The Miami Heat are in a bad place right now, but the good part is that they aren’t totally lost.
The Miami Heat lost to one of the worst teams in the NBA on Saturday night, record wise, of course. For starters and to get these few things out of the way, the Pistons aren’t as bad as their record indicates.
On top of it all, Jerami Grant is absolutely legit and has been nothing short of amazing. To be frank, he’s underpaid.
The Pistons got away with one there, they fleeced. Jerami Grant is as good as Pascal Siakam of the Raptors, if not better.
Anyways, back to the Miami Heat though. On top of the fact that the Pistons aren’t as bad as we would all like to think they are as a ball team, the Miami Heat issues aren’t ones that are the type that derail entire seasons.
The Heat need to be better at the little things. Something that’s a major issue to begin every season for the Heat it seems are turnovers.
The Miami Heat aren’t firing on full throttle at the moment and though ugly, it’s not the end of the world.
The Miami Heat are among the league leaders in turnovers per game. They rank second from last at 17.3 a game, only ahead of Chicago, who give away 17.6 a game.
That’s an awful number. Can’t expect to win when you give it away nearly 18 times and on top of it all, you only average about 82 shot attempts per contest, another figure that’s good enough for the dead last ranking in the league.
If you aren’t going to let it fly, you have to value possession of the rock more. It’s just that simple.
Also, if you aren’t going to create a ton of opportunities for yourself as a club, you have to limit the other team’s opportunities or at least make sure that they aren’t good or successful ones. Bascially, the Miami Heat have to get better on defense.
Jimmy Butler hit on it recently, basically saying they have to get some stops and they can do it. It’s not an issue that can’t be fixed.
Heck, it’s not an issue that can’t be fixed quickly. One thing that would go a long way towards that cause is the team actually having a chance to pay together.
With the covid health and safety protocols, with the volatility of the schedule, with the trade rumors swirling, and most importantly, with Jimmy Butler’s sketchy presence in the lineup due to tweaks here and there, this Miami Heat team hasn’t played a full week and a half of basketball together as a clear minded unit with their regular rotations.
These, again, aren’t excuses. This is reality.
This Miami Heat team needs to be better and I think they will be. I believe that getting everyone into a somewhat full and permanent type rhythm will help there.
That should help those “effort” areas. It should help them as a team, it should help them as individual players, and it should also help the coaching staff continue to nail out the proper rotations.
So, again, hang in there. It’s not as bad as it seems right now.
The Miami Heat do have issues. They are absolutely fixable ones though, so please, pull yourselves together.