Miami Heat has done quite a lot of bizarre mistakes while handing out contracts like a 5-year $90 million deal to Duncan Robinson within the name of player development.
A few years back, Miami Heat was truly happy with its scouting, player development, the general management when its core of Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson, and Kendrick Nunn helped Jimmy Butler cause them to the NBA Finals out of nowhere in 2020.
It didn’t look over appreciation on the time because Butler was in his first 12 months on the franchise after they did that, that too in a tumultuous season mostly disrupted by COVID-19.
But, the Bubble Playoffs appear to have hindered the deficiencies in rookie Herro and former G-league sharp shooter Robinson’s games, especially the latter, who has now turn into one in all Miami’s biggest headaches this offseason.
Duncan Robinson signed a $90M cope with the Heat in 2021.
He has played only one minute within the Heat’s last 3 playoff games. pic.twitter.com/jm08QXcQzG
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) May 7, 2022
NBA analyst Amin Elhassan gave his expert opinion on how Pat Riley and Co. have been messing things up within the name of “Heat Culture”.
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Amin Elhassan rips into Miami Heat and Pat Riley for doing mistakes like Duncan Robinson for many years
On a recent episode of The Dan Le Batard Show, Elhassan ripped apart Miami’s approach toward player development and dug up several examples from the past to prove his point. He perfectly broke down the mistakes by the Heat since Riley has been in command of the things in Miami.
“That is my thing about Duncan Robinson; Miami is the organization where they pick up pebbles and say, “Huh? Oh, it is a diamond!” And so they do that on a regular basis, but since they do that on a regular basis, why would they ever pay market price for a diamond? You’re finding them in all places. The list is 25 years long, principally, since Pat Riley has been here: I’ll return to guys like Voshon Lenard and Ike [Isaac] Austin. They found guys that no person wanted, polished them up, made them into rotation guys.”
While you have a look at his evaluation rigorously, the person isn’t off in any respect. As currently constructed Heat are in no position to win the East, let alone the title, and so they literally have exceeded the team cap space by over $31 million, because of the 5-year $90 million contract they gave to Duncan in 2021.
Elhassan continued, “Why pay them? You fell in love along with your own bullshit. Heat Culture and all that. Hassan Whiteside. Dion Waiters. James Johnson. You possibly can put Duncan Robinson on that list. And the irony is that this: While they did this with Duncan Robinson, what happened? They found Max Strus, they polished him up, and he beat Duncan Robinson for a similar role.”
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As things stand, no person within the league would need to take the contract of a shooter who’s a liability on defense for at the least $17 million per season. So, the Heat would have to seek out a method to work on each Robinson and Herro’s defensive games in the event that they need to contend for anything.
Having Kyle Lowry, Adebayo, and Butler may also help them when the training camp begins but those All-NBA level defenders were there last season as well and it didn’t pan out well. Let’s hope they recuperate this time.
