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"I learned a lot this season," Spoelstra said. "I know our players did."

Among the goals when the team reunites will be playing at a faster pace.

"Pace, speed, quickness . . . let's go," Spoelstra said. "Players will see that right away in training camp. We have players best fit to play that style."

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miam ... story.html

I keep hearing talking heads say Spoelstra wants to play faster. What does that really mean? Does it mean he wants to be more of a fullcourt team instead of halfcourt like the Warriors? Does it mean play a more attacking defense? Does it mean he want the players to be in better shape? I hear a lot of people on here talking about playing faster as well. But when i hear some of you describe it, it doesnt sound like we all have the same idea what play faster mean. If its to play more of an uptempo offense, every team is not better off doing so. When your frontcourt is Whiteside and Bosh, uptempo/fullcourt offense does not highlight their game. So what is it? What does Spo mean and what do you mean when its said to play faster?

All I know is that Spo needs to tweak his defense so our players can have the energy pick up the pace.

Well I hope that means, more ball movement, and cutting. The League is trending that way. Either way lets play to our players strengths. Like B-Eazy on block, when he is one with the 2nd unit. Pick & Pops with Dragon and Whiteside... mid-range shots for Bosh... etc... lets make the game easier for us.

Well we were the slowest team in the league pace wise


He means when we defend and get the ball, run on the open floor, get into sets faster (if we even have any), push the ball, and hopefully pass around enough to get to the open man

Last 4 years we played like that (werent fasted team just middle of the pack) we were the fast break kings. Dragic being a one man fast break hopefully helps this, and athleticism. We had many players who sucked in transition this season.

Transition 3s this team also lacks

We need only intelligent ballhanders on this team. Chalmers apparently doesn't fit that bill and he's gotta go. The more intelligent our backcourt is, the better the offense, slow pace or not.

When I first saw the title of this thread, I wondered for a minute whether it was Spo on the down low desperate for advice. Like he just said that in a press conference because everyone wanted him to, but he has no idea what it means.

Running with Whiteside and Bosh on the court won't be the goal. It should mean more motion and movement. Definitely getting into sets much faster. Dragic will do a much better job of initiating the offense than Chalmers did so improvement will immediately be there.

DefenseWins wrote:Well we were the slowest team in the league pace wise


He means when we defend and get the ball, run on the open floor, get into sets faster (if we even have any), push the ball, and hopefully pass around enough to get to the open man

Last 4 years we played like that (werent fasted team just middle of the pack) we were the fast break kings. Dragic being a one man fast break hopefully helps this, and athleticism. We had many players who sucked in transition this season.

Transition 3s this team also lacks

So if we are going with Hollingers Pace definition "possession per game", which is caused by two things 1. shooting earlier in the shot clock and 2. causing turnovers.

Take a look at Altlanta, Cleveland, Toronto San Antonio and Chicago are on the middle to bottom half in the league in Pace. So faster pace does not translate into wins, but just describes the style of game the team plays. And if you go back to the history of the league, its always been east played slow pace versus west played a faster pace. I do not think the trend has ever changed.

The last 4 years we were actually one of the fastest teams, what hurt our statistics was lack of rebounding, which causes a net negative in pace "possession per game". We counter that with causing turnovers and finishing them. But that suited the talent on our roster.

In one sense, I think playing faster can simply mean we plan to shift the lead guard responsibilities to Dragic more than Wade in the grand scheme. I thought when Dragic arrived we far too many times let Wade or Rio handle the ball for 3-4 possessions in a row when we would be more successful with Wade off the ball and Dragic setting him up. I understand why they were doing it, because we were integrating a new player into our system mid season and Wade was more comfortable with the ball in his hands by that point. But Wade said himself that it was an adjustment being "the guy" this year and I think playing faster could be connected to doing less pounding of the basketball as the shot clock runs down by everybody & more of getting out and going with Dragic leading the way. Wade is still a top player in the league (especially in spurts) but is undeniably better served as the finisher than the set up man. Also Whiteside can run and finish in transition, so can CB, so I don't think playing faster is an indication that we are not playing to our strengths as a roster. I think it is the opposite actually those guys need as many easy baskets as they can get and playing faster could achieve that.

LEIF wrote:In one sense, I think playing faster can simply mean we plan to shift the lead guard responsibilities to Dragic more than Wade in the grand scheme. I thought when Dragic arrived we far too many times let Wade or Rio handle the ball for 3-4 possessions in a row when we would be more successful with Wade off the ball and Dragic setting him up. I understand why they were doing it, because we were integrating a new player into our system mid season and Wade was more comfortable with the ball in his hands by that point. But Wade said himself that it was an adjustment being "the guy" this year and I think playing faster could be connected to doing less pounding of the basketball as the shot clock runs down by everybody & more of getting out and going with Dragic leading the way. Wade is still a top player in the league (especially in spurts) but is undeniably better served as the finisher than the set up man. Also Whiteside can run and finish in transition, so can CB, so I don't think playing faster is an indication that we are not playing to our strengths as a roster. I think it is the opposite actually those guys need as many easy baskets as they can get and playing faster could achieve that.

