Justise Winslow needs to embrace the Draymond Green in his game
Unlocking the Draymond Green portion of his repertoire will make Justise Winslow a consistent threat, in spite of his shooting woes.
Progress is simply one of those words that is synonymous in sports as the universal code for have patience. Organizations use it while trying to buy time for their franchise, injured players or youngsters in need of a chance to develop. Two of such reasons have been used by the Miami Heat in the past, but the latter is the basis for Justise Winslow’s 2016-17 season.
Initial thoughts were that Winslow’s growth should be crafted in the career trajectory of the San Antonio Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard or the Chicago Bulls’ Jimmy Butler. Two defensive studs that saw their offensive games jump from mediocre to very good by their fifth years in the league. Especially after pushing their three point averages up to 39 and 33 percent, respectively.
The two young veterans were the perfect evolutionary mark for Winslow to aim for, particularly when Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade and Luol Deng were around. Without them, the Heat have little choice but to fast track his development.
The addition of shooting coach Rob Fodor proved that in a not-so-subtle way–at least to the outside world. However, anyone who paid attention to coach Erik Spoelstra would have heard him imploring people not to put a target on the progress of Winslow’s 27 percent three-point shooting, because his overall game would be good enough to impact the team’s winning.
Others felt the same, but with a slant towards a certain champ. Just ask the Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson:
"“For Justise Winslow, that means eventually making as big a jump as Draymond Green did from his rookie season (2012-13) to Golden State’s Finals teams the past two years…. ABC’s Doug Collins says Winslow should look closely at Green, who’s versatile and gifted defensively like Winslow and improved his three-point shooting from 20.9 percent as a rookie to 38.8 this past season.”"
Through two games, the second year small forward’s shooting–38 percent from the field and 13 percent from three–has left plenty to be desired. On the flipside, the rest of his game has been very Green-like.
Defensively, Winslow is used as a stopper, willing to guard all five positions. Offensively, he has taking on the role of primary ball handler when Tyler Johnson and Dion Waiters are on the floor and occasionally when Goran Dragic re-enters the game. A strategy that has worked to the tune of five assists per game–thanks in part to the seven rebounds that also allows him to start the offense.
These are all things that Green is doing for a stacked Golden State team, while averaging 13 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists.
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Winslow can throw out names like Portland’s CJ McCollum (“You kind of want to emulate that”), but the odds of his offensive arc hitting that of the fourth year guard’s seem slim-to-none at this point. So the 20-year-old is better off embracing the Green comparisons and relishing in the role of flirting with a triple-double every night as Miami’s 6-foot-7 glue guy.