Heat’s Gabe Vincent, without his knee brace, flashing growth as point guard with Lowry out

The Miami Heat stands alone in first place in the Eastern Conference despite the fact that its leading trio of Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry have played together in only 14 of the first 47 games this season. They actually haven’t played together since Nov. 27.

How has the Heat overcome relentless waves of injury and COVID-19 issues during the first three months of the season to find itself at the top of the East? By proving its one of the deepest teams in the NBA.

Gabe Vincent is a part of the Heat’s impressive depth, as he fills in as the Heat’s starting point guard in Lowry’s place. Lowry missed his fourth game in a row in Sunday’s win against the Los Angeles Lakers because of personal reasons, and there’s currently no definitive timetable for his return.

“He has improved as much as anybody as I’ve ever seen, seriously, in my entire career. I really mean that, too,” forward Duncan Robinson said of Vincent, with the Heat in the middle of a two-day break before continuing its homestand on Wednesday against the New York Knicks. “I remember playing against him in the G League and honestly he kind of played like me. Catch-and-shoot and shooting threes. Obviously, he still shoots it at a high level. But he just does everything. He passes, he defends, he makes all those little plays in between. He’s just a guy that you love to play with, he really is.”

Vincent, 25, arrived to the Heat in January 2020 as a gunslinger with a score-first mentality who averaged 20.9 points on 10.3 three-point attempts and 2.3 assists per game in his final season in the G League in 2019-20. Through two years in the Heat’s player development program, Vincent has turned himself into a 3-and-D weapon with the mentality of a point guard.

This season, Vincent has averaged career-highs in points (9), rebounds (1.9), assists (3.1) and minutes (22.6) while shooting career-bests from the field (43.3 percent) and three-point range (38 percent) in 38 games (14 starts).

“He came in as a guard, but more of a two, one and just a gunslinger,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “A guy that can really get hot and ignitable, didn’t have to worry about ever making plays for anybody else. I have no idea what kind of defender he was in college, but nothing in his scouting report suggested he was that kind of player. But for us, it started with [assistant coach for player development Eric Glass]. He said that he had a lot of potential as kind of a pesky, physical defender.

“Then when we got him late in the year and went into the bubble, we just said: ‘Hey, just based on the need of our roster, let’s see if we can just develop him into a 1, 2 and really embrace just being a defender and then see if he can be playmaker.’ He was open to it, but it was against a lot of his instincts.”

Vincent still doesn’t fit the mold of a prototypical point guard, and he’s not always asked to play that role. In fact, he has played 308 minutes alongside Lowry in the backcourt this season as a secondary playmaker with the Heat outscoring opponents by 19 points in that time.

But with Lowry out, Vincent’s growth as a point guard has been on display. He has dished out 22 assists to eight turnovers, while also ranking second on the Heat with 32 potential assists (any pass to a teammate who shoots within one dribble of receiving the ball) in the last three games.

“I’ve always been more of a 2,” Vincent said. “More of like looking to get my own, looking to score the ball, obviously making the obvious read. But transitioning to the 1 was an adjustment. It wasn’t easy. It has been difficult. There are a lot more things to take account for and to think about, to set up, to manage. So it has been a challenge, but a challenge I’ve welcomed with open arms.”

Vincent credited Spoelstra, Glass, Lowry, Adebayo, Butler and former teammate Goran Dragic for his development over the last two years. Vincent also “retooled his three-point shot” with the Heat, Spoelstra said.

“I think there are guys on this team that score the ball better than I do, flat out,” said Vincent, whose $1.8 million salary with the Heat for next season is non-guaranteed. “There are guys like Duncan that shoot the ball flat out better than I do. There are guys that can get vertical spacing, catch a lob better than I can. So a lot of it is just finding guys in their strengths and doing everything I can to set them up to make the game easier for them. When it’s time, pick my spots to get my own. I think watching Kyle over the last couple years and watching him up close, I think you see a lot that that’s how he plays the game.”

Another factor in Vincent’s improvement from last season when he shot just 37.8 percent from the field and 30.9 percent from three-point range? “I got that damn brace off.”

Vincent, who underwent knee surgery in October 2020 at the start of the Heat’s short offseason following its run to the NBA Finals in the Walt Disney World bubble, wore a bulky knee brace last season and to start this season. The Heat gave him the go-ahead to play without the brace in mid-November.

“I think it definitely makes a difference over time,” Vincent said of playing without the knee brace. “Any time you have something that weighs roughly five pounds on one side of your body, that’s going to take a toll. Other parts of your body are going to be working harder to compensate for it. You take that off, my body kind of took some time to calibrate. Obviously, my minutes going up and down, I had to calibrate with that and get my body under control. But overall, I feel a lot better now.”

Whenever Lowry returns, Vincent knows he could find himself out of the Heat’s rotation again. But whether he’s playing or not, his work in the player development program will continue.

“Whether I’m in the rotation or not, I try to keep my same routine and continue to train and work out and prepare as if I’m going to play 30 minutes,” Vincent said. “Right now with Kyle out, I’m starting and getting more time. As you’ve seen when we’re healthy and Kyle is back, I might be out of the rotation. We got multiple guys that can handle the ball and make decisions and do some of the things I do. It’s just the nature of it.”