Miami Heat’s New Offense STUNS Knicks | Norm Powell SHINES | GOOD VIBES!! | Locked On Heat

Miami Heat’s New Offense STUNS Knicks | Norm Powell SHINES | GOOD VIBES!! | Locked On Heat

Miami had their home opener on Sunday versus the New York Knicks and the offense is explosive, the pace is fast, the team is deep and the vibes are good on today’s Locked on Heat. You are Locked on Heat, your daily Miami Heat podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Hello and welcome to Locked on Heat, your daily podcast on the Miami Heat, however you’re tuning in on YouTube or on your favorite podcast app. Thanks so much for making Locked on Heat your first listen every day. Today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. I’m Wes Goldberg, host of Locked on NBA Daily and Real Jam Radio here with David Rmill. Both of us are credentialed Heat Media members who cover this team every day. And we are coming to you uh in within the hour after the Heat’s win over the Knicks here at Cassa Center. Uh we found a room to record in. We are recording live after the game. Uh have a ton to get to in this one, David. But what an exciting win. Heat beat the Knicks two- one on the season right now. They are playing fast. They are playing fun. All the things that Eric Spolster talked about wanting to do and we hear this across the league all the time across media days and preseason. We want to play fast. want to play three games into the season, they are playing faster. And not to do the whole like Boston Celtics thing, but if we were to go by quarters that they’ve won, yeah, they have won a lot of these quarters, right? As disappointing as those last basically three minutes of that Orlando Magic game was, this team is playing really good, fun, entertaining basketball, highlevel basketball. And what really stands out to me is despite all of the new changes to this roster, no more Jimmy Butler, beginning a new era, Eric Spolster scrapping the old playbook, introducing a new one. And as rough of it as it looked in the preseason, it is a pleasant surprise how much it feels like this team knows exactly what they’re about. Absolutely. They know how they want to play. They know their rotations. There is a very strong identity to this team and it’s something you and I talked all last year about. What is this team? Who are they? Who do they want to be? And I don’t think they ever got a clear answer to that last season. Three games into this season, at least for now, that answer is very clear. I think the players all kind of agree that there is a system in place, an idea that they’re all kind of bonded with and they’re all playing with this kind of just general template as far as their style of play. And it’s a selflessness. It’s a a a commitment to being faster, being more energetic, being more decisive on offense, and their defense has been so good as well and just the right spots, finding ways to negate a shot here, step up, get a force a turnover. So many different ways as it seems working together in a way that maybe they did not in all of last season. And I I just I love the style that they’ve embraced so completely. And we know that they were talking about to your point, it’s easy to discuss it. It’s a completely different matter to just actually implement it and to lean into it so completely and to have it function. This team is talented. It works. The team is good enough to implement it and they’re making it look almost easy. And I love the effort that we’re seeing as well though because on the defensive end in particular, they really are engaged. They’re making a concerted effort despite their lack of size to be active rebounding and pushing the pace and all that kind of ties together. Their defense ignites their offense just as it has in the past, but now it’s a much more fast-paced offense. They’re just letting it fly. They’re they’re looking for the best shot available. There’s constant movement on offense. It’s a fantastic system. So much fun to watch and it’s led to a great win over the New York Knicks early on. Despite the Knicks crowd here in Casaya Center, uh they got to go home into the dark night. Uh a little disappointed, but that’s okay. That’s what we like here at Lockdown Heat. Uh that’s true. um didn’t seem like a very loud Knicks bunch other than the two Knicks fans that were sitting directly behind us on media row, but he first half they were a little loud. By the fourth quarter I didn’t hear them as much. No, they left early. Funny that. I thought only Heat fans left early, but no, the Knicks fans tend to leave early, too. The Heat outscored the Knicks 31 to 10 on fast break points. And we’re going to talk a ton about fast break points, I guess, for the rest of the season if that that’s the plan, at least for now. The other thing that I think is getting overlooked in this heat offense is how much damage