After what many class as a disappointing season for the Miami Heat, it’s important to take a look at what went wrong. At the base of all this is the team’s stats.
Whether it’s as simple as points or as advanced as turnover percentage, analyzing stats has become a huge part of the NBA. It’s important to know what a team is good at, and more importantly, what a team is bad at.
Once an organization can identify certain areas where they struggle, it makes the problem much easier to fix. Well, that’s why today marks the first article of the “Miami Heat Stats Class” series.
First and foremost, shoutout to my fellow writer at At The Hive of SB Nation, MickSmiley, for the inspiration. He does an “Advanced Stats Class” series covering the Hornets.
Each article here will identify one area where the team struggled last season, and pose two ways that they can fix the issue moving forward. The first stat is going to be the simplest one of all – points per game.
Last year, the Miami Heat ranked 25th in the NBA in points per game (108.1). This was a 3.9 point drop-off from the 112.0 points per game they scored in the 2019-20 season, where they ranked 15th in the league.
The main cause of the issue is fairly clear to identify – the Miami Heat lost key pieces. Both Jae Crowder and Kelly Olynyk were off the team by the end of the year, and Victor Oladipo was hurt.
The team was great on the defensive side of the floor, but clearly has a lot of work to do on offense. What are two ways the Miami Heat can improve in that regard next season?