Miami Heat: 4 midseason questions for this middling Heat team

No. 3 – What would your preferred Heat rotation at shooting guard be and why?

Rahmeaun: In order, my shooting guard pecking order would be Dion Waiters, Dwyane Wade, and Wayne Ellington. Here comes the problem. The Heat need to have Richardson on the court but once you get to your third string shooting guard, do you really have enough minutes to let Richardson and McGruder into the lineup? Coach Erik Spoelstra has shown that isn’t possible. Richardson can get most of his minutes at small forward but what can’t happen for longer than a few minutes is Richardson functioning as a primary ball handler. It’s nice that he can create shots for himself, but he doesn’t need to run point to do that. He’s much better doing that off the catch. It’s clear that Waiters is the best shooting guard on the roster and I have no doubt as his game count goes up, so will his usage and impact. D Wade is the king of Miami. It’s unfortunate that his body I slowing down a bit, but he must get minutes because he will produce. We haven’t even mentioned $50 million man Tyler Johnson. He currently is the backup option at point guard, but once Dragic comes back, he’ll move back into 3rd string PG behind Winslow and will get spot minutes as a utility player depending on the game. Needless to say, the Heat have a rotation problem, and if ever all the players are healthy at the same time, it’s going to be a disaster.

Imran: I wouldn’t call it my rotation at shooting guard, because I clump in a couple of forwards into this mix. But I feel as though minutes are split between the following individuals: Winslow, Waiters, Wade, Tyler Johnson, Ellington, Richardson, Walton and McGruder. That’s not even mentioning Goran Dragic when he’s back from injury.

I love having Winslow at the point guard position, and I’d actually really like for Dwyane Wade to be his ‘backup,’ or the primary ball handler off the bench. You have to start McGruder and Richardson at the 2 and the 3, because a defensive rotation of Winslow, McGruder and Richardson is ideally a great switching defense. Walton has been a surprise and has been warranting more and more minutes, but the guy I think Ellington should be taking minutes from is Tyler Johnson. With Waiters and Wade being capable of handling the ball, Ellington could easily replace Tyler Johnson off-ball and become the team’s sniper once again.