Practically every young player in the NBA will experience highs and lows before they erupt.
It happened to Miami Heat stars Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro when they first burst onto the scene. It happened to Nikola Jovic, who’s battled injuries each of his first three seasons; it’s currently happening to Jaime Jaquez Jr., who’s endured a sophomore slump; Kel’el Ware, the Heat’s first-round pick last summer, has been through the rookie roller coaster through 58 games.
I say it all the time: Growth isn’t linear.
Growth hasn’t been linear for Pelle Larsson. The Heat’s 2024 second-round selection (No. 44) hasn’t quite seen the hardwood as much as others have through 76 games. But the 24-year-old has continued to burst onto the scene and, most importantly, has shown why the Heat should continue to invest in him in the long term.
Why The Heat Must Continue To Invest In Pelle Larsson:
Due to unfortunate injuries to Duncan Robinson and Andrew Wiggins, Larsson has played 30 minutes apiece over his last three games–all starts. In that span, he’s averaged 15.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists and two steals on 48.5 percent shooting and 58.8 percent true shooting.
Obviously, we’re dealing with a microscopic sample. If you look at Larsson’s full-season sample, you may be questioning a lot. The truth is that he’s never been one to rack up ridiculous numbers.
After all, in his four-year college career at Utah (one year) and Arizona (three years), the Swedish guard averaged 9.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists for his career. However, what he makes up for with the lack of numbers are intangibles and a complementary, winning style of basketball.
Whether it’s his adept cutting (to either set himself or his teammates up), rock-solid defense against a team’s No. 1 option (which he’s done multiple times), non-stop hustle or connective passing, the 6-foot-5 guard has showed inklings of a consistent rotation player all season. Now, he’s finally putting all the pieces together and it’s helped ignite the Heat in more ways than one.
I said this when I talked about potentially re-signing Davion Mitchell, but how you succeed as an organization (and in life) is by surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals. Larsson is another who fits seamlessly into #HEATCulture™. He was one of the glue guys in the entire country at Arizona–he was the only player to record at least 1,200 points, 500 rebounds, 300 assists and 100 steals while shooting at least 49 percent from the floor and 39 percent from the 3-point range over his career.
While he may never be in a primary or secondary role at the NBA level, he’s a perfect glue guy to embed into this team’s future.
He’s a good shooter–this is the worst shooting season of his life, and he’s still sporting 45/34/69 splits–defender, passer and tertiary creator. Larsson’s on a partially guaranteed contract next season with a $2.3 million club option in 2026-27. He wasn’t called a plug-and-play by head coach Erik Spoelstra for no reason. Invest in your future and allow the young bucks to grow, which Larsson has despite the inconsistent playing time this season.
“Pelle, he’s just an ignitable player, he makes things happen out there,” Spoelstra said earlier this week. “The steals, the deflections, the hard plays, those are momentum shifting plays that he has a knack for, and he spends so much time in the gym that the rest of his game is getting better. The playmaking, the shooting, the facilitating, he’s a really interesting young guy.”
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