Player exit review: Justise Winslow’s season derailed by injury, inconsistency
By Cory Sanning
At the start of training camp, Miami Heat forward Justise Winslow appeared to have a promising sophomore campaign on the horizon. But an early injury derailed his season.
When the Miami Heat selected Justise Winslow with the 10th overall pick in the 2015 draft, they were all aware of what they were getting themselves in to.
A defensive standout hailing from Duke, Winslow entered the NBA hauling a load of promise, but also a tad bit of doubt. Would he be able to develop a consistent outside shot? How fluent truly is he on the offensive end?
Notice the trend.
Read More: Can Justise Winslow’s jumper be fixed?
All of these are question marks regarding his ability on the offensive end, and that is an area Winslow worked extremely hard to improve in during the 2016 offseason.
Countless videos surfaced of him in the gym putting up an endless stream of jump shots, and for a while it appeared some progress had been made.
However, the inevitable sophomore slump hit early, and Winslow’s jumper took a toll on his percentages. Over the course of the short two-month period in which he was moderately active, he was shockingly off, and I found myself puzzled as well.
Where was the stroke he displayed during the offseason? While he’s no Stephen Curry, I truly believed we might have been witnessing the growth of a potential impact player in this league, and the next (and most vital) step in his development was the outside shot.
With increased touches and shot attempts, he shot career-lows in both field goal (35.6) and three-point percentage (20.0), and appeared in just 18 games due to a shoulder injury that eventually required season-ending surgery.
In this relatively small sample size, it is nearly impossible to make any clear judgment on a player that, in my opinion, could prove to be one of the biggest steals in NBA Draft history if the pieces of the puzzle all align.
Let’s take a look back at Winslow’s season.