The Miami Heat made several key moves this offseason. While getting Kyle Lowry in the building and into the mix was the biggest, by far, the other moves they made will play just as large a role in the totality of the scenario.
When you look at some of the other moves they made, they brought in and retained quite a bit of size and versatile size, at that. By keeping Dewayne Dedmon and Omer Yurtseven, while bringing in P.J. Tucker and Markieff Morris, the Miami Heat have provided themselves with quite the bit of versatility when deploying their big men combinations.
That, though, is just the first sign that points to them, perhaps, leaning towards more sizing up this season. There are a few more.
When you think about the way that some teams attacked them last season, such as the Chicago Bulls or the Milwaukee Bucks in the playoffs, the Miami Heat found themselves to be too small at times. That is the second sign that points to playing with more size being an option.
The Miami Heat found themselves to be too small, at times, during last season. With a slew of bigs now in tow, they can size up with teams again.
They were out-sized too much last season and it’s something that ultimately helped send them home in the playoffs. Lastly and most importantly, there is this tidbit from Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald.
While it isn’t the end all-be all, it’s interesting to see or hear someone in the know express a similar notion. Here it is.
"Besides Tucker and Morris, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra will have three other power-rotation options to pair with Adebayo in stretches (certainly not full time): Dewayne Dedmon, KZ Okpala and Omer Yurtseven.Dedmon once shot 38.2 percent on three-pointers in 2018-19 (83 for 217). But he has shot 20.5 percent on threes (23 for 112) since then."
With the Miami Heat having all of those guys to pair beside Bam Adebayo in any given moments and with all of them being capable of stretching the floor, in some capacity, the Miami Heat are sure to size up for some select moments.
It’ll, at least, keep them from getting manhandled, as they were last season in certain games and in their first-round series against their recent rivals, the Milwaukee Bucks. It should also allow Bam to become more offensively aggressive too, in a round-about way.
Operating from the power forward’s spot more should allow him to operate in areas that allow him to dig deeper into his offensive arsenal and play in more open areas of the floor. There are numerous benefits, it seems.
They have to commit and do it first though. Hopefully, it is something that’s seen as they get underway this season.