they do in the paint. Yes, they are. I think people tend to conflate high tempo offense with modern offense with three-point shooting. A lot of three-point shooting. You’re going to get up and down the court. You’re going to get to the three basically you’re going to run from three-point line to three court three-point line to three-point line. That’s not the heat team. They are looking when they get out and run. They’re looking to get to the rim first. Yeah. And they entered the game number one in pace. I think maybe I haven’t looked this up. I would guess they might be at the top of the league right now in dunks outside of the Spurs because Victor Wmanyama is 8 feet tall. But it’s I don’t know about that. They’re between Wiggins, Bam, Haime. They’re they’re definitely higher than they were last year where they didn’t get a lot of dunks. And that’s also like a thing with this offense. Oh, they are looking to get to the rim. They’re looking for the easiest shot possible. They’re getting a lot of dunks now. There’s still a lot of mid-range attempts, maybe more than I would like. Not enough three-point attempts. I would like to see more. Even though they did get 37 up today. Yeah. The Knicks took 54 threes in this game. But they’re also getting to the line a lot. Yes. Uh they got uh they were 26 of 31 from the free throw line and that was basically Norm Pal going 12 for 12 and bam going eight for eight. It’s the personnel kind of able to do exactly what you were just talking about, attacking the paint. That’s their first uh action in terms of what they’re trying to do offensively. they get the rebound or even off of an inbound and they’re going right towards the paint and seeing if they can get a shot at the rim and you’ve got personnel like Norm who’s so good and he’s got a nice floater game. He’s got a great layup package. It’s amazing to see him kind of just dive towards the basket to try to create an opportunity. Andrew Wiggins, another guy who stepped up in that regard. and Haime Hakees, who I’m sure we’ll talk about throughout the show and throughout the rest of the season because he just looks like he’s so much more energetic and playing with such a high pace, but he’s also looks healthy. Uh it looks like the I I would say even better than what we saw from him as a rookie because the style absolutely lends itself towards his abilities. Like it maximizes what he does as a player and coach Spolster spoke about that as well. Uh he was asked about what he is able to do with this offense and he just looks much more fluid in the de facto point guard position where he’s just pushing pace, bringing the ball up and he’s being much more decisive. Something that we’ve talked a lot about uh this young season. It’s just it’s just incredible to see this team play with a pace on offense that I don’t think we’ve ever seen. Yeah. Maybe not since the big three era. And even the big three era was a little bit more selective because you you forget LeBron wanted to get the ball in the post. He was the point forward of that team. like he was slowing things down in the half court quite a bit. This team is also playing quickly in half court sets. It’s not all about leaking out off of rebound, defensive rebounds, getting steals. It’s obviously about those things, too. But even in the half court, it’s it’s hey, just try to find an advantage and then attack it and then take that shot. They’re averaging in the half court in this game. Um they uh well, before I get to the half court stuff, in transition, they’re scoring 1.5 points per transition opportunity. So, it’s not just it’s not only that they’re doing it a lot, they’re doing it really well. That 1.5 just for is a very, very strong number. The Knicks in this game scored one point per transition opportunity. They didn’t do it as much either as Miami. So, it’s not just volume, it’s quality. And that again, it goes back to the personnel. It’s one thing to just say you want to run, but what if you’re not a good running team? What if you’re not good at it? This team wants to run because they’re good at it. And it’s the thing that you and I kept talking about going into the season is this team is young. It is athletic. There’s a lot of ball handlers. They don’t have that number one guy who you could say, “Hey, here’s the ball.” Yeah. Let him go to work. Queen of to the chessboard. Figure out. They don’t have, frankly, they don’t have anybody that that is that kind of advantage creator on his own. But the advantage creation that’s happening right now is the transition. Yeah. And and catching these teams by surprise. Memphis looked on Friday night, we haven’t talked since that game, but right, they looked like completely stupified by Miami’s offense, and the Knicks didn’t look quite as stupified, but they were definitely scrambling. I think a lot of that had to do with uh New York’s