Player exit review: McGruder became the scavenger the Heat needed
By Rob Slater
Rodney McGruder proved himself against some of the league’s very best and endeared himself to the Miami Heat organization and its fans in the process.
“Pest.” There is no higher praise in the Miami Heat organization than being referred to as an annoying, relentless organism that threatens humanity. Rodney McGruder earned, and lived, that title in an impressive rookie campaign.
McGruder has been called pest, scavenger, pit bull (as Wayne Ellington coined) and maybe most important—the heart and soul of the Miami Heat, as Dion Waiters said in late February.
Watching the undrafted rookie emerge from the Sioux Falls Skyforce to earning the 15th and final roster spot on the Heat this year and becoming a 35+ minute player during a 30-11 turnaround, it’s hard not to be impressed by what he was able to accomplish this season.
Early on, Erik Spoelstra asked a lot of the 25-year old, pitting him against some of the league’s best scorers like LeBron James, Paul George, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry. And he’d be initiated into the league early on—Anthony put 35 points on McGruder in December and just three nights later, it was LeBron who added 27.
But those successes for the opponent quickly turned into struggles as the trial by fire period proved beneficial for McGruder, who emerged into one of the Heat’s most reliable, tenacious one-on-one defenders.
Offensively, his game was (and in some cases, still is) a work in progress, but the reality is that the Heat found a homegrown diamond in the rough that they can fully develop in the years to come.