Miami Heat: Why we begged you to stop criticizing Duncan Robinson’s defense

With the Miami Heat on a hiatus, we all have time to deep dive into the figures. One that has seemingly jumped out is Duncan Robinson’s ratings on both sides.

The Miami Heat are on a hiatus, just like the rest of the league, but the insight never stops. What this hiatus from actual games has made us do though is deep dive into the other facets of the game. These include trends, statistics, and other comparative data that helps tell a story away from the one that the actual games tell.

One of the more interesting stats that is burning up the Heat-o-sphere today is in a tweet from Simon Smith of one of the sites in our FanSided family, Hoops Habit. Here’s the tweet.

While you may have to do a bit of tinkering to get to the bottom of it yourself, let us save you the time. If you take any statistical database and sort based on defensive and/or offensive ratings, you can find this to be true.

Looking at what it all means, this is the conclusion for both sides. Let’s start with the defense, the most encompassing aspect. As we have mentioned before, Duncan Robinson has physical limitations that will always limit his defensive potential and ability, but he tries his butt off.

Being in the right position, recognizing what the opposing team is trying to do to you, realizing what positions they are trying to put you in, and simply playing good help defense are all things he has shown a good aptitude for. While his physical limitations will always be what they are, the more he plays and gains experience will only serve to help in that area as well due to having seen more and knowing how to deal with it most efficiently.

He still seems as though he is targeted by opposing offenses and referees alike, but at least this is something to hang your hat of hope on. The next one isn’t hard at all.

When it comes to the offensive rating, that is self-explanatory. Almost 90 percent of his field-goal attempts have been of the three-point variety, while he is hitting almost 45 percent from deep and shooting nearly 47 percent from the field overall.

Basically, no matter where the shot is from on the court, for every two shots he takes, he is bound to hit one of them. When you throw in the fact that 90 percent of those are of the most efficient shot in the game today, that explains his offensive rating.

We watch all the Miami Heat games, so his offensive prowess is well noted, documented, and quite frankly, easily seen. This is also why we have begged you to deep dive into the games yourself before making hasty proclamations about the other side of the ball for him. To tie a bow around it and while his offense has never been questioned, don’t be so quick to criticize his defense either though because in all actuality, it isn’t that bad.