Miami Heat

Luol Deng: 'I think I'm best at the 4'

Published Dec. 18, 2015 11:05 a.m. ET

foxsports

How often do you see a player admit that he's better at playing a position down? Almost never.

Amar'e Stoudemire hates playing the 5. At larger levels, Carmelo Anthony doesn't like power forward. Neither do LeBron James or Kevin Durant. LaMarcus Aldridge's unwillingness to play a lot of center, meanwhile, possibly swung his free agency away from certain teams.

Luol Deng, meanwhile, just keeps being Luol Deng. From Ethan Skolnick of the Miami Herald:

According to Basketball-Reference, Deng has gotten about half of his time at power forward this year, earning a higher percentage of his minutes at the 4 than during any other season of his career.

The Heat don't have to play their small forward a position down just to combat small ball. They can also do it to add some shooting to a squad that has seriously struggled from downtown. As good as the 15-9 Heat have looked at times this season, Miami continues to be one of the worst-shooting teams in the NBA, draining just under 32 percent of three-point attempts, 29th in the NBA. The Heat aren't even taking a large amount of threes. They're 25th in attempts per game.

But if the Heat are able to throw out a lineup that puts Deng at the 4, Chris Bosh at the 5 and some mix of Dwyane Wade, Gerald Green, Justise Winslow, Tyler Johnson and Goran Dragic at the 1, 2 and 3, the Heat could have a formidable shooting lineup. Those adjustments could pay dividends in keeping up with better teams with more consistent shooting.

“Oh definitely,” Deng said. “I just think that obviously I played the “3” most of my career. But the way the NBA is going now, I think I’m best at the “4,” because of the playmaking and because of the guys shooting. Setting screens and getting teams to mess up the coverage is where we are getting our advantage. And also with the passing and everything, it really screws a lot of things up [for the opponent].”