Miami Heat Player's Season Review: Burks, Rozier, Jaquez, Highsmith, Anderson, Larsson

Thoughts on the season for Burks, Rozier, Jaquez, Highsmith, Anderson, Larsson

Welcome to the Miami Heat season reviews, where I’ll be going through each player and give my thoughts on their play as a whole for the entire season — things that went well, things that went bad, some fun and key stats, a quick discussion on the main worthy points, potential questions heading into the off-season and anything else that was interesting enough about their season.

Note, this is all just discussion with no film. That is a plan for the off-season.

Today, we’re going through most of the bench players in Alec Burks, Kyle Anderson, Terry Rozier, Pelle Larsson, and Haywood Highsmith.

Alec Burks

Burks have surprised me this season. This is the meme where I apologise for not being familiar with his game.

The way I’d describe his season is professional. He was a pro. Whenever his number got called, he checked in, he did his job, and helped the team. Then he didn’t see minutes and had weeks worth of DNPs until he checked in again and again helped the team in. That was literally his role to start the season. He got minutes whenever he could, and it always resulted in good stuff.

The main reason for that is that he can knock down shots. He plays the role well, and that is as simple as that. He shot a career high 42.5% from 3pt on 12.0 3s per 100(second highest in his career). Being a spot up shooter was his main responsibility, with over 46% of his possessions ending on spot ups, where he scored 1.21 points per possession, good for the 85th percentile.

This requires more context, of course, but the Heat were +6.4 with him on and -1.0 without him. Add both Adebayo and Herro to that equation, it jumps to +14.2 with a 122.5 ORTG.

It’s amazing what spacing and elite shooting can do.

He was at times tasked with some ball handling too whenever needed, and in small volumes, I’d say he did his job there, too. 12% of his possessions were as a PNR ball handler, and he scored 0.97 points per. That was never going to be something that he gave you a lot, but he was capable when the Heat lacked plenty of ball handling.

Outside of the 3pt shooting, he really didn’t give them anything else. His scoring inside was, as usual, quite bad, where he shot worse from 2pt(42.5%) than he did outside. And I guess that’s where his role was simplified to being a simple spot-up shooter.

All in all, I have liked Burks a lot this season. Relative to expectations and role, he had a successful year with the Heat.

Burks is a free agent coming off the minimum. I’m indifferent to what happens. I welcome him back on the team because he is an elite shooter who can play the role well and fit with so many players, without giving anything up. Even in development and rebuilding stages, you need to have spacing to make the environment much easier(look at the Pistons and Magic over the years with negative spacing).

Kyle Anderson

Similar to Burks, Anderson also did his job. He was a late-season pick-up in a trade and has appeared in 25 games. What I was expecting from Anderson basically was all there. This was never going to be a game changer or a significant difference maker, but I still enjoyed watching him pick things apart in slow motion.

With players like him, the raw stats or efficiency aren’t going to show anything, especially with what his strengths are. He only averaged 6.7 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists in just over 18 minutes. He’s also been one of the players that seen a lot of garbage time, which boosted the total minutes per game. He has played almost 100 minutes in low leverage minutes with the Heat. That includes a lot of the games that had the fourth quarters blown out.

But I still enjoyed his play. When I was looking at the film and stats before he played the game, I was expecting some high IQ plays from him, being used as the small ball five, and just doing the little things that may be small or not show up on stat sheets. That’s exactly what he has shown and given the Heat.

There were many quarters where he kind of has been a difference maker. The first one that comes to mind was the Raptors game where his chemistry with Duncan popped up in the fourth quarter, where he was finding him on cuts often. There was the Mavericks game where the Heat were shorthanded, and he had 15 points with six offensive rebounds — on that note, he has been a pretty decent offensive rebounder.

The passing and IQ was the main source of the offense, and that is what the Heat also lacked once Jovic went down. Anderson had five games with at least five assists. He was one of the players that was trusted enough to warranta high number of touches and have him the ball to have an offense flow off screens.

