The Miami Heat’s former All-Star Goran Dragić will be returning to the lineup tonight against the Detroit Pistons to begin a 3 game homestand.
With the Miami Heat finally getting back their dragon in Goran Dragić, they will hopefully jumpstart this downtrend they have been on for the past few weeks. Dragić, who has missed the past few months, has had Justise Winslow starting in his spot at the point guard position, which has pitted fans and media against each other to figure out who the starting point guard should be for the Heat moving forward.
However, the Heat will have neither Dragić or Winslow tonight against the Detroit Pistons, as Dragić will be coming off the bench with a minute restriction and Winslow is sitting out due to knee soreness that was suffered at the end of the Philadelphia 76ers loss.
Dragić hasn’t been blind of the rumors surrounding if he should come off the bench or play second fiddle to point Justise, per Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel:
"“I mean, at the end of the day, the most important thing is to win a game. So whatever Coach is going to ask for us, we’re going to do that,” he said. “Justise is going to play on the ball, I can play off the ball. So we’ll see. It depends on how we’re going to play.“We have a lot of guys who can play in the same positions, so at the end of the day that’s a coach’s decision.”"
Head Coach Erik Spoelstra definitely doesn’t look at having two electric facilitators on this team as a negative, Spo sees this situation more as a plus for the Heat moving forward. And with paraphrasing Dragić ‘s comments, it’s pretty clear that Dragić just wants to win basketball games at this stage in his career, he received his accolades in the Most Improved Player of the Year and his All-Star recognition, winning and going to the playoffs means the most to Dragić and a starting nod or the primary ball handler duties is definitely second in priorities to winning for the dragon.
Moreover, Dragić is correct in saying that this team has a lot of players who can play multiple positions, in fact, the ball movement from Josh Richardson has turned himself into a point forward a lot like Winslow, which is the future of the NBA anyways (think passing abilities for Kelly Olynyk, Bam Adebayo, and James Johnson).
Expect the dragon to get quite an applause tonight, especially with the return of Wayne Ellington, the crowd should be booming.