The Miami Heat signed Goran Dragic to a big contract in the offseason and thus far he has not come close to living up to it.
The Miami Heat signed point guard Goran Dragic to a big extension in the offseason, agreeing to a five-year, $80 million contract. He earned that contract with his play with the Heat after being acquired by the Phoenix Suns at the trade deadline, but also because of the play that he exhibited with the Suns. Thus far this season, however, that play has been nowhere to be found.
To be fair, it is his offense that has fallen off this season. His defense has been strong through the first 12 games, with Dragic posting a defensive field goal percentage difference -5 percent. That means Dragic is holding the player he is guarding to five percent lower than his season average for shooting percentage.
That is a big part why the Heat rank third in points allowed per game at 92.9, allowing teams to shoot an NBA low 41.1 percent overall and fourth lowest three-point percentage of 30.8.
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Unfortunately for the Heat, those numbers are actually better than what they are getting from Dragic offensively. Dragic is currently having a career-low shooting season, as the 41.7 percent he is shooting is the worst he has had outside of his rookie season, and the 25.8 three-point percentage would be the worst of his career.
It has equaled 10.5 points per game, which would be the lowest in a season since Dragic started receiving consistent minutes and playing time during the 2011-12 season with the Houston Rockets. This is a troublesome trend and a big drop-off for Dragic, who made at least 50 percent of his shots the last two seasons; that not only led all point guards, but made him the only guard to make at least half of his shots.
This season he has fallen woefully short of that, and there are some reasons as to why. For starters, Dragic is normally strong at the rim, but has not found success there thus far this season. After shooting 70 percent at the time last season, that number has dropped to 55.6 percent this season.
That is not the only area he has seen a drop-off in, as he is down to 27.6 percent 10 feet away from the rim after being 35.5 percent last season. He is struggling with his jumper this season as well, as that percentage has taken a big dip to 29.9 percent after being at 35.8 percent last season.
Dragic does not seem to have any explanation to why this has happened this season, saying “I’m missing even easy shots, layups.” He also added, “I’m getting all the shots I want.” While that may be true, he may not be as successful this season because he is not playing with the same level of confidence that he has had in recent seasons.
“I’ve lost a little bit of confidence on my shot, but I’m working on it. I’m staying after practice shooting the ball, trying to get back that feeling. I think I’m thinking too much about it.”
There is some truth to that, as Dragic is averaging only 9.6 shots per game, the first time he is under double-digits since the 2011-12 season.
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This puts the Heat in a tough position. Dragic has shown that he is one of the most efficient point guards in the NBA, but has not shown that at all this season.
But how long can the Heat afford to wait? Winning is always the best deodorant, so with an 8-4 record, the Heat can afford to wait a little bit longer to see if he can get things going again. More often things will regress back to the mean, which the Heat certainly hope happens again in this case with their marquee point guard.