Miami Heat Season in Review: Mario Chalmers
By Ehsan Kassim
Mario Chalmers is a lightning rod for the Miami Heat. He spends a majority of his time on the court being yelled at by his teammates, while also getting the Twitter equivalent of an earful from the fan base. Chalmers can make the right play 9 out of 10 times, yet still hear about his one mistake all game long.
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Despite all of this, Chalmers remains one of the more confident players in the league. This dude thought he was the best player on the court in the 2012 finals, even while sharing the court with LeBron James and Kevin Durant.
Chalmers started the season as the 6th man, backing up Norris Cole to begin the season, and eventually found himself at that same role at the end of the season, backing up Goran Dragic.
Often times, I feel like fans forget that Chalmers was a second round pick and has exceed expectations that many held from him coming out of college.
What Went Right
Mario Chalmers never had a clear role with the Heat during the 2014/2015 season. At first he was supposed to be the Heat’s backup 2-guard, filling in for Dwyane Wade when he’d miss his time with various injuries.
As the season wore on and the point guard situation for the Heat became a hot mess, Chalmers moved back to the point guard role he played for the majority of his career. He did this, while having to move back to shooting guard on days that Wade was not available.
Despite all of that Chalmers still played in 80 of the Heat’s 82 games, including 37 starts. He played whatever role he was told to play, sometimes not knowing where he’d be playing until hours before the game. In a season full of inconsistency in rotations and lineups, Chalmers was always the player that coach Eric Spolestra knew he could depend on having on the court.
For the season, Chalmers averaged a career high 10.2 points and matched his career average of 3.8 assists per game.
What Went Wrong
While Chalmers did average a career high in points, he saw himself have his worst shooting season, since the 2010-2011 season. Averaging a career high of 8.3 shots per game, Chalmers shot an abysmal 40% from the field and an even more atrocious 29% from three-point range, his worst shooting percentage of his career from 3 by far.
For a guy that shot 45% from the field the season before and a 36% career shooter from three, the Heat could not have been happy with the productivity of Chalmers shot.
Part of the issue for Chalmers was not having the same spacing that he had when he had LeBron James on his team. The other part of the issue was Chalmers not knocking shots down that he should have and had made in the past.
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Mario Chalmers best game of the season came on February 20th, in a 24-point win for the Heat over the Knicks. In that game, Chalmers did not shoot well, going 4-of-14, with 1-7 night from 3-point range, but the man still almost dropped a quadruple double in the contest.
Despite the 28% shooting performance, Chalmers scored 13 points, racked up 7 assists, grabbed 6 rebounds, and stole the ball 8 times. He also went 4-5 from the free throw line and the team was +18 with him on the court. This was in 36 minutes of play.
The game was a sampling of Chalmers can excel in different aspects of the game when he is using his talents correctly. The game was also the last one Chalmers received as the starting point guard for the Miami Heat in the 2014-2015 season.
Where He Can Improve
Mario Chalmers is an excellent role player and played that role to perfection in the Heat’s two title runs. He needs to improve his shooting percentage back to his career norms in 2015-2016.
Chalmers also needs to cut down on his boneheaded mistakes, which he tends to have one or two over the course of a game.
Not fouling shooters on 3-point attempts would also be quite wonderful.
As I mentioned in Bosh’s season review, the Heat should have better spacing in 2015-2016, Chalmers will need to be one of the players that takes advantage of that, or he could see his playing time diminish for the first time since the first year of the big 3.
Looking Ahead
There is likely going to be large contingency of the Miami Heat fanbase that will want the Heat to move on from Mario Chalmers this upcoming off-season.
I am not a part of that group. Chalmers has been a productive player throughout his career, helping the Heat win 2 championships. His $4.3 million is not an albatross and he knows the Heat system better than any potential replacement for him.
Even with all that said, if Pat Riley finds a way to improve his roster and build a championship contender, no one on the roster is safe. Just ask Eddie Jones how this worked out for him, right before the Heat’s championship run in 2006.