Despite starting the past five games, Heat forward Derrick Williams continues to receive limited playing time. This needs to change.
Just last week I posted an article making an argument for the Heat and head coach Erik Spoelstra to afford more playing time for starting forward Derrick Williams. At the time of the article, Williams had started the previous three games, but had not played greater than 18 minutes in each of these games. This comes on top of the first seven games of the season, where Williams played a grand total of three minutes.
The past two games have seen the Heat pull off an impressive road victory in Washington. However, they followed this up with a disappointing loss in Philadelphia. Williams has continued to start, but played just 17 and 19 minutes respectively in each of these away games.
Against Washington, Williams started excellently with seven points and three rebounds in eight minutes of action. Considering Williams’ frustrations to commence the season, this should be seen as an ideal chance for coach Spoelstra to capitalize on Williams’ start to the game and increase his playing time.
Yet, when Williams’ replacement James Johnson was substituted to rest with five minutes remaining in the first half, who does Spoelstra turn to?
Luke Babbitt.
This is the same player who, over his eight starts to commence the season, shot 31 percent from the field. Williams would again start coming out of the main break. He produced five points and two rebounds in a further eight minutes of play. Of course, this was the end of his night.
For the game, Williams produced 11 points and five rebounds, including 2-of-4 from behind three.
Furthermore, he was a team high +11 whilst on the court and had an offensive rating of 161.3. 161.3! This meant the Heat scored 161.3 points per 100 possessions when Williams was on the court. This is a phenomenal number. Currently, the Heat rank fourth last in offensive rating with 98.3 points per 100 possessions. And yet, Williams played just 17 minutes.
During the most recent loss in Philadelphia, Williams played 11 minutes in the opening term and produced four points and a rebound whilst being a +7 in this time. Naturally, he didn’t return until the commencement of the second half. Williams played an additional eight minutes and finished with seven points on 2-of-6 from the field.
And while Williams didn’t return for game, Spoelstra decided to still have Babbitt in the game with three minutes remaining. For the game, Williams was second behind center Hassan Whiteside for plus/minus, producing a +4 for his court time. He also again had a team-high offensive rating of 124.2.
Williams averages over the past two games are as follows:
Offensive Rating Average: 142.75
Per 36 Minutes: 19.3 points, 6.1 rebounds, 46.7 field goal percentage, 3.0 three pointers made
In summary, Williams had a red-hot start in Washington and played just 17 minutes. Completely non-sensical. Against Philadelphia, the Heat scored 61 points and shot 50 percent from the field in the first and third quarters – where Williams played. In the second and forth quarters, the Heat scored 33 points and shot 26 percent from the field -when Williams didn’t play.
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The Heat continue to languish at 27th for points per game. And with Williams clearly showing value in his minutes starting, Spoelstra can do a hell of a lot worse than to give Williams some meaningful playing time and live with the consequences.