physicality. Like I I think they that’s just the way they play. You had a number of players who were kind of very much foul trouble for them is well I mean it happens when you’re you’re trying to limit things and you’re trying to put a hand here in order to kind of slow that first initial trigger and things of that sort. So it makes a lot of sense that there would be foul trouble. Yeah, absolutely. Towns had five fouls. OG had four fouls. Brunson had three. Bridges had three. Uh Josh Hart had uh one, Yabiselli had three. Like all these guys like Ariel Hooky who played 10 minutes had two fouls in 10 minutes. Like all these guys just could like they couldn’t they couldn’t keep the heat in front of them and that’s where the fouls come. Did Miami hire Mike Danton at some point? I mean, is it kind of seems that that that offense that style at least is what they’re I think a an interesting conversation about Eric Spolstra and I guess it’s another one that we’ll be having throughout the year while this lasts is I don’t think that he ever really wanted to play slow, right? But I think he I don’t think Spo wants to play anyway. He wants to play the way that suits his roster. And in the past, the roster was suited for that. But even when Kyle Lowry and Kevin Love were around, he would talk about all the time, hey, they they’re able to get us into instant offense with the hit ahead passes, with the quick reads. Like there’s something about Eric Spolstra invented pace in space and people tend to forget that because it was 10 years ago but it you know this I think is more fun for everybody. Yeah. There was a number of players who had said the vibes are good. Absolutely. And that is another said the vibes. I didn’t even know K knew what vibes were. Yeah. He’s never really spoken about it before and and look there’s a lot that you can read into a statement like that but I think he’s kind of just I think that players are happy. I mean, you ask players if what they’d like to the style they’d like to play, it’s this. It’s an egalitarian offense, making sure everybody touches the ball, looking for good opportunities to score, etc. This is what kind of feeds a player’s ego. You know, they enjoy playing this sort of system. They’re they’re really leaning into it, and there is a sense of camaraderie and focus on on succeeding as a team rather than any one individual standing out about that. And and you’re not just making that like that’s not you projecting. The players are literally talking this way. And and that is like we don’t have to do this whole thing. You understand the subtext behind that if you’ve been following this team for the last 5 years. Like you understand what that is. Hey, we’re all involved in the offense now. We like playing fast. We like playing to all of our strengths now. We don’t have to play one specific way. And we know how we’re going to play every single night because we’re not guessing about who’s available or how much how hard they’re trying necessarily. Anyway, we don’t have to do it. I don’t want to do it. We don’t have We don’t have to listen to country music in the locker room. How about that? It was weird that it wasn’t in the locker room after a win. I didn’t I don’t I don’t know what I don’t know what changed specifically, but um here’s the thing. I do know. I smell some baked goods. Oh, it’s been a while. It’s coming up next. Today’s episode is brought to you by Monarch. Let’s be honest, most of us can’t even name all of our financial accounts, let alone what they’re worth between 401ks, savings, and investments. It’s easy to lose track, and that can mean leaving money on the table. And that’s why I started using Monarch. 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Use the code lockdown NBA for half off your first year. Today’s episode is also brought to you by Game Time. Basketball season’s officially here and nothing beats being in the arena for those opening games. Unless you’re a Knicks fan, then you can stay home. But let’s be real, getting tickets can be a total headache. Between waiting in cues, surprise fees, and prices that jump right before checkout, it’s easy to get frustrated when all you want to do is cheer on your team. And that’s where game time comes in. It’s the app that gives fans the advantage. It’s your ultimate life hack for scoring amazing NBA tickets fast, easy, and stressfree. I told you about it recently. A friend of mine had to get tickets so they could watch their daughter play at an upcoming game or or do an one of those performances in between timeouts and stuff like that. And he used the Game Time app. So convenient, so easy. Just a few taps and next thing you know, he’s got the tickets and he can get to see the game. And this is a Heat team that you don’t want to miss. So, if you’re looking to go to a game, use the Game Time app to catch this fun, fast-paced