The Heat's huddled masses are breathing free
The Undrafteds put up 50 points in the Series-tying win at Denver.
Perhaps we should make more room in our lives for G-League games, pro basketball’s Fringe Festival, in which aspiring players fight for spots on an NBA bench like crabs escaping a pot.
If we had, Gabe Vincent’s bloodless shots in the NBA Finals would not be surprising us. Max Strus’ ability to shake off an 0-for-10 shooting night from the 3-point line and produce four long baskets in the first quarter of Game 2 would be something we might expect. Caleb Martin’s essential work in the Eastern Finals would have seemed routine.
They, and Duncan Robinson, are The Undrafted. They make up half of Miami’s rotation, on some nights. They are averaging 46 of Miami’s 110.7 points in the postseason, and they scored 50 in the 111-108 Game 2 win at Denver that followed the Game 1 loss. The 1-1 series resumes in Miami Wednesday night, with a much more page-turning plot than it promised before Sunday.
Vincent, Martin, Strus and Robinson claim to be weary of The Undrafted theme, and head coach Eric Spoelstra says it’s disrespectful. Of course, most NBA coaches, particularly if they’ve been weaned by Pat Riley, would consider an alarm clock, a morning songbird or an overcooked piece of bacon disrespectful at this point.
It’s all about setting up straw men, when the truth is that everyone loves a tale like this, especially in an NBA where everything seems so coldly pre-determined. Successful low-round picks are commonplace in the NBA and, especially, baseball. There are only two rounds to an NBA draft, and they’re crammed with foreign players and American teenagers. That’s why there is a G League, with 2-way contracts to faciliate quick call-ups and send-downs. There is a path, however narrow, for the player who disappears into the sofa cushions, who invalidates the adage that players shouldn’t worry about where they play in college because the league will always find talent. Strus played at DePaul, about 20 minutes from the United Center during most hours, and yet the Bulls didn’t even give him a workout until the Celtics cut him.
The Undrafted teamed with Bam Adebayo and a late-rushing Jimmy Butler to put up 36 points in the fourth quarter Sunday. Predictably, Miami shot 20 free throws in Game 2, 18 more than in Game 1, and Denver helped with a variety of unnecessary fouls, at least when the Nuggets weren’t blowing pick-and-roll defensive assignments and letting Miami shoot freely. The Heat is shooting 38.7 percent from the 3-point line, best of any playoff team, and in its wins over New York, Boston and Denver it has held its victims to 27.1 percent shooting from remote. This is how Miami wins, along with its eerie knack for ignoring the scoreboard and giving equal attention to each minute.
In that fourth quarter, Denver put Miami in the bonus with nine and a half minutes to go, and the Heat hit nine of 10 free throws as well as 11 of 16 field goal tries. Defense is Denver’s blemish, because Nikola Jokic is not a factor on that end, and the team ranked 19th in blocks during the regular season. As Grant Hill pointed out on NBA TV, Denver hasn’t met a team like Miami, at least in the playoffs, that relies on 5-man execution instead of highlighting one or two scorers. This puts stress on every Nuggets’ defender, and they didn’t just crack in Game 2. They allowed Miami open shots in Game 1 that weren’t converted, possibly because of the Heat’s hectic schedule and the Mile High factor. That is why coach Michael Malone wasn’t handing out cookies last Thursday. He knew their MRI wasn’t clean.
There was the usual sleight-of-hand from Jokic. Memorably, he snatched an offensive rebound during the late comeback and somehow found Jamal Murray on the other side of the court, for a 3-pointer. It was like a human drone strike. Jokic, like Tom Brady and other savants, has a fast-charging processing system in his brain that enables all those touch passes, those plays that go from his imagination to the scoreboard instantaneously. Plus, the constant code-wording about his lack of “athleticism” was trashed when Jokic took a rebound on one end and dribbled 94 feet for a bucket on the other, through an airport security line full of teammates and opponents.
Really good players need to be double-teamed. Truly great offensive players, like Jokic and Michael Jordan and Larry Bird, can’t be. They will find the open teammate almost every time, and now you have five engaged Nuggets instead of one. That is why Jokic’s 41 points Sunday weren’t as important as his four assists. Jokic is leading the playoffs in assists with 10.5 per game. Meanwhile, Murray, Michael Porter and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope were 10 for 27. That formula might not work forever, but Miami only needs it to work three more times.
It is anything but disrespectful to keep citing The Undrafted. It is, in fact, very respectful of the heavy investment they’ve all made. It is also respectful of the Heat organization, which prizes the stuff that other teams leave in recycling, and then develops it. There are few more respected shooting coaches than Miami’s Rob Fodor, and he breaks down and reassembles almost everyone who comes in, particularly Tyler Herro, the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year in 2022 who has been out since April 16.
Vincent, from UC Santa Barbara, tore his ACL there, and didn’t have any team workouts or combine appearances before his draft. He was the G-League’s Comeback Player of the Year while with the Sacramento affiliate in Stockton.
Strus, who was lightly recruited and played at Lewis University before he transferred to DePaul, also had an ACL, and was cut by the Celtics primarily because they wanted to keep Tacko Fall, a 7-foot-6 curiosity, unsuited for the modern game.
Robinson played at Williams College, a Division III school. His only Division I suitor was Merrimack. When his coach, Mike Maker, left to go to Marist, he recommended Robinson to John Beilein at Michigan, where Robinson’s natural shooting range was rewarded. Miami signed Robinson after a tip from their scout Chet Kammerer, who coached ex-Heat general manager Randy Pfund at Westmont. Its management put Robinson into the development wringer and made him do pushups whenever he got the ball and did not immediately shoot it.
Robinson found a 3-point niche, but then disappeared from Spoelstra’s rotation this year. When he returned, he showed much better footwork and a taste for cutting to the bucket and scoring. Strus and Vincent had already established themselves after they had gone through Spoelstra’s pre-practice sessions, which are conducted at game speed. It’s a boot camp unlike any other in pro basketball, and it allows for the possibility that a college player has the capacity to change.
As for Martin, he squeezed 21:26 out of his ailing body in Game 2. Afflicted with chills and migraines, he managed to stay in for an important 3-pointer. That’s another thing about having a team that isn’t being held hostage by its upper class. Discomfort is not a reason to sit.
This was Miami’s 20th playoff game, the most ever for an 8th-seeded team. The Heat will play at least 23. It’s likely Denver will relocate its rhythm and gather its defense and take command of this series at some point. But the chance that Miami can do something not only historic but contrarian has given the Finals a chance to be well-respected. If we’re trying to be correct with our language here, maybe call these guys The Uncharted.