The Heat's Problem on Defense

[Slot Machine]

Speaking of which, I’ve been surprised about the degree to which Miami has abandoned lineups with two traditional bigs. We knew the Heat would make the small Battier-James forward pairing, with Bosh the lone big, the team’s foundation going forward, but a lot of folks around the league expected Spoelstra to use a little more “big ball,” if only to save James and Battier some wear.

That hasn’t been the case so far. Joel Anthony, destroyer of pick-and-rolls, is basically out of the rotation. Bosh and Haslem have appeared together in only five of Miami’s nine games, for a piddling total of 29 minutes — a span in which Miami’s defense has been very stingy.

Again, Spoelstra is absolutely right to work his rotations this way. It was what won them the title last season, unleashing a new LeBron, and it has Miami scoring more efficiently than everyone but the Knicks. But I’d be worried especially about wearing out Battier, who is banging with big guys to spare LeBron the heavy lifting there. Battier is as tough and smart as anyone in the league, but he’s working his tail off every night and just turned 34. Spoelstra has wisely limited him to just 24 minutes per game, but Battier will need to give more in the playoffs.

Excellent article by Zach Lowe of Grantland. Touches on many of the problems we've noticed over here(frontcourt combos) and how Allen fits into the defense.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-trian ... on-defense

[LeChosen1]

Spo's rotations make no since, especially when the team needs a stop but continues with the same line-up expecting them to suddenly get better defensively when some of the players physically cant

[This IsMy House]

I do agree that playing Joel more will help, also some more Haslem Bosh. But more than all, I hate how they pack the hell out of the paint. When Jason Kidd drives in, it should never take Wade, LeBron, Battier, Bosh in the paint to stop him/let him kick it out to an open JR Smith or Novak for 3. This has happened countless amount of times so far this year, and happened a lot last year and I hated it then. I cant stand how they pack the paint and give up wide open 3s. Why not give up a contested 2 with the players defender and the Bosh in the paint and have the outside covered so he has no where to go? Seems that a contested 2 is better than a wide open 3 IMO.

[DieHardBallFan]

Completely agree with ismyhouse

I understand why they do ti. They have a set defensive style. Charge and smother then ball handler.. and the only way to a complete defense is consistency. So they do the same thing every time. But what I think Spole needs to do during games is once he notices the kick out for 15 footer / 3 pointer is killing them. He needs to step in and adjust.. ask for only 1 help defender, make the ball handler think of the pass out, not see it, rethink and then struggle for a paint shot. Enough of this whole team collapsing.

[Slot Machine]

More than anything, I think more awareness of who the ballhandler is would help also. While I understand that we have a set defensive scheme, we need to make adjustments depending on who the person is. I'll take your example, why would we collapse on Jason Kidd? Make him take and convert a contested layup. Plus once a ballhandler realizes that when he starts to penetrate and the defenders collapse, he'll keep kicking it out.

A problem that I think is kind of overlooked is how poor Mario's defense has been this season. He's part of the reason why penetration and kickouts are killing us. He really looks significantly worse than last season in terms of containing PGs and not letting them destroy our D with drives to the hole. The UD-Lewis frontcourt has been atrocious and I would much rather go with Bosh-UD or Lewis-Joel frontlines.

[cb1]

More than anything, I think more awareness of who the ballhandler is would help also. While I understand that we have a set defensive scheme, we need to make adjustments depending on who the person is. I'll take your example, why would we collapse on Jason Kidd? Make him take and convert a contested layup. Plus once a ballhandler realizes that when he starts to penetrate and the defenders collapse, he'll keep kicking it out.

A problem that I think is kind of overlooked is how poor Mario's defense has been this season. He's part of the reason why penetration and kickouts are killing us. He really looks significantly worse than last season in terms of containing PGs and not letting them destroy our D with drives to the hole. The UD-Lewis frontcourt has been atrocious and I would much rather go with Bosh-UD or Lewis-Joel frontlines.

You summed up our defensive struggles perfectly.

[Mars]

Protect paint: Spoelstra says it's time to man up

By Ira Winderman | South Florida Sun Sentinel
3:36 p.m. EST, November 20, 2012

MIAMI— The challenge couldn't be any more evident: Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings have combined to take almost half of the Milwaukee Bucks' shots and have half of their assists.

