Miami's crawling pace

[Don Draper]

I don't know what to make of it. Yes, I understand that because they might not have that much depth this might suit them better. I also understand that this is how Miami has been playing for a while and that this will probably be effective when you get into grind it out playoff games. On the other hand I think the their style of play isn't maximizing their offensive options and playing at a slower pace tends to keep bad teams in the game (fewer possessions). If you look at LeBron and Wade's USG% they are still above 30% which is a lot, but they aren't getting that many looks because of the crawling pace. I don't think they should start playing like the Suns but I don't think they should be next to last in the NBA in pace.

Thoughts?

For the record, I don't think this will effect their stellar defense.

[Chosen01]

most definitely they should be at least top 15 in pace, with LeBron and Wade on the team. Btw where do you check the pace of teams so far?

[Gotta_B_KD35]

I don't know what to make of it. Yes, I understand that because they might not have that much depth this might suit them better. I also understand that this is how Miami has been playing for a while and that this will probably be effective when you get into grind it out playoff games. On the other hand I think the their style of play isn't maximizing their offensive options and playing at a slower pace tends to keep bad teams in the game (fewer possessions). If you look at LeBron and Wade's USG% they are still above 30% which is a lot, but they aren't getting that many looks because of the crawling pace. I don't think they should start playing like the Suns but I don't think they should be next to last in the NBA in pace.

Thoughts?

For the record, I don't think this will effect their stellar defense.

A team with Wade, James, and Bosh along with the heat jump shooters is perfect for the run and gun offense. It would tire out and overwhelm more teams and they'd get the numbers that people expected from them. But at the same time, I don't think they'll be able to maintain their excellent defense if they're going to use up a huge amount of energy on offense. Great Defensive teams thrive on the half court game. Come playoff times, pace is much slower and the games actually mean a lot more. I'm pretty sure Heat's won't be able to win against LA, BOS or ORL who are excellent defensive team if they're going to run and gun and they're defense does not stack up to theirs.

[Don Draper]

most definitely they should be at least top 15 in pace, with LeBron and Wade on the team. Btw where do you check the pace of teams so far?

http://www.basketball-reference.com/lea ... .html#misc

Sort by pace.

[mopper8]

Its less a function of Miami than it is a function of the teams that play Miami, actually. Heat have been trying to push the ball a decent amount, at least early in games. Check this from ESPN's True Hoop:

While it’s just four games, the Heat are showing a propensity to run more. Last season Miami had an NBA-low 721 plays in transition, which equated to 8.8 per game. In four games this season, Miami is averaging 13.0 transition plays and 14.8 points per game.

I think we're seeing a combination of things

1- Miami has been getting back on transition D very well ever since struggling a little bit against Boston in that regard
2- Teams want to slow it down against Miami because they don't want to get into an up-and-down game against Wade, Bosh, Lebron
3 - Miami slowing it down in the 2nd half the last three games as they are blowing teams out
4 - Miami sending in the reserves in the 4th quarter the last 2-3 games, who don't run nearly as much
5 - Miami forcing teams to go deep into the shot-clock each possession on defense, and forcing a lot of 24-second violations (that's just the eye test, but it seems to me they've forced an inordinately high # of those)

edit: link for the True Hoop piece here

[Gotta_B_KD35]

most definitely they should be at least top 15 in pace, with LeBron and Wade on the team. Btw where do you check the pace of teams so far?

http://www.basketball-reference.com/lea ... .html#misc

Sort by pace.

Are those average of attendance for each team? If it is, Heat are surprisingly low (19,000), and cavs and nets are over 2 times in attendance (Over 40,000).

[Tim_Hardawayy]

I think one of the things this is proving is that the style a team plays can have a greater impact than the personnel on that team if they stick to their principles. This is the way Miami has played since the mid 90's with Zo anchoring the D.

That said, I do think they're wasting their talents a bit if the pace doesn't pick up, but you do have to factor in that the first game they played was against another defensive juggernaut in the Celtics, and the last 3 were blowouts by the 3rd quarter, meaning a lot of minutes for the reserves who obviously can't push the ball like LeBron or Wade can.

Still, there is also the issue of guys adjusting to new teammates. Things like a fastbreak are definitely impacted by this, as they are dependent on chemistry with the guys you're running with as much as practice. They've already blown at least 4 alley-oops so far by my count.

EDIT: Everything I said in that 2nd paragraph, Mopper put it better.

