While there was not many bright sides to Friday night's loss for the Miami Heat as they fell to the New Orleans Pelicans, 111-88, there was one that was the limited minutes for forward Cole Swider. With Duncan Robinson out the past two games and possibly for the foreseeable future, Swider saw his first action against New Orleans and could very well see more as Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra and star Bam Adebayo gave their thoughts on how he performed.

Swider came in to the game in the second quarter where the Heat were shooting dreadfully from three-point range as by that time, they only made two of their 19 attempts from that range. He would make his first two shot attempts from deep that was eye-opening.

While the two players are different in a lot of ways, the 24-year old is trying to fill the void of the aforementioned Robinson who excels at shooting from beyond the arch. He even just made history on March. 17 against the Detroit Pistons where he became the fastest player in NBA history to drain 1000 made three-pointers in 343 games, passing Buddy Hield.

Spoelstra says Swider earned his opportunities with Heat

Miami Heat forward Cole Swider (21) passes the ball to forward Jimmy Butler (22) during the first half against the New Orleans Pelicans at Kaseya Center.
Jim Rassol-USA TODAY Sports

It's a big hole to fill, but in any sense, Spoelstra was impressed with Swider who would finish the game with 14 points, making four of his six attempts from deep. He said that with all the development he's been doing in practice and time with the Heat's G-League team with the Sioux Falls Skyforce, “he's earned these kinds of opportunities.”

“It's not an easy role to come in there to see there's been a bunch of missed shots, I have come in there and I have to make the longest shot in this game. That's not an easy deal,” Spoelstra said. “But he's really worked at things, you know, as part of development and then all of the games in Sioux Falls have kept him in the same system and he's really played extremely well there. So he's earned these kinds of opportunities and probably maybe in some more throughout the course of the season. Overall were not able to do enough things offensively, it wasn't only the three ball, as I've been saying.”

Before this game, Swider had not reached double digit minutes in a game since Nov. 25 against the Brooklyn Nets where he played 20 and scored 11 points. He really took notice during the Heat's training camp where he was working with Robinson as the two share the same strength in their deep-ball shooting.

Adebayo says Swider needs more minutes, but sees major improvement

It could pay off, but with the continued absence of Robinson, it seems like more minutes and playing time that was once sparse could come plentiful. Star Bam Adebayo has noticed the improvement in the Syracuse product saying that while he definitely “needs more minutes,” there has been a clear change in how “the game is starting to slow down” for Swider.

“He's gone need more minutes but I think the game is starting to slow down for Cole. He's starting to understand that he can tell other people what to do. He can tell somebody to run a different play for him,” Adebayo said. “It comes with confidence, I feel like his confidence is starting to going in the right direction. And that's obviously due to behind the scenes of practice, pre practice, and getting this work in obviously talking to some of the older vets like Patty and obviously the guy he's emulating in Duncan [Robinson].”

Swider called himself “one of the best shooters in the world”

Swider has been waiting patiently to hear his name called by Spoelstra, especially since the very first preseason game of this season where the Heat beat the Charlotte Hornets on Oct. 10. Swider scored 17 points and hit five three-pointers in that game and made a very bold claim after, saying that “I'm think I'm one of the best shooters in the world.”

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“They just kept on telling me to keep shooting. I have a lot of confidence in myself as a shooter,” Swider said. “I think I'm one of the best shooters in the world. My teammates kept finding me.”

More minutes for Swider coming for Heat in home stretch of the season?

However, while the confidence was brewing high then, he was still humbled at the time saying he wasn't under a contract. Since then, the Heat would sign him to one, but there are now future steps in the journey like getting more playing time.

“I'm not on a contract still so there's nothing to be really excited about. If you get to this level, you expect a certain level out of yourself. I think before I might have gotten ahead of myself,” Swider said last October. “But I just want to keep on stacking one day at a time. Keep on trying to help myself and help this team get to a point where where I'm in the rotation and I help this team win.”

In the most important part of the regular season as there are 13 games left, Swider could be seeing his most important minutes come in his NBA career so far. His next chance to play will be against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday as Miami is 38-32 which puts them seventh in the tightly packed Eastern Conference.