The Miami Heat didn’t know what they had, signing Duncan Robinson to a 2-way deal a few years back. Now they do though, the undrafted untouchable sniper is a nuke.
The Miami Heat are excellent in many areas. While being able to solitarily focus on a goal with the explicit intent to accomplish that specific goal is one of the biggest ones, such as the time that Coach Spo gave the team a replica of the Larry O’Brien Trophy to motivate them, that isn’t the only one.
While that is one of their most beloved qualities as a team, franchise, and organization, one of their most valuable qualities is their ability to see talent when no one else sees it or to properly interpret the value of a player when others are undervaluing it. They have vivid examples all over their roster.
When you take a look at Bam Adebayo, drafted at 14 in 2017, he would now be a top-four pick if we were doing it today. When you look at a guy like Tyler Herro, who was drafted at 13 during last year’s draft, he would have no doubt been a higher pick based on the performance of the NBA rookies this season. Those aren’t it though.
You can look at Kendrick Nunn, who went undrafted for various reasons but who also couldn’t find a way to stick with Golden State (boy are they kicking themselves on that one). You can go even further to KZ Okpala, who before and throughout the entire draft process was a first-round pick and projected as high as a lottery pick, but was taken by the Miami Heat at the top of the second round.
The Miami Heat have landed amazing talent in Kendrick Nunn, KZ Okpala, Tyler Herro, and Bam Adebayo, but they aren’t the biggest Heat finds to date.
The Big One
The Miami Heat just have noses and eyes for talent I guess, because none of those are even the biggest examples. The biggest example here is an undrafted guy out of Michigan, who before arriving in Ann Arbor, was a division III basketball player. That guy is Duncan Robinson.
In just a part of his first full NBA season, Robinson has not only stepped in to become the best shooter for the Miami Heat and one of the premier shooters in the entire league, but we believe he just might be the best from deep in the league at the moment.
When you consider the fact that Klay Thompson hasn’t played in a year, neither has Kevin Durant, and that Steph Curry wasn’t even off a minutes restriction put into place as he returned from injury before the season was suspended for coronavirus, Duncan Robinson has to take that title at the moment.
Also consider this, on almost nine attempts from deep per game, Robinson is sinking nearly 45 percent of them. In real life, that looks like this. If he shoots around 10 threes per game, five of them will drop.
That is where the next part of this equation comes into play.
The Miami Heat have been in the market for another star for some time now. Regardless, Duncan Robinson won’t be moved to get him.
Untouchable!
The Miami Heat have been tied to numerous NBA stars over the past year or so, as they were “whale” hunting and in search of another star to add to their duo of Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler.
A name that has come up quite a bit has been Bradley Beal, while names like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Donovan Mitchell, and Rudy Gobert have also been linked to Miami and just to name a few. None of them will happen though if the expectation is that the Heat will part with Duncan Robinson to do so.
The man is untouchable. He is elite at something, like the most elite of the elite and in fact, is elite at the thing that just may be the most important element of the game today. That is distance shooting.
Not only is he immensely valuable as a scorer, shooter, and point producer for himself and the team, but the auxiliary impact he has is also extremely valuable. When you have a guy that can shoot like he can from deep, he is a one-man floor spacer.
Because he can shoot it so well, meaning he always draws coverage and one extra set of eyes on top of that at least, there will always be lanes or open areas for others to make play in or with. They are very simple, but most important and the key reasons why he is practically untouchable.
Look, if it took Robinson to land Giannis Antetokounmpo, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, or the top player in the league, no matter what his name is as we used those to illustrate the caliber player we are talking about, then maybe and just maybe, might it be considered. Other than for one of those type players mentioned above, he’ll never see outside of Biscayne Bay.