‘The best shooter in the league’? A closer look at where Heat’s Duncan Robinson stands
Miami Heat forward Duncan Robinson is still working to carve out his place among the NBA’s top shooters. After all, he’s still in the middle of his second season and first full season in the league after going undrafted in 2018.
But Heat guard Goran Dragic believes Robinson is already one of the NBA’s best.
“He’s the best shooter in the league,” Dragic said Wednesday following the Heat’s win against the Sacramento Kings to open its three-game scrimmage schedule at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista.
Dragic’s comment came after an impressive performance from the 26-year-old Robinson, who scored 18 points on 5-of-8 shooting on threes in Wednesday’s exhibition to pick up right where he left off when the season was suspended amid the COVID-19 pandemic on March 11.
“He was relentless as you could anticipate that he would be,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Robinson’s work ethic during the four-month layoff. “He was probably one of several guys that when we shut everything down, he thought that there would still be a way to get into a gym and there wasn’t. So he was doing his own conditioning and keeping his body right until we were able to open up again, and he had a good full two months to get totally back into rhythm. He’s an incredible worker.”
While Robinson’s latest shooting display came in a scrimmage, it’s just a continuation of the breakout season he was having before the league shutdown. Here’s a look at where he stands entering the resumption of the season:
▪ Robinson ranks third in the NBA with 243 made threes this season, behind only Houston’s James Harden (271) and Sacramento’s Buddy Hield (244).
▪ Among the 29 players averaging seven or more three-point shot attempts per game this season, Robinson owns the league’s top three-point shooting percentage at 44.8 percent.
▪ Even with 17 games remaining on the Heat’s schedule when the season was suspended, Robinson had already set a franchise record for threes made in a season. He surpassed the previous franchise mark of 227 threes set by Wayne Ellington in 2017-18.
▪ Robinson was on track to finish the 82-game schedule with 306 made threes. If Robinson would have hit that number, he would have joined Golden State’s Stephen Curry and Harden as the only players in NBA history to make more than 300 threes in a season.
▪ Other than Curry (two times in the past: 2012-13 and 2015-16), nobody in NBA history has made as many threes in a season while shooting this high a percentage from deep as Robinson (243 made threes on 44.8 percent shooting from deep) has this season.
▪ Of the 14 players averaging at least two three-point shot attempts per game this season with the closest defender within two to four feet away from them, Robinson has posted the league’s top shooting percentage on those shots. He has made an NBA-best 40.6 percent of threes against what NBA Advanced Stats defines as tight coverage this season.
Add all of this up, and Robinson is one of the most important players on the Heat’s roster. When he’s on the court, Miami is simply just a better team.
Robinson owns a team-best plus/minus of plus-315 this season. It’s the 12th-best plus/minus in the NBA.
“We’ve been waiting for this moment for a while,” Robinson said following the Heat’s scrimmage opener Wednesday. “And as fun as it is to beat up on each other in that little training camp we were having, it’s a lot more fun to play together and take it out on somebody else. So it felt great to be back out there with everybody.”
The Heat plays its second of three scrimmages Saturday against the Utah Jazz at 4 p.m. at HP Field House, which is part of the Disney complex. The game will be televised on a tape delay at 8 p.m. on Fox Sports Sun and streamed live on the FOX Sports GO app.
This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 11:34 AM.