A very limited small sample, but in 30 minutes without either Ware/Adebayo, the Heat were +13.2 with a 101.5 DRTG. It may be small, but in individual games, having someone who can not be a liability or cause lineups to fall off the cliff can be a luxury. He has allowed some different lineups to be run because he is a Swiss army knife in terms of how he can be used off-ball or as a hub. That makes life easier for others by taking away that burden. Herro or Duncan can come off-screen freely without dealing with the on-ball pressure when they can have Anderson make the pass to them through tough windows.

He’s simply another vet who was a professional and did his job, whatever Spoelstra asked him.

He is under contract for at least the 2025-26 season at 6.0% of the cap, which is pretty damn good value for what he can bring through 82 games and be matchup dependent in the playoffs in limited minutes. The contract is not a big deal at all. He also has a second year in 2026-27, but that’s not guaranteed at all, which makes him an expiring. I’m not against him coming back, you can always use smart vets to put young players in better positions. That is valuable and effective for development. But if he needs to be used for salary purposes, then I’m fine with that, too.

Haywood Highsmith

I like Highsmith a lot, but I don’t think this year was as good as last year. Offensively, there was a jump there and it included more things having to do with how he went about stuff. He still shot 38.2% from 3pt on 6.4 3s per 100 and added 57.0% from 2pt.

I have written about his growth on that end where has shown more confidence in everything that he’s done:

What's Been Heating Up: Whole team getting blitzed & Haywood's growth

That’s the kind of improvement he has made, where the stats, percentages, and metrics may show almost identical seasons, but those mental improvements and how things look has looked better for him. I can’t remember him looking that confident with the ball last year. He routinely attacked closeouts, grabbed the pass and went, and has increased the number of times he faked a handoff or attacked off slips.

The confidence as a shooter has been notable, too, and considering that was a major part of his game that did need to improve, he has continued to take steps for that. Some of the bombs that he was throwing up, I might even consider a wild shot for him, but that willingness did outweigh some individual poor shots.

He has also been trusted to play more. In each season with the Heat, he plays more and more — went from 8.6 → 17.9 → 20.7 → 24.6. He also started a career high 42 games, which is more than he did in all previous seasons combined. He had 20 games with at least 30 minutes played compared to only seven last year. He also had eight fewer games playing fewer than 20 minutes.

Gaining the trust of Spoelstra to be on the court is also one of the bigger improvements.

So, what stopped me from saying he had as good of a year as last year is, surprisingly, the defense. That has felt a lot more inconsistent and in periods, out-right bad. That is something I rarely said about Highsmith that his defense was bad, and I can recall many more full games where he wasn’t playing to an average standard.

I still haven’t changed my view on him. Players have down years, and to his credit, all metrics still paint him to be at least on the same level as last year. So, perhaps he wasn’t as bad as I remember, but I also wasn’t entertaining such criticisms last year in the first place.

Fortunately, he’s also locked up for next season on a really good deal. He’s going to make only 3.6% of the cap. That is a bargain for the skillset that he has. Hopefully, he has a much better year next year(or he maybe gets traded to a contender where he can help an actual team win!).

Pelle Larsson

Larsson was an unexpected second round pick that I’ve enjoyed a lot. I really liked him in summer league and honestly thought he had a place in the rotation in July. I was big on his defense and how hard he works on that end. I also liked what he could do on offense by just being a simple guy doing his role. Not going to lie, I feel good that it all hit, honestly.

He has starred in 55 games and started in eight. He was towards the end in the rotation playing sub 15 minutes per game, but there were many nights that he played near 30 minutes or more, and that wasn’t even in garbage time.

His two most played games were both overtime games against a good opponent. Those were games he played in clutch time. He had many fourth quarters minutes that weren’t low leverage minutes. 116 minutes in the fourth came in non low leverage minutes.

