Inspirational! Three grassroots stories from Miami!

Max Struz was eliminated in 2019. His career started from the Development League and even had a serious cruciate ligament injury. Until the 2020-2021 season, he joined the Heat with a two-way contract. With his stable outside performance, he gradually stabilized his team rotation, and even performed excellent 3D performance in the Heat's Black Eight Journey in 2023, helping the team complete a counterattack, and he also successfully played his own name.

As a Struce who started with projection, the real key to being able to transform in the Heat is to make up for his defensive shortcomings. Not only can he serve as a qualified team's wing defensive sharp knife, he even shows his high-level defensive execution, and his panacea value that can adapt to different teams and different defensive systems.

In addition to obvious defensive progress, Struz also developed the ability to hold the ball on his own at the Heat, and gradually became an outside shooter with the team's value of holding the ball and receiving the ball without the ball.

Coming to the playoffs this season, the Cavaliers suffered serious injuries in the playoffs. In particular, Garland brought not enough value to provide stable help, which led to the team being too dependent on Mitchell, and Struz began to stand up and share the pressure of holding the ball offensive.

During the entire playoffs, he averaged 11.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game, and he was able to score 3.3 three-pointers with a shooting percentage of 38.8% per game. Especially in the second round of the series, he averaged 12.2 points per game, which made up for the firepower lost by the team's main player after suffering injuries.

Although he was targeted by opponents in the key game of being eliminated in the final and foul issues and was unable to stand up for the suspense of the series, he has proved himself in the previous few games that he is a trusted shooter partner around the team's main player.

Duncan Robinson

If Struz practiced himself into offense and defense 3D to gain opportunities, then Dunro developed his shooting skills to the extreme and was able to enter the core rotation, or even the team's starting position.

Also a person who was abandoned in the draft, Deng Luo was signed into the Summer League by the Heat after being out of the draft in 2018, and then signed a two-way contract with the team early. The Development League once showed the potential of a top scorer, and finally won a formal contract in the 2019 season. In 2020, he averaged 13.5 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game, and averaged 3.7 three-pointers. With an excellent outside shooting percentage of 44.6%, it became a key factor for the Heat to reach the finals.

Relying on this year's highlight performance, Dunro was able to sign a five-year super contract of 90 million with the Heat, breaking the largest contract record for the undraft in one fell swoop.

At its peak, Deng Luo has developed almost all shooter skills and even extensions to the fullest. From different forms of unball running projections, to later ball-holding attacks against opponents' saves, and even the ball-to-ball connections that attract defense, Deng Luo has been constantly improving.

Although he once reached a low point after signing the big contract, his poor performance once made him a representative player of premium contracts. His 29% three-point shooting percentage in the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals also became a major direct reason for the team's elimination that year. But this has become a major motivation for him to double his training. Next season, Dunro not only successfully recovered his shooting skills, but also possessed more offensive skills, becoming a key outside shooter in the Heat's Black Eighth Journey.

For the Heat, Dunro may have always had an irreparable gap in defense, but his unball run and outside firepower have been completely replaced by no one in the Heat in recent years. His pick-and-roll hand-hand hand with Adebayo has been the main offensive tactical choice for the Heat for some time.

The Heat's last year contract is about to be completed. Dunro may not be able to stay in the Heat for a long time, but this experience is enough to prove his value. He is the only player in the history of the league from the D3 league to the NBA starting level, and then to the maximum amount of undraft contract.

Combined with the Heat's team culture, Deng Luo is definitely more representative of the Heat's grassroots dark horse spirit than any player.

David Mitchell

When mentioning the most surprising Heat player in the playoffs, Xiaomi Mitchell will definitely be the answer given by many fans. In the subsequent transaction of Butler's transaction, he came to the Heat. Xiaomi Michelle made up for the defensive gap in the Heat's backcourt very well. What's even more surprising is that he also brought a lot of value to the Heat on the offensive end and became an indispensable key rotation role for the team.

But unlike other grassroots stories of the Heat, Xiaomi Michel is not a undraft player. He joined the Kings with the ninth pick in the 2021 draft. His rookie average of 11.5 points and 4.2 assists per game in the rookie season is also a pretty good performance. Unfortunately, since the second year, his position has begun to be replaced by other players, and the problems of three-point instability and lack of offensive creativity have gradually begun to be amplified. The Raptors were traded to the Raptors when their roles were restricted, but the situation still did not improve when facing the bad Raptors.

After coming to the Heat from mid-season trading, Xiaomi Michelle was reborn from the ashes and generally played the best performance in her career. Her extremely aggressive defense is also quite in line with the Heat's defensive culture and also makes up for the Heat's defense vacancy after losing Drew Smith.

What is even more surprising is that the unstable three-point shooting performance in the entire career has hit an efficiency of up to 44.7% after joining the Heat. The tough breakthrough ability also brings a lot of vitality to the Heat's poor backcourt offense. Not only can he contribute to the outside, but he also shares part of the ball load of Hero.

The story is very familiar. In the play-off, facing the Hawks made 3 key three-pointers. In the two play-offs, they averaged 15 points and 6.3 assists, and became the highlight of the final stage of the Heat's season with a 50% outside shooting percentage. Even based on this outstanding performance, whether the Heat can successfully retain this single-defense sharp knife in the offseason has become their most critical goal.