2025-26 Miami Heat Regular Season Thread 2.0

[3ammy3uck3ts]

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[3ammy3uck3ts]

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[3ammy3uck3ts]

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[Shewasfly]

I'm putting the lack of performance in recent games on 3 things: 1) teams adjusting, which I kept saying would happen and yet ppl strangely believed teams would keep letting us play exactly how we want to at all times 2) a lack of practice together with the full healthy group and, possibly, 3) fatigue (which is very concerning).

Starting with point 3, its a problem if its the case. It would explain why our shooting has suddenly gone to complete trash though: tired legs. Outside of Herro and Powell no one on the team is really a sharp shooter to begin with. Tired legs may be making it even worse. Tbf, Simone is also a shooter in theory, but he doesn't play a lot of minutes and I think he might be affected by fatigue too.

On 1 and 2, I think 1 is self explanatory. Teams have adjusted and are slowing things down to not let us run. It doesn't help that we can't make anything so can't set up defensively either.

On 2, this extended break has hopefully come with a good amount of practice with Powell, Herro, and Mitchell. I don't believe Spo is going to go away from it yet sadly, so its likely getting a lot of focus in practice on how to play it on both ends. This is where Mitchell actually has the opportunity to shut some of us up imo. We're not the first team with multiple high volume scorers. The difference is, a lot of those teams actually WANT those scorers handling the ball. On this one, we don't. So Mitchell is going to have to find a way to distribute to them. And not just the easy pass that he's been getting, but the real PG play where he's finding his top scorers in their spots and distributing equally. Curious to see what they come up with.

[3ammy3uck3ts]

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[Wiltside]

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Pls god.

[Lennyzinho]

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I was about to say... the bucks just lost by 45 to the nets. Lmao. And dec 15th is the trigger date for many players to be eligible to be traded either due to previous trades, new deals or extensions with existing team etc.
It could get spicy leading up to Xmas.

[SA37]

Spoiler:

Trying to figure out if this is trolling or semantics for the sake of semantics.

Do you actually think these are parallels?

Lu Dort has a 6'8 wingspan and weighs over 220 pounds. He's the PJ Tucker of SFs. For his career, he has logged 65% of his minutes at forward according to BBRef and obviously proven to be able to defend 1-4 generally well. SF is his best defensive position.

SGA is literally Wiggins size (Miami's PF).

Cason Wallace is the only guard in their lineup that doesn't have some legit forward size and he has a 6'8.5 wingspan and is a defense-first player that can easily defend PG and SG.

Jaylen Brown literally entered the NBA without a handle and playing exclusively forward. He's 6'6 with a 7' wingspan and weighs over 220 pounds. Literally the prototype physical NBA wing frame. According to BBref he's played the majority of his minutes at Forward throughout his whole career. Derrick White is SG-sized but obviously can defend up as he is one of the best wing defenders in the NBA.

Garland and Mitchell is actually getting close to this parallel and it would make sense as a comp if CLE was trotting out Garland and Mitchell with Ty Jerome as their base lineup. Max Strus is a pure forward with forward size that has logged 76% of his NBA minutes between SF and PF according to BBrf.

I can't believe I just spent time responding to this silliness.

You didn't get the answer you were fishing for, which is something that would validate "I don't like Miami's 3 guard lineup with Herro, Mitchell, and Powell", and now you are trying to contort your way into excluding all these players as guards. What's next, you're going to tell me Caruso is a center because he was guarding Wembanyama yesterday?

As I said in my opening reply to you, defining "guard" would be the problem.

Max Strus is 6'5 215. You know who else was 6'5 ~215? Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, who were SGs their entire careers.

Traditionally, this is what NBA standards were (the smaller measure is prob real heights vs the larger measure which is the NBA's inflated heights):

PG 6'1-6'3
SG 6'4-6'6
SF 6'6-6'8
PF 6'8-6'10
C 6'10-7'

Many NBA teams are playing "small ball" lineups by comparison. Skillsets have changed, NBA rules have changed, and styles of play have changed. Post-up basketball has largely died in favor of people looking for the next Grant Hill, Tracey McGrady, LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George (and their failed versions, like Darius Miles, Jonathan Bender, KZ Okpala, Cam Reddish, Justise Winslow...etc)

There's more to being guard than just height. And this is entirely about the defense, spo could play 5 guards he wanted to on offense.

