Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Hyde: Can Riley get help for Heat at trade deadline?
CAN RILEY PROVIDE SOME RELIEF FOR BUTLER AND ADEBAYO AT TRADE DEADLINE?
Erik Spoelstra is an unwavering optimist, a requirement for any good coach. His job is to stay publicly positive, show confidence in his players and assure everyone this weekend’s shooting by his Miami Heat was just a bump on the long journey.
My job is to point out the problem wasn’t just two lost games against Indiana. It wasn’t just two more games where Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo had minimal support. Two games would be an outlier, an exception.
Two games is a slump.
Ten games is a depression.
But 43 games? What’s the term for more than half a season of missing shots? And at what point does a slump translate into a changed way of life for this Heat team?
That’s the question for Heat President Pat Riley on the edge of the NBA trade deadline.
After last season’s magic, no one wanted to trade the kids like Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson. They were fun. They were fresh. They made shots that covered up other blemishes.
Maybe they will make the shots like that again. But for now? There Butler and Adebayo were again in Sunday’s 109-106 loss to a struggling Indiana team, combining for 60 points and 25 rebounds. That’s the template for a Heat win, right?
Only there were the Heat shooters making 9 of 34 on 3-point shots after going 9 of 37
in Friday’s loss. That’s not the great exception, either. The Heat team that finished second in 3-point shooting last year to fuel that run to the NBA Finals? That team’s gone.
The Heat rank 27th in 3-point shooting this year.
And so Riley has to ask: Does trading youth for Houston guard Victor Oladipo help the Heat enough considering the former (and often injured) All-Star would tie up the Heat’s money for years?
How about Toronto’s Kyle Lowry? He’s 35. He’s a pit bull, though there’s not room for him and point guard Goran Dragic, who missed Sunday’s game with back spasms and is certain help when healthy. LaMarcus Aldridge? He’d help put needed muscle in the lineup.
“If we make a high percentage of those shots, the tenor of the game would be a lot different,’’ Spoelstra said Sunday. “But we were still in control of overtime with a fivepoint lead. The shooters will work their way through it. There’s always going to be tough moments in a season. But you battle through it …”
That’s what good coaches say. They also say this:
“I’ve had teams where we really struggled to generate open looks,’’ he said. “Some would love the challenge we have now. We’re generating open looks in our wheelhouse. That’s the harder part, and we’re getting them to the right people.”
The open shooters, in other words, aren’t making shots. Herro, Robinson and Kelly Olynyk combined for 4 for 25 shooting on 3-pointers on Sunday. If that’s a low point, the problem has been there in some form all year.
“We had a plan to take them of the line, and we executed it,’’ Indiana’s T.J. McConnell said. “They missed shots, but we also played some good defense. That’s what you have to do against them.”
Know this, too: Riley has never been a patient proponent of youth. It’s not just the recent trades of Justise Winslow and Josh Richardson. Caron Butler, back on the Heat bench as an assistant, was part of a young package that shipped out in the deal for Shaquille O’Neal all those years ago.
Each trade comes with questions. Lowry and Aldridge are 35. Those are ages to be part of the cast. Oladipo is 28 and would present a fierce backcourt with Butler on most nights. But he’s been hurt and would demand a long-term contract to tie up money.
Is Oladipo worth a package of, say, Herro and Robinson?
Even then, the Heat wouldn’t be expected to get by Brooklyn the way it’s playing now.
Do you trust the youth of Herro to rebound from this year’s slump? Of Robinson to expand his game? Do you believe in the magic of last season or the 43 games of this year?
Spoelstra is the positive-thinking coach, just as he must be. But it’s Riley’s ball now with the trade deadline coming. He made one small move for Trevor Ariza. Is there a bigger one coming?