Heat's offensive approach to play 'faster' this season

10/05/2024 12:48 PM

With the Miami Heat preparing for a tough Eastern Conference this season, they are looking to improve their offensive game plan and identity which has been a focus in training camp that wrapped up Saturday. As the Heat look for some semblance with their starting lineup, multiple players and head coach Erik Spoelstra spoke about the changes they have made during this time that will help them play at a much quicker pace.

Heat’s Tyler Herro speaks on team playing “faster”

One of the few focal points for the offense is “playing faster” as said by Miami star Tyler Herro who’s looking for a healthy season during training camp at the Bahamas according to The Miami Herald. This was a point made since the team ranked one of the five “slowest-paced teams” in the entire league.

"I would say just playing faster," Herro said. "We've emphasized it in the past, really trying to run in transition. But also while the offense is in the half court, still trying to figure out ways to play fast and being hard to guard as opposed to just slowing down, throwing it in the post and kind of just standing and watching. We want to get into more actions that are hard to guard, confusing for the defense."

Playing faster, especially in transition, could lead to a more efficient offense for Miami as they look to pair a top-five defense like they had last season with the same ranking on the other side of the ball. The same sentiments were echoed by star Jimmy Butler as being a talking point for Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra.

"Spo [Spoelstra] is always talking about being a top-five defense and a top-five offense," Butler said. "That's the formula for success."

Heat’s Erik Spoelstra speaks on the offense needing to “innovate”

However, fans should not expect major changes to the Heat’s offense as they feel because of injuries they were held back, especially with a starting lineup filled with four stars such as Butler, Herro, Bam Adebayo, and Terry Rozier. Spoelstra would say that they need to “innovate” the offense, but that includes some aspects being “subtly better.”

"Everybody had to get to work," Spoelstra said. "The coaching staff had to get to work. Even though I was over [in Paris for the Olympics], we were really taking the time to be intentional about working on different aspects. Defense is one thing that we spent a lot of time on. Offense, we need to improve, we need to innovate. We need to do some things subtly better."

Players on the team are already starting to notice a difference and while it’s too early to see if that will fully happen during the regular season, it’s still paying dividends in practice. One who’s seen it is Adebayo who is heading into his second season as the Heat’s captain.

"It's more generated to make everybody feel involved and that's without it being stagnant at times," Adebayo said. "It's a very flow offense through 24 seconds, it's not just the first 12 seconds, it's the full shot clock."

Heat focusing on some shots over others during scrimmages

Besides playing faster, the team is paying attention to the shots they’re working on and changed up the scoring metrics to prioritize one over the other. The way they did this was during scrimmages, layups and dunks were worth three points along with shots beyond the arch while mid-range jumpers were worth one.

"We're not playing a game of analytics, it's the game of basketball," Spoelstra said. "But we do have to be mindful of what wins and what's efficient. So I think generating more uncontested open shots is very important and knowing how we can do that within what we do. That's something we've been working on and we'll continue to develop that. I think it will get a lot better."

This goes hand in hand with the fast pace as the Heat ranked low in shots close to the rim while they were high in mid-range attempts that slowed down the game per The Miami Herald. Veteran Kevin Love would talk about the adjustments he has seen in regards to spacing the floor during training camp.

"I think changing our offense, guys being open-minded to some of the changes that we're going to make,” Love said. “Opening up the elbows, creating space for guys, looking to where we can screen and generate other teams going to help and being able to take advantage of that.”

"So I think we want to use our pace more, get more shots at the rim,” Love continued. “We're not going to totally get rid of those contested or longer range twos, but we certainly want to run for more layups and get easy shots and get to the three-throw line. Just generate a lot of threes for this team, easy looks."

Heat’s offense heading in a “exciting” direction

The scoring format has really worked for the players to know what the focus will be this upcoming season, now it’s up to the stars themselves to display that starting in the preseason which starts Oct. 8 against the Charlotte Hornets. Jaime Jaquez Jr. who is going into his second season would say he is “excited” about the subtle new look for the offense.

"That just shows you how much emphasis we're putting on getting wide open threes and wide open layups or shots at the basket," Jaquez said via The Miami Herald. "I'm excited about it and I think the guys are, as well. It's going to be a fun fast-paced year and we're all excited for it."

“Subtle” is the key word in all of this which has been emphasized by Spoelstra as people once again should not expect a whole new offensive look for Miami. Instead, he would express that changes are necessary to get the best production out of everybody.

"You can't revamp and start a whole new offense," Spoelstra said. "That gets people out of rhythm. But there has to be some sophistication, there has to be some added new innovation to bring out the best in everybody and everybody has to have those kind of collaborative intentions. This is a group, we have offensive talent everywhere you look and it should be a group that brings out a higher level if we work together to be able to put some points on the board."

Fans are finalizing their predictions for the Heat season as they open on Oct. 23 against the Orlando Magic.

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