jordan’s heat bløg

i think one of the reasons along with him being a great shooter that it makes sense to tilt his game more towards 3s than standard lead guard stuff is that he doesnt have great athleticism to finish once hes in the lane and ends up taking more difficult shots than you might like, getting stronger would help tho he has a pretty slight frame so hes prob not ever going to be super strong

if he really starts hunting threes out of the pick and roll and is effective thatd open up driving and passing lanes, but if hes mostly looking more to drive or pass and not exploiting every little hole for a 3 attempt hes kiinda playing into the defenses hands IMHO

idk that hed actually be successful with that steph approach but it seems very worth a try, he even has his own draymond ready to go in bam

also i would just like to see it

i think one of the reasons along with him being a great shooter that it makes sense to tilt his game more towards 3s than standard lead guard stuff is that he doesnt have great athleticism to finish once hes in the lane and ends up taking more difficult shots than you might like, getting stronger would help tho he has a pretty slight frame so hes prob not ever going to be super strong

― lag∞n, Wednesday, November 1, 2023 12:07 PM (three minutes ago)

for sure i think the major difference between him and maxey is maxey has speed that eliminates his size disadvantage. herro has to rely a lot more on creativity around the rim & while i think he has gotten better at that every season, there is prob going to be a cap on what he can do at the rim

also -- i think most people would guess that herro is a great free throw shooter but i'm not sure people realize he led the league in FT shooting last year among qualified players and it wasn't particularly close. he shot 93.3% from FT last year -- the next highest player was KD at 91.9%

that's free money that he just has to figure out how to access. i think you can tell he's worked on drawing contact this year & i think as he develops that pin/floater game he should be able to draw fouls from guys trying to get him from behind. but also can he hold up physically if he's trying to draw 5-6 fouls per game every night in the NBA?

if he was shooting 4-10 from three every game and making 5-6 free throws per game, that's like 18 points per game right there w/o having to make a single two pointer in game action. i think that's the ultimate goal for him. the first part should be achievable, i think the second part is the real crux of it all

yeah increasing his ft rate would be good, its tough to do but not impossible

whats jimmys problem did he really go emo

― lag∞n, Wednesday, November 1, 2023 11:46 AM (thirteen minutes ago)

it's interesting. saw this tweet last night that made me raise my eyebrow

So Jimmy Butler now on injury report with knee tendinitis three nights after sitting out in Minnesota and one night after playing 28:43 in Milwaukee. He is 13 of 40 from the field this season in his three appearances. He declined comment after Monday's game. https://t.co/t1peUnB05I

— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) October 31, 2023

i didn't see the boston game but he definitely did not look spry or athletic vs the bucks

ultimately given what ppl were saying about jimmy this offseason i'm choosing to believe that he doesn't have a debilitating knee injury & is just doing his typical regular season coasting while also not making many shots

also if you look at the heat's injury reports so far this season (embedded in the above tweet) i think they're laying the groundwork for a big load management season regardless of the new rules. they've sat caleb martin the whole season, are already listing & sitting jimmy and bam

i sorta hoped that last season wouldn't embolden them to never care about playoff seedings again. but i think that's prob what happened

yeah jimmy was a non entity vs celtics, what were they saying about him in the offseason

*i kinda think not caring about playoff seeding is the move, im a load management extremist lol, tho from a watching the games perspective obvs i hate it

yeah well they're also starting off w/ 12 of 17 on the road, which is apparently the most in the league over that span, and the most recent stretch was a 3 games in 4 nights road trip vs two of the best teams in the league (bucks, celts) and another likely playoff team (wolves) that also treats jimmy's annual visit like game 7 of the finals. even w/in the context of taking it easy in the regular season it feels like they were particularly not caring a whole lot about the last two games

what were they saying about him in the offseason

just that he was super motivated to have a great season, was looking awesome in camp etc. also he did like a whole SI cover where he talked about making it back to the finals, did the emo thing to draw more attention to himself, has repeatedly said stuff in press conferences like "don't ask me about 82 games ask me about 98 games" and shit like that. if he was feeling uncomfortable physically or w/ the roster he's been doing a lot of PR to lie about it

ah i see, re not caring about reg season record it is prob good to at least try to get in the top six so you dont just randomly lose a game or two and get knocked out, which almost happened to the heat last year

could be jimmy just has a lil knee tendonitis and its not that big of a deal

ah i see, re not caring about reg season record it is prob good to at least try to get in the top six so you dont just randomly lose a game or two and get knocked out, which almost happened to the heat last year

