ATLANTA _ Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra typically downplays statistics as ancillary. But pressed where Justise Winslow can take his game as the team's point guard, he went to extremes.
"He's learning and processing and applying it quickly, because there's a lot on his plate," Spoelstra said of Winslow's move to a playmaking role in the wake of last month's knee surgery that is expected to have Goran Dragic out until the mid-February All-Star break. "He can't dive into one bucket too much offensively. He has to organize us. He has to get us facilitating. He has to get guys involved.
"And then he has to pick his spots when to be aggressive, and that changes game to game, opponent to opponent. But he has the mind to be able to do that."
That's when Spoelstra set a plate that would be the ultimate Winslow feast.
"I think the perfect stat lines for him would be 14, 15 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, five steals," Spoelstra said ahead of Sunday's game against the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena. "There's very few guys in this league that can have that kind of balance and effect on a basketball game and he's one of those kind of guys."
Center Hassan Whiteside said that Winslow's 6-foot-7, 225-pound build makes him unique enough to do unique things.
"Justise at the point guard is a lot different," he said. "He's so big, he can just a lot of time bulldoze his way to the basket when he can't get a pass."
