Duncan Robinson has been an excellent addition for the Detroit Pistons this season. And while Miami Heat fans have been watching him thrive from afar, they're seeing Pistons fans begin to pick up on a few characteristics of his game: while he's a fantastic three-point shooter, there are going to be moments where opponents hunt him on defense.
These are a couple of the defining traits of who Robinson is as a player that became evident to those in Miami years ago. It's hard to deny the power of Duncan's shooting gravity. There are very few role players who can open up the floor and create space like he can.
The kind of scoring gravity he brings to the hardwood is just insane for a role player. Defenses will never ignore him because they know the range, quick shot release, and ability to catch fire that he carries with him. He often gets guarded like Stephen Curry because opposing teams know how quickly he can shift a game.
And we've seen that play out for years in playoff situations. Robinson has gotten hot in big moments and hit timely shots for the Heat well into the postseason, so there's no question he's built to influence the game on the big stage.
Duncan Robinson can be a defensive liability at times
With that being said, the playoffs have also frequently revealed Duncan's defensive problems in the past, and Pistons fans are beginning to get a glimpse of it in the regular season as well. Robinson has made efforts to improve when it comes to individual defense, but it's hard to argue against him still being a net negative at this stage.
Perhaps his biggest problem is that he's never had the reputation of being a defensive guy, and we know that defensive reputation matters a lot (probably more than it should) in the NBA. If you establish yourself as a hard-nosed defender early on in your career, you can regress a little and you'll still get a better whistle years down the road.
The inverse is of course true as well, and it's the problem Duncan Robinson suffers from. He gets a terrible whistle because referees actively disbelieve in his abilities, leading to his defensive performances sometimes looking worse on paper than they actually do on the court.
What we're seeing in Detroit is that the Pistons have better perimeter defensive talent to mask Robinson's shortcomings, but he still gets hunted at times. In short, the Pistons are learning that while Duncan's shooting talent is otherworldly, the issue of him being targeted defensively remains very real.
Detroit is getting the full Duncan Robinson experience. That means the highs and the lows, and neither comes without the other. But if the Pistons can keep leveraging his shooting while insulating him defensively, they’ll understand why Heat fans always believed his value outweighed his flaws.