― lag∞n, Wednesday, November 1, 2023 12:50 PM (twenty-three seconds ago)

yes. people also forget that in the season after the bubble they got the 6 seed finishing one game behind the knicks & hawks who tied for 4-5. the heat got smoked by the bucks in round 1 while the hawks beat a shitty knicks team and then rode the simmons meltdown to the east finals. if the heat had simply won a single more game in that regular season they prob would prob be sitting here as having made the ECF in all four jimmy years. so they've already been burned by it! but i think they don't care and i understand the feeling that seeding doesn't matter if you aren't healthy

yeah i dont think home court matters that much but having to play multiple rounds of good teams is bad, maybe making the top five is the move

just feels like this year especially you want to avoid the bucks or celtics in round 1 but i kinda feel like actually the heat would love to play the bucks again in a 1-8 series. i don't think the fanbase handles stress as well as the organization does

lol

can’t wear heat culture jerseys and lose to the wizards (on a neon red court), let’s just say that

idk heat culture seems like more of a playoff thing

30-11 w/ 3 blocks (14-16 from the line) for bam tonight a game after a 22-20-11 triple double vs the lakers

saw a heat reporter note that bam takes the match up vs JJJ personally (team USA hierarchy stuff, i assume)

win in memphis tonight was the first of 9 out of 10 on the road (4 game road trip, 1 game at home, 5 game road trip)

the broadcast team noted they're on the road for 17 of the next 19 days

if they're at .500 and healthy at the end of all that i think they'll be in a pretty good spot

jaime jaquez jr hit the dagger 3 to beat memphis tonight in what i have to assume was the first battle of JJJs in nba history

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, November 8, 2023 10:41 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

how’s he been? he was one of the guys I was really hoping would fall to denver

― k3vin k., Thursday, November 9, 2023 2:53 AM (nineteen hours ago)

answering this here...

there's not much volume in his offensive game right now but he's shooting 50% from the floor and has a 2:1 A:TO ratio. he's shot 12-17 over the last three games. he just has good feel for the game, he's not trying to do too much out there. he figures out ways to get himself makable looks in the lane.

then there are also plays like this where he comes off his guy, strips jarren, beats two guys down the floor, flies thru the air avoiding marcus smart to lay it in where you can see some of the athletic pop that shows up when he gets a head of steam on the fast break.

This is just pure feel from Jaime Jaquez pic.twitter.com/K9mQhn5Hrj

— Brady Hawk (@BradyHawk305) November 9, 2023

his viability this year and in the playoffs will come down to whether he can make threes. i think if he can just make corner threes consistently he'll be a good player because when he is moving towards the basket he's generally good whether he has the ball in his hands or is cutting.

i think his ceiling is something like PJ tucker -- he's stout enough to play the 4 but can hang on the perimeter too. tucker has a pretty similar feel on offense. i don't think jaime is that good of a defender and he prob has more offensive skill than PJ, but you can already envision a lot of games where jaime is primarily spending his time on offense in the corner and either shooting or making plays from there, picking up some junk points, and then guarding the opposing 4.

i posted some duncan on wemby highlights in the other thread for laughs, but he was legitimately great vs the spurs and has looked better than ever this season, in particular from inside the arc where he's just noticeably a lot better

coming into the season his career high in 2PA/g was 1.4 in the 20-21 season -- this year he's at 3.7 2PA/g and scoring at a 62% rate, which is both very good and aligned w/ his career numbers just at 2.5x the volume. he finished twice in the paint off the dribble last night, including a tough floater on vassell... he also had a nice finish on the fastbreak