I have also written more about him here, from December when he first got the taste of real minutes. This was mostly focusing on the games against the Suns and the Kings where he was tasked in defending De’Aaron Fox, DeMar DeRozan and even Kevin Durant. The level of trust that he got from Spoelstra is impressive.

That continued to be a thing throughout the season, particularly for defensive purposes. He had huge games against the Nets and 76ers where he did one hell of a job against both Cam Johnson and Tyrese Maxey. Beyond his individual defense against tougher matchups, I just loved how smart he was. Even towards the start of the season, his IQ and awareness on defense stood out immediately.

Offensively is where there does need to be a lot of work. The 3pt shooting needs to bounce back. He started off the season well, where he shot 36.4% in November but then dropped to 32.9% after that. That has to improve but based on his college career, I’m optimistic that this will look better.

This same goes for his inside scoring. That also is a big work in progress. Even to impact the game as a role player, the finishing needs to be better. He only shoots 60% at the rim, which is concerning given that almost 83% of his shots are assisted. Got to capitalise on easy, created shots.

There were plenty of flashes of some creation and some upside in the scoring that he created for himself. Towards the end of the season, there did seem to be an emphasis in running more actions for him. When the Heat were dealing with more injuries, that was also sprinkled in where he was given the ball more. I like those bursts.

What I liked most offensively from him is doing the little stuff. I LOVED — this is also really underselling it — how many quality cuts he made. I’m not simply talking about cuts that got him the ball. I mean, simple cuts that got into space that drew defenders in, which opened up windows for others. I don’t see that often from many other players because, most often, they are statues. That feel to cut is one of the more impressive things from him. When it comes to his cuts to score, he’s also fairly active, as he always looks to cut backdoor along the baseline.

Now, he is on the older side as a rookie — he’s already 24 years old and will be 25 in February. But as a second round pick that is on a bargain deal with a team option, and being restricted in the end is a bonus. He can already be of bench rotation guy. I feel like the defense is legit and that will continue to improve. That alone gives him playing time in the right situations. And if there are steps in the right direction on offense, that could give you a solid guard-wing off the bench that can give you a bit of everything.

His rookie season has been a solid success.

Jaime Jaquez Jr

This was not what I expected from Jaquez. At all. I wasn’t expecting a decline that bad after the rookie season that he had. Everything has basically fallen off for him and gotten worse.

I talked about this already in November where I thought it was too early to panic about his rough start because there were still plenty of flashes that he did well. I touched on that he has seen a change in role based on who he was playing with. Last year, a lot of his minutes, which were really good, came with Butler and the bench units. Playing with Butler is a lot different than anything else he has seen this year. That was where he had a lot of his points assisted.

Those same trends continued to be made worse. He has been in a completely different role that emphasised creating his own shot more.

He went from having 13% of his offense as a PNR ball handler to 17%. The efficiency also dropped from 0.83 to 0.77. His isolation went from 6% to 9%, though the efficiency improved from 0.88 to 1.18 — that is encouraging. And his rim assisted rate went from 62% to 46%.

His bread and butter in the post seen a slight drop in the usage, but the efficiency fell off the cliff from 1.05 to 0.78. That was his dangerous weapon and that completely disappeared.

That plays a part in his decline. He was used in a different role, one that is inherently more inefficient and he also hasn’t been good in that, even considering the age and experience.

But it was also more than that. He has missing bunnies! He was one of the better transition players last year, scoring 1.14 points per and shooting 60% from the floor. That has dropped to 0.94 and is shooting 49%. That’s not role-related. You have to be better in transition.

Related to his easy shots, he shoots 66% on 2.4 2s(26% freq) within 2 seconds touch time(that’s a good barometer of having the shot created for him). That has dropped to 59% on 1.2(17%).

Again, we’re seeing the drop off in both volume and efficiency. One related to the role and one just him underperforming.

