At first glance at the box score from Sunday night's preseason game against Orlando, one might look at the night Pelle Larsson had and think, "Well, that's not too bad." Larsson had 14 points, went 2-4 from three and 6-8 from the free throw line in 21 minutes.
But then, if one were to look a little further down the line, there are some real concerns for why the Summer League star might not be cracking the Heat's rotation in 2025-26.
Pelle Larsson turns into a traffic cone on defense
The problem with Larsson's night is what happened when the Magic had the ball. Larsson looked lost defensively and at times looked like he had gone to Spirit Halloween and picked out a traffic cone as his costume.
It contributed to Larsson racking up five fouls in those 21 minutes and finishing with a plus/minus of -17, 2nd worst on the Heat behind the -22 Precious Achiuwa put up.
The one play that sums up Larsson's night on the defensive end came at the end of the third quarter when he came out to challenge Orlando big man Colin Castleton in the corner and watched as Castleton blew right by him to the rim.
Mind you, this is the same Colin Castleton who has been bouncing around the league, has just 42 career NBA games in three seasons, and just got cut by Toronto this past offseason before landing with Orlando.
Summer hype is fading
Larsson's night wouldn't raise eyebrows if you just looked at his usage from last season, as these kind of sturggles would be expected from a 2nd year player who is a back end of the bench type of guy.
But it was the massive summer Larsson had that gave some hope that he could contend for 20+ minutes a night.
While most of the summer drama surrounded the play of Kel'el Ware, Larrson was by far the most consistent player for the Heat during Summer League, and he parlayed that into a successful stint with Sweden during the EuroBasket tournament last month.
But now that he is going against the main rosters of the NBA, and even then, Orlando sat out their main starters on Sunday, his defense flaws were on display, with nowhere to hide.
And if he doesn't shore up his weakness on that end of the court, it's going to be hard to see Erik Spoelstra giving Larsson any meaningful minutes anytime soon.