Miami Heat: Player grades from series sweep of Indiana Pacers
The Heat’s wings are largely veterans, and they showed up against Indiana.
Jimmy Butler: A
The hype around “Playoff Jimmy” was worth the wait. Miami’s alpha finished the first-round sweep averaging 22.8 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, and 1.3 steals. His play pushed the Heat above the Pacers in every way, leading to a clean in-and-out playoff series.
Watch for this grade to trend downward after the next round if Butler fails to maintain, or even build upon his playoff-grade contributions moving forward. This is what Pat Riley and the front office brought him to South Beach for, after all, it’s the expectation.
Andre Iguodala: A
When fans started grumbling about Andre Iguodala’s age at the trade deadline, they certainly didn’t anticipate his play thus far. The 2015-2016 Finals MVP was a key contributor for Miami in their first-round series win over the Pacers.
Iguodala finished the four games averaging 4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1 assist, 1.3 steals, and 1.3 blocks. His defense especially aided (and will continue to aid) the Heat in their playoff push.
Jae Crowder: B
Most will probably deem a B grade for Jae Crowder a little harsh. But the veteran enforcer didn’t play that huge a role for the Heat in this first-round series. Crowder posted 9.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 1 steal over the four-game span.
But he finished the series shooting just 33 percent from deep, after posting a 56 percent shooting average from behind-the-arc in Miami’s eight seeding games. Crowder showed up on both ends of the ball but will need to give more as a shooter as the Heat get further into the postseason.
Derrick Jones Jr: D
Upcoming free agent Derrick Jones Jr only didn’t get a failing grade here because he managed to get on the floor for each of the four playoff games. Still, the 23-year old forward only finished the series averaging 2.3 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 1.5 assists on an average of 10.8 minutes nightly.
Solomon Hill, KZ Okpala: N/A
Even after an impressive performance in the last of the Heat’s eight seeding games, Solomon Hill saw no playing time in round one. Watch for coach Spoelstra to deploy him in later rounds if the offense ends up stalling and he’s searching for answers along the bench.
Another of Miami’s “on the rise” developmental pieces, KZ Okpala saw no playing time in round one. He was listed on the injury report for the first three games of the series, and even being off of it for Game 4 saw no playing time in the wire-to-wire victory.