Heat's Chalmers: 'I don’t even really know what my role is on this team anymore'
We knew this season would be an adjustment for the Miami Heat, as they embarked on their first LeBron James-less campaign since 2010. But predicting just how trying, messy and disarrayed it's ultimately turned out to be would've required a healthy dose of pessimism.
There have been bright spots, of course, like the stunning emergence of Hassan Whiteside or the graceful aging of Dwyane Wade's game, but the dark spots have loomed larger; the persistent injuries, the endless roster upheaval, the blood clots that ended Chris Bosh's season. The Heat have lacked any sense of constancy, and, after four straight trips to the NBA Finals, they're struggling just to hold onto a playoff seed.
One player who's feeling the ill effects of all the instability and uncertainty is Mario Chalmers, who has started exactly half of his games this season, and played point guard and shooting guard in almost equal measure. He presumably wasn't flattered by the Heat's decision to go all-in on point guard Goran Dragic at the trade deadline in order to upgrade the position.
"I don’t even really know what my role is on this team anymore," Chalmers told Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald. "I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing."
Though he's averaging a career-high in scoring (10.6 points per game) and usage (19.1 percent), and playing more minutes (30.3) than he has since his rookie season six years ago, Chalmers' inability to define and assert himself within the Heat's offense has rendered him inefficient. His True Shooting percentage of 53 is the second-lowest mark of his career and his team has scored 4.4 more points per 100 possessions with him on the bench.
"A lot of people are out of rhythm, and you really don’t know what’s going to happen – when you’re going to get the ball, when you’re going to shoot it, you just never know," Chalmers said. "You just got to be ready for everything, I guess.
"I don’t know. It’s something I’ve never experienced before. This is something new to a lot of people on this team, but we’ve got to make it work."