The Miami Heat were in flux coming off a tough last week of play prior to beating Sacramento this past Monday. With the rumblings of needing a shakeup somewhere prior to that though, there was a move made to coach Spoelstra’s starting lineup and therefore, his entire rotation.
Finding himself out of the rotation just a week or few ago, it seems, Max Strus has now received a major bump in playing time. That “bump” came with a major promotion too.
To be fair, he’s seen it all before he got there though.
He’s gone from being, seemingly, out of the rotation when Victor Oladipo and Markieff Morris came back, to on the edges as the team tried to figure out the correct balance of everything, to now being entrenched as the fifth starter in the typical starting lineup that features Kyle Lowry, Bam Adebayo, P.J. Tucker, and his middle finger bro, Jimmy Butler.
While things have worked out for the best over the last two contests, you still can’t say it was the absolute right move yet, shuffling Duncan Robinson to a reserve role, however, you can say this.
Things look a bit more electric out there for everyone when Strus is on the floor with the starters and vice versa. With that, here is the reason why the change seems to have been made, for now at least.