Wade on LeBron-less Heat: 'We're going to have those growing pains all year'

The Miami Heat are entering the NBA season under a cloud of uncertainty, not being part of the championship conversation for the first time in four years.

With LeBron James gone and a score of new pieces in the mix, the Heat are tasked with reinventing themselves, and proving they can remain relevant without the consensus best player in the league. Dwyane Wade knows it's going to be a challenge, and he sees team unity as the only way forward.

"We're going to have those growing pains all year," Wade told Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Thursday, "but we're going to do it together, and that's the only way we're going to be successful."

Asked to compare the impending learning curve to the one he experienced with the Heat back in 2010, the year James and Chris Bosh joined the fray, Wade talked about the collective subsumation of ego this time around.

"It's totally different," he said. "Our growing pains then were learning how to be a team, how to play team basketball, and not just be dynamic individuals.

"Now, it's a different mindset here. There (are) not really a lot of headstrong individuals. It's more so of trying to get everybody on the same page as a team early on."

Bosh, for his part, echoed much the same sentiment, preaching patience in light of an inevitable adjustment period.

"This year, we're going to have to use this beginning of the season to learn more about ourselves as a team," he said. "It's much different (than 2010). Because of the chemistry, there are different aspects in the offense that we're running. Even for the guys coming back it's a little different.

"Especially with me and (Wade), we have to get used to that higher volume of shots and making plays. It's going to be a long, tough process."