A Duncan Robinson Dribble Hand-Off Shift: Adebayo to Butler

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Coming into the season, it was known everybody on this Heat team was going to endure a shift. Duncan Robinson’s shift, though, was for very different reasoning.

Guys like Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro were going to see a positive change in terms of their newly acquired point guard, Kyle Lowry. And Bam Adebayo was going to begin that transition into a “flat-out scorer,” as Pat Riley noted before the season.

But as Adebayo begins to flip that switch, a prominent part of the offense was going to be cut out a little more: the dribble hand-off. While many Heat fans may scoff at the thought of a hand-off at this stage, it can still be highly effective, especially when Adebayo isn’t the one doing it.

To that point, my initial thought to begin the year was that’ll be PJ Tucker’s role. He’s a great screener with his wide frame, and has shown to be more than willing to play that “set-up” role on the offensive end of the floor. And well, he’s done just that so far.

But there’s actually been a better guy for that job through the Heat’s first 3 games of the regular season, and that guy may surprise you.

It’s Jimmy Butler.

Robinson is currently 8 for 25 on threes to begin the season, but the issue isn’t exactly those two numbers provided. It’s actually the spurts where you kind of forget he’s on the floor, since that hasn’t happened up until this point.

He’s always been a guy that can draw two to the ball at any time, but that’s actually been the new norm for Tyler Herro to begin the year. With that said, there should be even more of an urge to find Robinson and let him fire, especially in a game in Indiana without Kyle Lowry.

But without the continued DHO spam from Adebayo on a nightly basis, how does Butler provide an effective two-man game with Robinson?

Well, it’s actually in the same exact way Adebayo does it.

Taking a look through these clips above, there must be an understanding of the situation. This game was completely in the mud to say the least, and Butler was essentially being drowned in that mud.

He couldn’t get anything going, while Robinson couldn’t truly find a way to be incorporated in the offense without a true orchestrator by his side. So, the third quarter plan was to work themselves in together in space.

In the first clip, Butler gets another isolation possession for himself, but on this inefficient night, he’s looking for other options. Robinson loops around for the hand-off as Butler slips the screen, and he catches it in stride for the easy bucket.

Now, let’s move onto the second clip. And no, it’s not the same clip being replayed.

Robinson once again comes around the perimeter as both defenders bite on that DHO, which is why we constantly harp on his gravity. He hits Butler, and points come out of it once again.

Indiana head coach Rick Carlisle calls timeout for one reason and one reason only: to make an adjustment to that offensive combo.

Fast forward 30 seconds and you can see that defensive change that is made. Malcolm Brogdon doesn’t attack the Robinson hand-off, and just awaits the Butler slip. What does that mean for Miami? Well, it means Robinson has one job now: try and collapse the defense.

That collapse never truly occurred, which gave him a wide open driving lane for the easy two. If Robinson can counter those defensive adjustments consistently in this same fashion, then Miami really does have the best of both worlds.

Adebayo can play that weak-side as a scoring threat, while Butler plays that short roll with deep-threat Duncan by his side.

But Robinson has to get back to that same shooting level where it’s less thinking, and more reacting.

And it should be mentioned that this wasn’t just a one game thing.

As seen above, Miami worked it into their game-plan against Orlando as well, which makes it even more deadly when Butler is knocking down those bunnies/mid-range jumpers on that slip.

But they’re going to need that unconscious shooting from Robinson for this to fully work. With the guys around him, less attention will be on him then there previously was, but he’s going to have to make them pay.

I don’t really have any concerns about that necessarily, but the shots aren’t going to come in the same exact ways that they did last season. It may be more transition stop and pops off the catch. It may be more open looks that he has to knock down. And well, it may be the continuation of the dribble hand-off with Jimmy Butler.

But for his minutes to be a success next to Herro in those specific lineups, those shots will have to fall. And that combo hasn’t been considerably great so far.

Now as the schedule really starts to ramp up, they’re going to need him in a bunch of these big games. It’s about getting back to that original mindset: not focusing on three-point makes, but focusing on three-point attempts.

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