Shabazz Napier Forcing Way into Miami Heat Point Guard Conversation
Shabazz Napier once seemed like another reason for LeBron James to remain with the Miami Heat.
"No way u take another PG in the lottery before Napier," King James tweeted in April.
Team president Pat Riley denied that James actively had anything to do with the organization's decision to acquire Napier (by trade on draft night), telling reporters, "The point is, if LeBron and I have the same taste in talent, so be it."
The 23-year-old's addition didn't ultimately persuade James to stick around, but it may nevertheless have an immediate impact on a club in desperate need of some playmaking.
Riley got Napier just weeks after starting point guard Mario Chalmers flopped in the Finals, averaging 4.4 points and 33.3 percent shooting in five games against the San Antonio Spurs. Miami ultimately elected to keep Chalmers—a free agent this summer—but it's become no secret this team needs improved play from its floor general.
Chalmers and reserve point guard Norris Cole have had solid, if uneven, preseasons.
Napier has been the story instead, making an increasingly strong case for heavy minutes in Miami's rotation this season—perhaps starting from day one.
The Connecticut product has averaged 16.8 points through his last four preseason contests, a marked improvement over the nine combined points he scored in the first two games.
As the Miami Herald's Joseph Goodman recently noted, "With each passing preseason game, Heat rookie point guard Shabazz Napier is providing more and more proof that LeBron James' skills as an evaluator of talent might be better than previously thought."
Something seems to be clicking for the 24th overall pick.
After a woefully inefficient performance during NBA Summer League play, Napier is now demonstrating a steadier shot while adding some passing, defense and a knack for getting to the free-throw line (where he made 12 of 14 attempts in a preseason meeting with the Spurs).
Napier chalked up the rough Summer League debut to the basketball.
"I just want to continue to get better at everything," Napier told reporters in August. "But my biggest thing is getting comfortable with that basketball. That's one of my biggest problems and it's kind of ironic, because it's a basketball. But it's different than a college basketball."
Sounds plausible enough.
"The funny thing is, I never really touched an NBA ball until I left school," he added. "I told myself I never wanted to. I felt like it was superstitious, like something bad was going to happen, like I had to earn it. I never touched it and it's definitely different. This ball is leather and the biggest thing for me now is getting comfortable with it."
It just one of the learning curves for the young pro. While a small sample size of preseason work may inspire optimism, head coach Erik Spoelstra hasn't been convinced of much—even after Napier's 25-point outburst against San Antonio.
"He just needs to keep working," Spoelstra told reporters this week. "That's the only message I've given him. We have seen a residual from all the time he has put in, but we're not drawing any conclusions at this point."
It's a conservative approach made possible by Chalmers and Cole, both of whom are already familiar with Spoelstra's system.
There's not yet any guarantee Napier cracks the rotation, much less the starting lineup. But four seasons at UConn and a national championship may have prepared him to seize a moment like this and compete for minutes at a position of renewed importance in Miami.
Without James' leadership on the floor, the Heat's platoon of point guards will be responsible for running the offense.
"We're going to be reliant on those guys to handle the ball a lot more for us," forward Chris Bosh explained to media this week. "Before, we had the luxury of having LeBron be that big point guard and get us into our sets, and [Cole and Chalmers] could kind of take it off a little bit and get in the corner and make plays.
"But now they're going to have to be the ones calling the plays, getting everyone set, making that extra pass and making the game easier for everybody else."
Napier has shown flashes of those playmaking instincts during the preseason, tallying seven assists against the Cleveland Cavaliers and twice recording four dimes. That's the kind of poise and production that could make playing time at the 1 spot a three-man race.
Chalmers is going into his seventh season with the club, coming off of a largely successful campaign in which he averaged 9.8 points and 4.9 assists in 29.8 minutes per game. He made a career-high 45.4 percent of his field-goal attempts, solidifying his status as a reliable role player and earning himself a new contract worth two years and $8.3 million.
He started in all 73 of his games a season ago and remains the favorite to retain that status in 2014-15.
Cole averaged a career-high 24.6 minutes per contest last season (his third), but he's done little to secure a more prominent role. The 26-year-old adds some energy and a change of pace, but problems with efficiency have persisted to the tune of 41.4 percent shooting a season ago.
So there's a real opportunity for Napier to prove himself an upgrade over Cole, perhaps even a rival for Chalmers' starting minutes.
If not now, then soon.
Belief in Napier's ability isn't simply a matter of reading preseason tea leaves. There's a reason James and others have praised his upside.
As the South Florida Sun Sentinel's Ira Winderman recently put it, "There is something about Napier when it comes to having the 'it' factor."
"I know it's cliche, but the kid is a winner and carries himself on the court as someone who is comfortable no matter the pressure or surroundings," Winderman wrote. "I'm not sure he will be a classically consistent scorer, but he has shown time and again the ability to step up to the moment, with his late 3-pointer against the Warriors another of those moments, albeit an exhibition moment."
Sooner or later, those kind of intangibles could force Spoelstra to make some decisions about his rotation.
"He's a heady player," Spoelstra told reporters this month. "He's playing with more confidence now, playing off his instincts more than he was this summer. I think it was overwhelming this summer. To his credit, he put in a lot of time after that. He rolled up his sleeves and got to work. That's all we need of him."
With that hard work and a little opportunity, Miami may get exactly what it needs. In a season that will be defined by what it could have been, Shabazz Napier is one reason to imagine all it still could be.
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