Powell, Davion, and herro are more than just short. That's the issue.

All 3 guys play at a physical defecit; some combination of height, strength, athleticism, wingspan, etc.. are lacking. (Mentally too, but different story).

And when all 3 are playing with that defecit, it leaks into the other positions. Now wiggs and bam are playing at a physical defecit to accommodate the 3 guards and its only those 3 guards and dru. We play a switching defense where 3 of the 5 starters can't switch onto most players. If pelle was the 3rd guard? Less issues. Hes at least physically capable and has good size for a sg who can also guard up or down on switches.

I don't have an issue if you (or someone else) want to argue Mitchell, Herro, Powell, is not a workable lineup.

The question that was posed was if teams successfully run 3-guard lineups, which we know they do. I didn't include them because it remains to be seen if it is successful, but the Suns are rolling out Gillespie 6'1, G Allen 6'3, D Booker 6'5, and D Brooks 6'5 in their starting lineup. Outside of Brooks, none of the other 3 are particularly physically gifted, play bigger than they are, or are defensive aces (apologies to Allen, who does have an impressive vertical).

If you're going to play small ball, you are playing at a disadvantage by definition. The flip side is it gives you advantages in other areas. Whether that tradeoff is worth it is something teams have to decide.

[SA37]

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I was about to say... the bucks just lost by 45 to the nets. Lmao. And dec 15th is the trigger date for many players to be eligible to be traded either due to previous trades, new deals or extensions with existing team etc.
It could get spicy leading up to Xmas.

I wonder if Milwaukee doesn't prefer to wait until the summer on a potential Giannis trade. If the Thunder, Spurs, and Rockets are really not going to pursue a Giannis trade mid-season, they may change their minds after the seasons potentially bringing in other bidders besides NY/Miami.

Atlanta has some claims on Milwaukee's 2026 and 2027 picks, so that makes Atlanta's involvement ideal either as the team acquiring Giannis or facilitating.

[3ammy3uck3ts]

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Patrick this is the one.

[3ammy3uck3ts]

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[3ammy3uck3ts]

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Let’s keep marking them off the list, all our biggest competitors have already pretty much been ruled out. It’s us or the Knicks and we have the better offer, the sun, and no taxes

[3ammy3uck3ts]

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[3ammy3uck3ts]

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[SerialChiller]

People thought Kawhi Leonard was in control of his destination as well if I recall correctly and then the Spurs sent him to Toronto. In hindsight we all know the 1 year rental worked out great for them even though they failed to convince Kawhi to stay. But just looking back on how little they had to give up is pretty crazy. Only Derozan, Jakob Poetl, and a 1st for Kawhi and Danny Green.

[vagelis]

Giannis most likely will end up to Miami.
Pat Riley didnt make the Durant trade in order to have assets for Antetokounmpo

[Crazy-Canuck]

People thought Kawhi Leonard was in control of his destination as well if I recall correctly and then the Spurs sent him to Toronto. In hindsight we all know the 1 year rental worked out great for them even though they failed to convince Kawhi to stay. But just looking back on how little they had to give up is pretty crazy. Only Derozan, Jakob Poetl, and a 1st for Kawhi and Danny Green.

Hmm, sounds alot like the potential heat offer for giannis.

AS one way scorer check
Young big with potential check
Draft capital check

[3ammy3uck3ts]

Giannis most likely will end up to Miami.
Pat Riley didnt make the Durant trade in order to have assets for Antetokounmpo

Wiggins is untouchable

[3ammy3uck3ts]

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[vagelis]

Giannis most likely will end up to Miami.
Pat Riley didnt make the Durant trade in order to have assets for Antetokounmpo

Wiggins is untouchable

It has not to do with Wiggins.
I am just saying that I believe Antetokounmpo will end up to Miami.