As one of the HEAT’s elder statesmen, Amar’e Stoudemire has seen quite a bit in his 13-year NBA career.

Rookie of the Year? Check.

All-Star Games? Check.

Conference Finals appearance? Three times.

As Stoudemire told reporters on Tuesday, he’s “been around the block.” Although he will turn 33 in mid-November, there is still some left in the tank. That is evident by the way Coach Spoelstra lauded the veteran for the way he competed on Day 1 of Training Camp.

“I was very encouraged. He knew what to expect coming into this. He went through the entire practice. He’s very vocal so we can definitely build on that defensively,” Spoelstra said. “I think he picked up our main principles pretty quickly. You can tell he’s a student. He’s very detailed in his thought process [and] his whole approach to it.”

While Stoudemire is one of the new faces on the team, he definitely has a familiarity with Goran Dragic. Both he and Dragic played together briefly in Phoenix, including a run in the 2010 Playoffs where they made it to the Western Conference Finals and pushed the eventual NBA Champion Lakers to six games.

“We spent three years together,” Dragic said. “We had a great season [in] 2010. He was a beast back then. He was unbelievable. He was dunking on people, scoring 45, 40 every game. He’s still that guy. I know that he’s with limited minutes and he can give a lot from the bench for us. He can give a lot of experience to the young guys too.”

One of those young guys is Hassan Whiteside. Whiteside shared on Media Day that he looked up to Stoudemire in High School. He went on to say that he also used to wear two or three socks like Stoudemire did back in Phoenix. At one point, Stoudemire was the guy getting all the attention like Whiteside is currently. With all the expectations thrown the young man’s way, Stoudemire has some simple advice.

“Right now, Hassan is a young player who has a lot of potential,” Stoudemire said. “We all have been in that position before and for him it’s a matter of learning the game and just becoming a better player and understanding basketball savvy. That comes with experience. So right now we just have to get him able to go and we’ll go from there.”

As far as where Stoudemire will go from here, he explained that he’s getting the terminologies down and learning the system. While most people expect to see him in the post, Stoudemire would like to get back to playing more of an all-around game.

“My post game has been well recognized, but I think now it’s being able to expand the game. You know, getting back to my jump shot,” Stoudemire said. “I think a lot the past three years with New York, they wanted me more to play in the post and I went away from my all-around game which [is on] the perimeter as well. I think now with Miami, being that they’re an organization that allows you to play to your strengths, it’ll allow me to show my full skill.”

Spoelstra’s philosophy of positionless basketball has a lot to do with players being able to play their game. That has to be comforting for newcomers, even if it is a veteran like Stoudemire.