How Miami Heat are winning despite “talent deficit” compared to other NBA teams

How Miami Heat are winning despite “talent deficit” compared to other NBA teams

the Miami Heat. I caught just the fourth quarter of their win last night versus the Brunson and Anobilus Knicks and it was kind of another classic Miami Heat game from this year. They had seven dudes in double figures. Everybody was involved in the offense late in the game. DaVon Mitchell hit two of the most ridiculous lefty scoop shots that you’ll see a small guard make. And so I was digging into the numbers. I was like, man, it feels like Da’Von’s been hitting these tough layups like all season. He’s 65% on layups this year. And again, that’s an insane number for such a small guard. The vast majority of guards below 63, you’ll see in that like 53 to 57% range. 57 being the high end for these like small guards. Like for him to be making 65% of his layups, shows really impressive touch around the rim. And then they won the game with their perimeter defense. Like the Knicks were killing them with dribble penetration in the early fourth quarter. Duce McBride had this like absurd dunk in transition. Russell Westbrookesque where he just took off like a freight train and then just exploded off of one leg and dunked it with his right hand. Uh Jordan Clarkson was killing him in the paint. Carl Anthony Towns beats Haime Hakez off the dribble and gets a little bank shot. Like they were doing a bunch of damage off the dribble, but in the final minutes, the Heat started to keep the ball in front, which started leading to some tougher contested jump shots that didn’t go in. And then Kel Wear and Norman Pal ended up having a couple of big buckets each late in the game that iced the game. I’m still not super high on the Heat. They’re a little gimmicky to me. U they’re reliant on catching teams sleeping in transition by not stopping the ball with those early drives that they constantly hit teams with. If you can keep the Heat in front, they’re not going to beat great defense consistently in the half court. And that’s shown in their record splits. like they’re 5-0 this year against teams that are below 500, but they’re just three and six against teams that are 500 or better. And two of those three wins were against the Cavs in a game they lost Darius Garland and the Knicks without Jaylen Brunson and Ojanobi. Although to their credit, they did beat that healthy Knicks team early in the season. To be clear, I don’t mean that as a negative thing about the Heat. Like, this is not a very good roster. like you’re not if you’re stacking up the Miami Heat’s talent on paper compared to the other teams in the NBA, they’re they’re firmly in like the 16 to 20 range. They’re not a very talented roster compared to some of the other teams around the NBA. I mean, they were without BAO and Tyler Harrow last night, right? I mean, but even when they’re fully healthy, I don’t see them to be like a very imposing set of talent, right? But once again, they’re sitting at eight and six. They’re fully in the mix in the Eastern Conference and it’s because Eric Spolstra just keeps finding ways to maximize talent in the modern NBA. Like this year he saw the clear strength on his roster like oh man like Hime Hakez can beat dudes off the dribble like uh you know DaVon Mitchell can initiate a dribble drive attack. We’ve got some good read and react talent relative to some of the other teams in the league. And so he kind of built this drive and kick system that maximizes that specific set of talent. You’ve got just that little bit of top end from Norman Pal who has been fantastic this year as a guy who can score coming off the coming off of action by hitting shots over the top. the uh the uh Heat are like one of the very lowest frequency teams when it comes to off the dribble jump shooting, but they got a couple of guys like Norman Palin and Tyler Harrow when he comes back that can do that and it just provides a little bit of a counter to their drive and kick system and then they just dominate the margins like every Eric Spolster team does. They dominate the transition battle. They dominate turnovers and points off of turnovers. And so they just find ways to manufacture higher level basketball than what you would expect from the talent on the roster. Again, I’m not trying to say they don’t have any talent. It’s just the league is stacked. Like they’re they’re not going out there with, you know, even like Brandon Ingram and Scotty Barnes level uh type of players that you see in terms of top end compared to some of the other rosters in the league. Like the Heat are operating at a talent deficit and they’re competing every single night in a stacked NBA because of Eric Sper’s ability to just find what his specific team’s strength is and leverage that strength on a night-to-ight basis to win games.

Jason reacts to Norman Powell, Andrew Wiggins, and the Miami Heat’s win over the New York Knicks and breaks down how Erik Spoelstra has guided the team to success despite a talent deficit while Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo are out.

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