Miami Heat forward Duncan Robinson has been playing some of his best basketball of the 2024-25 season over the last several days. He has scored at least 20 points in each of his last two games played and has also buried 10 3-pointers in that stretch.
Still, Robinson isn’t exactly a great athlete by NBA standards, and star guard Tyler Herro poked fun at his teammate for his lack of athleticism.
“We love when Duncan’s being himself,” Herro said. “He can’t jump that high, but when he does dunk, it is a nice thing to see.”
Robinson got wind of Herro’s comments and didn’t say the guard was wrong in his thoughts.
“I have no rebuttals,” Robinson said with a smile. “Sometimes it looks like I have a weight vest on when I try to jump. I’m not sure if that’s genetic.
“I’ve tried my whole life to try to be able to have more athleticism and, yeah, vertically challenged.”
The 30-year-old carved out his top scoring performance of the campaign to date in Miami’s recent win over the Atlanta Hawks on Feb. 26. He scored a season-high 24 points and converted six of his 13 looks from 3-point range in over 30 minutes of playing time.
He then followed up that showing with a 20-point performance on 8-of-10 shooting from the floor against the Indiana Pacers on Feb. 28.
Robinson is the living embodiment of the premise that one can be a productive player in the NBA without being an outstanding athlete. He’s carved out quite an impressive career in the pros. Robinson is a career 39.6 percent 3-point shooter and is averaging 10.9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game in his seventh season with the Heat.
He will have a shot to extend his streak of consecutive games with 20-plus points to three when the Heat take on one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference on Sunday. Miami will face off against a New York Knicks team that sits as the No. 3 seed in the conference.
Robinson might need to have another big scoring night in order for the Heat to pick up a victory, as the Knicks are winners of each of their last two games and have a record of 7-3 over their past 10.
The former University of Michigan player has long been a key contributor for Miami, and Heat fans should expect that status quo to continue as the regular season winds down and the Heat fight for a spot in the 2025 NBA Playoffs. Miami sits as the No. 7 seed in the East right now with a 28-30 record.
