Miami Heat Rumors, News 2014: Luol Deng Says He is Not a 'Replacement' for LeBron James

It has been claimed that Dwayne Wade has been putting in great effort to lift his team ahead of the new season. He has been first to report in for training every day and has been committed to the preseason training camp.

Coach Erik Spoelstra was quick to commend the NBA superstar for his hard work: "Dwyane is the first guy in the facility every day. He's here early every day. He's put in a full, American work day", he said in an interview with Sun Sentinel.

Wade brushed it off by saying that being early has been a part of his "married" schedule, as we can recall him getting married to Gabrielle Union last August.

Wade said, "I've been getting up early. Maybe I ain't caught up from my honeymoon, I don't know. I'm just doing things differently than I did before. So it's causing me to be up early, getting the kids up, getting ready for school, getting my work done."

Meanwhile, we remember Luol Deng joining the team right after LeBron James left to join the Cleveland Cavaliers. However, he dismissed the rumors that people are eyeing him as a replacement for James.

He defended himself by saying that he is focused and determined to do his best while getting to know his new teammates and keeping things competitive within the team.

"I never said, 'You know what, LeBron is gone, let me try to go and be his replacement'. That never entered my mind at all. I thought about the organization, what's best for me and how I could be better", he said in an interview with the Sun Sentinel.

He added, "I'm here, but whatever team I would have ended on, I would have just focused on being the best I could be and how I'm going to help the team. I'm not trying to be anybody's replacement, trying to be anybody that I'm not. I've just got to be the best Luol Deng that I've got to be."

Aside from Deng, there are other new players joining the team this season. According to Wade, "We have 13 new guys, so it's not going to happen overnight and we all got to be committed to being patient and understanding that we've got guys that have to learn our system. We had guys last year that knew the system and we still got burned a few times. We just have to work harder at it and we'll be alright."