The Miami Heat currently find themselves in unfamiliar territory, they have too many options. In the case of Duncan Robinson specifically, what should they do?
*Authors Note- Piece crafted before Robinson’s career high 29 points on 9-15 shooting from downtown. You may now return to your regularly scheduled reading and thanks for doing so!
The Miami Heat have often been a team known for one side of the ball more than the other. This has typically been the defensive side of the ball, where it is more about will, determination, grit, and how hard a player is willing to work, more so than the skill, savvy, ability, and know-how that it takes on the offensive side of things.
Early on in this season though, the Miami Heat appear to have just as much offensive talent and potential on any given night than they have on the defensive side of things. While that isn’t a bad problem to have, a very good one in fact, it begs of a question of a certain Heat player.
With Justise Winslow out of the lineup due to concussion-related issues, Duncan Robinson has sort of filled in for him and admirably. It makes one begin to wonder if Duncan Robinson should actually be a full-time starter on this team and how should the Heat go about making that happen.
It isn’t as complex as some would make it seem, it just takes actually figuring out how to deploy or execute it the best, without sacrificing any team effectiveness. Let’s first look at why we think he should be a starting player.
It isn’t that complex of a case to make either. When looking at Robinson’s numbers off the pine, they aren’t as good as they are when he is playing alongside the starters. His scoring goes down to around seven points per contest off the bench, as opposed to the approximate 11.5 points per contest he contributes as a starter.
While the rest of his statistics tend to reflect the same trend, if you take a look at his plus/minus figures, it tells the same story. As a starter, Robinson is a +29 through seven games, while he is a merely a -2 off the pine across five games.
The guy is just a better player for the Miami Heat when is playing as a starter and beside the other starters. Here’s our take on how to make that happen.
Based on what you see from others whose opinion matters on the topic, you can only assume that they would move Winslow to the bench. For one, there is no world where a player should lose his starting spot due to a concussion and especially only 12 games into the season, but also because Winslow has earned the starting job with his play across the beginning of this season and for what he accomplished during last season.
When you look at the starting unit, the guy that most seems as though he would make the transition the easiest is Kendrick Nunn. Nunn has been one of the better players for the Miami Heat this season, although he has been streaky at times, but that’s just the point that is trying to be made here.
Nunn can get his off on anybody, be that starters or bench caliber players based on what we have seen him do against starters. While Robinson has been more effective with the first unit, it just makes sense that if you would like to get the most out of your team then you would put people where they have the best chance to succeed, thus making the team a bit better at least within the process.
Robinson would have the opportunity to continue to perform as he has when he starts, while it would only make Nunn that much more effective, as he would be playing against lesser quality players for the most part. Nunn would still be afforded a similar amount of minutes in the ideal scenario, he would just begin to get those minutes later in the game.
Can you imagine a bench mob of Kendrick Nunn, Goran Dragic, and Tyler Herro? That could be explosive, like the best bench unit in the league type explosive.
While some would disagree, I would challenge them to give me a better scenario. Would you send Justise Winslow to the bench, you know, a top-flight defender and the second-best rated defender in the league right now?
Some might even say send Meyers Leonard to the bench, but that reiterates the issue. The belief here is that Duncan is more effective as a starter because he’s not asked to slot in as the four, but a combo 2/3 along with Jimmy Butler.
Playing him off the bench would require him to operate more like a small-ball four, than a traditional wing player. So perhaps they would say to replace Leonard or Winslow, but I wouldn’t and here is how I would get it done.