Miami Heat: The return of the fiery dragon, Goran Dragic

The Miami Heat have missed their 2018 All-Star, Goran Dragic, but now that he’s finally back, you may see a comeback from this team and a push toward the 2019 NBA playoffs.

Goran Dragic has turned himself into a 3-time captain for the Miami Heat, and is looking to be one of the best sixth-men in the league come playoff time. As Justise Winslow continues to get the starting point guard position over Dragic, you can see Head Coach Erik Spoelstra making the “Lou Williams decision” by playing Dragic starting minutes off the bench.

Even if Dragic does end up starting with Miami’s new youth movement in Winslow, Josh Richardson, and Bam Adebayo, utilizing a player like Goran Dragic that is very impressionable on his teammates and is a great character guy, who also is a fantastic player, can be very useful down-the-road, which Dragic proved against the Golden State Warriors where he scored 27 points in 20 minutes.

Spoelstra weighs in on how Dragic did what he did against the Warriors, per Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel:

"“He is our All-Star,” coach Erik Spoelstra said in the wake of Dragic’s 27-point performance Wednesday night against the Golden State Warriors, as the Heat turned their focus to Thursday’s game against the Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center. “Last year we were the sixth seed and he was an All-Star. With that kind of talent, your team looks quite different.This year, from the very beginning, he was not right physically. He only played 14 games before this and did not look healthy,” Spoelstra said of Dragic’s uneven start to the season. “For him to be able to come back this year was a big victory for our franchise, regardless of whether he can get back to the All-Star level or not.He gives our team so much confidence. He makes big plays and does those breaking-down, off-the-dribble plays that you don’t necessarily need to run a set for, which we have been struggling with lately.”"

Spo makes a great point, Dragic did not look great at the start of this season, and while many thought he was well-rested because of not playing European basketball for the Slovenian team this summer, it could’ve just been that Dragic took too much time off and his body took a while to get adjusted.

With the recent Dragic spurt recently and Spo’s enormous confidence in what the dragon can do, you can expect a quick return for the former All-Star, as he plays with more confidence that he’s given credit for.