A look at the Heat’s ‘unique’ bench blend, and why it can be a strength this season
The Miami Heat’s bench rotation to start the season features a few returning players, new faces and a rookie.
How much does coach Erik Spoelstra already trust the Heat’s new bench blend? The answer is in the decision Spoelstra made late in Friday’s win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
With the Pelicans cutting the Heat’s double-digit lead to six with 7:43 to play and Jimmy Butler unavailable in the second half because of right ankle stiffness, Spoelstra subbed in veterans Goran Dragic and Andre Iguodala and rookie Precious Achiuwa to turn to a lineup that featured four reserves (Achiuwa, Avery Bradley, Dragic, Iguodala) and one starter Tyler Herro.
The results were very positive, with that bench-heavy lineup playing the next 7:24 and leading Miami on a 20-13 run to close the game and push the Heat (1-1) to a 111-98 win over the Pelicans on Christmas Day at AmericanAirlines Arena. Miami’s bench outscored New Orleans’ reserves 47-21 on Friday.
“I think this second group is unique in a lot of ways,” Bradley said, with the Heat off from practice Saturday and idle until Tuesday’s home matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks. “The talent, obviously. You have some guys that arguably would start on other teams or this team. And you know, they’re able to step up to the plate every single night. [Dragic] is just amazing. He makes the game easier for everyone. Whenever you’re playing with a rookie like Precious that has that energy, that energy transfers to everyone else. We’re able to feed off it and it ends up being contagious. You want to have a guy on the floor like that.”
With Herro, Butler, Duncan Robinson and Bam Adebayo seemingly locked into starting roles, Moe Harkless was the fifth starter in Wednesday’s season-opening loss to the Orlando Magic and Meyers Leonard was the fifth starter in Friday’s win over the Pelicans.
The bench rotation has also already fluctuated in the first two games of the season, with Kendrick Nunn playing as the Heat’s second reserve guard in the opener and Bradley playing as the second reserve guard ahead of Nunn on Friday.
But if the Heat’s Christmas Day win is any indication, Bradley will be a consistent part of the rotation. After not playing Wednesday, Bradley finished his Heat regular-season debut Friday with 12 points, two rebounds, four assists and two steals in 28 minutes.
Bradley, who signed with the Heat as a free agent this offseason, recorded seven points, two assists, one steal, and served as sharpshooter JJ Redick’s primary defender while playing the entire fourth quarter. Bradley, who is known as one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA, also switched onto Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram (6-9) on one important possession late in the fourth quarter and forced a jump ball.
“AB was outstanding defensively, hawking a guy that does a lot of the things that our guys do running off of a myriad of screens in Redick,” Spoelstra said.
Spoelstra added that the reason Bradley didn’t play in the opener is because the Heat wants to work him into the season slowly after a nine-month layoff from game action. Bradley, 30, had not played in a regular-season/playoff game since March 10 after opting out of joining the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA’s Walt Disney World bubble last season amid the COVID-19 pandemic primarily because his oldest child has a history of struggling to recover from respiratory illnesses.
“Avery, first and foremost is just an awesome person,” Robinson said. “That’s the thing that jumped out the most to me is just the way he handles himself and carries himself, in year whatever it is, 11 for him. And he’s always here early, putting in work, taking care of his body, putting in extra shots, reps, in my ear if he sees something. He’s just a great veteran to have.”
But Bradley isn’t the only veteran coming off the Heat’s bench. Dragic is playing as Miami’s sixth man and Iguodala is expected to be a fixture in the bench rotation.
Dragic, 34, has been sharp to start the season. After finishing with 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting and nine assists on Friday, Dragic is averaging 19 points on 58.3 percent shooting from the field and eight assists in the first two games, while posting a team-best plus/minus of plus-28.
“Goran’s presence is huge for us,” Robinson said. “He gets us organized. He’s never out of control. He knows where he needs to get. He knows where he can get on the floor. Just his presence out there, particularly offensively, just allows everyone else to just kind of calm down. And that veteran presence is hard to come by. And just the way he does it is the ultimate leader. And you just feel calm when he’s out there on the floor.”
Then there’s Iguodala, who has won three NBA championships. Iguodala, 36, finished Friday’s win with six points, seven rebounds, three assists and one steal in an impactful 26 minutes.
“It’s a great luxury,” Spoelstra said of having veterans like Bradley, Dragic and Iguodala on the Heat’s bench. “If you want to do great things in this league, you have to have really experienced talented veteran players. We have three of them coming off the bench, and even more than that. These guys have incredible playoff experience in this league and that can stabilize your lineup so you can play a rookie like Precious, and they just kind of direct him and tell him where to go all the time and he can just play off of his instincts while he’s learning this league and learning our system.”
The 21-year-old Achiuwa has fared well in that role so far, averaging 9.5 points 8-of-11 shooting, three rebounds and one assists in 16.6 minutes in his first two NBA games. Each of his eight made baskets have come from inside the restricted area, and he has been solid defensively.
“He has really improved just in the two weeks that we’ve worked with him,” Spoelstra said of Achiuwa. “We all can’t imagine how much further he’d be if he had a normal summer league and full summer player development program and September prep. He’s a quick study and he’s very diligent and committed to the work and studying film and getting with the coaches. He picks up things very quickly.”
It’s obviously a very small sample size, but the Heat’s four best individual plus/minus numbers through the first two games belong to reserves: Dragic at plus-28, Bradley at plus-23, Iguodala at plus-14 and Achiuwa at plus-10. Other reserve options like Kelly Olynyk (logged 20 minutes in the opener and did not play Friday), KZ Okpala (played 19 seconds in the first two games) and Nunn (logged eight minutes in the opener and did not play Friday) have received limited playing time so far.
The Heat’s roster depth is a strength this season, and the bench is proof of that.
“It can be compared to the bench mob we had my rookie year,” Adebayo said of the Heat’s reserves this season. “Who was it? Me, Wayne [Ellington], Kelly, I think Justise [Winslow] and [Josh Richardson]. But I know those four, for sure. That’s kind of how I see this unit. They can be special. Sometimes, you never know, their plus/minus can be better than the starters and that’s all because they mesh well. It’s all about connection. They’re meshing together. I like our second unit. We got so much depth and the sky is the limit.”