offense and see what we’re talking about on the show. Take the guess work out of buying NBA tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use the code locked on NBA. You get $20 off your first purchase. Terms to apply, that’s code locked on NBA. L O C D O NA for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. That’s game time. We’ll be right back. Thank you for making Lock on Heat your first listen every day. Join the cookie gang and be an everydayer by hitting that subscribe button on YouTube. Follow us on podcast app. It’s another heat win, David, which means it’s time for the tastiest segment of Lock Heat. It is time for credit cookies. I don’t even know where to begin with the credit cookie aotment because this is and I can’t speak to this enough. The fact that the team is playing so well. There are so many different players that I thought stepped up and it’s something we didn’t necessarily talk about in the first segment, but you and I had been talking about it beforehand and I just thought there were little micro moments throughout the game where a player did something differently or stepped up or hit a big shot and it was enough to kind of turn the tide to make an impact on the game. And there were so many players that I felt made an impact in that way. But I also recognize that no one player made a bigger impact on tonight’s win than Norm Powell. He was absolutely sensational. You brought up the point about him being decisive. I asked him about it when he got to the podium today. He is this offense has enabled him to maximize his abilities and in terms of being able to just pick his spots, move with intent, create those shot opportunities. He’s letting it fly. There was a moment there where I think in any other season you would have seen his shot selection from three-point range and go, why is he taking that shot? And this season, it’s encouraged and he’s able to hit it. Like he is a much better shooter than we would remember or or maybe you even consider, but he was three of five from the floor tonight for 29 points. Just a sensational performance from him. Able to get to the line as you said, 12 of 12 from the line. A perfect night at the free throw line. incredible game from him. He looks so comfortable. He spoke about it after the game, telling us that he just he’s felt comfortable from day one. He knows exactly what to do and he feels very much at home uh in this offense and that’s why he’s getting three cookies on the night. So, he’s got three cookies. For a reminder, people might might not be familiar with the credit cookies segment. We have 10 cookies to give out. That’s a hard number. We don’t go over, we don’t go less. It’s 10 cookies after every win. I like the rules. We don’t go over. You have 10 cookies. That’s what makes it a segment. Okay, we can’t just hand out unlimited half cookies either. Also, no half cookies, right? So, um, three cookies to Norm Pals about right. It feels like it should be more, but considering how many people have to get the cookies. That’s right. That’s where the segment comes in. So, uh, no, exactly the point because there are so many players that I think stepped up and and therefore, uh, it it really is much difficult. But you know what? You know, another player who I think Well, one last thing on Powell, though. Yes. It’s the three-point shooting that stands out with him. It’s it’s it’s silky smooth. He shoots like butter. He’s also got this north south ability. Yes. That is so it’s such a breath of fresh air to this Heat offense. It just has even Jimmy Butler would get to the line a lot or get to the basket a lot, but it wasn’t this north south. It was a lot slower. It was a little bit more plotting back to the basket old school kind of style. Pal is just he had a move. He missed the shot and it was maybe my favorite attempt that he had in the entire game where it was it was like almost a euro step but he just exploded from like the free throw line. Yeah. And it wasn’t like this huge running start. It wasn’t this great transition opportunity. It was just like free throw line caught the ball and then just exploded towards the rim and I think he got fouled. But um there’s there’s that north south ability with him that is just almost like surprising to see uh based on what we’ve seen from this heat offense in the past. So three cookies to him. I agree. Who’s next? All right. I’ve got Bam Mabayo. Um, how many I I think this was maybe not his most productive game and uh he was struggling from the three uh the three-point line. Uh one for five, but one of five. Uh you know, he had a hot shooting night against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday. Sensational 4-4 first quarter. Uh that was not the case today. He actually started off a little bit slowly and was eventually able to find his rhythm. But this was a game for the BAM