The Miami Heat have gained a reputation across the NBA for having one of the top scouting staffs in the league. Last season during their miraculous run to the NBA Finals, they had a total of five undrafted players playing regular rotation minutes in Caleb Martin, Duncan Robinson, Gabe Vincent, Max Strus and Haywood Highsmith. The Heat had four other undrafted players on the team making more than half of the roster comprised of players who didn't hear their name called on draft night. One of those players was Orlando Robinson who is now in his second year with the Heat.

Orlando Robinson began his NBA career with the Heat last season on a two-way contract. During the offseason, he received a bit of a boost in pay when the Heat opted to convert his deal to a standard contract. While he was not eligible to play during the Heat's playoff run last year due to being on a two-way contract, he was still able to soak up quite a bit when it comes to playing in the NBA.

“Everybody is extremely professional, everybody knows how to do their job at a very high level,” Robinson told ClutchPoints in an exclusive interview. “I got to catch up. I'm young, I'm ambitious, I just got to channel that and learn as much as I can and be a sponge.”

Last season, Robinson played in 31 games for the Heat, including one start. He averaged 3.7 points per game and 4.1 rebounds with shooting splits of 52.8 percent from the field and 71 percent from the free-throw line. This season, when the Heat were hit with injuries early on, he received regular rotation minutes.

He went from racking up DNPs to begin the year, to playing regularly during an early December stretch, to falling back out of the rotation once other players got healthy. One of the most important things for young NBA players to learn is how to stay ready when playing time can be sporadic. It's something that Robinson has managed to do this year.

“Patience and purpose, obviously,” Robinson said. “It's understanding what you're supposed to be doing, what you believe you're supposed to be doing, and just having patience knowing that your time is going to come and your opportunity is going to come. When it does, just be ready.”

During a seven-game stretch from Dec. 2 to Dec. 16 when the Heat were hit by injuries to the frontcourt, Orlando Robinson started all seven of those games. He responded with some of the best games of his career so far. Against the Indiana Pacers in his first start this season, he dropped a career-high 16 points, five rebounds and three assists. He followed that up with 15 points, 12 rebounds, four assists, three steals and one blocked shot against the Toronto Raptors.

While Robinson has shown a knack for being able to score the ball as well as rebound, one of the biggest things that stands out about his game is his passing. His per-game average may not jump off the page, but he's had a few high-assist games with the Heat. Over the course of two seasons with the Heat's G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, he's averaging 2.5 assists per game. This season he's up to 3.5 per game.

Being able to pass the ball effectively out the post is something that isn't always common amongst big men. Robinson chalks it up to the defensive coverage he used to play against when he was in college.

“In college, I was double-teamed a lot so I had to learn how to pass out of the post, and I've always been a good passer,” Robinson said. “When I was double-teamed, in order for us to win games I had to pass, and it's just something that stuck with me. My passing ability has always been there and it always has gotten better over time due to different situations.”

Being a capable passer as a big man isn't all that has made Robinson a perfect archetype of the modern center. With capable three-point shooting in high demand as well as bigs who can space the floor, he fits right into the changing offensive landscape.

Robinson's three-point shooting was first on display while he was at Fresno State, During his final two seasons with the Bulldogs, he shot 34.3 percent from distance. This season with the Heat, he's shooting 53.8 percent albeit on a small sample size. With the Skyforce in the G League, he's shooting 35.7 percent. He knows that being a consistent floor spacer is key when it comes to seeing regular rotation minutes.

“It opens up a lot. If I can get behind rolls, play in the pocket, pick and pop, space the floor, just those four things alone, I can do all four of those things at a very high level,” Robinson said. “That creates a lot of opportunities for me. It creates a lot of different ways for me to score, impact the game offensively. It just opens up everything so the more I can do, the more efficient I am at those things, the better my team is.”

Orlando Robinson's playing time with the Heat has been a little more sporadic since that early December stretch. As the Heat hope to make a postseason push during the final stretch of the regular season, it's likely that he won't see many minutes. He's spent most of this season with the Heat though as opposed to the G League, learning and growing from the team directly.

Whatever the rest of this season holds for him, he just wants to continue to grow and get better so he can have a lasting career in the NBA.

“I just want to keep learning as much as I can about this game, I want to be in this league for a long time,” Robinson said. “I want to just continue to be a sponge, absorbing information, learning the ins and outs of everything. I already got to see what the Finals was like. I want to go see it again, that was an amazing experience for me in my first year. So I just want to absorb all of it, take it all in so I can master it because I want to be here for a while.”