The Miami Heat started the season 1-4, then they went on a 7-game win streak. To end the win streak they blew a 22-1 lead to a bad Bulls team. It's been a wild ride to start this season, let's dive into my thoughts since the last edition of Culture Craze.
Duncan Robinson has risen from the ashes. Robinson has been a hot topic for the Miami Heat for years now. It started when he burst on the scene as one of the best 3-point shooters in the NBA. Then he signed the largest contract for an undrafted player and had a decline in performance. Now when the Heat needed him the most he has not only performed but has outperformed all expectations. Robinson is averaging a career-high 14.5 points per game. He is also shooting 46.9% from the field and 41.1% from three, both of which are the 2nd best percentages of his career. The best part of his scoring is not even his 3-point shot coming back, but it’s the counters he has added to his game. Robinson's biggest flaw was he could only shoot threes and do pretty much nothing else. He was the definition of a specialist. This year we have seen a different player. Not only has he been cutting with a purpose, and taking more shots at the rim, but he has also been taking players off the dribble. I mean he cooked Wemby with the MJ sideline fake. As one of the biggest Duncan Robinson fans on this earth, I still can’t believe what I saw. I don’t think anyone predicted Robinson giving Wemby his “welcome to the NBA” moment, but that is the world we live in. Though his scoring has been much improved, the biggest improvement might be his passing. I’ve said before that Robinson’s passing might be the most under-appreciated skill in his arsenal. He is routinely making good passes to find an open teammate. He is currently averaging 2.8 assists per game, which is the best of his career. Robinson is no longer one-dimensional, he is a legitimate threat to score at the rim, from 3, or even pick out a pass. Robinson has been worth his contract and is at the point where I am hesitant to include him in any potential trade.
Last Culture Craze I wrote how Bam Adebayo was the Heat’s best player to start the year and the only criticism I had was I wanted Bam to get his assist numbers up. Adebayo has done exactly that, especially since the Tyler Herro injury. The offense has run through Adebayo more acting as a playmaker. Think back to last year's playoffs against the Bucks. Think about the large comebacks in the 4th quarter. During these comebacks, Jimmy Butler was going nuclear but also the Heat were using Adebayo as the primary initiator on offense. With Adebayo as the initiator, it opens up much more of the floor. He has the passing ability to make any pass that presents itself and it also brings the opposing center farther away from the basket. It helps eliminate the rim protector to give guys like Butler and Caleb Martin space to attack the paint. Simply put, good things happen when Adebayo has the ball. Another plus about Adebayo this year is that he has been in attack mode. He is not scared of any match-up and has repeatedly cooked DPOY “leaders.” It feels as if Adebayo has drawn what feels like 10 fouls a game and is shooting a career-best 7.3 FTA a game. He is not wasting his FTA either, making them at a clip of 83%. Adebayo has been sensational to start this year, I don’t think anyone can critique anything about his play. Leave him open in the midrange? Easy money. Play up on him? He will drive straight at your chest and score in the paint. Help off a teammate and double him? He will make the right pass. To sum it up, Bam Adebayo is the third-best Center in the league and is making sure people know it.
Jimmy Butler has warmed up and is comfortable. Butler started the year passive but has taken it up a notch as the season has progressed. He is calm and attacking his spots at will. In November, Butler is averaging 24.4 PPG on 53.4% from the field and 44.4% from three. He can do no wrong so far in November. Before the year people close to Butler were saying that this season was shaping up to be the best regular season of his career, per 5RSN, and we are starting to see that. Butler looks engaged and ready for war. He typically is not settling and is getting to his spots on the floor. Butler is one of the few guys that can get to his spots no matter what the defense does. He lives around the rim and has his pattened midrange that we all know very well, but one surprise this year is his 3-point shooting. Butler has not been a reliable shooter in Miami, well at least in the regular season, just ask Jrue Holiday about post-season Jimmy Buckets. This year, though still early, Butler has been a sniper. His footwork has been more consistent and he has been getting more arc on the ball than in recent years. It looks like the offseason workout videos did not leave us astray, Butler is a legitimate threat from three. This is a big development for Butler because it forces his defender to come up on him. The more worried the defender is about Butler from three, the easier it is for Butler to get to the rim. It provides another element the defense has to think about, and any time the defense is thinking is a win for the offense. Just think if regular season Jimmy Butler is this good, what is the postseason going to look like...
The Heat need Tyler Herro if they want to make a deep run in the playoffs. Don’t get me wrong, the Heat are a good team and can win games without Herro, but they will 100% need him in a playoff setting. In the playoffs, you need stars who can get their own buckets, and Herro is simply that. The Heat have a bad tendency late in games to have a stagnant offense and rely too much on one player to create. The ball stops moving and it becomes more of a 1 on 1 game. The Heat simply do not have many guys that this style even remotely works for. Herro is a guy who can create his shot and is not afraid of the moment. The Heat also have scoring issues in general. They are the 5th worst scoring team in the league. There are stretches where the Heat look like a middle school offense trying to figure out the objective of the game and it can be brutal to watch. The Heat need Herro’s scoring in these moments to mask some of the team's flaws. The perfect example is the Bulls game where the Heat desperately needed another scoring option. Even if you don’t think Herro is “that guy” there is no denying that having a 20-point scorer on the floor changes how the defense has to play.
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