apologists. Uh because I think it was all the little things that he was able to do that really turned the tide and I think one of the major thing to me was his defense on Carl Anthony Towns. Like it started off with Khil Wear picking him up and not necessarily a knock on Wear but he looked outmatched. He did not seem to understand exactly what the nature of Carl Anthony Town’s game is the way that he wants to shoot from the perimeter and Khil just wasn’t able to make those kind of adjustments. a step too slow and kind of uh in pick and rural situations where he would leave Cat wide open from the three-point line and eventually spoke to his credit said you know what let’s scrap that and he put Bam directly on Cat and it worked it was the right move it slowed him down completely I don’t think Carl Anthony Towns was as much of a factor he made that cho made that change within the first five minutes of the game he’s like nope not the hook was so fast and that’s the kind of urgent coaching that I I’m honestly I don’t know that we saw that last year from Spo and it was it’s the third game of the year and he was do and he was like nope we’re going to win this game against the Knicks almost like a playoff kick. It felt like it almost a playoff game and he and that’s kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier where it just this team has such a strong identity not just how they want to play fast and all these things but in their rotation too. When you have a strong rotational identity, you can kind of make those quick changes on the fly, right? Because you everything else is settled. So spoken just like you know what I’m it’s really easy for me to kind of just now toggle between Kell and Bam. And every time Cat goes to the scores table, Bam’s going back in if he’s not already in the game. And he basically did that after that first five minute stretch for the rest of the game. There was like a two-minute stretch where Bam was on the on the bench while Wear was out there with Cat. And then the next break that he got, Bam was back out there to match up against Cat. Cat stunk in this game. And a lot of that was Bam. A lot of that was just him not having a good game as Cat can do sometimes. But um Bam I thought I will disagree with you on this point. I actually thought he was really aggressive. I thought he came out really he took the Miami’s first three shots. He had only You can look at his field goal attempts and see only 15. He also got to the line eight times. Went eight for eight from the line. Him and Norm Pal combined 20 of 20 from the free throw line. So, you have to kind of throw the the free throw attempts in there, too. I like the level of aggression. It wasn’t quite what it was in Memphis, but it was enough. It wasn’t He never tried to take over the game because Norm Pal had it going and other and Haime had it going for a stretch. So, he wasn’t trying to hijack the offense, but I thought it was really aggressive from Bam in this game. So, I How many cookies did you give him? I gave him two. I thought uh it was about the little things for me from Bam. And looked, I might be penalizing him to a certain degree because he tried posting up smaller players. He got his uh, you know, he got his pockets picked and got him one time. Went up turning over the ball a couple times. So, there were little moments here where maybe I I don’t think he was quite as good as he could be. But overall, I just like the little things that he was doing. He’s the only uh starter with a positive plus minus. Strangely enough, it’s a little This was This is what’s highlights Bam’s strength. It’s not 30 plus points is doing all the little things to wind up leading to a win, which is a lot easier to do when you have a primary scorer like Norm Pal and that’s why he gets the ball. His rebounding was so important in this game. Miami does Miami lost quote unquote lost the rebounding battle 52 to 50. Let’s call that a wash. They’re not even close if not for Bam. And Bam got credited for 13 rebounds. He created a lot more defensive rebounds. His box outs were absolutely elite in this game. Um we got to quickly do the uh final couple. All right. You know what? We talked about Hyman before. He gets two credit cookies as well. Just playing point. Just really, really solid in initiating offense. I also gave one to Drew Smith, who I think did a pretty solid job overall. Had some nice plays here and there. So, he gets one, one for Simone Fonteo, who I think was really, really good. I think he’s just been thriving in his minutes off the bench, and he’s just he’s got a just a little level to him that I don’t think we were familiar. a little dirtiness maybe or just aggression a physical a physicality and ando actually spoke about this with a um I don’t I don’t know the outlets it’s a Italian outlet I don’t know the names and I apologize but