Miami Heat: Who Should Start At Shooting Guard?
The exit of Dwyane Wade in Miami sent shock waves throughout the league. Now it leaves them with a decision to make at shooting guard.
The Miami Heat continue to undergo an offseason that has impacted the franchise immensely. With some turnover in the roster from free agency, the question is who will start at shooting guard in 2016-17?
They Heat haven’t had to worry about the shooting guard position for 13 years since drafting Dwyane Wade in 2003.
It was a shock to not only Heat fans, but NBA fans as a whole when Wade decided to sign with Chicago after Miami wouldn’t up their offer. The safe assumption was that the Heat would give him a similar deal as Kobe Bryant with the Lakers or Dirk Nowitzki with the Mavericks for all he had done for the franchise.
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For whatever reason, team president Pat Riley wanted to begin a new era in South Beach, and now it leaves them with a decision to make between Josh Richardson and Dion Waiters to play starter’s minutes.
Richardson was a pleasant surprise in 2015-16 after being an overlooked second round draft pick in 2015. After a solid showing throughout NBA Summer League, Richardson signed a deal with the team, but the questions remained where he would find time on the floor in the regular season.
Slowly but surely, Richardson gained the trust of head coach Erik Spoelstra, providing energy and efficient long range shooting off the bench. Miami was 27th in the league in three-point percentage (33.6 percent), so they needed all the production they could out of Richardson in that area.
Until February, Richardson had been sent to the D-League affiliate team, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, since his playing time had been scarce. Once he was called up by the Heat for the umpteenth time at the end of February, he recorded 15 points and secured his spot on the Heat roster for the remainder of the season.
By the end of the regular season, he ended up playing 52 games with the Heat averaging 6.6 points and 2.1 rebounds in 21.3 minutes per game, shooting 46.1 percent from three-point range.
In the 14 games he played throughout the postseason, he played 27.6 minutes and averaged 6.6 points and 3.6 rebounds per contest.
With Wade out of the picture, all signs pointed to Richardson for the starting role. He still has growing pains to overcome, but experience can help the quickest with those concerns. The two-year man already has the leg up heading into training camp next month because of his familiarity with Spoelstra’s system. Still, it won’t be easy for Richardson to secure his starting spot over Waiters.
Waiters was on the market this summer as an unrestricted free agent and was expected to ink a hefty contract, as we saw happen with many other players of his caliber. Instead, teams stayed away from Waiters and the Heat capitalized by signing up to a two-year, $5 million deal, which is considered dirt cheap in today’s market.
Waiters was criticized last season throughout the regular season and playoffs with his heavy isolation play. Some referred to it as, “Waiters Island” because of his consistent one-on-one offensive plays. When he was hot, Waiters helped the Thunder, but when he was struggling to find his shot, he became a huge liability.
Waiters is a perfect player to have coming off the bench as a scorer because you know that’s what he’s going to look to do immediately. If he plays starter’s minutes, his play can prevent the offense from ever truly establishing a flow.
The addition of Waiters was well-needed from this Heat team. They need all the scoring and shooting they can get. But the answer at the starting shooting guard is Richardson. Not only is he the better fit, but him gaining this experience will also benefit them tremendously for the future.
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According to ESPN’s projected 2016-17 records, the Heat will finish with 38.3 wins and miss the postseason. As of now, they aren’t a playoff-caliber team. So the best decision would be to allow their young players such as Richardson and Justise Winslow to gain as much playing experience as possible in order to get back to the postseason in 2017-18.