First Half:
The Heat got out to an aggressive start against the Magic, with Caleb draining a three, Bam following it up with a dunk and then Caleb continuing the assault.
With Bam and Herro dominating the Heat got out to an 11-2 lead. Rozier’s shooting was also improved with him hitting a three and facilitating on offense. On the other end, the Magic started to claw back lead by Banchero and Markelle Fultz to get within nine. The Heat reserves didn’t have as much “magic” on offense, as Duncan and KLove both missed looks as Orlando continued to score on the other end. As the quarter entered its final minutes the Magic managed to get within five with their ability to cause turnovers, and score off of them. The Magic rank #2 in steals and it showed early in this one. Klove was able to draw multiple charges, and dish out some very pretty passes to give the Heat momentum headed into the second quarter.
The Heat offense excelled to start the second quarter with Duncan and Jimmy both scoring at the rim. Jimmy was also able to score on a spectacular 360 layup.
The Heat were once again able to get the lead back to double digits, and continued to build off nice scoring from Terry Rozier. The Heat offense was finally clicking with Spo’s new rotations as Herro, Terry and JRich turned into a three headed offensive monster putting Miami up twenty. We have to put a spotlight on JRich who has been great on both ends lately, after starting the season out of sorts he’s been lights out since his DNP in New York. It’s great to have the OG Miami JRich back, and it appears as if he can thrive in this new Spotation.
The Magic fought back to close the gap on an 11-2 run, getting the lead back down to single digits. A bad way to end what was overall a very good first half.
Second Half:
Caleb started the second half the same way he did the first half, with a go-ahead three pointer. With Bam and Terry continuing the momentum the Heat would once again take a double digit lead. Miami did so in style too, with Bam dishing out the ol-DWade euro step. After a quiet game against the Clippers, Bam was deafening tonight. He had 14+ points in third quarter alone and some highlight plays. This All-Star was shining bright.
Turnovers remained an issue for the Heat, but for the first time in what seems like months Miami was able to plug the leak with offense. The Magic hung around though forcing the Heat to bring out its zone defense and settle for some less than ideal shots on the other end. Jimmy was aggressive, continuing his stellar play as of late as he got to the rim and set up his teammates. With Bam, KLove and Herro firing on all cylinders the Heat were once again in control increasing the lead once again to nineteen on a 10-0 run with a Caleb exclamation mark slam dunk.
Miami would go into the fourth quarter firmly in control. The Heat offense and defense was stagnant to start the fourth, while the Magic bit down and cut the lead to ten on an 11-0 run. But two huge Jimmy threes back-t0-back re-captured momentum for the Heat. With Jimmy putting up eight straight points, and Terry delivering multiple death blows to get the Heat up to 22 the reserves would coast the rest of the game to one of the best wins of the season.
The Heat have been playing much better lately but I still think that they would be better off trading Tyler before the trade deadline.
Don’t get me wrong he’s been playing a lot better lately. He’s been playing a lot more team ball than usual.
However I don’t think he can sustain this type of play for very long before he goes stat padding again.
He wants to be known as a top scorer, he wants to be an all star.
He wants to lead a team and take 20 shots a game but he’s just not good enough to be the best player on a title team and imo most likely never will.
Defensively he’s a poor defender who doesn’t have the lateral quickness to stay in front of smaller players and because of his size and poor 6-3 wingspan, does not and will never have the length or girth to bother the shots of players his size or bigger.
On offense while he’s a terrific and prolific catch and shoot player and a decent playmaker which is the ideal for Jimmy’s, and now Rozier’s playstyle.
He won’t be content being that type of player for very long even if that style is what is most beneficial to the team at present.
He wants to be a top scorer, he wants to be an all star and I believe he has placed those personal goals ahead of the team’s goals but because of all the recent losing is willing to sacrifice just for the time being.
And while it’s great that a young player has set such high personal goals for himself his current high usage, high voume low efficiency game simply clashes with the team’s more efficient scorer’s and he does not make up for this by being a plus defender.
That is why the Heat appear to play better when he’s replaced by a player who’s game is more complimentary to Jimmy’s and the team as a whole like in last season’s playoffs with Vincent and earlier this season with Duncan.
Add to this fact that Terry Rozier is now a member of the Heat and by virtue of his presence is now automatically the 2nd best scorer on the team behind Jimmy.
Also Duncan and most importantly Jaquez stand to benefit the most from a team without Herro.
This is why I believe they should trade tyler now while Jimmy is still good, especially now that he has an in his prime Rozier on his team.
