3. Can the Heat generate enough offense?
The Heat have ranked in the bottom 10 in ORTG in each of the last two seasons. All U Can Heat’s John Jablonka did a good job diagnosing some of last season’s issues in his piece here.
TL;DR: The Heat are too reliant on mid-range shots and don’t generate enough good looks at the basket. They need to increase their 3-point shooting rate, too.
Easier said than done. Besides Butler, the Heat don’t have a nightly advantage creator on offense – and that’s only when Butler is motivated and engaged.
Spoelstra can only scheme up so much. Bam Adebayo took most of his shots from the non-restricted paint area last season. How much more will he step out for 3-pointers? Can the Heat dust off the dribble-handoff offense from the Bubble run and open the floor more?
Tyler Herro and Terry Rozier can make stuff happen with the ball in their hands, but they aren’t high-level play-makers for their teammates. Between Butler, Adebayo, Herro and Rozier, the Heat could index even more heavily in isolation offense. None of those players are elite isolation scorers.
This is a recipe for another hard-to-watch offensive season. The Heat need Butler or Adebayo to draw help and consistently create open looks for their teammates, and Spoelstra needs to devise a strict offensive scheme that limits the mid-range looks and leans into the more efficient parts of the court.