talked about hey I don’t want it I don’t want to be that European player who comes over and has like oh you’re just a soft three-point shooter he actively is trying to establish himself as a physical player and he keeps talking about how he’s underrated defensively I wouldn’t go that far I will say this he’s not better better than advertised better than advertised and not an obvious obvious target the way that maybe you know he’s not a guy he’s not getting picked on. So I’ve been really impressed. My favorite thing about Fonteo, every time he hits a three, I notice it from the home crowd. There’s people doing this and I’m all in. I just love that. Big fan. Uh and one more credit cookie goes to Nico Yovic who struggled a little bit, but I think he did turn it around. And these are the kind of micro moments that I was talking about. He hits a three-pointer, then he goes plays solid defense, and yeah, he throws his hands up. We’ve talked about that a number of times. Uh, and he finally got just it seemed like again the lid was off the rim for him to be able to knock down that three-pointer, but it seemed to also energize him and get him engaged in the defensive end. He was a little bit more aggressive, was able to push the ball up, tossed a perfect lob to Bam that got the crowd going. Those were the little moments. Uh, and I spoke about Khil struggling in the first quarter and although he’s not getting a credit cookie, I think there was a stretch there in the second half where he was much more engaged again following a three-pointer and almost he seemed to recognize, oh yeah, I am a sevenfooter that can’t impact the game and he played defensive was very good at pulling down rebounds as well. So, a level of physicality that I don’t know that we’ve seen consistently from him. Eight rebounds for Kell. Yeah. Last thing on Nico and then we’ll get into our next segment here. But there was a minute stretch at the end of the third quarter that I thought yes kind of turned the game I think for Miami. He gets the three-pointer that you talked about immediately the next possession for the Knicks. Tyler Col has the ball up there. Drew Smith is guarding him. Col has his back turned uh to to Nico. Nico is on the right wing covering Josh Hart. Kak has his back turned to him kind of looking more towards center court and Nico just comes up with a random double team. this this heat team defensively does not double, does not trap, right? They’re not doing it. They’re switching one through four, they’re dropping their five and that’s the defense pretty much every possession. Yep. Um but to see Nico smartly and I even asked I asked him about this in the locker room after the game like did somebody call that for you off the sideline? He’s like, “No, no, but like this is we’re we’re not going to double, but sometimes we are and this is a situation where we’re going to double.” And it’s that exact kind of play where he’s able to kind of there’s 4 seconds left on the shot clock. He’s able to get him by surprise. Creates a turnover. Yeah. Kick throws it into the crowd. Yeah. Creates a turnover. Kick freaks out, picks up his dribble, throws it away. Um and that creates a turnover. Miami gets another possession and then uh Nico then I think they score on that possession and then on the next defensive possession, Nico gets a really big rebound. I think it was uh Gershon Yabiselli who was in there who had a nice night rebounding wise for for the Knicks. Almost came up with an offensive rebound to kind of give them a relief point at the end of that third quarter, but Nico made sure that that didn’t happen. So a really strong minute there for Nico. And I think that set up Miami for that little run that they had in that fourth quarter that that kind of turned this game. So, uh, great job on the credit cookies there. Hopefully, we’re going to be giving out a whole lot more. But, um, at the risk of looking too far ahead, do the Heat have an issue when Tyler Herro comes back. We’ll talk about that next. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you missed the start of the game or want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Knicks almost waged one tonight, but the Heat were able to save them off. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a save game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game exciting, especially when your team’s making that late push. Because right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So head to fanduel.