Friday, November 05, 2021

What is the problem with Duncan Robinson? 10.6 ppg, 35.8% (33.3%) shooting on the season. He took 17 shots last night, second only to Jimmy, all from range. He made five. 29.4% for the night. Of course, nobody shot well for Miami, when you score 78 points in an NBA game you know that. For the record the team was 34.6% (22%), Tyler was 3/11 (0/4), Kyle was 2/9 (2/7)--the team uniform should include a fez, it was a Mason's convention--but Duncan is a weapon, and he's a starter. When you don't have him as guerrilla sniper, and the "Heat" haven't, you don't have that weapon in the starting lineup. He's a career 45.2% shooter, 42.3% from three. He's shooting nine percentage points under his career averages!

This is "Heat" "Culture." They uncover "gems" everybody else has missed, right? They take discarded flotsam and jetsam and turn them into gotsome jetson. For one season (at most).Waiters and Whiteside, Johnson and Johnson, Josh and Justise. The "Heat" pump them full of culture and they take the league by surprise and the Cultural Curator gives them massive contracts. Then the league catches on. Then the Cultural Curator has to eat the contracts. That's Duncan's story, too. Technically, this is his fourth season with the "Heat" but his first, 2018/19, he only played in 15 games. The Duncan Robinson of every "Heat" fan's wet dreams was his first full season, the 2019/20 version: 47.0% (44.6%). Last season, 20/21, his second full, the league's second full look at him, the league caught on. He shot 43.9% (40.8%). This past August, Riles gave him a new five-year, $90M contract, that's $18M per when you do the math. Good value? Oh God.