Spoelstra mandate: ‘Hunt open threes’
Coach urges Robinson to become an outside threat
The Heat’s Duncan Robinson (left) had
MIAMI — Duncan Robinson arrived to the NBA from modest basketball roots, including his collegiate start at Division III Williams College.
Turns out that modesty was holding him back.
Now buff and emboldened, he has emerged as a potential rotation candidate for the Miami Heat, a starter in each of the first two exhibitions.
From a physical standpoint, there are 15 additional pounds of muscle on his 6-foot-7 frame. From a philosophical standpoint, the ethos now is shoot first, without apology.
“He’s becoming much more of a complete basketball player, as a help-side defender, someone who’s in the gaps, plays your team defensive schemes well,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the forward who went undrafted out of Michigan in 2018. “Obviously his body looks totally different, so he has a lot more confidence defensively with the 15 extra pounds. As long as he continues along this path, he can help us.”
But the reason for the improved NBA trajectory is firmly because of the trajectory of a 3-point shot that created his NBA shot in the first place.
“He’s somebody now that you have to scheme for,” Spoelstra said. “Now you’re extending your defense, three, four steps out past the three-point line. That’s the respect that he’s earned.”
Yet it is the internal respect that created a more confident teammate.
“My teammates will tell you that when I don’t shoot I’m being selfish,” he said amid has in this four-day break that has the Heat without a game until Monday’s exhibition against the Atlanta Hawks at AmericanAirlines Arena. “So they’re always in my ear. It’s a blessing to have teammates like that, that are just always in your corner. I feel very lucky, so I just try to do my job and be aggressive.”
After splitting last season between the Heat and G League Sioux Falls Skyforce on a two-way contract, the comfort of a standard NBA deal has made it easier to digest the notion that he’s the one taking shots while playing alongside so many proven NBA scorers.
“It’s an adjustment,” he said. “I think the biggest shift is just mentally understanding that that’s what they want me to do and that’s what the staff and my teammates are asking me to do. It’s definitely been a little bit of a battle, but I feel like I’m improving and getting better at it.”
To the point that he evokes ire when he bypasses shots or apologizes for missing.
“I used to say, ‘My bad,’ but they get on me for that, so I don’t say ‘my bad’ anymore. I say ‘my bad’ if I pump fake,” he said, that move costing teammates assists. “But if I shoot it and I miss, no more, ‘My bads.’”
As for the added bulk, it basically has created a new man.
“I felt like I needed to put on a little bit of weight just to adjust to this level,” he said. “But I definitely feel more confident, for sure. I also think it has translated, as well, obviously from a mindset standpoint, but also I just feel a little bit more physical out there.”
Armed for the challenge ahead.
“I just want him to continue to be aggressive and hunt open threes,” Spoelstra said. “That’s not what I say to everybody in that locker room. But for him, he has to be that type of guy.”