al bondiga wrote:Let's face it we are not going deep into the playoffs if Duncan isn't playing great, his offensive output is a must for the Heat...dipo could replace it possibly, but only next season
... or guard and s. forward rotation should be made of up of jb, lowry, herro, duncan, dipo, stuss, Martin, gabe ( in that order)
.. Center and pf (bam, pj, jb, Morris, yurt, ud)... I think we all would change big guy rotation, but spo fancies himself to be a revolutionary coach... let's leave him to his antics
spo has earned them....but only for one season!
I think this is a Yes and No answer to the Duncan issue.
The reason I say that like that is we won a ton of games where Duncan was absolute trash and then looked really good in the ones he was hitting. The increase in production from Struss, Gabe, Caleb in the 3pt realm has kind of negated Duncan a bit. Additionally the aggressive version of Lowry in the last 10 games to finish the season has also been the improvement we needed on that end which has allowed us to beat the good teams with his scoring production almost tripling.
However none of those guys outside of maybe Lowry & perhaps Struss a little bit right now have the gravitational pull that Duncan produces. This is earned through continued 3pt efficiency and success through a couple seasons. Struss if he goes super nova this playoffs will start getting that type of coverage next year. I suspect he will get it in the playoffs this year to a degree, early in the game if he goes cold they may back off of him since he hasn't garnered that 3pt Destroyer aura.
This is Duncan's opportunity since I doubt the opposing bench will hunt him like the starters used to. He can be relief valve for the bench, Herro is becoming really good at finding the open man, but Duncan needs to hit them. There was definitely something he worked on this offseason that derailed his killer shooting. His volume was still there overall I mean he hit 200 plus threes, just the efficiency was bad for his standards. Could the first couple of season's have been an aberration and he is coming back down to earth as in regression to the mean ( Getting into his natural averages ). well lets hope he goes super nova these playoffs and we can unload him for a decent return next year.
Miami will rely on 3pt shooting all the time, its what makes their offense flow. Both Bam and Jimmy need a lot of spacing, so PJ, Lowry, Struss need to keep everyone in check and hitting them 3's a decent clip for that starting unit. Our bench seems to be a lot better at creating space since most of those guys can hit from about any where. Shoot even Dedmon will hit an open 3pt here and there.
