It may only be preseason, but it's pretty obvious that the Miami Heat are going to miss Duncan Robinson a lot this upcoming season. Through five exhibition games, the Heat is a bottom-5 team in 3-point shooting percentage, attempts, and makes. It'd be surprising if there wasn't at least some free-agency remorse with the way the Heat handled that entire situation.
Who would've guessed that parting ways with your best 3-point shooting, and then not actively replacing him, would end in disaster for the Heat?
That's exactly where the Heat may find themselves at the moment.
Sure, Tyler Herro is still out with an injury, but I have a hard time believing that his presence alone is going to dramatically change the Heat's 3-point output. That'd be another level of wishful thinking.
At least for now, it doesn't appear as if the Heat's 3-point shooting is going to dramatically improve much heading into the start of the regular season. The problem is, if it doesn't, that doesn't bode well for the team's hope of helping resurrect their anemic offense from last season.
The Heat's putrid 3-point shooting is not good for business
Miami ended last season with the 21st-ranked offensive rating in the league. Their struggling offense somehow got even worse in the postseason as they were eliminated at a historic margin at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Heading into training camp, the hope was that Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra could help evolve the team's offense. Part of that so-called evolution revolved around picking up the pace. While the Heat have accomplished that, the overall results have not been found just yet.
Even though the Heat have played at a much quicker pace so far this season, it hasn't tangibly had much of an impact on their overall offense. After five preseason games, the Heat have the second-worst offensive rating in the league.
That may not be the be-all-end-all measuring stick for offenses, but that's not a great development for the Heat by any means.
The team's lack of 3-point shooting will not help matters any, either.
Interestingly enough, Miami was a top 12 team in 3-point percentage last season. If they were to take a tumble in that department, you can only imagine that it will lead to many more struggles on the offensive end of the floor.
If their performance from beyond-the-arc in the preseason is any indication, the Heat will have even more of a challenge ahead of them as they look to solve the riddle of the offense. At this point, it does seem as if the Heat may have made a big free-agency mistake by letting Robinson walk without directly replacing him.