No, the Bucks won't be playing 5-on-2 when the Miami Heat play their first home game in two weeks on Wednesday night, it just might feel that way.

That made the focus of Tuesday's practice clear: Stop the dribble penetration of the speedy Bucks guards, an aspect that the Heat, at times, struggled to accomplish during their just-completed 4-2 road trip.

"They have two guards that, arguably, two of them together, pose as many problems off the dribble as we've faced yet this year," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said without prompting after Tuesday's practice at AmericanAirlines Arena, "in terms of their ability to attack on open situation, pick-and-rolls and just relentless ability to get into that paint."

Consider it a challenge issued, with Mario Chalmers and Dwyane Wade having proven particularly vulnerable against dribble penetration amid the Heat's 8-3 start.

"You've got to guard the ball," Spoelstra said. "I mean, we really worked on that today. Yes, we drill our help defense ad nauseam. But the front line of it is guarding the ball, taking the challenge, and trying to keep your chest in front, knowing that it’s not an easy thing. We're not saying it's easy, but you have to step up and take that challenge."

Spoelstra practically is making the challenge a crusade leading into Wednesday's game, his defense having been carved up in recent games by the likes of Memphis' Mike Conley and the Clippers' Chris Paul.

"When you play these ultra-quick small guards, everything has to be a step early,"
he said. "Your preparation, before they even get into the attack zone, you have to be down in a stance. You have to have your quick-twitch mind ready, a sense of urgency. You can't get caught coming back and -- oh! -- and now it happens; it's too late. You have to be ahead of the play, and even then, it's still a challenge. But you have no chance when you're reacting to their aggressiveness."

Link

[GameTime_3]

I pray that somehow we trade Joel/MM for a STARTING CENTER. Is there one worth trading for?

[Slot Machine]

Well there's Gortat, among others, but the problem is there's no way for us to acquire them because we have very few tradable assets. The Philly pick is too protected to be worth much of anything and Joel and Mike have very little value.

[GreenHat]

More than anything, I think more awareness of who the ballhandler is would help also. While I understand that we have a set defensive scheme, we need to make adjustments depending on who the person is. I'll take your example, why would we collapse on Jason Kidd? Make him take and convert a contested layup. Plus once a ballhandler realizes that when he starts to penetrate and the defenders collapse, he'll keep kicking it out.

A problem that I think is kind of overlooked is how poor Mario's defense has been this season. He's part of the reason why penetration and kickouts are killing us. He really looks significantly worse than last season in terms of containing PGs and not letting them destroy our D with drives to the hole. The UD-Lewis frontcourt has been atrocious and I would much rather go with Bosh-UD or Lewis-Joel frontlines.

I do agree with your first part we do need to scheme more based on who the ball handler is. We treat them all the same.

I disagree with the second part. No pg is going to be able to contain the pgs today. Its just not possible anymore. Chalmers' defense has been passable. We just had better help last year.

[GreenHat]

I pray that somehow we trade Joel/MM for a STARTING CENTER. Is there one worth trading for?

Not for Joel/MM. Maybe in two years when they are expiring.

[Pimpwerx]

There's no reason to chance our defensive philosophy of protecting the paint, as it has worked effectively with big and small lineups. Joel has been a relative non-factor in the postseason, yet we defend the pnr and paint just fine in the postseason. Greater effort needs to be put in on the defensive end, and you cannot expect that to remain consistent, with this group, over a full season. The last two seasons have demonstrated this in spades.

The defensive woes start at the perimeter. If we can't contain dribble-penetration, then no amount of Joel will ever help. If we notice, Joel checked into the last game for a few minutes, and got the hook shortly thereafter. We're simply not built for him anymore. I don't know if that sounds harsh, but it's the truth. Joel doesn't fit in our offense anymore. He can help with pnr defense, and can set picks, but we're so reliant on having 5 accessible shooters at all times, that he becomes a big wrench in the works for us offensively. Trying to go back to what we used last season, for his few spot minutes, might be more trouble than its worth. PEACE.

[Tien]

What are you guys worried about? It's 11 games in and Spoelstra is constantly tooling around the starting lineups, experimenting.

He was doing this all the way until the playoffs last year, everyone was panicking. Then we saw a completely different Miami beast roll through the playoffs (when Bosh was in the lineup).

Calm down.

