3 Ways the Miami Heat can snatch back the Southeast division from the Magic

The Miami Heat have had a stranglehold on the Southeast Division since its inception in 2005. The Heat have been crowned Southeast kings 12 times, leading the record book. The Charlotte Hornets haven't won the division yet, but the Washington Wizards snuck one in during the 2017 season, the Atlanta Hawks have two, and the pesky Orlando Magic have five division titles.

The Magic added to their trophy case last year by dethroning the Heat as division champs. The Heat's in-state rival has an abundance of young talent and added a championship marksman this offseason to complement their youth. Are the Magic poised to run roughshod over the Southeast for the foreseeable future, or will the Heat dust themselves off and get back into the mix?

1. The Heat offense clicks to its full potential

The Heat's offense has been in the mud for the last two seasons. After finishing 25th and 21st in Offensive Rating, changes need to be made if the Heat don't want to be stuck in the middle.

A talent influx would turn the Heat's trajectory upside down, but that isn't feasible at the moment. The Heat need to control what they can to maximize their offensive potential, and that begins with shot diet.

Here are Miami's 2023-24 shot frequency numbers according to Cleaning The Glass.

Rim frequency: 28.5% (25th in the league)

Short midrange: 27.1% (1st)

Long midrange: 8.5% (17th)

All midrange: 35.6% (1st)

Corner 3: 11% (3rd)

Above break 3: 24.9% (22)

All 3: 35.9% (15th)

The mid-range and rim frequency numbers jump out like a Curious George jack-in-the-box toy.

Ranking No. 1 in midrange shooting team-wide is not ideal when you aren't getting to the rim. The other teams in the top five of midrange shooting frequency are the Phoenix Suns (stuck in mediocrity even with that talent), The Detroit Pistons, the Chicago Bulls, and the Los Angeles Clippers. None of these teams are squads you should aspire to be like.

Midranges are healthy when taken in doses and get the defense unbalanced, but your offense becomes stale and predictable when you're in the bottom three in shots at the rim. Attacking the rack causes the defense to collapse, which leads to high-value open 3-point looks. It's difficult to generate these looks when the top Heat scorers settle for middy jumpers so often.

Tyler Herro upping the ante and getting up 10 3s a game would be some of the juice Miami's offense needs. Herro is one of the best jump shooters overall from everywhere on the court: focusing on getting off threes over tough tween-tween midranges would be the beginning of maximizing the Heat's offense.

Jimmy Butler, playing like 75% of Playoff Jimmy in the regular season maximizes the offense, too. Bam Adebayo tinkered with the idea of shooting 3s last year. Over the last 17 games of the regular season, Bam connected on 14 of 28 3s. He looked comfortable shooting in the Olympics, too. The threat of Bam spacing defenses brings teenage excitement to my heart.

The Magic's offense was poor last year because they didn't shoot 3s. Their 27th 3-point frequency rating is why they nabbed championship marksman Kentavious Cadwell-Pope this offseason.

Orlando shot the ball at the rim more than anybody, so grabbing a movement shooter like KCP could do wonders for their eye-sore of an offense. For the Heat's sake, let's hope Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner don't take ginormous leaps and that two of our rockstar young players do instead.