Duncan's bag of tricks is starting to seem never-ending 👀 always something new, he led us to our comeback win pic.twitter.com/mCQgtyASDA

— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) November 13, 2023

with herro out during the playoffs and now again for a multi week stretch, the heat are leaning heavily on the duncan-bam two man game to generate offense and duncan is showing the ability to expand that beyond their typical balletic passing and screening routines around the 3 point line

Duncan Robinson less than 10 feet from the basket:

Last regular season- 0.7 attempts a night on 59% shooting

(Playoffs went up to 1.4 attempts which felt like a major leap)

This season- 3.3 attempts a night on 64% shooting

That jump is really wild

— Brady Hawk (@BradyHawk305) November 13, 2023

he's also been the best high volume pull up three point shooter this year ... to say this offense needs shots like this is an understatement

40 players have attempted at least 20 pull-up threes so far this season

Who is shooting the highest % among all those pull-up shooters?

Duncan Robinson at 47% shooting

— Brady Hawk (@BradyHawk305) November 13, 2023

he's an easy guy to root for. he was written off two years ago as an albatross contract & could've just happily enjoyed his riches and rode off into the sunset w/ a podcast sponsored by a gambling company lined up. but he went back in and improved his game and reclaimed his spot and then some.

meanwhile bam is on what is possibly the best stretch of his career

his last 4 games have gone

22-19-10, 2 blocks, 2 steals
30-11-1, 3 blocks, 1 steal
26-17-4, 2 blocks, 2 steals
24-11-6, 0 blocks, 3 steals

cherry picking some numbers here but

Over his last four games, Bam Adebayo has averaged 25.5 points on 53.7% shooting , 14.5 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.8 blocks.

The only other players in NBA history to do that over four games are:

Hakeem (2x)
Bird (2x)
Giannis (2x)
Kareem (13x)

— Couper Moorhead (@CoupNBA) November 13, 2023

he's really been playing like a maniac. incredible intensity on both ends of the floor. he's actually 6th in the league in FTA per game -- the only guys ahead of him are embiid, giannis, dame, trae and KD. bam hasn't shot under 75% from the line in 4 years, if he can even hover around the 10-15 range in FTA/g in the league he will be a different offensive player. right now his post game is looking really refined, he's finding his little paint jumper in rhythm, and he's overall just shouldering and relishing offensive responsibility to a different degree -- recognizing key possessions, demanding the ball, getting to his spot, making his jumper. efficiency, intelligence, and effort.

and then he's still doing stuff like this a few times per game that puts him on a very short list of nba players from a size/athleticism/skill perspective

This is just an insane sequence

Recognizing the need for help, making the block, running the floor, hitting the cut perfectly

Bam Adebayo man

pic.twitter.com/tDFbKntPcp

— Brady Hawk (@BradyHawk305) November 12, 2023

if he can even hover around the 10-15 range in FTA/g

I’m confused he’s averaging 7 FTA/g which is really good but 10+ would be lebron/harden level

top 10 to 15 in the league in fta

oic

bam absolutely killed zinger in the second game of the season fouled him out in 30mins, he looked really strong and decisive driving from the perimeter and whatnot

yeah. they gave him the captaincy this year with haslem retiring and he’s playing with an aggressiveness that just feels like him accepting a new level of responsibility on offense. i don’t think his skill level has jumped the way it has in previous years, it’s his confidence and willingness to assert himself physically on offense

he’s also averaging a career high in blocks this year (1.4/g) and i was observing a conversation on twitter about how their perimeter defense is stronger with this roster which is allowing bam to play in drop more. he’s been really effective this year guarding the ball handler in PNR and then sagging off and disrupting the alley oop

All about that White Chocolate today!

