They share a first name and checkered pasts, but on Thursday, Rod Strickland and Rodney Buford went their separate ways.

Strickland, who despite a litany of arrests and disputes with coaches and teammates, showed his new Heat teammates why, at 35, his services are still sought after he wowed them with his passing skills and immediate grasp of a complicated offensive system.

"Rod's a very smart point guard and there isn't anything you throw at him that he hasn't seen," Heat coach Pat Riley said after a three-hour practice at AmericanAirlines Arena. "His mind works in pictures. He can picture it and knows exactly what it is you want."

Buford, an athletic 6-foot-5 swingman who was trying to earn a second stint with the Heat after two incidents involving marijuana hastened his departure following the 1999-2000 season, was cut after an uneven preseason.