The Bad: The Corner
One of the hallmarks of the Heat’s 3-point shooting is working both corners at will. Much of the Heat’s successful 3-point moments this season have come from the corner, but they are just 7-for-31 to start the year in a zone where they shot just a hair above 40 percent last year.
The attempts are at a promising pace, as the Heat averaged just over eight corner 3’s per game last year, second only to the Cleveland Cavaliers who averaged over ten. The conversion rate will increase, as the Heat typically put their very best shooters in that position and the looks are normally wide open, but through three games it is something to keep an eye on.
The beauty of the corner 3 for the Heat is that much of it comes off of some type of action towards the rim (as we saw earlier) rather than the more popular perimeter ball rotation. The Heat attack the weak side of the defense with a quick pass (Waiters and Winslow have already excelled in this department) to catch the help defender way out of position.
Typically, this is best executed with a big man in the corner (remember Chris Bosh?) to pull a big out of the paint and into an uncomfortable zone, which makes the choice to start Olynyk next to Whiteside all the more interesting. So far, Olynyk is 5-for-10 from 3.
The corner 3 is something that definitely needs to start going in, as those are typically wide-open looks by a capable shooter. As Spoelstra likes to say, he plays the percentages, meaning the Heat won’t be going away from one of their most reliable 3-point producer any time soon.