The Miami Heat’s offense through one week is off to a record-breaking start after scoring 144 points twice for the first time in franchise history.
They lead the league in pace with the third-best offense, third-best defense. Obviously, we’re just four games into the season, but they’ve executed on both ends as well as anyone in the association through one week.
While the team’s scoring has rightfully gotten the most attention, one of the Heat’s biggest fatal flaws over the last three seasons was their lack of a pure playmaking guard. And Davion Mitchell, who signed a two-year, $24 million deal at the end of last season, has quietly filled that role through the first week of the season after being one of the Heat’s best passers down the stretch last season.
“We love it,” Spoelstra said after Monday’s win. “He has a great heart that he just wants to set other people up to score. And you need guys like that. He has a great skill for it. He’s an aggressive guy. We want him to play downhill.
“How do you not love playing with a guy like that wants to get you the ball, make sure it’s delivered on time, on target? That becomes contagious.”
Davion Mitchell’s playmaking has been a huge part of the Heat’s success offensively:
While the Heat have averaged a league-best 131.5 points per game with the third-best offensive rating, Mitchell has spearheaded the Heat’s up-tempo attack in more ways than one.
Mitchell, 27, is averaging 8.8 points with a team-best 8.3 assists — to just 1.5 turnovers — in 27.3 minutes per game. His shooting efficiency hasn’t been up to par, but he’s more than made up for it with his dime-dropping and point-of-attack defense.
“I feel like [Davion Mitchell] can be the one our team averaging double-digit assists,” Adebayo said after Tuesday’s win. “He gets in the paint, he’s making the right reads, he knows when to be aggressive when he has an advantage. And you need somebody like that.”
One of the many beauties of its early season success offensively has been its ball movement. It is No. 7 in assists per 100 possessions, No. 9 in assist percentage and No. 8 in assist-to-turnover rate.
Not only has Mitchell consistently generated paint touches (leading to layups, kick outs), but he’s spraying the ball to open cutters and executing hit-ahead passes. He’s aggressive, though not reckless, with his passing — even though he’s prone to firing 100 MPH fastballs.
As time’s gone on, Mitchell’s looked more comfortable reading multiple levels of defenders and making the right reads. His quick burst has always been there, but his decision-making is leaps and bounds better than it was before he entered the NBA.
The Heat offense hopes to carry its strong start over to Thursday against the San Antonio Spurs at 8:30 p.m. EST.
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NBA ADVANCED STATS
Jaime Jaquez is rated #5 in Offense, #1 in Defense and has #1 Net Rating in the NBA!
Note: Several other Miami players (Fonteccio, Mitchell, Ware, Jovic and Smith) are in the top 10 in various categories.
https://www.nba.com/stats/players/advanced-leaders
Yes, Miami heat players and few others at the top. Amazing.
I’ve been going to NBA.com between games and just rewatching all of his assists from this season, lovely play. Can’t tell you how refreshing it is to see composure, actual, well-constructed PG play making on the heat. My fav player on the team
Love the site, but do we really need these click baity titles?
Spo will have a hard time deciding on his starting pg when Ty becomes available. But I think DMitch will probably move to the bench and we’ll know if Herro fits in. Who knows…they might become more lethal offensively. Or maybe not.
I think that is the most likely scenario.
Herro will be under the gun to improve the team’s offense while not negatively impacting the defense. A lot of pressure. He’ll be playing for a contract extension or a trade.
Heat ave 131pts in this young season while giving up 115…what if upon Herro’s return defense suffers and they give up 120+? BUT…makes 140+ every game haha. very unlikely scenario. im just riding this fun version of our team.
We’ve already scored 140+ in half of the games we’ve played. I wouldn’t say it’s a *likely* scenario, but it’s not *that* unlikely.
playing perfect team ball.he could prob get 15 a night but keeps everybody happy with his passing.only negative has been his 3 pt shooting.23% ft %50
Davion is one of my favorite players. He’s found a home in Miami whether as a starter or second unit PG. Up until now, he has done a great job. When he gets his offense together, watch out!
He was great last year. He is even better this year, less as a shooter, but he is playing in the right way.
Somebody (cough cough) suggested that now that he got his money, he would be slacking off. I vehemently disagreed as most of us did. That’s just not his style or personality.
He’s only signed for 2 years so he is also playing for the next contract
True
He’s playing exactly how a pure pg should be. Very unselfish, tough, knows when to pass vs score, gritty defender, I also love that burst of speed switching gears when he goes downhill. so much heart, in essence heat culture type shit. I really do hope he averages double digit assists or near that for the whole season.
His acceleration with small steps is off charts. I dont know if there is a similar player in the league.
Ikr, I think that acceleration is one of the reasons, he went so high in the draft.
Same here.