How Vincent, Strus, Martin and Dedmon make depth one of Heat’s ‘more important strengths’
The first two players off the bench for the Miami Heat on Thursday in its 112-97 win against the Washington Wizards were Gabe Vincent and Dewayne Dedmon. Up next was Caleb Martin and then Max Strus near the end of the first quarter to close out the Heat’s nine-man rotation.
They’re players with wildly diverging skill sets — Dedmon a burly center, Vincent a crafty point guard, Martin a lanky two-way wing and Strus a sniper shooting guard — and one big thing in common: For the most part, they’re players the rest of the league wasn’t really interested in, and the average NBA fan probably couldn’t pick out of a crowd, if he or she could even give a handful of facts about them.
Here are a couple: Dedmon was a free agent until April last season, when the Heat plucked him off the scrap heap and let him loose to average nearly 15 rebounds per 36 minutes. Martin is on a two-way contract, meaning Miami can ship him out to the G League at will. Strus has a Duncan Robinson-style story, beginning his college basketball at Division II Lewis University and now shooting better than 44 percent from three-point range. Vincent flushed home the first dunk of his NBA career Thursday and has gone from effectively out of the rotation to, temporarily, first off the bench in a matter of weeks.
They’re, of course, not always all Miami has off the bench — Tyler Herro and Markieff Morris both sat out Thursday because of injuries — but they’re the reason Erik Spoelstra says, “our depth is one of our more important strengths.”
“We think it’s a strength of ours,” the coach said Thursday. “We have enough guys that understand how long a season is, and you’re going to have guys out from time to time and you’ve got to build that trust with your entire roster.”
Heat bench exceeding external expectations
It is, frankly, an unexpected development and one of the biggest reasons the Heat (11-5) entered Friday sitting atop the Eastern Conference. There weren’t many preseason worries about Miami’s star-laden starting lineup with Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry. The Heat’s bench — mostly filled with unproven, undrafted young players — was another matter. As the Heat has battled injuries in the last few weeks, those reserves have started to prove themselves.
So far this season, all four have been overwhelmingly positive contributors, with plus-minuses per 100 possessions ranging from plus-7.1 for Vincent to plus-20.4 for Dedmon.
On Thursday against the Wizards, Vincent scored 18 points off the bench, Dedmon grabbed four rebounds in nine minutes, Martin scored seven points and grabbed five rebounds, and Strus was plus-11 in his 20 minutes.
Last year, Vincent averaged 3.0 points per game, Dedmon played in only 16 games, Martin averaged 5.0 points and 2.7 rebounds in an even more consistent role for the Charlotte Hornets and Miami got outscored by nearly five points per 100 possessions when Strus was on the floor.
While Herro was viewed as a contender for the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award and Morris has NBA Finals experience, the rest of the bench cast was littered with question marks. They will be in the spotlight again Saturday in Washington, as Herro (right wrist bruise) is listed as questionable and Morris (whiplash) did not travel and will miss the Heat’s rematch against the Wizards (10-6) at 7 p.m. at Capital One Arena.
In addition, Adebayo (left knee bruise) is questionable for Saturday’s game. Victor Oladipo (right knee injury recovery) did not travel and remains out.
“Guys are just playing their roles, trying to star in those roles and not necessarily play out of who they are,” Spoelstra said.
Gabe Vincent’s effect on Heat
On Thursday, Vincent was the best example.
With Herro out, Vincent took his spot in the rotation as the first guard off the bench, but he wasn’t “trying to replace Tyler,” he said Thursday
Case in point: All six of Vincent’s field goals Thursday were assisted. Only 38.7 percent of Herro’s buckets this year have been.
“I was just trying to make the most out of my minutes, be aggressive where it was called for, take open shots and just try to make the right basketball play every time down,” said Vincent, who was undrafted in 2018.
Less than two weeks ago, he was barely in Miami’s rotation. He played only three minutes in the Heat’s Nov. 8 loss to the Denver Nuggets which capped a stretch of eight games with four or fewer minutes for the 25-year-old.
Since then, Vincent has played at least 13 minutes in six straight games. With Morris sidelined by whiplash, a spot opened up in the rotation and Vincent made the most of it by doing what he does best. He’s 7 of 14 from deep in the last three games and made a concerted effort to give Miami another downhill threat Thursday, he said.
He can fit in as a catch-and-shoot guard or fill in as a scorer like he was in the G League, where he scored 20.9 points per game in the 2019-20 season. For the Heat, it makes him an ideal depth piece — a star in his role who can also, on occasion, be a star role player.
“I’ve felt that way about Gabe coming out of training camp, but we went with a nine-man rotation,” Spoelstra said. “We were fully healthy at the start of the year and it was more just a numbers deal for him, but he stayed the course, didn’t get caught up in anything that could distract him. He prepared and was ready for his moment, and he’s produced.”
This story was originally published November 19, 2021 at 10:56 AM.