I heard this a few times about Whiteside, but i rarely recall him ever getting points in transition maybe 2 or 3 times. And me and Ira had a discussion a while ago about how you would think Bosh would been more involved in transition points being a smaller quicker center, but he wasnt. He didnt get much transition points. It wasnt often that you seen him out run centers down the court. And now that he will be playing PF, it will be even more difficult for him to out run PFs.

LEIF wrote:In one sense, I think playing faster can simply mean we plan to shift the lead guard responsibilities to Dragic more than Wade in the grand scheme. I thought when Dragic arrived we far too many times let Wade or Rio handle the ball for 3-4 possessions in a row when we would be more successful with Wade off the ball and Dragic setting him up. I understand why they were doing it, because we were integrating a new player into our system mid season and Wade was more comfortable with the ball in his hands by that point. But Wade said himself that it was an adjustment being "the guy" this year and I think playing faster could be connected to doing less pounding of the basketball as the shot clock runs down by everybody & more of getting out and going with Dragic leading the way. Wade is still a top player in the league (especially in spurts) but is undeniably better served as the finisher than the set up man. Also Whiteside can run and finish in transition, so can CB, so I don't think playing faster is an indication that we are not playing to our strengths as a roster. I think it is the opposite actually those guys need as many easy baskets as they can get and playing faster could achieve that.

Wade is alot better playmaker/passer than Dragic, MUCH BETTER. Its when he starts playing hero ball that kind of messes things up. Also, as mentioned Wade is probably the best off ball guard on the team, so he can do either. Less Chalmers and more Dragic, but I feel more comfortable with Wade setting up players than anyone else on that team.

I swear to God spo has said that every season since he's been a coach.

Sign5 wrote:I swear to God spo has said that every season since he's been a coach.

Yeah, I'll believe when I see it.

It's one thing to want it, but the personnel didn't really work out that way. First half of the season we had some gasbags in the rotation, then after the trade we definitely picked up the pace but probably not enough at times. I thought that was more with our inconsistent perimeter defense and not spacing it well. Like towards the end of the season it felt like hey we have 3 pretty good starters with Wade, Goran, and Hassan but the rest of the roster didn't really seem to fit with them. I remember looking up the post all star team stats, and Ennis was our best 3 point shooter at like 34 percent..We messed up too many transition opportunities, missed too many threes, and probably was't athletic enough to play consistent perimeter defense.

Maybe not waiting until the last two seconds of the shot clock on every possession...

what gom said. except we don't and we wait until the last seconds of the clock and jack up long 2s and 3s.

Sign5 wrote:I swear to God spo has said that every season since he's been a coach.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamih ... lay-faster

i havent checked to see the numbers if we did indeed player faster that year lmao

Edit : i looked and nope we didnt play faster, we did have way better offensive offiency tho. Back when wade, lebron, bosh all shooting 50% and having the best 3 point shooters ever lol

If this team really wants to play faster, Goran needs to have the ball in his hand the majority of the time (assuming he re-signs). Wade and Rio rarely push the ball after a rebound. I don't really remember if TJ/Napier push the ball, but I think they may be capable.

It's hard to also play fast when its 30 year old Deng running with Dragic, but he really plays like he's 35..Man its tough watching him fumble passes and all that in transition

Spo in his first press conference talked about he wanted to be a fast pace team. Well....He got LeBron, Wade, Bosh and he did it..But the the other 3 years he didn't have a GREAT team, we have been one of the slowest teams in the league.

What this team needs is an assistant to come in and teach us how to run clean sets and get us open looks that maximize the talent on the floor instead of a defensive oriented coach who doesn't view offense as a priority. You can get plenty of looks by playing fast but like we saw all year, when the game gets close and the other team starts trapping the ball handler, we need to be able to keep scoring. We had plenty of leads this season to only vanish because we had no idea of how to play offense. We saw some of the worst offense in HEAT hisotry this year. Some due to talent, some due to chemistry and some to do with the fact we have no system to get open looks.

DefenseWins wrote:

Sign5 wrote:I swear to God spo has said that every season since he's been a coach.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamih ... lay-faster

i havent checked to see the numbers if we did indeed player faster that year lmao

Edit : i looked and nope we didnt play faster, we did have way better offensive offiency tho. Back when wade, lebron, bosh all shooting 50% and having the best 3 point shooters ever lol

LOL when i heard these comments i notice this is a scripted end of year speech. But it may be just saying what everyone wants to hear. If he is being honest, then what does he exactly mean. Does he mean more possession per game. If he mean more ball movement, that usually means running the shot clock which means less possessions per game. The DAntoni and Nelly Ball teams did not have great ball movement around. D'Antoni's “Seven Seconds Or Less” philosophy of getting shots up quickly, simply ran down court and shot fast with the ball in Nash hands. They forced fastbreaks even after opposing team scored.

What i want to hear is more efficient offense, I dont care about fast pace with this team.