Wiltside wrote:I think the fanbase on the whole has downplayed the significance of the Lowry addition. I get that he's not a whale these days, but he's a 6x All-Star that's still putting up quality numbers. He's an NBA Champ and solid playoff performer whose numbers last season were almost identical to his numbers when he was 28 years old and entering his prime.
2014-15: 17.8ppg, 4.7rpg, 6.8apg, 1.6spg, 0.2bpg, 2.5tpg, 41.2%fg (6.1/14.9), 33.8% 3fg (1.9/5.6) and 80.8%ft (3.6/4.5) in 34.5mpg
2020-21: 17.2ppg, 5.4rpg, 7.3apg, 1.0spg, 0.3bpg, 2.7tpg, 43.6%fg (5.7/13.0), 39.6% 3fg (2.8/7.2) and 87.5%ft (3.0/3.5) in 34.8mpg
His game should continue to age well. Clearly his 3pt shot has become an ever increasing part of his arsenal over the years, as it now makes up over half of his attempts from the floor, but he's also hitting it at near on 40% on high volume. Hopefully with a better team around him this year, his efficiency will continue to trend upwards. His eFG% of 54.6% last season was his best since 2017-18.
You can certainly do a lot worse than having Kyle and Jimmy as the two veteran leaders on your team. We then have our 'young vets' in Bam and Duncan as our next two key pillars who are likely the bridge between the 'older vets' and the 'younger guys'.
I'm certainly intrigued by what lineup Spo is going to put out to start, as well as our rotation. Will he go small with Tucker at the 4 and Bam at the 5 again? Will he start Morris at the 4 instead as a nominal starter? Does he go big and young by starting Yurt?
All are possibilities. I think we saw with Duncan's ascension that Spo isn't scared of starting a player, no matter how inexperienced or unproven, if he believes they long term will benefit from the reps. Hoping Yurt is the next guy up on the front, as his size, rebounding ability and floor stretching capability makes him a very good fit with that starting lineup. Defensively he can also learn alongside Lowry/Jimmy/Bam too, and if he's getting torched, he sits in favour of Tucker or Morris or Dedmon.
I don't think Lowry puts Miami "over the top," per say. In concert with the rest of the moves Miami has made, Lowry is by far one of the most important pieces, but I don't see him being a massive improvement over Dragić, at least offensively. A best-case scenario is Lowry becomes Miami's Jrue Holiday, and no one is crediting Holiday (who had a historically poor playoffs shooting-wise: 40fg% and 30 3pt% in the playoffs, 37 fg% and 27 3pt% in the Finals) with putting Milwaukee over the top.
Retaining Duncan Robinson is quite underwhelming. Oladipo's health and ability to return as an all-star-ish level player is anything but a given. There are still big questions as to whether or not Adebayo and/or Herro can play bigger roles in Miami's success than they have to date, especially when we're talking about Adebayo's offense. PJ Tucker shot 39 fg% and 32 3pt% in the post-season (he shot a similarly dismal percentage in the regular season) and averaged 4 points and 5 rebounds per game in 30 minutes.
On top of the above, Miami had 2 massive issues: rebounding (Miami was 29th in rebounds last year) and scoring (Miami was 25th in scoring last year). Miami is still an insanely small team and Miami Miami has not gotten demonstrably better offensively based on the acquisitions. Miami's bench was also pretty bad, and the team has not really improved there either.
Again, I think Miami did every well considering its limited resources and lack of alternatives. There is a chance this could all work out, but to get back to the Finals, Miami is also going to need to be better than Brooklyn, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Atlanta, who all have extremely talented teams.
