Miami Heat: Deep ball gives them just as good a shot as anyone in restart

The Miami Heat are one of the elite three-point shooting teams this season. That gives them just as good a shot as anyone in the NBA restart to win the title.

The Miami Heat are all set in Orlando, practicing, living, and enjoying the NBA bubble life. It isn’t just a paid vacation though in the most magical place on earth, but it’s more like the finest blend of both a summer camp and a business trip, however that sounds.

Regardless of how it looks, sounds, or feels though, this is the new reality in our world for right now and the new reality for the NBA, especially if they hope to safely finish the season and continue to play beyond this season if the pandemic is still rolling as strongly as it is now.

With all that on the table though, you begin to focus on the reason that all the teams that were invited to the bubble are there for. They are there to see who can still salvage the remainder of their 2019-20 season and walk away with the NBA title.

While some have said that there will be an asterisk on the title this season, this title would actually mean more to me. It would obviously be won in the conditions we are in, but that not only includes coming back to fight to the end after such a long layover, but it also means winning the inaugural and potentially only NBA Bubble Championship ever. That’s a unique distinction and quite the honor if you ask me.

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With that goal in mind, the Miami Heat stand just as good a chance as any team in Orlando at winning the title. While they stood a slimmer chance of winning the title prior to the suspension due to this same reason, it becomes even more of an advantage and benefit in the NBA Bubble.

First off, that advantage is the Miami Heat’s three-point shooting, an area where they are flat-out elite. You say that they are elite for a few reasons. The first is that when you look at overall team statistics, they rank first in team three-point shooting percentage, 10th in attempts, and sixth in three-pointers made.

With top 10 rankings in all three categories, a hefty dose of overall attempts, and a number one ranking in overall efficiency from deep, you have to see what we mean by “flat-out elite”. You can also look at the fact that they have multiple individual players at the top of the league three-point shooting statistics, such as Kelly Olynyk and Duncan Robinson.

Meyers Leonard would be there too, had he not fallen short of the qualifying amount of threes made at this point in the season( an average of one made per game your team has played in a season, 65 at this point) due to missing games due to injury. You also can’t forget about Tyler Herro, who shoots a very high percentage himself and has missed time due to injury this year as well.

The Miami Heat have as good a shot at the title as any team in the Orlando bubble and their shooting from behind the three-point stripe is the reason.

Get this though, out of the 15, 16, or so players that we know will be with the Miami Heat in the bubble, eight of them are shooting over 36 percent from deep, with five of them shooting nearly 40 percent or better, and Duncan Robinson leading the way at nearly 45 percent himself.

Out of those eight players that do shoot above 36 percent, seven of them take two or more threes a game, with five of them taking five or more per game. Jae Crowder takes nearly seven attempts per game and Duncan Robinson is a rock’s throw away from nine attempts per game.

Again, they are an elite three-point shooting team and especially when you look at how many they make and how efficient they are at making them.

With the distance shot being as big a part of the NBA game and basketball in general at this point in the history and evolution of the game, any team that shoots it as well as the Miami Heat always has a chance. With players still having to shake off some of the rust of the suspension due to the pandemic, the teams that can score in bunches the quickest are at a benefit and knocking down the long ball can certainly be that.

Yes, shooting may be one of the skills that need the “rust” shaken off of it but being one of the most prevalent parts of the game and the easiest to practice while confined to a dwelling, as far as keeping your shooting stroke in line, it should come back to the Miami Heat’s professional shooters in no time. Heck, Jimmy Butler may even find his three-point stroke, who knows?

Either way and even if he doesn’t, the Miami Heat “got shooters”(Hello there Hassan). That is why I look forward to the beginning of the NBA restart, starting with this upcoming week’s scrimmage schedule, as the deep ball gives the Miami Heat just as good a shot as anyone in the NBA restart to win the title.