What It Means That Dwyane Wade Implored Goran Dragic To ‘Shoot The [Expletive] Ball’

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Confidence is such a fickle beast. In the best of us, a person’s own sense of self-worth ebbs and flows depending on circumstance, luck and talent. Often, it’ll leave us when we need it the most, and rear its ugly head in the form of hubris when we should demure to others. In the NBA, at the highest echelons of professional basketball, it’s never normally in short supply. Except, Heat point guard Goran Dragic — he of the All-NBA Third team just two seasons ago — seems in dire need of that aforementioned brio these days.

Dwayne Wade did his best to force it back during Miami’s big win on Sunday after Dragic started the contest hitting just one of his first nine field goal attempts in the first half.

“Shoot the (expletive) ball,” Wade recalled telling Dragic in the third quarter of Miami’s 110-97 win.

Wade’s frustration with his teammate boiled over at the 6:50 mark in the third when he sliced into the heart of the Memphis defense before finding Dragic alone in the far corner for a wide-open three. Except, Goran passed it to Luol Deng for an above-the-break three attempt that clanged off the back of the iron.

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“He turned it down and threw it to Lu and we got a bad shot,” Wade said after the game. “I felt like he needed to shoot. Shoot the (expletive) ball. I told him that because we need him to do that. He’s a very good shooter. He needs to have that mentality.”

Wade continued to talk about Dragic’s confidence problems after the game and mentioned that he and Goran have a relationship that’s strong enough to survive on-court cursing like the kind Wade let him hear after passing on that shot in the far corner.

“It’s simple. We want him to be aggressive. I know what he was seeing. You get out of rhythm sometimes, but I still want him to be aggressive. When I’m penetrating and I kick to him, be ready to shoot. He needs to hear that we want him to be aggressive and shoot the ball at the right times. When he’s off the ball, he becomes a scorer. It’s my job. We’ve got a great relationship, and I can talk to him that way.”

Dragic needs some of Wade’s same conviction. Sometimes a teammate cursing you out for passing up a wide-open look is just the thing to trigger a response, which Heat fans have to hope is the result. Miami got the win, but they’ll need Dragic to be near his best if they’re going to have any chance as a top contender to LeBron’s five-year reign in the Eastern Conference.

Dragic started the season slow after this past summer saw him skip his national team duties with Slovenia for the first time in seven or eight years. But he was starting to round into form during a seven-game stretch from Nov. 23 to Dec. 7 when he was shooting at 50 percent from the field and more than 44 percent from deep.

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Except, in the three games since then, and culminating in Sunday’s 3-of-14 performance against the Grizzlies, Goran’s shooting just 7-of-26 from the field and 1-of-10 from deep.

Following the departure of LeBron James, Dragon Dragic is a huge part of Miami’s possible return to the NBA playoffs, or even the NBA Finals. But Miami’s in the bottom five for pace this season, and that lack of transitional opportunities is hurting Dragic and sapping his confidence just as much as any shooting ills.

Last year, Goran was in the 86th percentile for points per possession ending in a shot, foul or turnover — per Synergy data. This year, he’s in the 26th percentile. And while his possessions are broken down in nearly the same fashion as last year — pick and roll ball handler and transition lead the way with nearly half of his possessions, it definitely plays a role in his up-and-down season so far.

Thankfully, the Heat know they need Goran near his All-NBA level if they’re going to take on Cleveland, Chicago, Washington and Atlanta, and Wade doesn’t mind cursing him out if he’s too passive on that end of the court.

(Palm Beach Post; ESPN.com)

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