Miami Heat’s Haywood Highsmith stepping up during preseason
MIAMI — The role for Haywood Highsmith with the Miami Heat largely has been one of a disruptor — convert 3-point shots when needed, menace defensively to change the tone.
But now, from that limited niche, have emerged elements that could also disrupt Erik Spoelstra’s rotation, as well.
Viewed almost solely as a specialist in his previous two seasons with the Heat, the versatile 6-foot-5 forward showed again in Wednesday night’s exhibition loss to the Brooklyn Nets at Kaseya Center that if given more, he can do more.
This time, there were 15 points while playing just half a game, including 3-of-4 accuracy on 3-pointers.
Now, instead of awaiting opportunity at the end of rotation, an argument could be made for Highsmith starting the season ahead of the likes of Jaime Jaquez Jr., Nikola Jovic, perhaps even Josh Richardson, in Spoelstra’s alignments.
Typically, when you make shots and defend, you play for Spoelstra. Gabe Vincent showed it. Max Srus showed it. Now they are gone, and Highsmith seemingly has arrived.
“What that’s going to mean,” Spoelstra said of the steps forward that Highsmith has taken this offseason, “I don’t know for the rotation. But I just love it when players make you have to think, and that’s what Haywood’s doing right now.”
The thinking arguably began in the Heat’s playoff run to last season’s NBA Finals. Playing time was scant early in that two-month postseason grind, but then there were 36 minutes in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics, and 23 more in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Denver Nuggets, when he scored 18 points.
“To begin with, I wasn’t playing in the playoffs at first. And then some injuries happened, some things happened and I started getting some more playing time,” Highsmith reflected, as the Heat turn their attention to Friday night’s preseason finale against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center. “So I had to step up to do what I had to do. Last year in the playoffs, I had some good moments and it was good for me just to get in that type of situation and believe in myself, understand that I belong, and give me more confidence moving forward.
“So overall, everything is piling up with me. Keep putting extra work in, keep trusting myself, trusting my craft, trusting the work I put in over the summer, and just continue with that same confidence and staying level.”
To some degree, Highsmith is Caleb Martin 2.0 for the Heat, an undersized forward with perimeter defensive skills who can be slotted into almost any position, if Spoelstra’s system actually called for positional designations (which it does not).
Like Martin, Highsmith is on course to hit free agency next summer. Like Vincent did with the Los Angeles Lakers and Strus with the Cleveland Cavaliers, that means possibly cashing in after working at the league minimum.
But at the moment, it’s not about the money. It’s about the ongoing development.
“The more reps you take, the more confidence, the more comfortable you’re going to get,” said the 26-year-old who went undrafted out of Division II Wheeling University in 2018, starting his NBA career in the Philadelphia 76ers’ system. “So it’s just me putting extra work in, everything building up from the first year I was here, to last year and this year. You get more comfortable and confident and understand your role. So it’s a little bit of everything.”
Since Martin has missed the entire preseason due to knee pain that began in the offseason and his status in question for Wednesday night’s regular-season opener against the visiting Detroit Pistons, the opportunity is there for Highsmith. At 9 of 15 on 3-pointers in four preseason appearances that have included three starts, Highsmith injects some of the 3-point shooting absent with the losses of Strus and Vincent.
That uptick has come by both building and challenging his confidence in regular drilling from the arc alongside teammate Duncan Robinson.
“Shooting with Duncan can be very frustrating, because we have competitive drills,” Highsmith said with a smile. “And I think I’m shooting my absolute best, but he’s beating me in every drill, so it’s kind of frustrating for me.
“But it makes me a better shooter. Shooting with him makes me better overall. And it definitely helps me as far as jumpshot confidence. Because I’ve had moments where I beat him in a couple of drills and he beat me in a couple of drills, but he always gets the best of me.”
The face that Highsmith continues to challenge himself is what resonates with Spoelstra, and why Highsmith could resonate in the regular-season rotation.
“He just has great fortitude, like a lot of the guys that we’ve developed, that you have to have that,” Spoelstra said. “If you don’t have that, you’re probably not going to make it. The talent level, it’s always pretty similar. It’s the fortitude that’s a separator, and he has that. He’s just been so consistent with his work.
“I felt going into training camp last year that he was just markedly improved, and I think it took the regular season, and having some good moments, and in the playoffs it just really cemented that, even in his brain. And he’s very ambitious. So I don’t want that to sound like an indictment. It’s like players get to that point, and all of a sudden they know it. And he arrived to that point this summer.”
