Why does Spoelstra aggressively play the Pick and roll?

[colts18]

One thing I wonder is why the Heat always try to trap the ball handler in pick and roll situations. With the teams speed, I don't understand why the team plays it so aggressively. That is why they give up so many 3 pointers and the reason why Dallas won. Dallas showed the formula for beating the Heat: Ball movement and 3 point shooting.

[DefenseWins]

Meh, it's been like that for years. It works if the other team doesn't make their 3 point shots.... but whatever.

Spo's solution? Get back to your man faster...

It has worked though in some situations, especially if it's the PG being trapped.

[NorrisColeWorld]

In the playoffs it will kill the Bulls but could really bite us in the ass against the Celtics,Knicks or Magic.Luckily we can rely more on pur offense this year with this new found pace.

[bengtc]

I was getting mad that they wouldn't just go under the screen against Rubio and make him a scorer not a passer.

[EscapoTHB]

Every defensive system gives up something. The best systems, like ours, give up the 3 point shot. If a team is going to make that shot at a big clip, you just shake their hand, and say good game.

[CablexDeadpool]

Every defensive system gives up something. The best systems, like ours, give up the 3 point shot. If a team is going to make that shot at a big clip, you just shake their hand, and say good game.

no that's just plain stupid, most defensive systems try to take away easy shots like the 3 point shot and the layup.

Heat really just wanna take away layups and post shots and get easy turnovers, it's pretty much gambling because you are just hoping teams don't make their 3s.


you get up 20 points and because your defensive system, you let a 3 point team get open shots and in 8 mins it can be a 5 point lead especially when you know damn well your bench isn't gonna get you 20 points a game consistently. And the bench isn't as athletic as the starters so they can't really fly around and close out as well.

So due to your defensive system, you put pressure on your main offensive players to score late in games just because you can't just for a little while, just play straight up defense. Once you get up a center number of points, you don't need to gamble on defense anymore.

And the sad thing is, the Heat could just man up...it's not even that hard for the Heat to do. You have big fast wing players, and a quick guard. You can just man up.


Most 3 point shots against the Heat is not even contested, it's glaringly wide open. Really really wide open. Most of the time there's not even a man near the shooter and you just hope it doesn't go in. Or you see Wade and Lebron dashing to the other side of the court flying in the air after the shot already got taken off.

Or very rarely the system would work and Heat get a trap that actually is sustained and not passed out of for an open shot.

It's a stupid defensive system against 3 point teams and great jump shooting teams , that's what 3 point teams and jumpshooting teams want you to do. Pass the ball around and watch you run around.

You just don't let the that happen because that's the only reason why teams like the Mavs, Bobcats, Twolves, Knicks, Warriors, Celtics and Clippers could beat the Heat.

[Heej]

Actually, the best defensive systems throttle the 3 point shots, particularly corner 3's which are by far and away the most efficient shot in basketball apart from foul shots. Truly good defensive teams like the C's, Bulls, and previous years of the Magic always ran you off the 3 point line and tried to force you into inefficient midrange jumpers. Those teams happily concede inefficient midrange j's and wall off the paint from layups while running shooters off the 3 point line.

What we do is try to force turnovers within the arc and don't properly contest outside j's because our wings are scared if they get blown by knowing there's no legitimate paint protector and that one penetrating perimeter player completely collapses our system for an easy kick out 3. Because of this we concede 3 point shots we have no business of giving up simply because our wings fear penetration so much, and we hope that the long rebounds can act as a trigger for our new high octane fastbreak. While I get where Spo's coming from, we can really only do this consistently against poor 3 point shooting teams. With teams that shoot well from deep we just gotta bite the bullet and give up some penetration and fouls here and there to keep them from lighting us up from 3, even if we're losing some easy triggers for our fastbreak.

[CablexDeadpool]

Actually, the best defensive systems throttle the 3 point shots, particularly corner 3's which are by far and away the most efficient shot in basketball apart from foul shots. Truly good defensive teams like the C's, Bulls, and previous years of the Magic always ran you off the 3 point line and tried to force you into inefficient midrange jumpers. Those teams happily concede inefficient midrange j's and wall off the paint from layups while running shooters off the 3 point line.

