Miami Heat Stats Class: Improving at defending the paint
By Jack Simone
The Miami Heat are consistently a great defensive team. They were a top-ten defense last year and always manage to show great energy on that end of the floor.
They ranked ninth in steals per game, led by Jimmy Butler who led the league in that category. However, they were not nearly as successful blocking shots.
They ranked dead last in the NBA last year in blocks per game with only four. Though he obviously didn’t play every game, Bam Adebayo accounted for one of those four per game by himself.
light. Also. 3 Goals for Bam Adebayo Next Season
Adebayo is an elite defender and was rewarded as such with an All-Defensive Second Team selection. Despite this, the Miami Heat were still the worst shot-blocking team in the league.
While this may not seem like a huge issue considering how well they ranked defensively last year, they were not the best at protecting the paint. They allowed opponents to shoot 64.7% in the restricted area last season, which ranked 18th in the league.
There are a lot of factors that go into this, but one main reason could be the lack of depth at center. After Adebayo, Dewayne Dedmon and Precious Achiuwa are the only other paint protectors on the team.
Dedmon joined halfway through the year, and Achiuwa was only a rookie last year. They just weren’t able to protect the paint at a sufficient level.
With all this in mind, what are two ways the Miami Heat can fix this issue next season? As a team, how can they get better at protecting the paint?