RexBoyWonder wrote:AirP. wrote:Wouldn't mind seeing Strus stick around and work on making him into a catch and shoot guy off the bench in down the road. He was putting up 18 pts, 6 reb, 2 asts in the D-League last year before his injury. He's not ready now of course but I think something is there where he could become a decent role player coming off the bench for 3pt shooting. At this point he's not someone I think would be a regular rotation guy.
He's was 3-11 from 3pt range but his confidence didn't change during his first game with a new team. His first few 3s were way off/way off but his confidence didn't change so he kept shooting and ended up hitting 3 3s late. I would believe if the coaching staff didn't believe in him, from what they've seen in practice, they would have given someone else a look after he missed the first 5-6 3s.
Basically when looking at these type of players I try to use the biggest sample size available. He was 35% from 3 during 2 college years, on high volume. Then he was 31% in Gleague, also chucked a lot.
Basically, he might be a decent shooter, but being 24 YO, he's not a great shooter.
Which would've been fine if he brought some other positives - like creating, or defense. But since he's sub par in those areas too, and since he's a below average athlete - I see no way he can become an NBA player.
Might as well give the second 2 way deal to Eboua and hope he can surprise and improve quickly, he at least has unique physical tools.
From what I understand, Miami has done a lot of research on Strus in the past so they feel comfortable with him and maybe they/Spoelstra has a specific role/reason to utilize him at, even if it's only a few minutes here and there off the bench outside of the rotation.
The positives I came away from the game from Strus is that he didn't hesitate on catching and shooting the ball and his confidence didn't drop. He also had a quick catch and pass to an open Leonard for a 3 so also overall I thought Strus was able to process what the defense was giving up and quickly the right decisions although a lot of his shots didn't go down. Maybe, for a roleplayer, Miami is looking for someone who won't stray away from being mostly a catch and shoot player(where as others may hesitate to look to attack the basket or try to create for themselves or others).
I don't expect him to be a big contributor in games, but his quick catch and shoot ability could also be useful when preparing for other teams during practice, especially when Robinson is one of the guys on defense.
My whole thing with Struss is he looked unique out there and knowing that Miami was interested in him before and is looking at him now suggests to me that's the part their interested in. Spoelstra seems to enjoy drawing up different ways of using guys and those who have unique games probably really intrigue him to come up with new ideas. It might be why Robinson and Bam have flourished under Spoelstra.
Just to be clear, I don't see Strus a rotation type player unless he gets to being a good 3pt shooter, so he's an older development project.
