Ace
12-14-2010, 02:32 PM
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After starting out 9-8 this season, conventional wisdom claimed that this Heat team was fatally flawed. Now with eight consecutive wins by at least 10 points, the Heat have answered the doubters. Here are three early-season myths that have been busted.
LeBron James and Dwyane Wade can’t coexist.
It took only one game in Boston for this theory to hatch. There was concern that, as two ball-dominant attackers, James and Wade’s games mirrored each other to the point of redundancy. We heard the gallery’s Chicken Little diagnoses over and over again. There’s only one ball. They’re taking turns in the half court. They’re too proud to defer.
We’re learning now that the relationship between the two superstars was far too green to warrant the conclusive review. But the worries had some weight, even if they were premature. Off the court, James and Wade fed the monster by admitting they were preoccupied with whose “time” it was to get their shots. And we could see it on the court. If one superstar had the ball, the other stood idly watching on the other side of the floor. The offense looked inactive, unimaginative, and wasteful.
But the recent play has quieted those concerns. It took some time, but James and Wade discovered the panacea for their problems: speed.
The Heat have reeled off eight straight double-digit victories in large part to James and Wade’s realization that they’re virtually invincible on the go. Whether it’s flying in transition or cutting to the basket off the ball, the two superstars have blitzed opponents through sheer velocity.
It’s a stark change to their isolation-heavy offensive attack. It used to be that when LeBron had the ball in the half court, Wade and his defender would observe the two-time MVP go to work from a distance. But not anymore. The moment Wade’s defender gives LeBron his full attention, Wade has begun to cut back door to the rim, leading to some incredibly easy buckets. And in the full court, the two have orchestrated some of the most synchronized fast breaks of the season league-wide.
We can see the synergy in the numbers as well. During an eight-game stretch in November ending with the Dallas loss, Wade was assisted on only six of his 45 made baskets, including four games in which all his buckets were scored without the passing help of his teammates. Since then? Wade has been assisted on nearly half of his field goals (39 assists on 81 buckets). James, too, has experienced a similar turnaround during the win streak.
Many of those assisted buckets have occurred in traffic, but the half court game has increasingly displayed more movement, weeding out the one-on-one stagnancy that plagued the Heat earlier this season. As co-pilots steering the Heat’s success, it’s no longer relevant to argue who’s in the driver’s seat. They’re winning together.
Without Udonis Haslem, the Heat are too soft.
Spurred by Haslem’s foot injury and Chris Bosh’s dip in the rebounding column, it was believed that the Heat were going to be bludgeoned down low this season.
Except that hasn’t really happened.
In fact, by some comprehensive measures, the Heat have protected the basket better than any team in the NBA. According to Synergy video data, opponents are shooting a mind-boggling 37.2 percent around the basket this season. The league-average conversion rate? 45.8 percent. Only the Chicago Bulls (39.8 percent) come close to approaching Miami’s overpowering basket defense. Yeah, a team that starts Chris Bosh and Zydrunas Ilgauskas is leading the league in basket protection.
How have the Heat done it? They’ve built a stone wall through defensive rotations. The Heat rarely give up open looks at the basket thanks to head coach Erik Spoelstra’ system, which relies on trust and help defense. Without an anchor like Dwight Howard or Joakim Noah, Miami is forced to protect the rim as a unit where every defender must ensure the opponent doesn’t get a clean look. Bosh can’t rotate to help plug a 1-5 pick-and-roll unless he’s confident that his wing teammates are rotating as well. And James and Wade can cover so much ground with their speed and length that they are able to hedge between two players without stretching the defense too thin.
There’s no doubt that Haslem’s injury weakened the Heat frontcourt, but the Heat's supposed rebounding flaws have seemed to disappear during their hot streak. In fact, when we look at offensive rebounding rate, the Heat have outrebounded their opponent in nine of their 12 games since Haslem went down in Memphis. Prefer traditional counting stats? With Haslem sidelined, the Heat have outrebounded opponents 532 to 467. And their most impressive performance coming against the Sacramento Kings who ranked in the league’s top ten in rebounding before the Heat got done with them.
