No name tags were needed, but the process of melding unfamiliar All-Stars should have come as no surprise after Pat Riley tore up the team that ended up one bad rib, one bad thigh and two minutes away from last season's N.B.A. finals. In the off-season, Riley, the Heat president, shipped out the Joneses (Damon and Eddie) and brought in players who all like the ball - Jason Williams, Antoine Walker, James Posey and Gary Payton - to complement the team's twin pillars, Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade. "Maybe I got hurt for a reason - to bring these guys here and we all celebrate together over on Biscayne Bay one day," said Wade, whose rib has long since healed. But one player just shook his head calmly, the best omen the Heat could have. "I'm not worried at all," O'Neal said. If anyone can unite a team of otherwise mismatched personalities and make a run at an N.B.A. title, it is O'Neal. He is the gregarious host of team parties, the clown in the locker room and the monster in the paint. "It's my job to keep them loose," he said. "All we want to do is win. First time we get a guy on this team who wants to be a leading scorer or wants to get his picture in the paper, then we're going to be in trouble, we'll all be in trouble. I don't think we'll have that." O'Neal, 34, is applying to be an honorary Miami sheriff, preparing for his post-basketball career. Angry about his thigh injury in last season's playoffs, O'Neal has added muscle and looks bigger than he did last season, although he maintains that he weighs the same 340 pounds. And he signed a new five-year, $100 million deal with the Heat, taking $10 million less than he wanted so that Riley could have financial flexibility to restructure the team. "I think Pat is getting Laker flashbacks," O'Neal said. "Because all the teams he won championships with, they had the one-two punch, but they also had some great players with them. That's what we need because if one or two of our guys get hurt and we get to a Game 7, we need somebody of that caliber who can step up." And if players were to gripe about their roles? "Pat is a take-charge kind of guy; he's not going to let anything get out of control," O'Neal said. How much control will he take? Riley fueled speculation last summer when he said he wanted more "active participation" in the team. Riley denied that he wanted to push out Van Gundy and resume coaching the Heat, and he personally reassured his protégé that this was the case. Still, tension lingered. Riley declined a request for comment for this article. But there is no doubt that the questions about Van Gundy's status will only increase if the Heat should start slowly. O'Neal speaks of Riley with reverence, but does not always seem philosophically in sync with Van Gundy, who replaced Riley on the bench two seasons ago. When asked if Van Gundy was trying to implement too much too soon (his playbook is encyclopedic) and if practices were too long, O'Neal smiled and zipped his lips. Van Gundy insisted the pressure was not any greater than when he coached college basketball in Division III.