Happy Birthday J. Will 🎂 pic.twitter.com/CGYkxF1PHN

— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) November 18, 2023

duncan "vanilla pudding" robinson

22 points in 30 mins on 6-9 shooting from 3 for duncan tonight

coming into the game there were 25 players in the league averaging 7 threes per game. duncan ranked 5th in terms of 3pt percentage (41.1%) of that group. the only 3 guys higher than him are steph (44.7%), maxey (44.6%), halliburton (43.2%), and luka (42%).

he's been pretty easily the best role player shooter in the league this year -- the only other non-star shooting above even 40% from 3 at high volume this year is tim hardaway jr at 40.5% on 9 attempts per game. porter jr is at 37% on 7.3 attempts per game, hield is at 36.7% on 7.5 attempts, max strus is at 36% on 7.7 attempts.

plus the fact that he has expanded his game from inside the arc, shown some ability to finish at the rim a bit off pump fakes etc... if he keeps this up he should get real 6th man of the year consideration. he's not even like completely awful on defense. he's def below average but still competent enough to stay on the floor in multiple finals, conference finals etc

coming into the game there were 25 players in the league averaging 7 threes per game

sorry to be clear i mean 7 three point *attempts* per game. the list of players averaging 7 made threes per game is zero names long

easily the best role player shooter in the league this year

Put that on a tee-shirt and maybe he'd autograph it for you.

go away, you don’t have the license to be a dick to me in this thread

and that’s actually a really good thing to be in today’s NBA!

well apparently jimmy loves jovic (not playing at all this year)

Why did Jimmy Butler make the trip to Wisconsin to watch the Skyforce last night?

Butler: “Niko. Got to go see my boy. I’m a huge Niko fan. I think he’s going to help this organization well after I’m done here. That’s my dawg. I love him to death."

— Anthony Chiang (@Anthony_Chiang) November 21, 2023

I didn't think you'd take that so hard. But you did and I apologize.

i will take shit from people who will also engage genuinely with me on this topic i care about in this thread that is 90% my posts. if you’re just popping in w/ some zing you can save it. you’re in group 2

this shit means something to me pic.twitter.com/Sxkkb0NXli

— flan artest (@FarFarGone) December 2, 2023

love this dude

another borderline remarkable duncan robinson game last night in toronto -- put up 21-6-7 and had the ball in his hands shredding the raptors in pick and roll for much of the 4th quarter. it felt slightly hallucinatory

we know duncan and bam have their two man game down pat, but the heat were clearing out for duncan & orlando robinson to run PNR last night and the raptors simply could not stop it

these are not incredibly complicated reads or anything but he repeatedly put himself and/or orlando in a great spot to score easily and efficiently down the stretch

Now we get to the stuff I really wanted to talk about: the 4th quarter

Offense hit a wall, so use Duncan as your hub out of an empty corner

PnR coverage scrambling to defend at the level, and Duncan throws a sweet lead bounce pass to Orlando for the and-1 pic.twitter.com/H3yno6m7V3

— Brady Hawk (@BradyHawk305) December 7, 2023

Pass to Duncan off the screen into a high PnR, and yeah I wouldn’t go under on the screen like that too often

As soon as Duncan sees him about to go under, he’s in his shot motion pic.twitter.com/d8a4lJS8xd

— Brady Hawk (@BradyHawk305) December 7, 2023

slow play reading the defense and just casually easing in to a wrong foot one handed runner off the glass was when i was like -- oh

So Heat go empty corner again for Duncan

Raptors containing Orlando on the roll after a few possessions ago

Duncan baits that into a runner off the glass

In games like this, find a player/action that’s working and counter the coverage

That’s what they began doing pic.twitter.com/Gq2rEwa8rF

— Brady Hawk (@BradyHawk305) December 7, 2023

this one basically clinched the game ... doesn't panic with the big switched onto him, let's orlando pin his guy under the hoop, little bounce pass, easy bucket

So let’s go empty corner for these 2 one more time

Duncan finds space and now sees the coverage is a late switch

Patiently waits for Orlando to get his seal, and that’s a win for the possession

Being able to make reads of the different coverage play after play is huge to see pic.twitter.com/y7ZbqLcKvO

— Brady Hawk (@BradyHawk305) December 7, 2023

i really hope he gets his due consideration for 6th man of the year. up to 49/44/84 shooting and blowing away his career highs in PPG (15.0) and APG (2.9) w/ no corresponding jump in turnovers. he's also blowing away his career numbers in terms of how many of his shots are being assisted. right now for his career 82% of his 2 point FGs have been assisted -- this year he is at 67%. his career number for 3 point FGs being assisted is 95% -- this year it is at 84%.

