Big Men A Big Problem for the Miami Heat
By Wes Goldberg
The introduction of the pace-and-space system for the Miami Heat was made possible by Chris Bosh, but made feasible by LeBron James. LeBron, with all his post up and passing abilities, made it dangerous. With LeBron gone, the Heat are still playing that five-out offense with Bosh middling the defense.
The trio of LeBron, Bosh and Dwyane Wade were put in the best position to succeed this way, and even though facing bigs like Roy Hibbert, Al Jefferson, Joakim Noah and others in the past was a mismatch, they combined for enough greatness to overcome it. LeBron, the greatest of them all, is no longer in Miami. But Bosh and the pace-and-space approach still is. But is it still feasible?
So far this season, opponents are scoring 63.1 percent within five feet of the hoop against the Heat. That’s fourth-worst in the NBA. Miami is giving up 42.8 points in the paint–more than either the Celtics or 76ers–while scoring just 35.2 themselves (fifth-worst in the league).
In back-to-back games (and back-to-back losses) against the Houston Rockets and then the Charlotte Hornets, the Heat have given up 84 points in the paint compared to just 58 for themselves. Dwight Howard (10-of-16 for 26 points, 10 rebounds) and Al Jefferson (13-of-25 for 28 points, 10 rebounds) each dominated. Chris Andersen and Udonis Haslem sat out because of injuries, but they wouldn’t have made all that much of a difference. Neither of them did last season, and seemed a step slower in the preseason.
Instead, it was a combination of Bosh, Shawne Williams and Justin Hamilton defending these All-Star centers. As you can see, that didn’t work out too well.
Dwight had no contest for positioning.
I mean, that’s just too easy. He basically walked over Williams on his way to the basket.
It’s not as if Pat Riley ignored the issue. During the offseason, the Heat tried out several traditional centers before settling on signing Chris Johnson–who didn’t make it through the preseason. In the past, the Heat took risks on guys like Eddy Curry and Greg Oden for the sake of having a center on the roster.
Of all seasons to avoid having a single “real” center on the 15-man roster, this was not the one to do it. Asking Bosh to bang with big guys and be the ace scorer is asking too much. After all, that’s partly what drove LeBron back to Cleveland. Andersen is showing signs of regression, Haslem is unplayable and Hamilton is a stretch-big and a borderline rotation guy.
Knocked down a peg in the East the Heat are looking up at Noah’s Bulls and Kevin Love’s Cavs, and competing with Jefferson’s Hornets, Marcin Gortat/Nene’s Wizards and Jonas Valanciunas’ Raptors. That doesn’t even include Hibbert and the Pacers, who will be back in the playoffs next season. Facing those teams in the post-season, even with LeBron, was a challenge. Now? The Heat could get knocked out by those teams should they play their mismatches right.
Guys like Joakim Noah have really hurt the Miami Heat in the past.
The Heat will still make the playoffs this season. I think as a top-four seed. The pace-and-space with Bosh, Wade and Spo is good enough to do that in the East. But the playoffs will feature those aforementioned squads. Even the San Antonio Spurs, who seek to space the floor and feature the best ball movement in the NBA, having Tiago Splitter. Splitter’s the kind of guy the Heat need. He’s not dominant, or even above-average. Hell, he’s not even a factor on offense save for a put-back here and there. But he’s big, he’s young and he’s active (and just as importantly, a good passer).
The closest thing the Heat have to Splitter is McRoberts, who is listed an inch shorter and five pounds lighter than the 6-11, 245 pound Spurs center. But he’s played the center spot on more than at least 30 percent of his possessions just once in his career–the 2009-10 season with the Pacers–according to basketball-reference.com. He’s much better suited freed up as a stretch-4, where he can impact ball movement and shoot and drive from the elbow.
So what’s the answer? Guys like Aaron Gray, Josh Harrellson and Daniel Orton are available while Gustavo Ayon and Andray Blatche may only come back to the States with a more-than minimum offer that the Heat can’t afford. Then there is Khem Birch, nested in the D-League. Or the Heat can wait until December or January, when Emeka Okafor should be healthy enough to play.
Maybe neither of those guys work, but its worth a shot. The Heat aren’t looking for a starter, or even someone to play 20 minutes. Just a guy they can throw at those big centers for a few minutes at a time to slow them down. It’s a gaping hole on this Heat team, and one they have to address if they want to compete for the Eastern Conference title.
Statistics via NBA.com/Stats unless otherwise noted.