[Chosen01]

I pray that somehow we trade Joel/MM for a STARTING CENTER. Is there one worth trading for?

Not for Joel/MM. Maybe in two years when they are expiring.

Surely Chalmers/Cole has some value now, he's great in out system but if we could somehow flip Chalmers/Cole,MM,Joel for Gortat and filler then I wouldn't even hesitate. Gortat would be perfect for the Heat.

[TheDon008]

I pray that somehow we trade Joel/MM for a STARTING CENTER. Is there one worth trading for?

Not for Joel/MM. Maybe in two years when they are expiring.

Surely Chalmers/Cole has some value now, he's great in out system but if we could somehow flip Chalmers/Cole,MM,Joel for Gortat and filler then I wouldn't even hesitate. Gortat would be perfect for the Heat.

Rio gets no love.

I couldnt fathom trading Rio for a Guy who trash talked the Heat prior to the 2010-2011 season.

[DWadeno3]

Our main issue is effort, a Pimpwerx pointed out. With more effort, we do not only rotate a lot better, but also play the passing lanes better, which is part of the result of the extreme hedging we do. I don't mind stretches in the regular season where we play lackadaisical defense, but when the other team is just on fire a la New York in the first game of the season, this team should have enough pride to pick up their energy and not get killed on national TV. We're gonna get away with enough wins while playing lazy defense anyways, there's no reason for embarrassing performances on national TV.

[DieHardBallFan]

I pray that somehow we trade Joel/MM for a STARTING CENTER. Is there one worth trading for?

I disagre.

Bosh is playing his best ball in years. The Bosh at center experiment is working .

40 point night.. 18 rebound night .. The guy can ball.

We just need a center who we can sub in and make an impact.
I don't even see whats wrong with going after a starting PF, and putting Battier off the bench with ray allen, cole etc. We could have a vicious shooting bench.

[GreenHat]

I pray that somehow we trade Joel/MM for a STARTING CENTER. Is there one worth trading for?

Not for Joel/MM. Maybe in two years when they are expiring.

Surely Chalmers/Cole has some value now, he's great in out system but if we could somehow flip Chalmers/Cole,MM,Joel for Gortat and filler then I wouldn't even hesitate. Gortat would be perfect for the Heat.

Chalmers has some but if we trade him who covers pgs for us? I wouldn't want Cole playing 30+ minutes a game (unless he improves I don't think he should even be playing 20 mins a game)

Cole would be the "centerpiece" of your deal and he is a late first round small point guard who hasn't shown that he can shoot, finish, defend or take care of the basketball without turning it over.

Joel still has three years left on his deal and is a center who is not nearly as good as Gortat or any center we would want to trade for. That's why we want to trade him for a center even though he is a center. Any team who would want Joel would also want to just keep their original center.

Miller is what automatically kills the deal though. He still has 3 yrs 18.6 million left on his deal and hasn't had a season worth that much in years. That contract has negative value and you would have to attach multiple assets (real assets not Cole and Joel) just to get a team to take that contract for free let alone give up a good center back.

Your package wouldn't even get a tpe and definitely not Gortat. Its a big downgrade at center for them all for the honor of getting a backup pg who will play about 15 mpg (Dragic is much better than Cole) and the obligation to pay Miller 18.6 million to be a backup. It makes them worse and they would have to take on a bad contract with no real upside for them.

[EscapoTHB]

I do not get the obsession by fans to blame our defensive problems on the small ball.

I mean maybe I'm crazy--but it seems to me that the problem is that our perimeter defenders are not giving enough effort. I mean I'm not saying DWade has to stop his man from the drive everytime--but damn--at least be slight speed bump. Wade and Chalmers pretty much play matador defense at the top, and it screws up our whole defensive scheme because when PGs and SGs can get to the center of the paint anytime they want--what are we supposed to do?

our defensive system is a sound one. Protect the paint, Give up the 3. The problem is when you have no effort on the perimeter, then you can't protect the paint OR protect the 3 point line.

I mean guards are running down the court and getting a head of steam right into the center of the paint, which causes Battier or Lebron to have to rotate up, if they are even on time with that rotation--the blow bys on the perimeter are happening so fast, that it's not giving us time to make rotations. So what happens is a late rotation to the penetration, which means that whatever big was being rotated off of is now completely open for the offensive rebound, or an easy dunk.