While it appears that the Heat have given more effort on the boards, we should also attribute their rebounding surge to the team’s comfort factor with Spoelstra’s defensive schemes (http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamiheat/post/_/id/2405/2405). Positioning is just as important to collecting a live ball as energy.
With the Heat gobbling up boards and defending the paint, their purported Achilles heel doesn’t seem to be much of a problem anymore. If anything, it’s been a propeller for their success.
The Heat can’t contend with Carlos Arroyo as their starting point guard.
Averaging just 6.9 points and 2.1 assists per game, the 31-year-old Arroyo has been a punching bag for Heat cricitism this season. The journeyman point guard has put up less than stellar per game numbers as a starter, but his function on this team isn’t to be a conventional point guard. Why? This isn’t a conventional team.
Arroyo’s job description requires him to defend the opposing point guard, hit open shots and play within his means on offense. And to that end, he’s doing just fine. His 50.4 field goal percentage is a career-high while ranking third among regular point guards behind Steve Nash and Tony Parker. Furthermore, his 59.3 True Shooting percentage ranks among the leaders at his position as well.
It was expected that magnetic presence of LeBron and Wade would make it easier for teammates to score and it’s evident that Arroyo is capitalizing on his opportunities. According to Synergy, 81 percent of Arroyo’s catch-and-shoots this season have come unguarded and he’s cashed in with a 58.8 effective field goal percentage. Both rates are well above average.
Not only is he nailing his shots but Arroyo has also cut down on his turnovers. With just 17 turnovers in 565 minutes played, no starting point guard has fewer turnovers per minute than the Miami veteran. Spoelstra has asked Arroyo to play conservative, mistake-free basketball and the eight-year veteran has responded in a big way.
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamiheat/post/_/id/2436/busting-three-early-heat-myths
After starting out 9-8 this season, conventional wisdom claimed that this Heat team was fatally flawed. Now with eight consecutive wins by at least 10 points, the Heat have answered the doubters. Here are three early-season myths that have been busted.
LeBron James and Dwyane Wade can’t coexist.
It took only one game in Boston for this theory to hatch. There was concern that, as two ball-dominant attackers, James and Wade’s games mirrored each other to the point of redundancy. We heard the gallery’s Chicken Little diagnoses over and over again. There’s only one ball. They’re taking turns in the half court. They’re too proud to defer.
We’re learning now that the relationship between the two superstars was far too green to warrant the conclusive review. But the worries had some weight, even if they were premature. Off the court, James and Wade fed the monster by admitting they were preoccupied with whose “time” it was to get their shots. And we could see it on the court. If one superstar had the ball, the other stood idly watching on the other side of the floor. The offense looked inactive, unimaginative, and wasteful.
But the recent play has quieted those concerns. It took some time, but James and Wade discovered the panacea for their problems: speed.
The Heat have reeled off eight straight double-digit victories in large part to James and Wade’s realization that they’re virtually invincible on the go. Whether it’s flying in transition or cutting to the basket off the ball, the two superstars have blitzed opponents through sheer velocity.
It’s a stark change to their isolation-heavy offensive attack. It used to be that when LeBron had the ball in the half court, Wade and his defender would observe the two-time MVP go to work from a distance. But not anymore. The moment Wade’s defender gives LeBron his full attention, Wade has begun to cut back door to the rim, leading to some incredibly easy buckets. And in the full court, the two have orchestrated some of the most synchronized fast breaks of the season league-wide.
We can see the synergy in the numbers as well. During an eight-game stretch in November ending with the Dallas loss, Wade was assisted on only six of his 45 made baskets, including four games in which all his buckets were scored without the passing help of his teammates. Since then? Wade has been assisted on nearly half of his field goals (39 assists on 81 buckets). James, too, has experienced a similar turnaround during the win streak.
