Miami Heat: Gabe Vincent More Productive But Kyle Lowry Makes Team Better

Miami Heat: Vincent Singularly More Potent, But Lowry Activates Everyone Else

You can see it when you look at the raw assist numbers, when you look at how other players are getting looks on the floor, and how the team operates. Take, in example, the patented quick look that Lowry and Jimmy Butler have perfected this season that sees Lowry throw the early hit ahead pass for an easy layup.

Though preferential to the eye test here, the numbers, for you metrics folks, also say something similar. Though Max Strus is a starter now, you have to look at five-man lineups that have played the most this season to tell the story fairly here, swapping out Gabe and Kyle in comparison.

While Strus and Duncan aren’t the exact same guys as players, swapping those two guys out doesn’t change things much.

With Gabe as the starter for 20 games, alongside Butler, Bam Adebayo, Duncan Robinson and P.J. Tucker, the Miami Heat are a less efficient team than a Kyle Lowry-led group (30 games) of the same other four pieces.

Vincent’s group averages slightly more points, .2 points more to be exact, but does so on nearly three more attempts per game, and all while they are making fewer field goals than the Kyle Lowry-led group. That can be explained by the fact that Gabe’s individual production adds to the overall scoring punch but takes away from team fluidity and operation because he isn’t the seasoned floor general that Lowry is.

To also point to Gabe’s individual potency, they are also making more threes and more efficiently than a Lowry-led group, but they are also taking four more per game with Vincent in there. That can also be attributed to Vincent being the better individual player for the Heat this year, able to create easier looks for himself from range than Lowry has been able to.

You could also say that they are getting easier looks when Lowry is in the game for everyone. If they can win with two-pointers because of Kyle’s know-how, they wouldn’t need to take as many threes, is the thinking.

Lowry is better, at the moment, at making those around him better.