And doing it before this team misses the playoffs or gets knocked out in the first round which is the direction I believe they’re currently heading.
Heat management have an opportunity right now to make this team bigger and better at both ends of the floor without sacrificing the future.
And a trade that I think accomplishes this would be to offer Tyler to the Nets for Cam Johnson and Lonnie Walker.
With this trade the Heat get decidedly bigger and better at both ends of the floor as a team. They get a starting pf in 6-8 Cam Johnson who’s not just a bigger and better defender than Herro but who also can shoot 3s just as well as he does and does not require the high shot volume and high usage that Herro requires to be effective, which makes him a better fit around Bam, Jimmy and Rozier.
They also get a 6th man in Lonnie Walker who’s a microwave scorer off the bench.
This is a trade that makes the Heat better at both ends of the floor which also makes them much better equiped to deal with the best teams in the east as well as in the west come playoff time.
There’s a lot here to digest. So I’ll start by saying I agree. And I disagree.
You point out some accurate facts about Herro – his volume shooting with less than ideal efficiency. His desire to be a top scorer.
I’m not sure why you think he’s not willing to sacrifice for the team. He looks to get teammates involved with his passing, whether it’s from the top of the key or when he drives and kicks. Rozier (and I’m a big fan of what he brings to the table) scores .1 more points and their numbers are very similar, with Rozier being a bit more efficient overall, and Herro being a much better 3p shooter. Herro is a below average defender who has improved slowly each season. He played pretty good defense last night. I don’t think he’ll ever be ‘good’, but if he can get closer to average, he’d be a better overall player.
I’m also not sure why you think the Heat might miss the playoffs or get bounced out in the first round? As has been stated, the games aren’t played on paper. We know other teams have improved, but so have the Heat with Rozier, Jaquez, and J Rich. I have confidence that they will make the playoffs. There are too many variables for me to speculate what happens when they get there. And, yes, adding more size with a player that actually plays (as opposed to our 3 tall players who ride the bench) would definitely help.
Lastly, I believe your trade proposal would be very fair to the Heat. I like it. Young players for young players, size for sg/pg skill set. But I’m not sure why the Nets would trade a #11 and #18 pick for a #13 pick unless the Heat offer more.
If you watched Herro carefully before the losing streak you would see that he was overly concerned with getting his numbers. It always annoyed me earlier in the season that he never worked hard to get his teammates open shots.
He only worked hard to get himself shots.
He would get into the teeth of the defense and instead of passing out to open teammates he would shoot over 2-3 defenders while open teammates stood on the perimeter watching.
I saw this over and over with Herro, it’s why he never seemed to have a positive effect on winning.
To me he was always to busy trying to get his numbers.
However I have to say that recently he’s been playing much more team ball. He’s no longer looking to force shots over multiple defenders when he gets into the paint, instead he’s regularly finding open teammates, something he wasn’t doing much of earlier before all the criticism and all the losing forced him to be more team centric.
I know this because I observed him carefully and like I said, this annoyed me to no end because I could see that he was stat chasing.
I also think that Herro for what it’s worth will always be a below average defender due his negative wingspan and lack of foot speed.
I also believe he will never be a good finisher at the basket due to his lack of explosion and length.
I also expect these faults to become more glaring in the playoffs when he’s matched up against longer defenders.
I believe there’s a serious chance the Heat may get knocked out in the first round this season due to the many ill fitting players around Jimmy and Bam and also due to the fact that they have a losing record against plus 500 teams this season while last season they were 24-15 against plus 500 teams.
Not to mention that the east has gotten significantly better this season than last.
While I think this team is more talented than last season’s team, I beleived that last season’s team was more cohesive and the players were better fits around Jimmy and Bam.
As far as the trade is concerned I’m hoping that the Nets would value Herro’s skillset more than Lonnie Walker’s who’s a bench player and Cam Johnson’s who’s a great shooter, decent defender but lacks the ball creation skills that Herro has.
Also Herro has placed higher on every single nba top 100 ranking (espn, SI, bleacher report, clutch points etc etc) for the past 2 seasons than Johnson or Walker which means that just about every so called basketball expert considers him a better nba player than those two.
It has very little to do with draft selection and more to do with who has developed into the better player and just about every ranking considers Herro the better player.
However I’m willing to conceede that you might be right and that the Nets may want a bit more tha Herro, so I’d be willing to toss Richardson or Caleb in with Herro to hopefully satisfy the Nets.
