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| When you have Superstars that buy in to the team concept, you get a dominating force |
Do yourself a favor and watch as much of the Miami Heat team
as possible. No, this post isn’t really
about the Heat 27-game win streak, or its demise to Chicago. It is about how great this team played, and
how historically efficient they have been recently. It’s about the fact that their three best
players are shooting the best field goal percentages in their respective
careers. It’s about two top 5 players displaying some of the best chemistry
between teammates we have ever seen.
It’s about their “3rd wheel” being insanely unselfish and
accepting his role as star, and not pursuing the “Superstar” label that his
talent belies. Yes, this post is just
about enjoying the beauty of the sport that Naismith created all those years
ago.
You can learn a ton about offensive spacing, interior
passing, and defensive rotations watching the Heat play. When Erik Spoelstra implemented a new philosophy on offense based on the Oregon Ducksfootball offensive tenets, I was beyond skeptical. The Heat had just come off their epic
collapse against the Dallas Mavericks in which their offense (despite having
three of the top 18 players in the League) primarily consisted of a high number
of isos, and some drive and kick plays.
Spoelstra recognized the severe limitations of his team’s offense and
decided to change it. To Spoelstra’s
credit, implementing a new scheme meant giving up some play-calling duties and
allowing the players to be more instinctual.
It also meant more off-ball movement.
Moving without the ball is a fundamental part of the
game. Getting in better position to
receive a pass, stretching out the defense with positioning, and balancing the
floor are all goals attained through effective movement away from the
ball. Moving without the ball is also a
skill that star players don’t display a ton.
Usually star players have the ball in their hands and exploit the
matchup advantage every night to create for themselves and their team. With three star players, each had to more
regularly practice moving without the ball.
Now LeBron and Wade’s cuts to the basket are like cleavers to defenses
around the league.
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| The Miami Heat Defense is suffocating and leads to turnovers and opponent frustration |
Defensively, the Heat are constructed differently from almost
any Championship team that I can recall (they vaguely remind me of the Bulls
team that won the last two of Michael Jordan’s titles with Ron Harper, MJ,
Scottie Pippen, and Rodman). They have
several players that guard multiple positions.
LeBron, Bosh, Battier, Wade, and Chris “Birdman” Anderson are all strong
and laterally quick enough to guard different guys on the same possession. That means that when teams use the Pick and
Roll, the staple of every NBA team offensive set, switching is rarely a problem. More to the point, when offenses get their
defense moving and rotating (a position that every defense becomes vulnerable
in) they don’t panic because all the players move well enough to close out and
cut down on genuinely open looks. Even their
Bigs play perimeter players well when they
are forced to switch (HoopChalk does a MASTERFUL job of breaking down the Pickand Roll switch with big men and challenges a long held belief about the mismatch).
This post isn’t about the Heat coming up 6 games short of
matching the 1971-72 Lakers’ win streak.
In reality, the fact that they won as many as they did puts them in a
great historical context. That said,
even if they had broken the record and lost the NBA Championship it would be a
lost season. This is just about enjoying
a well-constructed team full of Hall-of-Famers.
After the 2013-14 season the team holds early termination rights for the
Big 3 and with the punitive salary cap looming, there may be time running out
on watching these artists perform together. For posterity’s sake, get in front
of a TV for as many of Miami’s games as you can. I know I will.
