Miami Heat: Training camp battle at starting shooting guard

With the Miami Heat preseason under-way, decision time in preparing to enter the season has come. Which five will coach Spo choose to lead this season’s roster?

With the Miami Heat preseason officially under-way, the time for imperative decision making entering the season has come. Which five players will head coach Erik Spoelstra choose to start for his team this season?

While that is an important question as a whole, we have decided to take a position by position approach here at AUCH. Recently, I detailed my thoughts on who will be named Miami’s starting point guard. Today’s battle will focus on the two-position, here goes.

Today’s Battle: shooting guard

Miami’s front office made the bold move of trading fan favorite Josh Richardson. They did so in return for the infamously disgruntled Jimmy Butler, with suspected hopes of possibly replacing the leadership void left by Dwyane Wade.

Sure, Udonis Haslem returned for a 17th season of playing with the Miami Heat flame across his chest, but consistent and nightly on-court effectiveness have long left the former Florida Gator. Miami needed a star to latch onto after Wade’s retirement, Jimmy Butler wanted to be a city’s star.

It may seem like a match made in heaven, because it was. Along with the addition of Butler, the Miami Heat also selected three-point marksman Tyler Herro of the University of Kentucky with the no.13 overall pick in this past NBA draft.

There’s also Waiters Island. This is an island with a lone resident, Dion Waiters, and the pride of Philadelphia flowing through the water.

This is an island sometimes filled with ooohs and ahhhs, followed by a downpour of threes. However, sometimes, this is an island that inversely can overflow with air-balls followed by body-shaming memes.

Erik Spoelstra definitely has some options when it comes to choosing his starting shooting guard. In what’s likely to be a three-man-race for the duration of the early portion of the season, Butler’s game is light years ahead of both Herro and Waiters.

Butler will without a doubt find his name in Miami’s starting lineup nightly, but at what position? Although being listed at shooting guard for the bulk of his eight-year career — including three out of four All-Star years — Butler can fluctuate throughout the middle of the Heat’s starting five.

The verdict: Tyler Herro

While it likely will take a few weeks for Spoelstra to find any sort of stability among his numerous amount of guards, Herro probably gets the nod. When Spoelstra decides to slide Jimmy Butler — which I fully expect to happen consistently — into the small forward position, rookie Tyler Herro should find his name filling the shooting guard void in the starting line-up.

After impressive performances to begin his NBA career at the Las Vegas Summer League, Herro has continued to impress. He has most recently dazzled in his preseason efforts against the likes of the San Antonio Spurs or the Atlanta Hawks, where he scored Miami’s opening 14 points by his lonesome.

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Herro adds the ability to stretch the floor unlike any other player on Miami’s roster. With guards like Goran Dragic and Justise Winslow, who are pretty good but not deadly three-point shooters,  Herro’s consistency from deep should develop into a major key of Miami’s offense.

In three preseason games thus far, Herro has averaged 16.3 points per game. He is shooting 54% from the field and a whopping 53% from behind the arc. To be clear, he makes one of every two three-pointers he takes, which is just amazing.

While Herro is just a rookie, and rookies don’t usually make an immediate impact in the NBA, Miami should look to let the 19-year-old take a page out of Heat champion Mike Miller’s book and “Let It Fly”.Dion Waiters should be given a reduced role behind Herro, which will allow him to score in desperate times of the game.

After spending the summer reconstructing his physical appearance and capabilities, Waiters may have a career year. However, the inconsistency of the seven-year pro should be noted and viewed cautiously. The Miami Heat will eventually let Herro take the reins, en route to becoming the city’s new beloved two-guard.