Comp for Winslow: Rockets, Nuggets
Points to success by those clubs and believes Miami could follow
MIAMI — With plenty of time to take in the NBA playoffs as an outsider, Justise Winslow has had ample time to draw comparisons. He sees at least two that fit. Because of that, he sees hope for the Miami Heat after a season that ended in the lottery but with youthful hope for the future.
Of those who question a full season alongside Goran Dragic now that he has emerged as a primary playmaker, Winslow points to the Houston Rockets’ success.
“If James Harden and Chris Paul can play together, then I think me and Goran can play together,” he said.
And of the Heat featuring a variety of emerging talent that relishes challenges on both ends of the court, he notes the season of the Denver Nuggets.
“You have to figure out what works for you,” he said of the Heat’s fledgling group of himself, Josh Richardson, Bam Adebayo and Derrick Jones Jr. “And I think for our team, we’re a little different. We are young guys that are two-dimensional players that really get after it on both ends. So I think a Denver type of approach, they’re a young team that really stood with their identity. They play hard on both ends of the floor. They’re a two-seed in the West. That’s an identity I could see this team taking on.”
As for Winslow, the season ended with identity questions of his own, having emerged as a point guard during Dragic’s two months of inactivity following knee surgery, but also showing
signs of development in the lineup.
“I started the season with Justise toggling between coming off the bench as our backup point guard, being our starting three, to ultimately becoming our starting point guard and then moving him into the starting three-spot again at the very end of the season,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He handled it all the right way and continued to find improvement, which is unique.”
The challenges of that versatility is that it both makes it more difficult to designate positional areas of need, but also easier to fill out the rest of the roster with the best-player-available approach, which could come into play in the NBA elsewhere draft, where the Heat the No. 13 lottery seed.
“I think that’s where he’s at his best, his versatility,” Spoelstra said. “He’s a hold basketball player. Justise Winslow at his best is out there impacting all facets of the game. I would prefer not to label him as a specific position. The more versatile he can be, the more places you can plug him in, the more he can maximize himself to help impact winning.
“When he fills up the floor game part of the box score, I think is when he’s at his best — more rebounds, more assists, more hockey assists, more deflections, setting up the offense, his 3-point shot has really improved steadily every single year, to the point where he’s knocked down 38 percent of them this year. His attacks and coast-to-coast opportunities at the rim improved. I just think of him as an all-around player and I want him to really embrace that, as well.”
The concern is becoming a jack of all trades but a master of none, still in his formative NBA years at 23.
“I would like to continue to grow within that pointguard role,” the 2015 firstround pick out of Duke said, “but I don’t want the narrative to be between me and Goran fighting for that position.” Dragic, who holds a player option to return for next season, agreed that such a perspective would be misguided, that the two have and could continue to play — and thrive — together.
Eventually, though, Dragic, who turns 33 on May 6, will move on, as will many of the Heat’s veterans.
Then it will be up to the young players, an alignment alongside Richardson, Adebayo and Jones, that Winslow believes will have the Heat back in the playoff mix.
“We’ve all grown, the four of us, in our own way,” he said. “But I think the best thing is we really complement each other’s games.”