Miami Heat: Grading every player at the midway point of the season
By Simon Smith
Wayne Ellington
Brought in this season to rectify the Heat’s lack of three-point shooting, Ellington has shown flashes of his true ability. However due to injury, Ellington has played in just 23 of the Heat’s 43 games this season. When he’s been available, Ellington has averaged 10.8 points per game on 40.8 percent from the field and 32.9 percent from downtown.
Now playing for his seventh team in his eighth season in the league, Ellington is enjoying a career-high in minutes played. He’s averaging 26.3 per game. and has been utilised both in a starting role and coming off the bench throughout the course of the season.,
Ellington is your prototypical streak shooter, with the ability to get red hot and ice cold on a game to game basis. Out of his 23 games played this season, he has had seven games where he has hit four or more three-pointers. During these games, he has nailed 28 three-pointers at a 50 percent clip. He’s also had 11 games where he has hit one or less three-pointers, for a return of 13.3 percent.
As the following numbers clearly demonstrate, Ellington is largely one-dimensional scorer. Through 23 games, 63.6 percent of Ellington’s total field goal attempts have been made without dribbling the ball. And when extending this to just one dribble, this number rises to 82.3 percent.
That’s not to say this is a weakness. Ellington is certainly one of the more proficient players in the league in moving without the ball to get good open looks. For the season, 59.8 percent of Ellington’s total shot attempts have been made at least four feet away from the nearest defender. He has managed to hit these at a 39.1 percent clip.
Missing the first 16 games due to a thigh contusion suffered in the preseason certainly hasn’t helped Ellington’s cause. Therefore, he will be using the second half of the season to convince the Heat that they should have him in their future plans.
Check out the highlights of Ellington’s best performance thus far as a member of the Heat. In his second game of the season, Ellington hit 22 points including 5-of-9 from behind three as the Heat completed a road win against the Denver Nuggets.