After losing wing Caleb Martin to the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency, the Miami Heat didn’t wait long to re-sign 6-foot-5 forward Haywood Highsmith to a team-friendly two-year, $11 million deal.
Highsmith didn’t have a consistent role in the rotation to begin the season. He played 20-plus minutes in two of the team’s first six games. Though he appeared for either eight or fewer minutes in two others with a pair of DNP-CDs.
The soon-to-be 28-year-old had a consistent role during Miami’s six-game road trip, however. And he made the absolute most of it, consistently showcasing why he was one of the team’s top defenders whenever he was on the floor, let alone at the point-of-attack. Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra recently praised Highsmith for his efforts defensively.
“I can’t say enough about [Haywood Highsmith],” Spoelstra said recently, according to Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald. “But the tough thing about this league is you have somebody like H, who has really played at an exceptionally high level in that role as a defender, as an impact role player that fills in all the intangibles for your team. But if he’s not scoring big numbers, nobody is really going to pay attention, nobody is going to notice, nobody is going to write articles about him.”
Highsmith didn’t shoot the ball well Sunday, missing all of his six shot attempts. Though in his five games prior, he averaged 12.8 points on an astounding 70.6 percent shooting, including 9-of-18 (50.0 percent) from 3-point range and 7-of-10 (70.0 percent) from the charity stripe. He also hauled down 3.0 rebounds while posting 2.2 steals across 32.0 minutes per game.
He’s assumed the primary matchups for Cade Cunningham, Kevin Durant and Anthony Edwards during the road trip. He specifically did well against Edwards, limiting him to 3-of-9 shooting with four turnovers. He also held his own against Cunningham and the Slim Reaper, forcing nine combined turnovers on nearly 90 combined partial possessions, according to NBA.com’s tracking data.
“I like to guard guys and make it hard for them to score,” Highsmith said, per Chiang. “These are superstar, All-Star type players, so it says a lot about Spo trusting in me to put me on those guys. I’m all about defense, so I accept the challenge. There’s no better feeling for me than getting a stop, getting a strip, getting a kill, whatever.”
Heat star Jimmy Butler is expected to return from his four-game absence Monday against Philadelphia, Martin’s return to Kaseya Center. Though Terry Rozier and Jaime Jaquez Jr. are out of the lineup, clearing the way for Highsmith to continue to earn consistent rotation minutes, where he’s been incredibly valuable defensively.
The Miami Heat have not begun the season as an upper-echelon defense. In fact, they’ve been a below-average unit, placing No. 18 in defensive rating and No. 15 in Dunks and Threes’ adjusted defensive rating, which accounts for strength of schedule. They’ve been poor on the interior while surrendering the fifth-highest 3-point percentage (37.3 percent), where opponents have taken 43.1 percent of their attempts. They’ve also been the fifth-worst defensive-rebounding team in the NBA. Not great, Bob!
But Miami’s one saving grace has been their ability to create deflections and force turnovers–both of which Highsmith excels at. It’s No. 6 in opposing turnover rate (16.3 percent) while placing in the top-5 in deflections forced on a per-minute basis, trailing only Oklahoma City, Golden State, Atlanta and Orlando.
The rotation will figure itself out over time, but Haywood Highsmith needs to be a constant, even if he doesn’t provide a consistent offensive output. Miami’s bread-and-butter begins on the defensive end of the floor, and you could make a case that Highsmith’s been the team’s best defender through this early portion–even with how good Bam Adebayo has been lately.
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