The Miami Heat’s offense has struggled — significantly — each of the last three seasons.
Over that span, they have been a bottom-third offense each season, including finishing as the 21-st best a year ago, sandwiched between the Chicago Bulls and Portland Trail Blazers.
They were T-11 in 3-point shooting efficiency last year (36.7) while attempting the 13th-most threes on a per-possession basis. Yet, they were still behind the 8-ball in terms of not only process, but results.
Now that Jimmy Butler is no longer leading the charge offensively — instead, Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo are — there must be a change in process to get this team back to an above-average offense. They brought in some more talent this offseason — namely Norman Powell, one of the league’s top 3-point marksmen.
But that doesn’t mean the results will change. Here are two concerning trends they must change for the results to (hopefully) follow.
Heat must get to the free-throw line more:
This is one I have talked about before, so I won’t spend too long on this.
The Heat lacked self-creation and weren’t able to generate many paint touches last year. They shot the sixth-fewest free throws per 100 possessions while recording the eighth-fewest paint touches. This goes beyond making 3-point shots, which is very important too.
Spoiler alert: You’re not going to get to the free-throw line often if you don’t drive to the rim. Powell, 32, has done a great job developing his all-around game, including his slashing ability.
But this will be a team-wide issue they must fix — the more free throws you take, the more compromised your opponent is not only from a foul-trouble perspective, but from a scoreboard perspective, too (they’re free points!!!).
Heat must push the pace:
Throughout Erik Spoelstra’s tenure, outside of the Big 3 era, the Heat have operated with one of the slowest paces in the entire NBA. They have finished among the bottom-four teams in pace each of the last six and in seven of the last nine seasons.
With Butler, who was excellent at creating advantages in the half-court at his own pace, they could afford to get away with that. But with Herro and Adebayo as two of the team’s top offensive players, no longer is that the case.
Speeding up the mojo won’t completely guarantee results. But it simply helps the Heat score more possessions; more bites at the apple are important. It also allows the Heat to create more — and perhaps easier — advantages, whether it’s early in the shot-clock or in transition. That’s important for generating beneficial offensive results.
Last season, the Heat placed in the bottom-eight in shots attempted in late shot clock (defined by attempts with 4-7s on the shot clock) and very late clock (0-4s) situations. They also finished T-2 in eight-second violations (4) and sixth in shot-clock violations (72).
The latter can still happen with more pace. But the Heat’s lack of self-creation should prompt them to be more proactive in generating as many possessions as possible. Its ability to get stops and be disruptive defensively plays a part, too.
Ultimately, making life for your best players easier, not harder, should always be the goal. And I don’t see how another slow-paced season generates different results — it’s the definition of insanity.
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Trade haywood highsmith Terry rozier jjj sign Keshad Johnson an Myron Gardner To the g league
It would be nearly impossible to trade Highsmith or Rozier at this point. Keshad is already on a guaranteed regular contract, though he could be waived. Gardner already will be playing almost exclusively for the G League team.
jeez rc your contract status info is lebronish
Everyone loves to be optimistic at this time of year. But, this first year without Jimmy getting all those free throws could be challenging for this offense. And HH’s injury hits us in an area where we needed to improve upon anyway, getting another two way wing to play the point forward or power forward. The Powell addition helps. But, without another move we are likely destined to another middling season.
Agreed as always. I actually like the addition of Powell especially after seeing his 34 point fibs performance, I do take it with a grain of salt seeing as he didn’t go up against nba level talent yet. Also seen him go down awkward, wonder if pat and spo told him shut it down
This will be more like the second year without Butler getting all those free throws because last year he gave zero effort. I would even argue it might be the third year because he dogged the 23-24 season and took multiple days off for questionable reasons, to the point that I advocated trading him by the February 2024 deadline while his value was still high. That was one of those times that, like you, I got a ton of pushback.
Yes, but not from me. I was there with you. A few others too. Sometimes, you can see trouble a brewing. I see it again, but not as disruptive, with Ty. Herro will never quit on us but he could get hurt. Whatever happens, there are unresolvable differences over his perceived value coming.
I agree about Herro. I would be okay with the Heat offering about $35m on the extension. If he balks and wants $40+m, I’d see if there is a taker when he becomes an expiring contract (I do think this is possible). If all else fails, this is a rare case where the Heat should let him reach the end of his contract and let him walk for no return compensation. At least his salary would be off the books.
Addendum: of course, if he improves on all levels and doesn’t fade in the playoffs, keep him.
Speaking of the playoffs, I think one of the reasons Herro didn’t do well in the recent playoffs is the Cavs knew he was the only real scorer the Heat had, and they threw all kinds of schemes against him. And, on another note, just because Wiggins had a lackluster playoff doesn’t mean he’s a bad player. He will move into the 4th option, which I think is ideal for him, behind Bam, Herro, and Powell.
Agree about Herro. He was the main target.
About Wiggins. He cant play without an elite shooter playing along. When the rim is packed, he is what we saw in playoff.
No. In 3 previous playoffs, he averaged over 16ppg and over 6 rebounds. He did, however, shoot poorly from distance. The 11.5/2.3 average in the recent 4 games was well below his 40 previous playoff games.
Thats what I m saying. He is efficient when playing with shooters like Curry and Thompson. Thats why he was good with Warriors, because those two opened the space for rim attacks, where he is at his best.
Cleveland pressed Herro and packed the rim, which killed Wiggins game.
Playing with Herro and Powell could open a lot of things for him.
Ah, okay, I see and agree.
Butler singlehandedly slowed down Miami’s game the past several years. Half-court/slow down games were popular back in the day, but no longer. Teams nowadays run, run, run. With Butler gone, I think that is exactly what will happen. More running equals more shots/more points. Furthermore, Powell should make up for part of Butler’s inside game and free throws.
Players who have aggressive inside games, such as Jaquez, Larsson and Mitchell, (to a lesser extent) will need to kick their games up a notch or two and increase drives in the paint resulting in opposing team fouls/more Miami free throws. A better inside team game will not only increase free throws, it will also open up more outside shots.
As far as clutch shooting during crunch time, Powell will help by driving in the paint, getting fouled and shooting free throws. The addition of a clutch player such as DeRozan would also help quite a bit in late game situations. His mid-range shot and clutch play are among the best in the league. The team will no longer need to rely entirely on Herro chucking up bad 3 point shots late in games out of desperation, as it did last year.
I feel optimistic and am looking forward to seeing how this season’s team performs, especially if 1-2 more trades are made.
jjj like jovic gets stoned at the rim.i would say 50% of his layup attempts were blocked.jjj has to play a dirty game and use his strength inside and def imrove his shot.pelle on the other hand gets to the rim and finishes at a pretty good rate.he needs also to bury his js..i remember powell with toronto but he was coming off the bench but he seems to be getting better and better.not sure how he is at end of games but we need a new closer ty n bam aint it.we have 4 b players and ware could be #5 soon.thats pretty dam good.if we could somehow get that a player(top10-15player)wed be challenging for ecf.not getting kd for me was a big whiff theres your a player closer.
void a ss got zero chance for jewelry.when jb was here thought we had chance for jewelry till he quit on us.thank gd for powell .clips got nothing for him.atl and orl have improved so with powell gonna be 3 team race in se division.thank gd weve been in the worse div for a while.wash and char should give us some ws to pad our record