Miami Heat: 3 offseason Adjustments for Kelly Olynyk

Kelly Olynyk could help the Miami Heat with an increased defensive discipline to avoid foul trouble.

Defensive Discipline

Simply put, Olynyk can’t be an asset to coach Spoelstra if he isn’t on the court. As a floor stretching big, some match-ups will dictate him playing a bigger role. That becomes difficult when he’s routinely having a hard time staying out of foul trouble when seeing bigger minutes.

In both the regular season and postseason, Olynyk averaged 4.9 fouls per 36 minutes. While his fouls aren’t a big deal on nights he’s only expected to see 10-15 minutes, they become a much bigger problem when he’s asked to do more.

Take the NBA Finals, for example. In Games 2 and 3, his shooting led to him seeing over 30 minutes of action.

In Game 2, he picked up four fouls and in Game 3, he picked up 5. Time ran out in both before it caused any more harm to the Miami Heat, but it’s easy to see how problems could arise.

No one is asking him to be a plus defender. His role is known and it has everything to do with the offensive end. Olynyk simply needs to know when to use his fouls more carefully and when to save them because he might need to be on the court later.

This will be especially important next season when the Heat should have a different big rotation. There isn’t a guarantee they’ll have the luxury of another 7-foot sharpshooter to give minutes if he can’t stay on the court.