I think getting 2 prolific 40% 3 point shooters with size who can also defend would definitely be worth it.
Fair points. Time will tell.
This is great stuff, well thought out ideas. And, I agree we are headed out early. And that thought is based on the data received from game results of all the games so far this year. We have barely beaten teams that the five to six teams above us have been thrashing, not every time, but mostly. And so, If you objectively compare results, you can tell where we stand.
And this idea that a team can redo something it did last year that defied all logic, well it’s highly optimistic to think it will happen again without improving our strength of roster when games played and evidence suggests that other teams above us are better.
And, those who look at this player added and that one subtracted and immediately take comfort that we are somehow better than them when all the results already in from games played screams out differently, well again, it’s highly optimistic.
So, I like your ideas of strengthening the roster. The other two reasons Herro is the one we should trade is it is our one area of surplus, where we would still have enough. Let’s put it this way, to fix our biggest weakness, the four, would help far more than losing Ty would hurt. And the second reason is Ty has value, he would bring back something decent.
Ok, to begin, a repost:
”If the Heat’s self-described ‘Big Three’ is broken up at some point, it seems unlikely to happen before Thursday’s trade deadline, barring something unforeseen,” wrote Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald.”
I don’t believe the Heat can go from play-in to finals again. It’s why it’s only happened twice. Depending on the next 10-15 games, and who may be available on the buyout market, I believe they can get into the second round or maybe even ecf.
As mentioned, I like that proposed trade, but don’t know how realistic it is without the Heat including something or someone else.
Jovic and Martin for: Onyeka Okongwu (6’10” 240lbs) who is being paid $8.1M this year and is signed for 4 more years/$62M ($15.5 per year).
He is scoring 9.8 ppg with 6.8 rebounds, 34.5 3pt shooting, 1.0 bpg and 82.4% free throws in 25 minutes. He could provide spacing playing in the starting unit with Bam with more height than Martin and better defense than Love.
Rozier, Herro, Butler, Okongwu, Bam
Richardson, Robinson, Jaquez, Highsmith, Love,
https://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/4431680/onyeka-okongwu
https://www.reddit.com/r/nbadiscussion/comments/162qiwy/analysis_of_onyeka_okongwu/?rdt=47806
I would definitely do that, he still young, and can still get better, and has a lot of length, and decent shooting form.
Good interior defense, athleticism, developing 3 point shot, reasonable long term contract.
I think Atlanta would want more for the former #6 pick. But if they were willing…..
you can only go so far with bam playing center and caleb at the 4 .eventually that will send u packing .id give my left u know what to have bam play with a legit big next to him.pat if u cant pull it off please hire sunman to do it.he seems more interested than u
Get ready to give up half your buddy between your legs because we will need it and more…to get thar legit big.
I hope everyone is now happy we got Rozier. It takes players several games to adjust but we are clearly better now and we will have him for more than just this year. The first round pick was worth it. When JRich joined the team he went thru a similar transition to Terry and now he is playing very well.
The game last night showed how close we are and it is not inconceivable that with one more improvement, basically shoring up the role KLove plays, we could contend this year. I know every so often Kevin has a good game, but even when he shoots well, he still hurts us on defense in so many ways.
Even an Andre Drunmond, just throwing a name out there, would be a huge upgrade there and give Bam the support inside he needs. But, don’t hang up on that one name as there are several bigs that would suffice, some that would not require too much back (but not KellyO or Pajamas, I mean a real upgrade). If PJ comes too, that is ok, but he is not the answer by himself.
OTOH, we should not think the Magic are a measuring stick for how much better we need to be to beat in order of strength, and some could disagree, Boston, Milwaukee, Cleveland, and NY. I may be wrong but I think Philly is out of it now.
I was always happy with the rozier trade, even when he was playing poorly, he was giving better numbers then Lowry. We already won that trade. also If he can give at least 14 points nightly with 5 assists, and 5 rebounds, then the trade becomes even better. Magic might not be a measuring stick, but they’re still good team that beat multiple top ranked teams like Boston, Denver, timberwolves,suns,knicks. Also they have a top 5 D, We blew them out and own the tiebreaker.
Yes, I was always happy with the trade also, from after five minutes of observation I knew Rozier was a solid upgrade.
A couple other things I noticed:
Spo subbed Tyler & Terry as a tandem in the first half. Second half they split time. For this to work long-term, those two need to play together. J-Rich and Duncan are both playing great as backups. Four guards in the rotation, and playoffs usually cuts down to three. Something to monitor.
