A bad day shooting for Miami Heat sharpshooter, Duncan Robinson, is a career-best for another.
The Miami Heat are a team that’s built on effort, intensity, hard work, defense, and three-point shooting. While a few other things exist that could be thrown into that mix, those are the main bullet points in the Miami Heat’s philosophy.
A huge part of that three-point shooting for the last season or so has been Duncan Robinson. The 6’8″ flamethrower out of Michigan has lit it up for the Miami Heat over the last calendar year, cementing his name at the top of the list with the NBA’s best shooters, possibly even sitting at the very top.
He’s continued his shooting ways this year, going at a rate of 40 percent from three on 7.5 attempts per contest. That’s pretty darn good, big-time numbers even, for some that is.
Here’s the thing though. They aren’t quite as high as what we have come to expect from Duncan Robinson.
The Miami Heat thrive off of their shooting. That’s why it’s key that Duncan Robinson regains all of his form.
On last season and across the entire season might we add, Duncan Robinson shot 44.6 percent from three on 8.3 attempts per game. You add the fact about the sample size because that shows you that it wasn’t a fluke, as he did it across the entire season and actually across two parts of it with the regular portion of the regular year and the Bubble portion.
So, not only did he shoot it better from deep all of last season than he has so far this year, but he did so on nearly one more whole attempt per contest. That could be the source of the issue though.
Whether it be a balance by volume thing or a pure rhythm thing, perhaps he simply isn’t getting up enough shots. Either way, we need him to get back up over eight shots, as he was last season.
While the volume is one thing, you miss all of them that you don’t take. Taking more should only lead to making more and that’s not a hard concept at all to understand.
Listen, we know that the rest of the league knows that he is an elite shooter for certain now, so that is having an impact on his ability to get shots off but still, he has to get it done. That’s his main job, if not his only real job, where all other production is a luxury.
Also, we aren’t crazy, as we know that 40 percent from three on 7.5 attempts is a great number, it’s just not his best. His best is needed if the Heat are to attempt another NBA Title run and it’s just that simple.
He can be better and I suspect he will. The Miami Heat have been decent thus far this season, losing a couple of close ones, taking a stomping in Milwaukee, but also with a few good wins sprinkled in there as well.
They can get back to being nearly dominant, as they were last season, as Duncan’s shot becomes more plentiful and efficient along the way. We aren’t being unappreciative of what he is doing but he has set a high bar for himself, so we now expect him to reach it.