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The Heat's offense is really good.

This is no secret if you've been paying attention to the NBA's goings-on this season. If you take a look at the list of most potent offenses in the league, the Heat stand head-and-shoulders above the competition; the Heat are currently scoring 108.1 points every 100 trips down the floor, which places them first in the offensive efficiency rankings.

More instructive, though, is the cushion that separates them from the rest of the league. The Oklahoma City, for example, rank second in offensive efficiency at 106.1, a 2-point difference which is roughly the same distance between the 10th-ranked 76ers offense and the 17th-ranked Nets offense. Two points, on the aggregate, is no small thing.

The Heat's offense is really good, that much we know. But where they're really good might surprise you. The overriding narrative -- which holds plenty of merit --is that the Heat's new up-tempo playing style has driven their rise. And this is true, the Heat are playing much faster than they did last season. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade have stepped on the gas and the Heat have, at times, blown past their opponents in the open court.

But that's not the whole story. While it's true that the Heat have catapulted through the ranks thanks in part to their dominant transition assault, there's more to this team than highlight reels and fastbreak dunks. In fact, four out of every five Heat plays on offense don't occur in transition, according to Synergy video tracking. (Synergy tracks every possession in the NBA and places each offensive play into two groups: transition and halfcourt.) The Heat, like all teams, only spend a handful of plays in transition per game and mostly engage in halfcourt warfare.

So what happens in the halfcourt?

More dominance.

Read more: http://proxy.espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/ ... court-team

JustAwesome wrote:Not entirely surprised by this. Miami has three of the best isolation players on the same team. They've been doing this for years now. That's a lot of weapons for a defense to stop, especially now that they're growing comfortable with one another.

Chosen01 wrote:It isn't Isolation, did you forget how terrible they were last year when it was basically Le-Iso and D-Iso? It's more about crisp ball movement/cuts and Le-Wade more in the post abusing opposing wings and getting open looks to Bosh and 3pt snipers.

The problem is consistency. We can go cold for stretches that seem longer than any of the other elite offenses in history did.

GreenHat wrote:We've always had a good offense even in the halfcourt. I mean we have Lebron/Wade/Bosh and a bunch of shooters.

The problem is consistency. We can go cold for stretches that seem longer than any of the other elite offenses in history did.

Chosen01 wrote:It isn't Isolation, did you forget how terrible they were last year when it was basically Le-Iso and D-Iso? It's more about crisp ball movement/cuts and Le-Wade more in the post abusing opposing wings and getting open looks to Bosh and 3pt snipers.

I hate posts that have a clear agenda and are narrative driven.

And it seems its you who forgots how "terrible" our offense was last year with all of the Iso.

We had an overall Ortg of 111.7 which is the opposite of terrible and higher than it is now.

Sure offense is down this year but we also didn't have our shooters hitting three-point shots at an insane pace and less fast breaks.

Not to mention I know you couldn't possibly notice league wide offensive decline just by your eyes.

If your eyes have been telling you that our offense is so much better than our "terrible" iso offense from last year than either your eyes, your memory or your analysis is lying to you.

mopper8 wrote:

The problem is consistency. We can go cold for stretches that seem longer than any of the other elite offenses in history did.

Last year I would've agreed with you, but this year I don't, though admittedly I've only been able to watch ~1/2 our games. Still, offense seems much more consistent to me this year.

Plus that's hyperbole

Chosen01 wrote:

GreenHat wrote:We've always had a good offense even in the halfcourt. I mean we have Lebron/Wade/Bosh and a bunch of shooters.

The problem is consistency. We can go cold for stretches that seem longer than any of the other elite offenses in history did.

Chosen01 wrote:It isn't Isolation, did you forget how terrible they were last year when it was basically Le-Iso and D-Iso? It's more about crisp ball movement/cuts and Le-Wade more in the post abusing opposing wings and getting open looks to Bosh and 3pt snipers.

I hate posts that have a clear agenda and are narrative driven.

And it seems its you who forgots how "terrible" our offense was last year with all of the Iso.

We had an overall Ortg of 111.7 which is the opposite of terrible and higher than it is now.

Sure offense is down this year but we also didn't have our shooters hitting three-point shots at an insane pace and less fast breaks.

Not to mention I know you couldn't possibly notice league wide offensive decline just by your eyes.

If your eyes have been telling you that our offense is so much better than our "terrible" iso offense from last year than either your eyes, your memory or your analysis is lying to you.

Wow calm down, "terrible" was a hyperbole. Anyone reading wouldn't find it hard to realize I was exaggerating, I'm well aware that the Heat were number 2 in offense last year.However, last year's offense especially in the first half of the season was cringe-worthy and hard to watch at times. You had LeBron,Wade, Bosh taking turns on offense and guys standing on one corner watching the other.No cuts, no thing.Last year there was so many times you'd see the Heat go through stretches without scoring, that's pretty bad with a team that consists of Wade,LeBron and Bosh.The offense was not terrible compared to the rest of the league obviously but still miles away from the potential that the Heat envisioned and that was the whole point.

This year the offense a lot better imo, more ball movement,crisp cuts,utilizing LeBron and Wade in the post more.However there is still times when it seems like they have a hard time scoring,not nearly as much as last year but still more than it should.

Chosen01 wrote:Yes Chalmers,Cole(addition) and Miller's increase in production has definitely helped the offense, statistically there may not be much difference in overall offense but I feel that the increased pace has helped Heat maximize the Heat's talents.It seems that this year the players are getting more "easy" points whereas s early last year everything was a struggle and games being won solely by talent.This year there's undoubtedly much better ball movement and cuts involved where even the worst heat hating analysts have mentioned.

LeBron and Wade getting in the post has really helped as it seems the 3pt shooters are even more wide open (and admittedly they're making them at a higher clip).To be honest this how I thought the 3pt shooters would be last year but they were only like 8th in the league while this year they are shooting virtually 40% and first in the league.