At some point, enough is enough. Right now, the Miami Heat just aren't playing good enough defense. To make matters worse, it makes absolutely no sense. A roster that was built to set the table with a great defense has been one of the worst units in the entire league.
So it's great to hear that Giannis Antetokounmpo is holding his teammates accountable for what's going on.
After another disastrous defensive showing, Giannis challenged his teammates with some interesting post-game comments.
“Somebody has to set the tone and others got to follow. Right now we just have glimpses of it. It starts from me, from Bam, from Andrew and Davion. The starting group, it’s almost like we’re going through the motions. We just have to come together. We cannot go the other way.”
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“We’re not playing hard enough. We’ve got to play harder. We’ve got to have some pride."
You can hear the frustration, confusion, and overwhelming thoughts and feelings in these comments from Giannis. And how can you blame him? Heading into this season, there may not have been a player and a team with more pressure on them to produce than Giannis and the Heat.
So far this season, Giannis has been great offensively, but he's left some to be desired on the other end of the floor. But so has the rest of his teammates. As a team, the Heat are statistically one of the worst defensive teams in the league. After giving up 138 points to the Los Angeles Lakers, Miami has the 27th-worst defensive rating after seven games.
What makes all of this more frustrating is the fact that defense was supposed to be what this team could hang its hat on. It's supposed to be what they're good at.
The expectation was that the offense was going to be a work in progress. That the fit of Giannis and Bam Adebayo was going to take some time. That the supporting cast may not be as deep as some of the other contenders in the Eastern Conference.
However, at minimum, the Heat's defense was supposed to be elite. It's been far from that. It may not be the only reason why the Heat are 2-5, but it's certainly played a big part in it.
It has to change. Somehow. Someway. That's what the Heat is scrambling to figure out. The frustrations are not just coming from Giannis, either. Both Bam and Erik Spoelstra also spoke to those concerns after the game.
The first step is admitting that there's a problem. At this point, that's almost impossible to deny for the Heat. But the hardest part is correcting it. How does the Heat fix this? Is it simply schematic? Is it just a matter of more effort? Only those in the locker room know for sure.
For the sake of this season, we can only hope that the Heat figure it out sooner rather than later. There's grace right now, but that will run out quickly. And Giannis may already be letting the frustrations of the growing pains get to him. That's not ideal.
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