Pittman looms as Heat answer

Assistant coach Keith Askins is working on the side developing the player who might emerge as the team's center of the future.

That's if David Stern and the NBA players association do their part.

Limited to two games and 11 total minutes of action in his rookie season, 2010 second-round pick Dexter Pittman could provide a needed answer when it comes to an upgrade in the middle.

"Could he contribute next season? Absolutely," Askins said this past week, "if he stays on the plan we have set for him."

The plan is for Askins and Pittman to remain joined at the hip, continuing the constant tutorials of the 6-foot-11 widebody out of Texas. That plan, however, would be derailed by a lockout, which essentially means hands off for Askins and the Heat starting July 1.

"The big question for all players now is that lockout," Askins said, "and it's going to put a lot of pressure on each player, if it happens, to keep themselves in basketball shape. And more importantly, it's very important for him, because our main goal is getting his body into a shape where he can compete on a nightly level."

Having dropped 100 pounds from the start to the end of his tenure with the Longhorns, Pittman has demonstrated that resolve. When pushed. When he suffered a minor knee injury that required midseason arthroscropic surgery, that conditioning waned, only now back where the Heat wants it.

"There can always be a detour," Pittman said, "but one thing about me, I always get back on track and then I got K.A. pushing me."

Pittman said his plan, in the event of a lockout, is to return to Austin, considering the weight-loss success of the training staff there. The Heat's concern at this point, though, is as much about keeping the NBA strength up as the weight down.

The greatest concern, of course, is whether Pittman could emerge as an answer as soon as next season.

"He's a very physical presence, he has very good feet, he can catch and finish above the rim," Askins said. "He's a very good runner."

And then there's that dose of reality.

"But all that being said," Askins continued, "the most important thing for him is getting himself into shape."

What the Heat need, what they have lacked this season, is a center capable of drawing a double-team.

"That's my goal for him," Askins said. "There's very few back-down post players in the league now, and he is a back-to-the-basket center and that's my goal, that when he steps on the court, he finishes at such a high rate, that he's going to demand the double team. That's my entire thinking, every time I work with him."