you wouldn't say he's a new or different player exactly because he still looks a lot like duncan robinson -- it's just a markedly improved version that is showing up on the court every night now. with jimmy and bam in and out of the line up and herro on a prolonged absence, it's not a stretch to say that duncan has been the most important player on the team given the degree to which they run offense thru him now. last night they sat lowry, in toronto, for basically the entire 4th quarter, had josh richardson in as "point guard" and put the game on duncan's back.

and then the most shocking thing of all is this, specifically the final play in this clip (at 49 seconds) when scottie barnes isos duncan at the top of the arc, drives on him, spins, goes for the lay up and is... just draped and contested the entire time. scottie barnes isn't kevin durant or anything but these kinda guys used to treat duncan like a traffic cone

Some Duncan Robinson defense from last night

One of his best performances on that end pic.twitter.com/JJ3rcvRzGO

— Brady Hawk (@BradyHawk305) December 7, 2023

every time I watch a heat game he does something that makes me do a double take, I need to update my expectations

he was seemingly out of the rotation for most of last season it seemed, very weird turnaround. would be cool if he kept it going.

oh he wasn’t seemingly out of the rotation. he was out of the rotation.

the thing is that he has noticeably improved his game in order to earn his minutes back… he had to go back in the lab. what’s unique is that typically when a guy comes out of nowhere to score a huge contract and then immediately flops after getting the bag we don’t then see the redemption story happening with the same franchise. he’s essentially a “change the scenery” guy except he didn’t actually change any scenery

similarly rare to see a guy inarguably be tabbed as one of the worst contracts in the NBA shift it back not only to “ok this isn’t killing us anymore” but all the way to potentially being a value deal on the same contract

I feel like the turning point for him last season was a string of games late in last season / into the playoffs where Duncan started racking up at least 1-2 pump-fake drive wide open layups, and then added a few wide-open cut layups throughout the playoffs, and it feels like he's kept it up since then.

yeah i think less so the cutting which he developed earlier as a counter to teams “top locking” him but he definitely started showing the pump and drive game early in last year’s playoffs, doing stuff like taking jrue holiday off the dribble and scoring a lay up over him where you’re just like “whaaat?????” he’s carried that over to this season & even expanded it. he’s tall enough to get his shot off on most guys and has so far shown pretty good touch from floater range

There was like a 5-10 game run where he got a wide open layup off of doing basically nothing but going to the basket. It was so clearly that the entire world knew he would do anything but drive to the hoop to shoot, and that perception was so ingrained that he was still getting some of these in the playoffs.

It's cool that his game has finally opened up from freakishly one-dimensional to some more varied skills. Sucked to see someone clearly struggle w/ their role like Duncan did last year; he never stopped shooting, but he was shooting so badly that they had to move him to the back of the rotation so he couldn't play enough minutes to hurt them.

The funny thing is that he wasn't a truly awful, has-the-yips type shooter during his long slump – still above 30% 3pt shooting, and still had defenses chasing him all over the place to defend the shots. Was just falling way short of justifying his contract. Glad he's back!

Highest EFG% on Pull-Up Jumpers:

1. Duncan Robinson: 71.4%—56 FGA
2. Huerter: 63.0%—50
3. Haliburton: 60.2%—186
4. Beasley: 59.6%—52
5. D. White: 57.0%—50
6. McCollum: 56.8%—59
7. Harden: 56.5%—77
8. Fox: 55.6%—144
9. Luka: 55.0%—251
10. SGA: 54.7%—192
.
98. THT: 21.0%—50 pic.twitter.com/cpNt37Hwd2

— NBA University (@NBA_University) December 10, 2023

Eric Reid soft-launching Ride Captain Ride

21 fourth quarter points for duncan last night, and it wasn't on seven threes

Still trying to find the words to describe 4th Quarter Duncan. Just watch what happened 🎥 pic.twitter.com/KxVgunen4q

— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) December 23, 2023