"You have to be stable! Pass the ball to find your teammates! ”
"You have to prove you're not an Orlando park fraudster!"
A year ago, Taylor-Hilo's social media accounts were flooded with comments like this. At that time, Hiro was labeled a "flash in the pan", many people thought that Hiro's performance in the Orlando campus in 2020 was just an accident, and the Heat godfather Pat Riley was also criticized for refusing to trade Hiro for James Harden.
But a year later, Hiro was reborn and returned to Nirvana.
This season, Hiro won the sixth man of the year with a regular season performance of 20.7 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists. In the voting, Hiro had a huge advantage, with 96 of the 100 judges casting the first vote for Giro. Hiro became the first player in Heat history to win the best sixth man, he was the fifth player in history to average at least 20 points per game as a substitute, and the third most high score in 30+ points eight times in a single season.
Pan?
On September 24, 2020, In Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Heat won by a narrow margin of three points, leading 3-1. That game was the masterpiece of Hiro's career, he came off the bench for less than 36 minutes and shot 14 of 21, including 5 of 10 three-pointers and 37 points on all 4 free throws. In the finals with the Lakers, Hiro became the youngest starter in the history of the Finals, and the 20-year-old was the team's third-highest scorer with an average of 14.7 points per game.
Although the Heat lost to the Lakers and missed the championship, Hiro became their biggest gain. Outside of Jimmy Butler and Adebayor, the Heat have a strong point, and their future is widely optimistic.
In the 2020-21 season, the second season of Hiro's career, his statistics improved to 15.1 points, 5 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game, all three of which were career-highs, and his shooting percentage also increased to 43.9%. However, Hiro's wind rating is much lower than in the rookie season. Especially in the playoffs, Hiro averaged only 9.3 points per game, shooting only 31.6% from the field, the Heat were swept out, Hiro became a representative of the "short-lived", people began to say that Hiro's talent is limited, athletic ability is not explosive enough, the arm span is too short, the ceiling is not high enough.
In today's impetuous world, it is too common for players to be blown up in the sky, and it is too common to be scolded badly, and there are too many expressions of extreme emotions. Hiro's rookie season is not as strong as the outside world blows, and the second season is not as bad as the outside world scolds. For Hiro and the Heat, the key question is figuring out why Hiro didn't make the expected progress in the second season of his career.
The shortest offseason in history, injuries, character changes, and trade rumors are the four key factors for Hiro's inability to move forward.
Originally, the 2020 offseason was a critical period for Hiro to progress, but because of the schedule, the Heat and the Lakers experienced the shortest offseason in history, there were only 71 days between the final game of the Finals and the first game of the new season, while the teams that did not enter the Orlando rematch had a 285-day break. Players, including Giro, don't have enough time off, let alone sculpt technical details in the offseason.
The shortest offseason in history has had a huge impact on the Heat and the Lakers, and in the 2020-21 season, LeBron James and Anthony Davis have been affected by injuries, as has Hiro, who has missed a total of 17 games due to shoulder, neck, hip and right foot injuries.
Hiro had a great rookie season, and the Heat had intended to get Hiro into the starting lineup in 2020-21. But Hiro's replacement of Dragic as a starter means he needs to take on more point guard responsibilities, which is not where he is used to. The Heat's test of letting Giro play the start failed, and after 15 games, the Heat returned Giro to the bench.
"I think I put him on the bench at the beginning of the season, it was really critical for him, he was struggling, he had to take on more responsibility, he couldn't just play by intuition," Spoorstra said, "I told him, although he was struggling, it was good for his growth, he had to learn to take on the responsibility of starting the attack, to move the ball to where the ball should go, he had to be more decisive." ”
Because of injuries and role changes, it is difficult for Hiro to play at the rhythm he is accustomed to, and the outside world's rumors have affected his mood. When Harden made a deal, there was news that the Heat were Harden's potential next home, and Hiro could become a trading chip. During that time, the huge uncertainty of the future made Hiro lose confidence, and he didn't know where he had done wrong that would make the Heat want to send him away. Hiro's father, Chris Hiro, revealed that for a while Hiro didn't even go to the stadium much, and he felt that some people were not good to him, and he chose to stay away.
