Miami Heat: Norris Cole To Start Ahead Of Mario Chalmers
Well it’s finally happened. After three years waiting for his chance, Norris Cole will get the opportunity to start at the point guard spot and be the orchestrator for the Miami Heat offense. As you can probably guess, he is over the moon.
“It would be a lifelong dream to come in on opening night as the starter,” he told the Palm Beach Post. “It would mean a lot. Any time you work hard, you want to be able to see results, and I’ve been able to see them during this preseason and over the years I’ve been here. The other players and coaches have been able to see that, too.”
However, the question now is why did Coach Erik Spoelstra decide to make the switch?
For the past three years, Mario eChalmers has held down the starting gig and did so relatively well — often as the fourth option on offense behind the Big Three. On days when he was aggressive and attacking the opposition, rather than deferring to the likes of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, the Heat looked a force to be reckoned with, simply because it meant you couldn’t focus on stopping just one player.
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In addition to that, Chalmers has also saved Miami’s bacon quite a few times. He showed he was clutch during his NCAA days with Kansas and he was able to transfer that over to the pros, which the Heat often utilized because the majority of the attention would have been on the Big Three. As such, Rio often found himself with some open looks and he buried a fair few.
However, the days when he was causing headaches for the opposition were often few and far between. As such, Rio’s critics have pointed to his lack of consistency as his biggest flaw. All too often he would go for 15 points-plus with seven assists on one night, then for the next four or five games he would struggle to even get up to double-digits.
As for being clutch, he may still possess that quality but no-one seems to remember that. The NBA is a “what have you done for me lately” kind of league. And to be honest, Chalmers hasn’t done all that much. All everyone seems to remember is the sub-par performance during the 2014 NBA Finals, in which he averaged 4.4 points and 2.8 assists per game and was in foul trouble most of the time. Consequently, that led to him being benched for the final game of the series as Coach Erik Spoelstra opted for Wade and Ray Allen as his backcourt.
Meanwhile, Norris Cole hasn’t really done much to stand out. In fact, that’s precisely why he has been given his chance to shine. Sure, he hasn’t lit up the scoreboard or anything of the sort but he has quietly gone about his business and has done a solid job. For example, he had just eight turnovers throughout the entire preseason while providing 7.5 points and 3.1 assists in just 21 minutes per game. It’s also worth noting that he shot 51.2 percent from the field and that, along with the lack of turnovers, goes to show just much his decision-making has improved – which was his biggest flaw in previous times.
Yet despite the improved decision making, it could be argued that Cole would be much better in his old role as the backup point guard. Not that he wouldn’t do a stand-up job as the starter, but it would probably be more beneficial to the team if he came off the bench to add some energy to the lineup. Admittedly it does sound like some sort of punishment for being hyper-active but ultimately that’s what would be best for all parties.
And I’m not the only one who holds that opinion. When asked about what Cole has done to move ahead of Chalmers on “Ask Ira,” the Sun Sentinal’s Miami Heat guru, Ira Winderman, pointed out that, “Norris is a quality speed guard; the type of player who generally thrives as a change of pace coming off the bench.”
Winderman also said: “I wish I had an answer [for why Cole is now ahead of Chalmers.] I could tell you that he has definitively outplayed Mario during the preseason, or that he has an element to his game that makes him a better fit as the starting point guard. I can’t.
“It’s almost as if the Heat are starting Cole simply to make it easier to maneuver Chalmers into a role as the backup shooting guard, as if Chalmers is paying the price of being versatile.”
Either way, no matter the reason behind the change, at the end of the day only time will tell whether Norris Cole should be starting over Mario Chalmers. In the meantime, let’s just enjoy watching his dream become a reality.