As good as Rio is playing offensively--he is very close to getting benched for Cole IMO. Cole is not half the offensive player that Rio is--but he at least stays in front of his man long enough for us to rotate.

Also Bosh isn't trapping hard enough consistently on the pick and roll. We should never get split on the pick and roll with our quickness.

It's frustrating. What's more frustrating is that this lack of effort could cause us to change our rotations and give up the chance to really be something special as a team. Positionless is sound philosophy--and it is working on offense amazingly well.

But I do not understand how we can have ostensibly 5 perimeter defenders and are still getting beat off the dribble every damn time down the floor.

But yeah. It's effort mostly. I think by January you'll see us pick up and be more consistent. But it's frustrating to watch now. And you worry about the team picking up bad habits--which is I think Spo's big worry. Particularly with Ray and Rashard--you want those guys to get exposed to good defensive habits early, because it's new to them.

If we get to the all-star break and still aren't d'ing teams up--I think you'll see Spo reconfigure his rotation. Because our identity is our defense. And if we aren't playing that, we won't win a title.

I would like to see DWade take the challenge and become a better defender. He doesn't have the big offensive role that he used to have--he should be giving more effort on defense. I wish he would get fined everytime he is slow to get back on defense because he's barking at the ref. That **** drives me crazy. and every team in the league knows he does it--so it's like free points.

[Pimpwerx]

I do not get the obsession by fans to blame our defensive problems on the small ball.

I mean maybe I'm crazy--but it seems to me that the problem is that our perimeter defenders are not giving enough effort. I mean I'm not saying DWade has to stop his man from the drive everytime--but damn--at least be slight speed bump. Wade and Chalmers pretty much play matador defense at the top, and it screws up our whole defensive scheme because when PGs and SGs can get to the center of the paint anytime they want--what are we supposed to do?

our defensive system is a sound one. Protect the paint, Give up the 3. The problem is when you have no effort on the perimeter, then you can't protect the paint OR protect the 3 point line.

I mean guards are running down the court and getting a head of steam right into the center of the paint, which causes Battier or Lebron to have to rotate up, if they are even on time with that rotation--the blow bys on the perimeter are happening so fast, that it's not giving us time to make rotations. So what happens is a late rotation to the penetration, which means that whatever big was being rotated off of is now completely open for the offensive rebound, or an easy dunk.

As good as Rio is playing offensively--he is very close to getting benched for Cole IMO. Cole is not half the offensive player that Rio is--but he at least stays in front of his man long enough for us to rotate.

Also Bosh isn't trapping hard enough consistently on the pick and roll. We should never get split on the pick and roll with our quickness.

It's frustrating. What's more frustrating is that this lack of effort could cause us to change our rotations and give up the chance to really be something special as a team. Positionless is sound philosophy--and it is working on offense amazingly well.

But I do not understand how we can have ostensibly 5 perimeter defenders and are still getting beat off the dribble every damn time down the floor.

But yeah. It's effort mostly. I think by January you'll see us pick up and be more consistent. But it's frustrating to watch now. And you worry about the team picking up bad habits--which is I think Spo's big worry. Particularly with Ray and Rashard--you want those guys to get exposed to good defensive habits early, because it's new to them.

If we get to the all-star break and still aren't d'ing teams up--I think you'll see Spo reconfigure his rotation. Because our identity is our defense. And if we aren't playing that, we won't win a title.

I would like to see DWade take the challenge and become a better defender. He doesn't have the big offensive role that he used to have--he should be giving more effort on defense. I wish he would get fined everytime he is slow to get back on defense because he's barking at the ref. That **** drives me crazy. and every team in the league knows he does it--so it's like free points.

Agreed with everything. I underlined the part I liked the most. With our length and quickness, we should rarely have our traps split. It's such an essential part of our defense, as we rely on ball pressure to initiate our perimeter defense. When those traps get split, it kills the rest of the system.

I also agree that Rio takes a good chunk of the blame, as I've seen a few times after a trap has been split that Bosh or the other big have motioned to Chalmers to close harder. I want to give Rio some consideration here. He had a leg injury, and might still be recovering. That's the only explanation I have for his apparent regression on the defensive end. He was staying with quicker guards well-enough last season. Hopefully it's just the leg giving him issues and he'll regain form by the ASG. PEACE.