Miami Heat

The Heat used Justise Winslow in a new role

Published Jan. 26, 2016 1:26 p.m. ET

foxsports

The Heat have primarily used Justise Winslow as an impact player on the defensive end of the floor. On offense, he's been a guy who can hide in the corner or make some savvy off-ball cuts. But for the most part, Winslow hasn't been a major part of the attack, in part because he still majorly struggles as a shooter.

Monday against the Bulls, Erik Spoelstra switched things up a bit.

From Wes Goldberg of AllUCanHeat.com:

Winslow got a new job Monday, starting the fourth quarter by bringing the ball up. He did it on the next possession. And the next possession. And did so on many possessions in the final period.

This allowed Wade and Tyler Johnson to play off the ball, and made Winslow less of a space sucker on offense and gave him, y’know, a job on that end of the court.

The Heat used Winslow as a point guard in his first summer league game, and got back to that Monday. There is certainly a future with Winslow doing this more.

Winslow is a talented ball-handler, but even in college, he wasn't bringing the ball up or working in facilitating duties. He could get the ball on the wing and distribute from there on occasion, but it was hardly his main duty.

Monday against the Bulls, he actually played more of a point guard role, while defending Jimmy Butler on the other end. It was an impressive performance. And Goldberg might be right: Maybe we see some more of this moving forward.