The Miami Heat had a successful NBA Summer League Circuit, even if they didn’t win the whole thing in Las Vegas. What they were able to do though, was harvest and develop some incredible talent.
While that was the case for some of the newer faces, some of the familiar faces found moments to excel across the circuit. The main culprit here was Max Strus.
Exploding across a few games and with great abundance from deep, Strus continued to prove how he earned his spot on the Miami Heat’s roster for the coming season. He would finish with averages of 20.8 points per game, 6.3 rebounds per game, and 2.5 assists per game on 39.1 percent shooting from the floor and 40 percent shooting from deep on 11.3 attempts per contest.
Here’s the thing though, he wasn’t awarded an All-Summer League Team spot, on either the first or second teams. Was Strus robbed there?
That answer is a twisted one, but we can sort it out. Why didn’t the upcoming Miami Heat sniper get recognized?
Miami Heat: Was Max Strus Robbed Of All-Summer League Honors?
To sort the answer, you must first look at the comparable guys who made the teams. In this case and for these purposes, you can take Payton Pritchard from the Boston Celtics, Davion Mitchell of the Sacramento Kings, Trey Murphy III of the New Orleans Pelicans, and Cam Thomas of the Brooklyn Nets, all of the first-team.
You can also use Jalen Green and Cade Cunningham, of the second-team. Off rip and for me, Davion Mitchell and Trey Murphy come off of this list as comparable.
Mitchell made the team because of his elite defense and partially that same reason for Murphy, who also does have some offensive dexterity to him, though again for defense and the fact that both were outperformed statistically by Strus, overall. When looking at the other guys though, you go to the numbers.
Only one guy outscored Strus here, Thomas from Brooklyn, finishing with 6.2 points per game more than Strus. Green finished .5 points lower than Strus at 20.3, while Cunningham and Pritchard both scored less than Strus per game as well. Only Murphy and his 6’8″ frame averaged mored boards than Strus’s 6.3, with seven of his own per game.
Miami Heat: Perhaps, For Max Strus, ‘Robbed’ Is Too Strong…
Even in the dimes category, only Davion Mitchell and Pritchard averaged more there than Strus. If his overall numbers are among the best and they are the second or third best set, minimally, if not number one overall in totality… how did he not make either of the teams?
Well, it was probably his efficiency. For one of the top performing guys, he may have been the least-efficient.
For starters and perhaps you might have noticed, his overall field goal percentage was lower than his three-point percentage, a strange phenomenon in itself. While his efficiency was about on par with Cam Thomas’s, Thomas averaged almost seven more points per than he did and led the league in scoring.
Everyone else, though less productive overall, was more efficient at how they went about it and in Jalen Green’s case, to be specific, just as productive. Now, in a league that’s all about shooting your shots, Strus should have still made one of the teams, however, you can see the case they could make for leaving him off.
To answer the question though, was he robbed? You have to be fair and logical there, which means that “robbed” is too strong.
Again, he should have made one of the teams, based on production, but they have a strong case as to why he didn’t. One that would be mighty hard to overturn, simply based on the subjective nature of value in “efficiency to overall production” and with the fact that there were guys near him in production with much greater efficiency.
Don’t mind that though, as though the honor would have been great for him, the real test still stands before him. If he can knock down some huge shots in the regular year for the big league Miami Heat like he did in the Summer League, then that should be reward enough.