Miami Heat has made a lot of bizarre mistakes while handing out contracts like a 5-year $90 million deal to Duncan Robinson in the name of player development.
A couple of years back, Miami Heat was truly proud of its scouting, player development, and overall management when its core of Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson, and Kendrick Nunn helped Jimmy Butler lead them to the NBA Finals out of nowhere. 2020.
It didn’t look over appreciation at the time because Butler was in his first year at the franchise when they did that, that too in a tumultuous season mostly disrupted by COVID-19.
But, the Bubble Playoffs seem to have hindered the deficiencies in rookie Herro and former G-league sharp shooter Robinson’s games, especially the latter, who has now become one of Miami’s biggest headaches this offseason.
Duncan Robinson signed a $90M deal with the Heat in 2021.
He has played only 1 minute in 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 in the name of “Heat Culture”.
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Amin Elhassan rips into Miami Heat and Pat Riley for making mistakes like Duncan Robinson for decades
On a recent episode of The Dan Le Batard Show, Elhassan ripped apart Miami’s approach towards player development and dug up several examples from the past to prove his point. He perfectly broke down the mistakes made by the Heat since Riley has been in charge of things in Miami.
“This is my thing about Duncan Robinson; Miami is the organization where they pick up pebbles and say, “Huh? Oh, this is a diamond!” And they do this all the time, but since they do this all the time, why would they ever pay market price for a diamond? You’re finding them everywhere. The list is 25 years long, basically, since Pat Riley has been here: I’ll go back to guys like Voshon Lenard and Ike [Isaac] Austin. They found guys that nobody wanted, polished them up, made them into rotation guys.”
When you look at his analysis carefully, the man is not off at all. As currently constructed Heat are in no position to win the East, let alone the title, and they have literally exceeded the team cap space by over $31 million, thanks to the 5-year $90 million contract they gave to Duncan in 2021.
Elhassan continued, “Why pay them? You fell in love with your own bullshit. Heat Culture and all that. Hassan Whiteside. Dion Waiters. James Johnson. You can put Duncan Robinson on that list. And the irony is this: While they did this with Duncan Robinson, what happened? They found Max Strus, they polished him up, and he beat Duncan Robinson for the same role.”
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As things stand, nobody in the league would want to take the contract of a shooter who is a liability on defense for at least $17 million per season. So, the Heat would have to find a way to work on both Robinson and Herro’s defensive games if they want to contend for anything.
Having Kyle Lowry, Adebayo, and Butler can 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 get better this time.