"When I'm doing well, it's often when I'm full of confidence," Hiro admits, "when I feel like I can't be myself, and mentally I can't be in the right position to play my best ability." All year I was worried about whether I would be traded, and psychologically I was under a lot of pressure. ”
Nirvana is reborn
All kinds of things will seem accidental, but most of them are inevitable. Therefore, it is the way of life to treat it as usual and treat it as usual.
The 2021 offseason was a turning point in Giro's life and career, and the Heat executives gave Giro a reassurance and promised not to trade Giro. Hiro ushered in the birth of his daughter, and the responsibilities of the family gave him more motivation. Coupled with the targeted hard work with the famous trainer Hanlon in the offseason, Hiro completed the rebirth of Nirvana this season.
Hiro did get involved in the trading rumors many times, which made Hiro very unhappy. But at the same time, the Heat attached great importance to Hiro, and Hiro also saw it in his eyes. The Heat had sought to trade Harden and Lowry during the season, but because the Rockets and Raptors asked for Hiero, the Heat chose to give up.
"Hiro can be a great player in the future, in another year or two, from the point of view of contribution, he may be able to get a maximum salary contract, we don't want to send him away one day regret it," Riley said, "We were swept out of the First Round by the Bucks, but this result is not Giro's problem, he is still our core player." ”
With the promise of Riley and Spollstra, Hiro's heart settled. Because the cooperation with Hanlon at the end of the 2020-21 season was good, Hiro chose to practice with Hanlon in the 2021 offseason. Hanlon was a trainer for stars such as Jason Tatum, Bradley Beal, zach Lavin and other stars, and he laid out a detailed training plan for Giro and adjusted Hiro's shooting moves. From June to September 2021, Hiro trained basketball every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday morning, completed the strength training plan set for him by the Heat in the afternoon, and conducted shooting training in the evening. On Wednesdays, Hiro will rest in the evenings and only do basketball training on Saturdays.
"I told Hiro that I've been a trainer for a lot of All-Stars, and I know you'll be one of them soon," Hanlon encouraged Hiro.
Hiro would observe Bill's training and incorporate Beal's back-and-forth shots into his training plan, and he saw Bill as his role model, averaging 15.3 points per game at the age of 21 and becoming a 31.3-point scorer at the age of 27.
In September 2021, the birth of his daughter caused a huge change in Hiro's mentality and lifestyle. In the past, Hiro was seen as a playboy surrounded by beautiful women. After having his daughter, Hiro has more sense of family responsibility, and he said that he has more motivation after the birth of his daughter.
Soon, the help brought by peace of mind and technological improvement to Hiro began to manifest. In five games in preseason, Hiro averaged 22.4 points per game from 51 percent shooting. In the first two months of the season, Hiro averaged 21.8 points per game on 45.4 percent shooting. Although Hiro still played a substitute role, he was given unlimited firing rights, averaging more shots per game than Butler ranked first in the team, and he calmly accepted the positioning of the sixth man. For the team's sixth man to enjoy unlimited firing rights, the Heat have no objection as they see Hiro's progress across the board.
This season, Hiro has averaged more than 10 breakthroughs per game, making more impact on the opponent's defense. Hiro's efforts in shooting have paid off, with nearly 40 percent three-point shooting, including 42.2 percent from three-point range and 37.5 percent from three-point range. While maintaining the efficiency of his mid-range shooting, Hiro increased the proportion of his mid-range shots, and the dry three-pointers and mid-range shots made Giro's blocking more threatening.
"We trust him very much," Butler said, "and he's holding a lot of balls now, and we believe he can make reasonable shots and get everybody into the offense, and he does." Since entering the industry, he has grown too much and continues to grow. ”
Spoorstra said: "He aspires to be a really influential core player, he has made a qualitative leap with the right rhythm, he has improved his basketball IQ and he has learned to crack the opponent's defense." This season, the qualities of great players can be seen in Giro. ”
However, this year's playoffs Hiro has not been particularly eye-catching, 6 games he has 2 games in single digits, 3 games on the plus-minus of negative, only 2 games to score 20+, including the third game of the series with the Eagles, although he scored 24 points but the plus-minus was bad -21 points. In the first game with the 76ers, Hiro finally played a high-output, positive and influential game. To help the Heat go further, Hiro needs to come up with a more stable performance.
"When I was growing up, it was my dream to score 20+ points per game on a championship-level team," Hiro said.