What we do is try to force turnovers within the arc and don't properly contest outside j's because our wings are scared if they get blown by knowing there's no legitimate paint protector and that one penetrating perimeter player completely collapses our system for an easy kick out 3. Because of this we concede 3 point shots we have no business of giving up simply because our wings fear penetration so much, and we hope that the long rebounds can act as a trigger for our new high octane fastbreak. While I get where Spo's coming from, we can really only do this consistently against poor 3 point shooting teams. With teams that shoot well from deep we just gotta bite the bullet and give up some penetration and fouls here and there to keep them from lighting us up from 3, even if we're losing some easy triggers for our fastbreak.

Exactly, when you see "true" good defensive team they run you off the 3 point line and make you hit a midrange jumper.

And I also understand why Spo would want to gamble but when in a lead, the fastest way to get ahead is the 3 point shot and if it's wide open then Heat are screwed.

[Heej]

Exactly. Spo's just too happy working with what he has now. He's definitely talked himself into thinking that these teams are randomly getting hot against us and everything will regress to the mean. And he definitely likes the long rebounds because they let him run with these new offensive principles he's so fond of. Unfortunately, I don't have as much faith as he does. There's clear flaws in our system (i.e. how many damn 3 pointers we give up). And if it means we'll have to cut down on highlight reel plays and accept the fact that our wings will have bad closeouts that compromise our defense every now and then just so we don't have to see these wide open 3's, I'm all for it.

[DefenseWins]

There have been many times where one of the players were too late to a 3 pointer, or didn't rotate. I'd like to see if this gets fixed, since it's just 4 games into the season.

If they still give up too many 3's midseason, something is DEFINITELY wrong. I mean they had so many nightmares with teams coming back WITH THE 3, you'd think they'd alter something.

I remember the Mavs would know that the Heat's defense would go into the paint and they would pull up for 3's after they'd get created a turnover. Proved to be killer, obviously.

[CablexDeadpool]

There have been many times where one of the players were too late to a 3 pointer, or didn't rotate. I'd like to see if this gets fixed, since it's just 4 games into the season.

If they still give up too many 3's midseason, something is DEFINITELY wrong. I mean they had so many nightmares with teams coming back WITH THE 3, you'd think they'd alter something.

I remember the Mavs would know that the Heat's defense would go into the paint and they would pull up for 3's after they'd get created a turnover. Proved to be killer, obviously.

Heat always gave up too many uncontested shots, that's half the meltdown


This how every Miami Heat game starts and ends typically, combining last year and the trend so far this year

complete lethargy or furious defense and offense
get down in the 1st half or get a 10 to 20 point lead in the 1st half
roaring back in the 3rd quarter or let team get back in the game with a 10+ point run
blow out team in the in the 4th or win/lose close game in the forth


The same thing is happening but at different points in the game.

First of all Spo solved the offensive and complete disinterest in the beginning of the game woes.

So the Heat get off on all cyclinders in the 1st half instead of the second half now.

But now at the end of 1st half everything crumbles with the substitution of the bench to end the 2nd quarter. The 3rd quarter is used to maintain the lead or at least suppress the momentum of the opposition.

Last season the 2nd and 3rd quarters were the times where the Heat caught fire and start the beginning of blowing out teams and it would carry over into the 4th.
And this is allowed because of the defensive system.

The defensive system last year allowed the Heat to catch up in 2nd half and blow out teams. But now since the offense system in the 1st half allow the Heat to get a fast lead...teams come roaring back in the 2nd half.

And you could see this trend in the Finals. Heat get leads in the 1st half, 3 point shooting Mavs comes roaring back.

So the Heat weren't actually choking games away. It's just with this team, the defensive system when the Heat are playing offensively strong is a detriment. Because teams generally when down by 15 they gonna look for 3s.

When the Heat are playing bad offensively, then defensive system is a good, because you have nothing lose at that point, you down by 15 in the 3rd, teams are gonna look for easy buckets and running out the clock, you make them hit 3s then they pound you into the dirt, they miss 3s, you getting transition buckets and jump start your offense.

The defense and the offense should have a synergy, the way you play on offense shouldn't be counterproductive to your defense. The way you play on defense shouldn't be counterproductive to your offense.

The way the Heat play defense is for when you are losing. When you have a lead or when you start the game, you don't want to give away 3 point shots. Fortunately most teams the Heat play only start shooting 3s in the 2nd half it seems like.

[Ballings7]

Yep. SA did that primarily against Phoenix in the playoffs... run the shooters off the 3PT line and make them take less comfortable two-point shots. It contained their explosive offense and decreased their scoring from earlier in the year/playoffs, won the series'.