Front row fancy dress lady has missed the past two games. It’s a Taylor Swift level crisis if we’re trying to get my wife to watch the games. Also a good reminder that there’s a lot of season left. If she’s not worried, we shouldn’t either.
Finally, I simply can’t get over the fact that someone from HHH kept calling for the Rozier trade, and then it actually happened! (Apologies, but i forget who it was. SunMan?). Anyway, I think we should be looking at other HHH trade rumor hall-of-famers . The Jazz have Dunn, Collins, and Olynyk. Unless Josh Jackson is available, the Jazz are the only HHH approved trade rumor candidate
I believe it was several of us. I wanted either Rozier or Murray, but felt we didn’t have the assets that Atlanta wanted. Murray is taller, younger, and a slightly better shooter, but he is in a contract year and would probably be seeking a max or near max contract. Atlanta wants 2 first round picks plus a player (they’ve supposedly asked for Austin Reaves). Rozier is under contract this year and the following 2 years.
I think the team found it’s formula for success. It got back to basics. Defense first, teamwork, unselfish play, more defense and last but not least…have fun. I was so glad to see smiles on everyone’s face…including mine.
For this team to be successful, it’s not about individual stats. It has to be an “all for one and one for all” approach. Jimmy scored 23 points on 6-9 shooting. He also had 8 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 steals. As Jimmy goes, so goes the Heat. The rest of the team performed as very good role players. That is what it will take. Everyone needs to put their egos on the shelf and play to their individual strengths as part of an overall team effort. There is no room for “Hero Ball” or primadonnas.
I would still like to see Miami pick up one more front court player before the trade deadline. Somebody big enough to pair with Bam against the bigger teams. That may not happen. Maybe there will be someone on the buyout scrap heap that can fit in with the group. If neither is an option, I would like to see ORob or Jovic get more playing time before the playoffs. Bam is going to need help, one way or the other.
Meanwhile, it’s onward and upward! San Antonio tomorrow.
GO HEAT!!!
23/8/8/3 is a very Jimmy Butler line. but the best stat is only 9 shots
Since, as I write this, it’s February 7, and as the Heat played its most cohesive game in a long time, I don’t think we will see a trade before the deadline. I am getting the feeling that the Heat will get a player on the buyout market, and it will be PJ Tucker.
I guess so too. When Spo made that four or was it five man substitution in the second qtr it feels like an audition who gets to stay who gets traded. Then everyone played well. But still a day left before deadline. Wait and see.
If that’s the case, I’d rather get someone else over pj tucker at the pf position from the buyout market. Pj is older then Kevin love and washed. Plus I want the team to get bigger not smaller. Locksmith is basically the same player as pj, so wouldn’t make sense getting him. I’d rather these 4 players over him in the buyout market: Danilo gallinari, Otto porter Jr, thaddeus young, or Mike muscala. All bigger, younger, more length, with the same or better 3pt shoot.
It’s not that I disagree, it’s just that with the lack of playing time and his dissatisfaction with the Clippers, and his interest in returning to the Heat, I think it may be him. He wouldn’t be my choice either.
I understand… I just don’t want us to take the bait, hopefully we can find a better option then pj.
Watching this team tonight, the hole in the roster is definitely size. Caleb was starting at Power Forward with Jamie as the backup and Love as the backup Center. I like Jovic and Bryant, but both of those guys seem like they’ve fallen out of the rotation. Not sure if there is a trade or buyout candidate in the works, but this team would definitely benefit from getting bigger.
The Heat are 3-1 since the losing streak, and that’s against 3 playoff teams. They have another game against the last place Spurs tomorrow, and then a rare three days off to practice before three games against the best in the East. I’m feeling good about it.
One other thing to point out. 31 assists tonight. The Heat are 10-1 when they get more than 30 assists. I can’t say it enough. As long as this team is passing the ball well, they can beat anybody.
Best game we played in while, with no turd quarters, or 4th quarter collapses in sight. Everybody played well, offense, defense, and passing was great. Let’s keep stacking up them wins.
Build more on this W. Really encouraging to see Heat players’ performance this game. What stood out: JBs twister shot and his b2b 3s. Prep for playoffs?
Encouraging win, keep it up guys!
we coming
One of our best games of the season. Very encouraging.
trade still needed?
Yes, Orlando is no slouch, but there are five tougher teams in the East. I do see that we are capable of playing at a higher level than we were. But I still think we need that one more move to give the best teams a run for their money.