Many of those assisted buckets have occurred in traffic, but the half court game has increasingly displayed more movement, weeding out the one-on-one stagnancy that plagued the Heat earlier this season. As co-pilots steering the Heat’s success, it’s no longer relevant to argue who’s in the driver’s seat. They’re winning together.
Without Udonis Haslem, the Heat are too soft.
Spurred by Haslem’s foot injury and Chris Bosh’s dip in the rebounding column, it was believed that the Heat were going to be bludgeoned down low this season.
Except that hasn’t really happened.
In fact, by some comprehensive measures, the Heat have protected the basket better than any team in the NBA. According to Synergy video data, opponents are shooting a mind-boggling 37.2 percent around the basket this season. The league-average conversion rate? 45.8 percent. Only the Chicago Bulls (39.8 percent) come close to approaching Miami’s overpowering basket defense. Yeah, a team that starts Chris Bosh and Zydrunas Ilgauskas is leading the league in basket protection.
How have the Heat done it? They’ve built a stone wall through defensive rotations. The Heat rarely give up open looks at the basket thanks to head coach Erik Spoelstra’ system, which relies on trust and help defense. Without an anchor like Dwight Howard or Joakim Noah, Miami is forced to protect the rim as a unit where every defender must ensure the opponent doesn’t get a clean look. Bosh can’t rotate to help plug a 1-5 pick-and-roll unless he’s confident that his wing teammates are rotating as well. And James and Wade can cover so much ground with their speed and length that they are able to hedge between two players without stretching the defense too thin.
There’s no doubt that Haslem’s injury weakened the Heat frontcourt, but the Heat's supposed rebounding flaws have seemed to disappear during their hot streak. In fact, when we look at offensive rebounding rate, the Heat have outrebounded their opponent in nine of their 12 games since Haslem went down in Memphis. Prefer traditional counting stats? With Haslem sidelined, the Heat have outrebounded opponents 532 to 467. And their most impressive performance coming against the Sacramento Kings who ranked in the league’s top ten in rebounding before the Heat got done with them.
While it appears that the Heat have given more effort on the boards, we should also attribute their rebounding surge to the team’s comfort factor with Spoelstra’s defensive schemes (http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamiheat/post/_/id/2405/2405). Positioning is just as important to collecting a live ball as energy.
With the Heat gobbling up boards and defending the paint, their purported Achilles heel doesn’t seem to be much of a problem anymore. If anything, it’s been a propeller for their success.
The Heat can’t contend with Carlos Arroyo as their starting point guard.
Averaging just 6.9 points and 2.1 assists per game, the 31-year-old Arroyo has been a punching bag for Heat cricitism this season. The journeyman point guard has put up less than stellar per game numbers as a starter, but his function on this team isn’t to be a conventional point guard. Why? This isn’t a conventional team.
Arroyo’s job description requires him to defend the opposing point guard, hit open shots and play within his means on offense. And to that end, he’s doing just fine. His 50.4 field goal percentage is a career-high while ranking third among regular point guards behind Steve Nash and Tony Parker. Furthermore, his 59.3 True Shooting percentage ranks among the leaders at his position as well.
It was expected that magnetic presence of LeBron and Wade would make it easier for teammates to score and it’s evident that Arroyo is capitalizing on his opportunities. According to Synergy, 81 percent of Arroyo’s catch-and-shoots this season have come unguarded and he’s cashed in with a 58.8 effective field goal percentage. Both rates are well above average.
Not only is he nailing his shots but Arroyo has also cut down on his turnovers. With just 17 turnovers in 565 minutes played, no starting point guard has fewer turnovers per minute than the Miami veteran. Spoelstra has asked Arroyo to play conservative, mistake-free basketball and the eight-year veteran has responded in a big way.
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamiheat/post/_/id/2436/busting-three-early-heat-myths