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Let’s get to some questions. Thanks to everybody who sent in questions using the uh via the subtext link and our our Lockdown Heat Insider community. You can join that community, become a member of the cookie gang by using the link in the show notes. This first question comes from Cody who writes in, “Are there or should there be any concerns in creating Tyler Herro to this high tempo offense? He likes the ball and his hands a lot to do his damage and I’m curious what you guys think that looks like when uh when he comes back considering how well or how high the tempo is right now.” It’s a question that we’ve gotten. I don’t know that we’ve necessarily talked about it on the show yet. Yeah. Um I think it’s a fair concern. Now, to the point of this question, are there or should there be concerns? I don’t know that there I’m not sensing a concern in that locker room. I think we’re getting too far ahead of ourselves with that. But I do understand the concern from fans and I think it’s I think it’s fair. I think it’s fair to wonder what that looks like. Before I answer, where are you on this? I agree with you. I I think players by and large say, well, anybody that can put up points and add something to this team, why wouldn’t we want him in there? So, they’re not worried about it. I know maybe to a certain degree they’ll be concerned about, well, he’s going to cut into my minutes or cut into my productivity. Those individual concerns, absolutely, they do come up. But in terms of welcoming him back to the team, I don’t think there’s any conflict there. As far as the offense is concerned, you and I did text during the Memphis game. We both think he’s going to flourish in that sense. He is well suited for this style of offense. Uh maybe he does tend to over dribble on occasion, but I mean given how these the roster over the last couple years was set up and he especially last season when he had so much responsibility on offense, I think he that was the nature of what he was inclined to do on this team. I don’t think that’s going to be the case. I think he’s going to be enabled to kind of push the pace, score, be decisive on offense. I would like to see him out there with DaVon or Drew Smith. Yes. And so that gets into a whole other question about the starting lineup that we don’t have time to get into right now, right? But I would like to see him log a lot of minutes with those with with a point guard out there. That said, I think Tyler Hiro showed that he could be a quick trigger decision kind of guy in the first half of last season going into the All-Star break and then when Jimmy got traded and everything like they had to kind of refigure the offense midway and they actually asked him to basically dribble the ball more because as the lead playmaker the defense has keyed in on him too. Yep. So, it’s a counter to the counter as well. But the reason I think he’s going to flourish is he’s got a lightning quick release. He’s like Norm Powell, really quick to get into the shooting motion. Um, and I think he can average 12 three-point attempts per game in this offense. And that would be like highly efficient. I mean, that would be crazy. And and we know the kind of shooter that Tyler Herro is. So, if he’s playing fast and he’s getting open looks and he’s got that quick trigger, and the other thing about Tyler, nobody else really on this roster can do this. The deep three. Yeah. that spaces. Norm Powell will take a couple, but he’s not that’s not really his game. Yeah. Hero can launch from 30. And for a team that also prides itself on rebounding in order to push the pace, he’s a good rebounder. He’s an excellent rebounder for his position and that’s going to lend itself so much better to this. Let’s go quickly through a couple more of uh of these questions. Um William writes in, “Do you think watching this Heat game that it felt like the Heat had another level that they could get to? It felt like they played the Knicks game. Maybe that was out of familiarity.” I do think there was pockets of this game where they did get a little bit slower. We even saw Bam um kind of rally the troops during like a a brief like huddle being like, “Hey, move the ball, push.” Like kind you could see you could read his lips and see. So there was definitely moments where they almost had to remind themselves to push the tempo, but overall I think they played I think they did I think they ran the Knicks off the floor. Absolutely. Uh and look, I I think you have to take into consideration the level of physicality that the Knicks typically play with. That’s going to take its toll. So maybe you might slow down a little bit and you have to learn how to compensate for that knowing that maybe you’re not going to go as aggressively as you might want to even though that was not the case for 48 minutes. It just was little pockets here and there as you said knowing you’re probably going to get beat up by an OG and under there’s also a lot of free throws and that tends to slow the game down and that was mostly because the Knicks couldn’t keep their hands in their pockets. So uh I add writes in are we good? Hell yeah. What kind of question is that? Didn’t you watch the game? He