It has been a Miami Heat speciality for years, the event of contributing out-of-nowhere facilities.
Isaac Austin. Hassan Whiteside. A yr in the past, Omer Yurtseven.
That is the lineage that has preceded Orlando Robinson. It is also among the many causes the undrafted huge man out of Fresno State jumped on the alternative to probably be subsequent.
“I’ve heard a lot about how Pat Riley and the Miami Heat develop players,” Robinson mentioned amid the Heat’s schedule on the Las Vegas Summer League. “Just seeing that and just knowing my own nature, I felt like Miami’s a really good fit for me.”
So do the Heat, final week’s settlement to an Exhibit 10 contract with the 6-foot-11 middle giving him a chance to proceed on in coaching camp after which probably of their developmental program.
“He had a really good camp, and in a couple of games he’s grown,” mentioned Heat assistant coach Malik Allen, who’s guiding the workforce’s summer season roster. “You hold placing within the work day-to-day and it’s nearly getting adjusted to our stage.
“It’s a little different style from where he’s just having the ball come find him all the time. And he’s really adjusted to it well. He draws attention and he’s got good, soft hands. He can catch and finish. And he’s got some skill, too, that he’s going to keep developing.”
So who’s Orlando Robinson? An All-Mountain West first-team choice and Defensive All-American, who final season joined Frank Kaminsky (Wisconsin in 2014-15) as one in every of two gamers in NCAA Division I historical past with at the least 700 factors, 300 rebounds and 100 assists.
But even whereas extending his taking pictures vary to .352 accuracy on 3-pointers as a senior, he did not turn into the primary participant from Fresno State to be drafted since Paul George in 2010.
“There was definitely a disappointment,” Robinson mentioned. “I felt that I was in a good spot to get drafted. Unfortunately, that’s not how the cards were dealt.”
Enter the Heat, with a pledge to showcase the 22-year-old Las Vegas native in summer season league, together with in his hometown. Entering Tuesday’s 7 p.m. Eastern sport in opposition to the summer season roster of the Atlanta Hawks (NBA TV) on the UNLV campus, Robinson and roster holdover Haywood Highsmith are the one gamers to start out every of the workforce’s first 4 summer-league video games.
“They just gave me the opportunity to go out there and show what I can do and play hard,” Robinson mentioned, “and that’s what I’ve been trying to do.”
On a stage that has been notably significant.
“I used to come to watch the summer league,” he mentioned. “I remember telling friends I was going to be in it.”
There was a time when Robinson thought it could be a showcase as a number one man. But after averaging 19.4 factors, 8.4 rebounds and a pair of.9 assists final season for Fresno State, the Heat have requested him to be one thing fairly totally different, to play as a complementary participant.
It is an adjustment Whiteside by no means really was capable of make, one which Yurtseven nonetheless is being requested to wrap his head round.
“I was always capable of playing off the ball,” Robinson mentioned. “But at Fresno State I used to be predominantly the principle man. So wherever for me, setting good screens, to rolling to the basket and that form of stuff, the adjustment has been very easy.
“My versatility, I would say, is my ability to adjust to any given situation.”
For now, there are 4 extra video games in Las Vegas. Then the work will shift to FTX Arena forward of coaching camp.
But after going with out his identify known as on draft evening, there now’s one thing tangible from the method, an NBA contract along with his identify signed on the dotted line.
“It felt wonderful,” he mentioned with a smile. “I mean, the opportunity is everything to me and that’s all I really wanted coming out of the draft. And it’s something that I have right now. And in every summer-league game, with the Exhibit 10 contract, I have time to show what I can do.”
No, draft evening didn’t go as anticipated.
Since then? Arguably higher than might need been hoped.
“I feel like it’s been going really good,” he mentioned.
His summer season coach agrees.
“He’s confident,” Allen mentioned. “He’s just learning. And that’s where most of our guys are. He’s been really good.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com