The Miami Heat faced off against the Sacramento Kings on Thursday night. Needing a win badly after a rough past few games, the Miami Heat came out on a mission.
They attacked early and often, jumping right out on the Sacramento ball club. They led from wire to wire, never allowing the Kings to feel like they had a foothold on the game, nonetheless control.
The Miami Heat didn’t play around with this one, taking it right to them to get the win. They would win the game behind two tremendous performances from their top two guys.
Both Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo finished with triple doubles on Thursday night, but they were helped along mightily by their teammates. While Tyler Herro was his usual explosive self, Kelly Olynyk decided to bring out a bit more of the scoring package on Thursday and for good reason.
The Miami Heat may have been looking to land Nemanja Bjelica of the Kings, but probably not now, if they ever were.
There has been chatter out there, here or there and other random places, that the Miami Heat may have, indeed, been interested in talking to the Kings about one of their reserve forwards. That guy is Nemanja Bjelica.
At 6’10 or a little better, he is a pretty skilled big as well, but mostly offensively when it comes to creating his own offense. He can drive it, handle it, shoot it, and is pretty crafty with the ball, though he has to be, as he isn’t that athletic or explosive.
Here’s the thing though. The Miami Heat already have a guy like that.
That would be Kelly Olynyk. The thing about Olynyk is this though.
He’s multiple too and more so than Bjelica. Whereas Bjelica’s versatility shows up mostly in his ability to score the ball, Olynyk’s shows up in his total offensive game.
Basically, though Bjelica might and that’s just might, be a bit more offensively capable than KO when it comes to finding his own shots, for the Miami Heat and their team brand of basketball, the vast amount more that Olynyk can do for your offense when compared to Bjelica is just absurdly better.
Well, if that wasn’t enough, Olynyk also outplayed him head to head on Thursday night. If it ever seemed as though KO had seen the potential rumors too, then it’s probably because he did.
If they thought they might pursue him before Thursday night, they are probably thinking otherwise now. Kelly Olynyk isn’t perfect, nobody is, but he’s better than Bjelica and not only for this Miami Heat team, but just in general.