What the Miami Heat Can Learn From the NBA Playoff’s First Round

The Miami Heat aren’t playing in the NBA Playoffs, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t engaged in their own way.

Like teams once did to them, the Heat are looking up at the NBA’s best for tips of how to get better.

"“You look at teams like Golden State, best team in the NBA, they played fast, but they’re also one of the best defensive teams in the league,” guard Dwyane Wade said, via the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “You have to get stops to play fast. This season, we weren’t a good defensive team. It’s hard to play fast taking the ball out of the net too often. I welcome it. As long as we get stops, let’s go.”"

So what can the Heat learn from those who made the post-season? Cleary, Erik Spoelstra is paying attention to pace. It’s nothing new. After all, Spoelstra was at the forefront of the league’s pace-and-space movement, especially when, back in 2012, he moved Chris Bosh to center.

The Heat also played a unique style of defense, blitzing and pressuring the ball handler. Rather than have his bigs sag on the pick-and-roll to block off driving lanes, Spo involved his front court in pressuring the ball. Nothing was given or made easy. Easy drives to the basket were prevented with additional help defense, not convenient positioning.

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Everything changed when LeBron James left and the Heat had to rebuild the roster. The defense went from consistently in the top-10 to 19th in the league and wildly inconsistent this season.*

Hassan Whiteside’s emergence certainly helped things, but the Heat played a much more conservative style, chasing guys off the 3-point line and funneling them into the ready arms of Whiteside in the paint. This was the goal, at least, much more easier said than done on a regular basis. Opponents made 35.8 percent of their 3s against the Heat this season.

Meanwhile, teams like the Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks ranked near the top of the league in defending the 3. Both of those teams were ranked No. 1 and No. 2 respectively in defensive efficiency during the regular season.

What makes them so good? The defense the Dubs and Bucks are running is just like what the Heat were running for the majority of four Finals seasons. That is, if that defense just took a shot of tiger blood to the face. The Heat prided themselves on attacking the handler in the pick-and-roll with two defenders. The Bucks send three.

From Grantland’s Zach Lowe:

"“Great players, if they only see two bodies, they think, ‘Maybe I can still beat ’em,’” Kidd explains. “But if they see three bodies, they think, ‘Maybe I need to get off of it.’”Overloading one side of the floor leaves the other side bare, and the Bucks are vulnerable to smart passing teams that can swing the ball ahead of Milwaukee’s rotating defenders. But that’s the point: Kidd is banking on the Bucks’ wing players being long and athletic enough to help inside and rush back out in time to thwart any open shot. Cross-court passes hang in the air awhile, after all."

The Bucks have the players to do it. Look at their starting lineup by height: 6-6, 6-7, 6-11, 6-10 and 6-11. Michael Carter-Williams, a 6-6 point guard, is the shortest. No one on the Bucks is giving up more than five inches at any given time, and they swarm and cause enough chaos that it’s nearly impossible for opponents to take advantage of the fractions of seconds they have in a mismatch. Their length also allows them to deter cross-court passes or wall off passing lanes with regularity.

Then there is the Warriors. We’ve heard Spoelstra talk about position-less basketball. Well, the Warriors have perfected it–at least on defense. The Warriors, with all of their length, switch every screen. That means in a standard 1-5 pick-and-roll, a guard will end up defending a big man. That’s in terms of traditional basketball positions. Like the Bucks, the Warriors have inches upon inches of length and players who defend multiple positions. It’s why Draymond Green, consistently involved in switching screens and defending multiple positions, was in the running for Defensive Player of the Year.

Here’s more from ESPN’s Ethan Sherwood Strauss:

"For the Warriors, positions mean so little on defense because they’ve built a roster comprised of guys the same size. The players and coaches call it “versatility,” a common set of qualities that allows the team to constantly switch on and off the ball. With Iguodala, Livingston, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Harrison Barnes and Justin Holiday, Golden State has a half-dozen long, defensively talented players who stand between 6-foot-6 and 6-foot-8. That height range is perfect for navigating between marking little guys and grappling with big men. For example, Green typically guards power forwards, but he can stop Chris Paul in a pinch."

(Via ESPN)

Both the Bucks and Warriors are doing similar things based on the length of its players. Now, let’s take a look at the Heat. Spoelstra was forced into zone defense and strange lineups late in the season, playing Michael Beasley at center and Henry Walker at power forward. The coaching staff has spoke highly of those guys in public and both seem poised for another shot next season. At least out of necessity, nearly everyone else on the roster had experience defending other positions this season.

With a starting lineup of Goran Dragic, Dwyane Wade, Luol Deng (given he stays in Miami), Chris Bosh and Hassan Whiteside is athletic enough to mimic these juiced up defenses while guys like Beasley, Walker, Tyler Johnson, Mario Chalmers and Chris Andersen should be able to help off the bench.

It may also give us a hint as to what players the Heat will be looking to add this summer, with Pat Riley saying as much that he wants guys who can play multiple positions.

The Bucks are down 3-1 to a Derrick Rose inspired Bulls team in the first round, and the Warriors just swept the New Orleans Pelicans. You’ll at least get one more game of watching Milwaukee, and Kerr’s Warriors seem primed for a long run. In some ways, you are seeing into the future of the Heat by watching these playoffs.

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*The Heat went from giving up 102.9 points per 100 possessions in LeBron’s last year to giving up 103.8 points per 100 possessions this season. In 2012-13, the Heat allowed just 100.5 points per 100 possessions and an even stingier 97.1 points per 100 possessions in 2011-12.