Despite his shooting percentages decreasing so far this season, Heat swingman Duncan Robinson is still vital to the team’s offensive gameplan, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald writes.
As Chiang notes, Robinson has made just 33% of his threes, but his impact goes far beyond the accuracy. Since he shot 45% in 2019/20 and 41% in 2020/21, teams fear his ability to hit outside shots, which opens up driving lanes and spreads the floor for other players.
“He doesn’t have to make shots,” teammate Max Strus explained. “Obviously, he wants to shoot better. But just him being on the floor spaces the floor so much for us because guys aren’t going to help off of him.
“He has the reputation, everybody knows how good of a shooter he is. So guys aren’t going to help. He opens up so much floor space and when he’s in actions as a trigger, he creates so much for our offense because guys overreact to everything. He’s really valuable out on the floor at all times.”
In addition to his ability to spread the floor, Robinson’s durability has been commended by Heat officials. According to Chiang, the forward is on track to play in his 174th consecutive game on Saturday against Chicago, which would tie a franchise record set by Glen Rice in 1994.
Here are some other notes out of Miami:
- Caleb Martin is proving to be a “slam dunk” bargain, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinal writes. Martin has been one of the league’s best players on a two-way contract this season. Most recently, he pitched in 28 points, eight rebounds and two blocks during the team’s 113-104 win over Milwaukee on Wednesday.
- In a separate article for the Sun Sentinel, Winderman examines whether the Heat are getting enough out of backup center Dewayne Dedmon. The 32-year-old has been starting in place of Bam Adebayo (torn UCL). In 26 games, he’s averaged 5.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 15.6 minutes.
- KZ Okpala impressed coaches and teammates alike with his performance against the Bucks, Chiang writes for the Miami Herald. Okpala recorded 10 points and nine rebounds off the bench, allowing Miami to play small with P.J. Tucker at center for various parts of the game.
Good for Caleb. Talked to him and his brother one time when they were at UNR and they seem like really humble dudes. Wish he could have found his way in Charlotte though!
Great athletes and watching Nevada ball games you could see they were second-half studs. Caleb would go 0- 5 in the first half and then catch fire and go 5-7 in the second half from 3. It was a strange phenomenon.
But wow those two were awesome in college with athleticism and crunch time performance and blocking shots Etc. Fun games to watch. Also funny how a guy can’t stick in Charlotte yet becomes super valuable with another team. Just the fit and the need I guess.
Not sure if you knew about the recruiting process with the twins? I think I wrote this before but Nevada recruited Cody hard though he was rated below Caleb as a player. In high school Caleb was the prolific scorer and more well-known of the two.
They gambled that Caleb would follow Cody so once Cody was sold on the program and committed you almost knew you had both of them. Pretty genius plan. Worked out well !!
I do remember this! Awesome story
Robinson’s shooting slump has definitely been an issue, but he has been better in every other area. When the shooting comes, which might just be a product of spacing issues around him, it’s going to be a huge boost
It’s like I said at the time, the Heat needed wing help/guard help, especially defensively, and someone to replace what they lost from jguodala, and CALEB martin is/has been that guy. It was really lucky when he got waived by Charlotte after they signed Oubre. In summer league a couple of years ago, I said Caleb Martin is a Miami Heat player. I liked him better than his brother as well, although they’ve kind of gone back and forth on who was more been productive. Caleb is more of a wong/guard, while Cody is more of a guard.
I’ve been beffing for Okpala to be used in certain matchups since last year, especially against Milwaukee, and we finally saw it. The uh finally went away from Dedmon against Portis, and bbn immediately started coming back/winning, with Okpala in the game, and PJ Tucker at the 5, with mo Morris there to play small 5 for them. Hopefully Okpala will get more looks in certain lineups against those matchups where he is needed, and the same can be said for Yurtseven, and Marcus Garrett
Insane amount of typos lol
I didn’t see any. We understand what you’re saying. Good stuff.
Yes, one can always assume formerlyz said a team needed more wing help and small-ball 5s. ;)
It is not a pretty way to win for the Heat lately, the way they are doing it, but a good way in a depleted-roster era.