How to explain the Heat's woes this season? It's obvious that Miami regularly dealt with injuries and was unable to rely on Tyler Herro, Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo at the same time on the court. But the Heat also struggles to be effective generally on the offensive level.
Jimmy Butler and his gang are thus still among the very best students in the “Defensive Rating” (5th in the regular season) but also among the worst in the “Offensive Rating” (21st). The Heat's offensive problem was already targeted during the season, with the reinforcement of Terry Rozier, but the attack will be one of the Heat's big projects during the offseason.
“This is what I will work on, the coaching staff will meet often to try to develop a more productive offensive plan,” announced the coachwho will have to rely on the Draft or exchanges.
Too many injuries?
The problem does not date from this season since the Heat were 25th in “Offensive Rating” during the 2022/23 regular season. What the accession to the Finals had finally masked.
“We basically had three main offensive philosophies this season and a lot last season, depending on the players available,” recalls Erik Spoelstra. “All things considered, I thought we were making progress in each of those areas. But consistency has become a challenge. And the styles of play were different depending on the players available. So I don't want to make excuses about availability, but we also have to look at what is real and what is not. »
For Duncan Robinson, injuries are the main cause of the Heat's problems on offense.
“I think a lot of it is a lack of continuity” assures the shooter. “A large part of the attack – because the number of systems is limited – is based on reading the game and the game intelligence that we develop within a group. And you have to have a certain level of continuity. This year we missed it. We had different periods of the season where we really played very different ways on offense. But we have to find solutions, because we have the tools to become a better offense. »
For the Heat, however, the priority will be to find a way to get closer to the circle because this is the biggest problem for Erik Spoelstra's men, who take only 28.5% of shots near the circle (27th in the league) and who only score 63.4% of their shots under the basket (23rd)…
