Wade: Heat will count on Chalmers

? LeBron James will play some point guard for the Miami Heat. So will Dwyane Wade, as he has throughout his NBA career. Mike Miller will likely do some ballhandling as well.

Golf event

Former KU player Mario Chalmers will host the National Championship Golf Classic at 1 p.m. Friday at Alvamar. There also will be a VIP mixer/auction at 6 p.m. on Thursday at the Oread Hotel. For more info, visit nationalchampionshipclassic.com

Thing is, none of them are true point guards.

And that means this Heat summer of change still has some things left to address — particularly finding a starter at the point spot.

Former Kansas University standout Mario Chalmers is under contract, Carlos Arroyo is expected to re-sign with the Heat and there’s some talk of a possible Miami reunion with 2006 title-team point guard Jason Williams. Whomever it is, the next starter for the Heat will inherit the keys to what could be one of basketball’s most dynamic offenses with Wade, James and Chris Bosh.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Chalmers said.

Maybe for him. Probably not for other clubs.

Take what happened in this past season’s playoffs as an example. Wade faced the Boston Celtics in the first round, James faced Boston in the second round. Both saw virtually the same defensive scheme from the Celtics, who kept running multiple people against them in waves.

It worked. The Celtics won both series.

With Wade and James on the floor together — with another ballhandler — the same approach likely wouldn’t be as successful in the 2011 postseason.

“We tried to just make them see a lot of guys,” rival Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo said Sunday at a charity event Wade hosted. “It’s going to be difficult with both those guys on the court, because you can’t really load to one particular guy because the other one’s on the opposite wing. It’s going to be fun.”

Though the notion has been floated that Miami could line up this season without a true point guard — a hybrid lineup of Wade, James, Miller, Bosh and newly re-signed center Joel Anthony, perhaps? — Wade himself doesn’t see it happening regularly. He thinks the job is Chalmers’ to lose.

“Of course, you’ve got to go through training camp and you have to go through practices to see what happens,” Wade said. “But right now, as I look at it, I think that would be the plan. I would like to play (shooting guard), at least in the starting lineup. I think I’ve done OK there. But you never know.”

Could Miami play without a point guard? Wade doesn’t want it happening, and Rondo doesn’t see it happening.

“That’s probably one of the hardest positions to play,” Rondo said. “It’s not an easy position. They’ll find somebody. Chalmers is a great young point guard coming up.”

Chalmers had the job in all 89 games, including playoffs, of his rookie season, then lost the role early in 2009-10 and played behind Arroyo and, at times, Rafer Alston. He sprained his left ankle while working out earlier this month, and he could be in a cast for up to three more weeks.

“I think Mario is someone we’re going to depend on a lot,” Wade said.

That’s what Chalmers wants to hear.

He was in the Heat locker room Sunday for the charity event hosted by Wade and Alonzo Mourning, saying he was star-struck by seeing cubicles already assigned to Bosh and James — who, along with Wade, formed the three most-sought free agents this summer.

“Right now it seems kind of fantasy because nobody’s really here,” Chalmers said. “We’re not really working out or anything like that. I’m sure that will come when everybody reports.”