in 1995 has been, "Hardest working. Best conditioned. Most professional. Unselfish. Toughest. Nastiest. Most disliked team in the NBA."
And yet when that work works against the greater good there also has been relief.
Fifteen years ago, during his final season with the Heat, that became the case with Majerle, who would spend practice isolated on the sideline so he could be available as often as possible on game nights.
"You want to be out there battling in practice and doing the things that they're doing," Majerle said. "It makes you feel like more of a teammate, but in my case, I didn't have a choice."
With contact a concern with Bosh, particularly if blood-thinners remain part of his health regimen, practice/playing options could be limited, as well.
That doesn't mean a Heat willingness to forgo conditioning, as Majerle can attest, going back to the days when Riley was coach and current Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was an assistant.
"Make no mistake now, it wasn't like I was over there drinking a Margarita and having a donut," said Majerle, who now is coach at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix. "I mean I was on the bike. I was like the Tour de France, without the PEDs."
For Bosh, with contact perhaps the greatest concern for a player with a history of blood clots, the approach could be similar.
It is, of course, hardly optimal when it comes to continuity.
"It's tough," LeBron James said at the time of working through Wade's maintenance program in 2013-14, which also proved to be James' final season with the Heat. "We have a team built on chemistry, built on rhythm. With so many of the guys being in and out, and the concern with D-Wade, it's been tough on all of us. We've got to go in with the mindset sometimes that he's not playing, as opposed to, 'Is he playing?' "
And yet that 2013-14 roster was uniquely built for Wade to miss 28 regular-season games. Ray Allen was in place to play 160 minutes more that season than Wade. Shane Battier was available to start 56 games. There also were the scoring contributions of Rashard Lewis when needed. It was similar to the flexibility the San Antonio Spurs created over the years to rest Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker.
Behind Bosh this season, the fill-in answers are not as clear, from Josh McRoberts to Luke Babbitt to possibly going undersized with Justise Winslow.
At this stage of Bosh's career, relief might have been prudent even without this growing history with blood clots. Now it could have to become policy, one that has been decades in the shaping with the Heat.