also writes in, “Is Norm is Norm Powell gonna have a late leap like Jimmy Butler? Is that what we saw from Is that what they saw from him? The number of free throws is great and dunks really. It’s crazy.” I think it’s interesting to consider Norman Pal like a late leap guy. Yeah. He’s talked a lot about how he’s used in a lot of different roles, but between last year with the Clippers and this year now, he’s being a little bit more featured offensively. I don’t know if this means that he’s going to become a top 30 guy in the NBA. I would guess not. But yeah, I mean this is the best basketball Nor Pal has played of his career, whatever that means. He looks fantastic out there. He just he is very comfortable and able to do what he does best. And I will dispute the question though because I don’t think Jimmy was a late bloomer in any way. Like he was very impactful in Chicago on teams that didn’t really have much success uh at took over for Derrick Rose after the injury. Yeah, maybe he was his best version here with Miami, but that’s not to say that what he had done in the previous year, he was always of an all-star even prior to joining the Heat. Ulis writes in Spo finally winning coach of the year. His odds are better slash worse now. However, he’s got stronger odds to win coach of the year now than he did before the season. So, we’ll see. Yeah, I I I think again the story is the story is writing itself, though. Miami comes out surprising like with a with a winning record that nobody really expected here and you’ve got a refreshed offense that’s fun to watch. I mean that’s the storyline that you need to win. People are talking about this team in a way that they were not at the start of the season. Uh Malachi writes in despite his shooting woes I really like what Bam is doing with the new offense by going straight to the basket and drawing fouls. Yes, I agree. Yeah, absolutely. It seems like the team the team ethos there and Bam’s at the head of it. I think he’s done a really effective job at drawing contact and and he just does look to your point more more aggressive on offense even if the shot isn’t necessarily falling. There was a a a shot that is quote unquote a bad shot that he took in the first half. Um the long it was the long two but the turnaround two against Cat. Yeah. I love that. I love that. Not all the time but put his shoulder in him. It was a little bit it was like three feet closer than that free throw line jumper that he likes to get usually wide open. Direct challenge. It’s a direct challenge. It’s the physicality. It’s a little Pascal seakam which I really like. Um where you kind of just get that shoulder in there and then you kind of hit that spin move right down on that left block. I love that. Again, I don’t want to see that every time, but throw a couple in there just to show him who’s boss. I I like that level of physicality and aggression from Bam a lot. Yeah, absolutely. Um and he is getting to the free throw line a lot more. Last thing here, David Billy writes in, I understand that we’re a long way from being a contender, but I feel like we’re closer today with our new offense and core of Wiggins, Bam, Pal, and Hero than we have been since the first year with Kyle Lowry. That’s a great question. That’s a great question. Wasn’t even a question. It was a statement his opinion. Is there a question picked into it or is it just saying, “Okay, well, we should leave it at that.” I mean, Billy, if you want to think that and other Heath fans, if they want to think that, we applaud that. We encourage that. Let us know in the YouTube comments. Are you rethinking this team after these first three games? Uh, and they’re standing in the Eastern Conference. Would you go so far as to call them a contender? But that’ll do it for us today. Let us know what you think in the YouTube comments. Thanks for making us, uh, and Locked on Heat your first listen every day. Credit cookies, first one in the books, perhaps a lot more to come.

The Miami Heat’s fast-paced offense is taking the NBA by storm! In this episode, Wes Goldberg and David Ramil break down Miami’s thrilling win over the New York Knicks and what it says about Erik Spoelstra’s new system.

With Norm Powell’s breakout performance, Bam Adebayo’s defensive dominance, and the team’s renewed energy, this new era of Heat basketball is looking electric. Wes and David analyze how the Heat’s offense flows without Jimmy Butler, the chemistry behind the faster tempo, and how Tyler Herro could fit right in when he returns. Tune in for expert Heat analysis, insight, and all the postgame reactions from Locked On Heat — your team, every day.

00:00 – Intro
02:00 – Fast pace and team chemistry under Spoelstra
13:50 – Credit Cookies: Players of the game
25:00 – Can Tyler Herro fit into this new system?

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