After Day 2 of training camp in the Bahamas, Erik Spoelstra acknowledged that the Miami Heat need to do a better job of increasing their 3-point volume, but he didn’t stop there.
“That’s a part of it,” Spoelstra said of increasing the team’s 3-point rate. “And also not doing enough to make it hard to guard. But we’ll be intentional there. Efficiency, being hard to guard, those are two things we’re talking about.
“Generating more uncontested open shots is very important,” Spoelstra continued. “And knowing how we can do that within what we do. That’ll be something that we’ve been working on.”
The Heat ranked at the top of the league in mid-range shooting frequency while ranking 18th in 3-point attempts per game. Spoelstra has routinely mentioned that the Heat aim to take closer to 40 3s per game, but averaged 33.7 last season.
But simply taking 3s isn’t enough. As Spoelstra said, the Heat need to work on generating open looks. According to NBA tracking data, Miami ranked 15th in open 3-point attempts (when the closest defender is 4-6 feet away) and 28th in wide open attempts (when the closest defender is more than 6 feet away).
We explored more of the Heat’s shot quality issues and what Jimmy Butler had to say about them in yesterday’s post.
Here’s more Heat news:
The Heat have added Tony Snell to the Sioux Falls Skyforce, their G League affiliate in South Dakota.
Snell, who last played for the New Orleans Pelicans in 2022, was the 20th pick in the 2013 draft. His career took him to Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Atlanta, Portland and New Orleans.
Now 32, Snell won’t be with the NBA club for training camp and is expected to be a veteran presence on Miami’s G League affiliate. The news was first reported by HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto.
It’s official. The Heat have promoted Chris Quinn from assistant coach to associate head coach.
“It was really a formality,” coach Erik Spoelstra said about Quinn’s role this week. “He’s been the associate head coach now for three or four years. So it’s just a formality of giving him the official title.”
Quinn, a former Heat point guard, is going into his 11th season on the Heat’s staff and has long been Spoelstra’s right-hand man.
Ish Smith’s reign of terror over the Heat is over. According to The Athletic’s Josh Robbins, the Washington Wizards have hired Smith as a pro scout.
Over his 14-year career, Smith earned a reputation as a Heat killer. Four of his 20 highest-scoring games came against Miami between 2016 and 2019.