I am seriously digging the fact that the Heat are starting a guy like Duncan Robinson. But this is nothing new for the franchise. Remember back a few years ago when they were starting a totally useless Luke Babbitt (I was going to make a joke and say “LeBron James” but I decided to leave the low-hanging fruit unpicked)? I’m talking about the 2017-18 version of him, not the 2016-17 version of him which was way better and actually a reasonable facsimile of an NBA player. All he did in his last year was stand around and provide theoretical floor spacing before being subbed out, never to return.
Speaking of never returning, does anyone know what’s up with Babbitt these days? There’s, like, literally nothing about him since he left the Heat. I think I remember seeing a rumor that the Cavaliers were looking at him the next summer, but nothing ever came of that apparently. Is he okay? If he’s just sitting around and doing nothing, which I’m guessing is the case, then that qualifies as “okay”.
Robinson seems to be at about the same level of usefulness, which is kinda low. He’s a three-point shooter with something of a reputation, which helps the offense as a whole run more smoothly, but does he do anything else? CAN he do anything else? Sometimes he cuts to the basket and gets points that way. Other than that, he’s like a white Tony Snell with less arc on his shot.
For a team that loves shooting threes, the Rockets sure didn’t have any answers for Robinson or any of the other players on the Heat roster tonight. Robinson notched a career-high 23 points, a career-high 7 threes, and a career-high (DTB got the JOKES) 1 non-three that was actually pretty cool but didn’t even earn a replay. I watched the first quarter of this one with great delight as the lead ballooned to 10, then 20, then 30. It’s not like I even especially hate the Rockets; I just like seeing teams get BTFO the frick out so I can go to their forums and see their fans implode.