Coming off a frustrating year, followed by a summer of hearing his name in trade rumors, Heat swingman Duncan Robinson is approaching this season with a “big chip” on his shoulder, writes Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. Robinson put together two straight outstanding shooting seasons that earned him a five-year, $90M contract last summer. The expectations that came with the new deal seemed to affect him, and Robinson was pulled from the starting lineup in March.
“You go through something like I went through last year, you definitely grow from that between the ears for sure,” Robinson said, adding that he became “hardened” by the adversity.
He’s off to a much better start this season, but his playing time is about half of what it used to be. Coming into Wednesday night’s game, Robinson has made six of 12 three-point shots and hasn’t committed a turnover in 47 minutes of action.
There’s more on the Heat:
- Caleb Martin may consider an appeal of his one-game suspension for fighting with Toronto’s Christian Koloko, Chiang adds in a separate story. Martin sat out Monday’s game, but he could still potentially recover the roughly $45K in salary that it cost him. “It’s tough watching knowing you can contribute to a win,” he said. “Overall I’m feeling like I definitely could have contributed for sure. Especially when you lose, you are going to think that loss is on you. That’s how you learn. I learned from that, make sure I don’t do it again.”
- Omer Yurtseven is traveling with the team, but he’s not expected to play during the three-game road trip, according to Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. The backup center has been sidelined with a left ankle impingement, and the coaching staff wants to be with him while he does rehab work. “I think I’m going to be back in less than a week, hopefully,” Yurtseven said. “But I’ve got to sacrifice and I’ve just got to take the pain that comes with it, and that’s what I’m going to do. But hopefully sooner rather than later. But less than a week is my hope.”
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Kyle Lowry talks about the team’s early-season frustrations in another Winderman story. Lowry suggests there’s an adjustment period to having Tyler Herro in the starting lineup and trying to get more offense from Bam Adebayo, and says the players need time to get comfortable with the changes. In a mailbag, Winderman states that the Lowry trade didn’t look good Monday with Precious Achiuwa grabbing 22 rebounds for the Raptors.
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