Deep dive into how the Miami Heat's offense has changed over the years

Tracking Stats

A few thing showed up in the tracking stats.

For one, they love their drive and kicks. They are consistently one of the highest-rated teams when passing out of their drives. They don’t drive often. They don’t finish when they drive often, either. But they sure do kick it out.

This goes back to their play type frequency shifting towards more isolation and post-ups. Look at their passes made and potential assists. This was the lowest for both. The ball movement isn’t as crisp as it was before.

One reason for that is the elbow touches. That has been gradually decreasing (as post-up touches increased) and I’d assume that means going away from players being used as hubs to cutters and handoffs. There’s less of Adebayo being that hub for others and more of putting him in post-up positions for himself. It’s a drastic drop, too. Over 15 elbow touches per game in 2020 to just under 10 last season.

For comparison, the Denver Nuggets routinely have a top-10 offense while ranking first in elbow touches over the last four seasons.

Finally, some advanced and miscellaneous stats. There’s not much here apart from consistency. They don’t get their points in the paint. They don’t get fast break points. They don’t get second chance points. They do get points off turnovers, though. That is a good way of jumpstarting the offense.