[shanedude]

The last 3 games were blowouts so that skews the results a little.

[Chosen01]

most definitely they should be at least top 15 in pace, with LeBron and Wade on the team. Btw where do you check the pace of teams so far?

http://www.basketball-reference.com/lea ... .html#misc

Sort by pace.

Are those average of attendance for each team? If it is, Heat are surprisingly low (19,000), and cavs and nets are over 2 times in attendance (Over 40,000).

/facepalm Heat can only hold 19,600(it also says 19,600 not 19,000) and played 1 home game.

Also I think it might be too early to fully tell, you have a team like the Suns who are a top 3 team in pace each year, and are currently #20, I think as the season goes along, we could see the Heat around top 15 area.

[chubby_1_kenobi]

To be an elite team that plays fast pace is not a simple thing. It requires dominant rebounders who can secure the boards without help from the little guys (boxing out), a ball handler with excellent court vision, a bunch of cutters who can knock down 3 pointers when open.

If missing one of these 3, a fast pace team will fall flat on their faces because their offense is not good enough to offset whatever defense they have to sacrifice in order to run. Contrary to OP's opinion, a true run and gun team WILL have to sacrifice some defensive points in exchange for offensive prowess.

Think of it like this, a fast paced team is never going to have elite transition defense just simply because their personnel's run start immediately when a shot from the opposing team has been hoisted. They also have to have 1 or 2 guys chase offensive rebounds at all times in order to prevent too many half court offense being set up by the opposition and force them to play at their pace (which is fast).

On defense, a fast paced team encourage their most athletic guys to roam most of the time to force turnovers. Again, this leads to blown assignments more often than a team who play honest man to man defense.

[Wade2k6]

Are those average of attendance for each team? If it is, Heat are surprisingly low (19,000), and cavs and nets are over 2 times in attendance (Over 40,000).

Miami has had 1 home game, while the Cavs (2) and Nets (3) have had more. If you looked off basketball-reference, they determine the attendance by total not average.

Miami: 19,600 (sell-out)
NJ: 15,249
Cleveland: 20,562

[Don Draper]

Its less a function of Miami than it is a function of the teams that play Miami, actually. Heat have been trying to push the ball a decent amount, at least early in games. Check this from ESPN's True Hoop:

While it’s just four games, the Heat are showing a propensity to run more. Last season Miami had an NBA-low 721 plays in transition, which equated to 8.8 per game. In four games this season, Miami is averaging 13.0 transition plays and 14.8 points per game.

I think we're seeing a combination of things

1- Miami has been getting back on transition D very well ever since struggling a little bit against Boston in that regard
2- Teams want to slow it down against Miami because they don't want to get into an up-and-down game against Wade, Bosh, Lebron
3 - Miami slowing it down in the 2nd half the last three games as they are blowing teams out
4 - Miami sending in the reserves in the 4th quarter the last 2-3 games, who don't run nearly as much
5 - Miami forcing teams to go deep into the shot-clock each possession on defense, and forcing a lot of 24-second violations (that's just the eye test, but it seems to me they've forced an inordinately high # of those)

edit: link for the True Hoop piece here

Makes sense. Do you think they should speed the pace up or do you think it is alright the way it is?

[mopper8]

I think I'd want their pace to pick up. A few reasons:

1- they still aren't pushing it as much as they should. They can push it a little more in transition
2- their secondary break sucks right now, and that should be a big source of easy baskets for them. Bosh and Haslem are both great finishers trailing the break, and James Jones, Eddie House and (later) Mike MIller ought to be able to get great open looks from deep off the secondary break. Right now, we're getting nothing out of it.

Once we get into our half-court sets, we become very deliberate, and work the shot-clock big time. That ends up resulting in good shots in the whole, so I'm not complaining. But we definitely are missing opportunities to get easier shots earlier in the clock before the half-court D gets set.

And I certainly hope the defense keeps stringing out opponent's possessions till the end of the shot clock lol

[UGA Hayes]

I've always thought people underrate how important it is to have a natural running PG to have a fastbreak offense AS a fan of the Celtics, you really appreciate that what Rondo does on the break, especially on a team with no really fastbreak players to run with him In reality only a handful of fast breaks are gimmes. Most are three on two or four on three or broken defense situations. If you don't have a PG who makes the righ decision 95% of the time then you really can't run it effectively. Just for contrast RAy Allen every once in a while tries to run a fastbreak, and it always, always end in a turnover. Its definitely a skill.