Justise Winslow was the steal of the 2015 NBA Draft. Jahlil Okafor was an excellent find as well with the No. 3 overall pick, but Winslow definitely should have been taken by any of the other teams picking right before the Miami Heat at No. 10 overall. Winslow deserves extra playing time. He is averaging 5.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.4 assists and .7 steals per game, but he could be filling up the stat sheet a lot more if he averaged better than 27.4 minutes per contest.
Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Luol Deng, Goran Dragic and Hassan Whiteside have all proven to be capable players, but Winslow can be the versatile defender and sixth man that they need to have true success in the playoffs. It honestly might be time to send Deng to the bench, because Winslow is a perfect fit next to the Heat’s other starters.
He was an underrated player at Duke University, but he didn’t get credit because he was with two other stars in Okafor and Tyus Jones. That was a magical season for Duke, and Winslow was a key cog for a championship team during that time.
Hopefully, Erik Spoelstra will consider playing Winslow more as the season goes on, because then the Heat will be real threats to dethrone the Cleveland Cavaliers as Eastern Conference champions. Pat Riley will probably vouch for Winslow later in the year, but it will be intriguing to see how things change if the Heat end up trading Whiteside. He’s going to get a maximum contract offer this summer, and Miami must trade him for other assets if they don’t plan on keeping him for the long haul.
The bottom line is that Winslow deserves some more starts. He has only started three games so far this season, and the Heat must figure out how good he is before the playoffs arrive. Otherwise, the team might not fulfill their true potential.
