3 Miami Heat players that should be axed from the playoff rotation

Barring an extreme move one way or the other, the Miami Heat are going to likely end up in the NBA Play-In Tournament. With less than a month remaining, it might be too big of an ask to expect the Heat to catch the New York Knicks to be the sixth seed in the East. That being said, Miami shouldn’t fall below the eighth seed, either.

This will give the Heat two cracks at getting into the NBA Playoffs and with the eighth through tenth seeds not being that intimidating, chances are that Erik Spoelstra will return to the playoffs for the fourth year in a row.

Once in the playoffs, the rotation is going to shrink to the team’s eight or nine best players, which is naturally going to leave certain players out of the fold. Assuming everyone is healthy, there are three prime candidates to get the boot.

3 Miami Heat players that should be axed from Erik Spoelstra’s playoff rotation:

1. Duncan Robinson

Duncan Robinson has missed a big portion of this season so it would not be all the different to not see him suit up in the playoffs. Robinson already saw his playoff role diminish significantly last year as he averaged only 12.2 minutes per game. The year before he was averaging 25.

With Kevin Love now in town there really is no reason to give Robinson any minutes outside of garbage time. The once-promising sharpshooter simply does not make up for his lack of defensive output on the offensive end.

One-way players are exposed in the NBA Playoffs and if Robinson is on the floor he is going to be hunted on every single possession. That is not worth having on the floor just so he can provide an above-average catch-and-shoot weapon.

Robinson’s fall from grace has been sad to watch over the last few years and it could culminate with him being axed from the playoff rotation altogether.