I’m still just surprised how badly he’s missing everything easy. Here’s his shots by the closest defender:

• Tight or very tight(0-4ft): 205/389(52.6%) with 56% shot freq → 145/286(50.6%) with 61% freq

• Open or wide open(4-6+): 66/104(63.4%) with 15% freq → 31/58(53.4%) with 12% freq

That is interesting that he has dropped by 10% on open looks. There’s not a big difference in the tight shots accuracy or even volume. He hasn’t seen worse defenses against him that made him take tougher shots to that extent.

Then there’s also the shooting that has not only not improved but dropped off a lot. That is another glaring hole that has made his offense a lot worse. He’s only shooting 32.3% on catch and shoot 3s but 36.4 on wide open 3s. It’s tough to be a wing in the league without a 3pt shot in 2025.

That’s why you got all impact metrics just dropping off the cliff. His EPM went from -1.1 to -2.6. The Heat were -5.6 net with him on and +3.8 without him.

His decision making has been rough, too. That mostly came when being put in more on-ball roles where I haven’t liked the choices with his shot selections, opting too much for contested shots.

The defense has been just as bad. That’s another whole other area that has simply been worse to what he did as a rookie.

This was a disappointing season for him.

Terry Rozier

Sigh. I. I just don’t even know what to say about Rozier. Even if for some reasons, you didn’t have any expectations for Rozier, he still managed to not be close to meeting them.

I don’t even know what happened with Rozier. I didn’t think he was going to be what he was doing in Charlotte as the guy primarily with the ball. I also didn’t think he was even going to be a lot on the ball to get those stats that way.

But I did assume that he was going to fit better with into a role next to Herro. That was something he did well with LaMelo Ball. That was a role he did okay in, providing a lot more off-ball shooting coming off screens or spotting up.

That has completely fallen off the cliff. He shot 29.5% from 3pt! The worst since his rookie year. He even shot 26.8% from the corners, after being a 38.4% shooter in his career before this season. Just casually dropping around 12% on easy, good looks. That changes things and it makes the decision to play him tougher.

To start the year, Spoelstra made it known that it was dumb to even question the fit with Rozier and Herro backcourt. We did see Rozier being the primary guy with the ball in the first handful of games to start. But running an offense through Rozier, handling the ball is going to lead to not great stuff. That’s not the role he can be in on a team looking to win.

He lasted 12 games as a starter to begin the season and averaged 12.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 3.7 assists, shooting 42.9% from 2pt, 33.3% from 3pt.

They did bench him after that and started to go away from him. That’s where his touches have dropped, his minutes dropped, and he was used more off-ball. But that’s where he just didn’t look good.

The way he looked to get himself going did not fit the team either. Some of the shot selection from that wasn’t in the flow of the offense was certainly something. His inability to hit open shots consistently and being a streaky off the catch was also hurting him.

There just wasn’t any other way of using him. As a starter didn’t work. Off the bench didn’t work. With the ball didn’t work. Without the ball didn’t work. He also hasn’t helped himself at all where in any situation, he couldn’t give anything. The fall off as a shooter is very strange. The decision making definitely wasn’t as bad before. The missed bunnies and the weird looking layups.

I don’t even know what the way out of this is.

He also hasn’t been a player who may not be doing a lot on offense, but could give you better defense or just smart plays. I’m thinking that even if you could simplify the job on offense as much as you could, there are still better alternatives that would give you more on both ends of the floor.

I do think a big part of that comes from playing on bad teams for some time, that it makes the adjustment harder when you are given that freedom.

Maybe with an off-season following a very down year can change the mentality and the approach for him. I don’t believe he just forgot how to play basketball. There has been a considerable sample in his career of positive stuff, particularly with his shooting.

He’s also locked up for next year, so there’s no moving away from him, and I don’t see anyone lining up to get him. This is just a case of damn hoping things will maybe turn around because this has been a really bad season.