With the Miami Heat’s preseason underway, things are starting to round into shape for them. Though Jimmy Butler hasn’t seen the floor a ton, you imagine that he’ll be ready and Coach Spoelstra has alluded to as much recently.
As far as rounding into shape stands though, that goes from them as a team to them as individual players. You have seen Kyle Lowry be his electric self from multiple aspects, Tyler Herro jump back onto the scene and especially in all three games prior to Charlotte, and all while Bam Adebayo is being as aggressive as he’s ever been on the offensive side of the ball.
One of the guys that couldn’t really get things going with his shot until Charlotte though, was Markieff Morris. Struggling offensively up until that game with his efficiency and overall output, he would go 6-18 from the floor and 0-6 from range across three prior preseason games and 53 minutes played.
Morris saw a more of his looks go in this one to help his confidence. He would finish the game on Monday with 11 points, six rebounds, and two assists on 5-8 from the floor and 1-3 from range.
The Miami Heat have been known to go cold at the most critical times. With that, guys like Markieff Morris who can self-start are key.
It’s noting special, but it’s also better than his first few games. There wasn’t anything alarming about it anyway though, since alluding to his confidence.
It’s not that he’s losing it or the favor of the coaches. Erik Spoelstra, in the sheer belief of the following notion, has major confidence in the forward and his ability.
“There’s a lot of upside with Markieff. This is just scratching the surface. He’s getting his legs.” — Spoelstra.
— Five Reasons Sports 🏀🏈⚾️🏒⚽️ (@5ReasonsSports) October 12, 2021
Said he can use Morris in a lot of the areas he uses Adebayo.
What really stands out about Morris though is his ability to be a self-starter. Be that on the offensive side or the defensive side of the ball, his ability to take it upon himself when it needs to be done is something of value.
While that goes for the team, overall, that’s especially in that second unit. With Charlotte also in example here, take Tyler Herro’s off game.
On nights like those, the Miami Heat bench and thus the Heat as a total team, could stand to benefit from a guy who might could make some things happen on his own. Keef is not only adept at getting himself a look but he isn’t afraid to help get a teammate a basket either, as he did in Monday’s game on a beautiful Max Strus cut and finish, for example.
On the defensive side, he can guard multiple positions. He may be better at guarding some than others, but he’s always going to give a good, solid, and quite literally, tough effort.
For both sides of the ball, there may be some times where you ask yourself and him, “what’s going on”? However, that same energy and effort should be more useful that harmful.
It’ll come in handy at the most inopportune of times. That’s one of the key reasons why one of Markieff Morris’s best assets to this Miami Heat team is his nature as a self-starter.