Who’s Cold: Norris Cole, Udonis Haslem, Chris Andersen, Shannon Brown, Shawn Jones, Khem Birch.
Competing for the starting point guard role, Cole has done nothing to convince Heat fans that he’s worthy of the job, averaging a mere 5.8 points per game after 10 points off the bench in the exhibition opener against the Pelicans. Added in Cole’s misery are three games of less than 40 percent shooting from the field. While Napier has been spectacular and Chalmers serviceable, Cole has been ice cold on the court.
As the longest tenured Heat player on the roster, Haslem has gradually slipped into obscurity over the years, as limited preseason action (47 total minutes in three games) may be the nail in the coffin on Haslem’s potential for quality rotation time. With several younger big men ready to seize minutes on the court, Haslem’s days may be numbered for this upcoming season.
Andersen is simply known as the team’s enforcer, so it’s hard to expect any major outings from him night in and night out. However, he’s not getting any younger, and his limited minutes per game prove that. “Birdman” isn’t expected to fly for more than 20 minutes a contest, not enough for anything beyond cold.
Brown, meanwhile, has brought some of the energy off the bench he displayed with the Knicks to South Beach. As one of several guards in contention for the backup shooting guard role to Wade, Brown’s scoring could’ve been higher throughout this preseason (5.2 point-per-game average), but there’s still time to build on that with a few games remaining. While both rookies Tyler Johnson and Andre Dawkins have potential down the road to be solid contributors at shooting guard, neither one are locks to make the final roster, which paves way for the veteran Brown to hone his offensive skills to be the first man up to fill in for Wade.
Both Jones and Birch are in an interesting position to claim some minutes in the power forward rotation, one that is far yet to be solidified due to McRoberts’ absence via injury. The two young forwards have hit the boards fairly well in limited time off the bench, with Birch edging Jones in the rebounding category after grabbing 13 against the Spurs last Saturday. As undrafted rookies, these two post players are behind the eight ball due to a lack of experience on an NBA court, things that both Williams and Haslem possess. However, Haslem’s inadequacy and lack of playing time could open a door for one of these talents to step in and possibly step his game up in the frontcourt. But it’s certainly guaranteed that both won’t be able to do so.
[xyz-ihs snippet=”Responsive-Ad”]
