Few things in the NBA are as synonymous as the words Miami Heat and culture. That is, until coach Erik Spoelstra utters his famous quotes about pushing pace.
Since the days of the Big Three split, Spoelstra has been adamant about turning the Heat into a team that refuses to walk the ball up and down the court. Unfortunately, his media day hope usually comes off as more of an annual Groundhog Day joke than reality.
Too harsh? Not exactly.
Season after season starts and ends with Spoelstra flailing his arms in disgust, as his half-court timeout sprints move quicker than his team’s fastbreaks.
Past Miami Heat offenses appeared to move at a snail’s pace, but were they really as bad as they seemed to the naked eye?
For some onlookers, the eye test is a flawed one. However, if what is seen is blended with statistics, the past paints an even bleaker picture.
Out of the 30 teams in the league, the Heat clocked in at 29th in pace last season. Their 97.09 rating placed them only above the New York Knicks at 96.33 and contributed to Miami’s 25th place points per game average (108.1).
As Spoelstra and Bam Adebayo expressed, these numbers should change during the Kyle Lowry experience. The ability to trot out a more traditional point guard gives Miami a chance to not only run faster initial breaks, but also allows them to operate quicker within the 24-second shot clock.
Not to mention Lowry’s defense and combined with P.J. Tucker, Jimmy Butler and Adebayo, it will cause turnover incentives to get them down the floor for easy buckets. Take the first half of Monday night’s preseason game.
Those 24 minutes featured the Heat’s rotation of guys that would be focused on the most during the early portion of the season, minus Butler.
What was seen was quick hitting offense and a welcome to the doghouse mentality on defense. Which resulted in 26 points off of turnovers and a 109.00 pace rating by the end of the first two quarters.
Some of the worst assessments are assumed during the preseason, but if Lowry can keep the ball moving, Spoelstra’s media day vision will finally shake out to be more than a punchline.