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Ira Winderman: Will too many twos create uneven playing field for Heat?

ira winderman, south florida sun-sentinel
·8 min read

MIAMI — Jimmy Butler was blunt and to the point. “No,” he said during training camp, when asked if he planned to take more 3-pointers this season.

Bam Adebayo similarly smiled the first time the question was asked, swatting it aside by offering, “there’s a whole category of stuff that I want to get to, a long list.”

And then, in his Heat preseason debut, before a balky groin got in the way, Jaime Jaquez Jr. demonstrated with some fancy footwork how he can be at his best when operating around the paint.

In a 3-point league, the Miami Heat appear to have a look of a two-point team, at least when it comes to the majority of their leading men.

Yes, Tyler Herro loaded up with seven 3-point attempts in the preseason opener, but that also was a game he started alongside Kyle Lowry. Should the Heat determine that Lowry, at 37, is best utilized in reserve, then Herro could find himself with playmaking responsibilities that could preclude pulling up from beyond the arc.

And, yes, Duncan Robinson and Cole Swider offer floor balancing from deep, but there is no guarantee of a significant rotation role for Robinson or a role at all for Swider.

So more Lowry launches? Hope of Caleb Martin duplicating his playoff success from deep? A Kevin Love revival tour at the arc?

Last season, the Heat ranked 11th in the NBA in percent of offense from 3-pointers and 10th in 3-point attempts per game. But that also was when Max Strus and Gabe Vincent were in place. Now both are gone, with Strus leaving in free agency to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Vincent to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Yes, Butler is highly efficient with his two-point game, taking his game further to the perimeter when needed in the playoffs.

Yes, Adebayo has the type of form that could flourish beyond the arc. But his big muscle is needed in the lane.

And, yes, Jaquez will be needed for 3-pointers, but can’t be expected to do it all immediately.

There was a point last season when coach Erik Spoelstra recognized that even an efficient two-point offense was leaving his team at a deficit, contributing mightily to the Heat’s offensive struggles.

The split last season for the Heat was 59.2% of field-goal attempts on 2-pointers and 40.8% on 3s. Achieving such a balance this season could require more time for Lowry, Robinson closer to the productivity he offered in last season’s playoffs, Josh Richardson recapturing previous form.

“I think we’ve had a good balance,” Spoelstra said to the side, after a practice this past week at Kaseya Center. “We would, like many teams, like to generate a few more layups, a few more easy ones. There are times where I’d like a few more 3-point attempts. But it has to make sense.”

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And it has to allow Butler, Adebayo and Herro to do what they do best.

“Ultimately, you want to play to your team’s strengths and get to those strengths as often as you can,” Spoelstra said. “And those guys are very good in the mid-range.”

Spoelstra said high-percentage two-point shots allow the Heat to build an offense for when it matters most, with the Heat in the Eastern Conference finals three of the past four postseasons.

“You get to the playoffs,” he said, “often-times I think that’s a great look for guys who are super efficient there.”

So it likely will continue to be two by two for Butler.

“It just depends,” Spoelstra said. “It’s context to it. Jimmy will take more threes in the playoffs, because people are taking away other things. And he’s such a competitor, he’s going to do whatever is necessary. But he obviously has built a career on attacking.”

And it will continue closer to the rim for Adebayo.

“I don’t want to put a ceiling on him,” Spoelstra said. “I want him constantly improving, evolving, working on something new. Does that mean he’s going to translate to shooting five threes a game this year? I doubt it. He’s still going to be in his strength zones. There will be a time in his career when it probably will be important. And when you’re working on it doesn’t mean that you’re going to unveil it.”

As for Herro, Spoelstra said it will depend on what is needed.

“His skill set is so diverse that he can play different ways with different personnel on the floor,” Spoelstra said. “That’s what really helps our offense. And that’s where our offense can find exponential growth. Because when he’s playing with guys like Jimmy and Bam, he’ll be playing off the catch a lot.”

The right shots, Spoelstra said, trump the math.

“You want to get open shots, that’s the most important thing,” he said. “Is your offense operating efficiently, in whatever you’re trying to get to? We know when we’re getting to our strengths, and we know when we’re not.”

IN THE LANE

IN HIS WORDS: Even as he settles in with the Milwaukee Bucks, Damian Lillard has not strayed from the reality that his relocation preference from the Portland Trail Blazers was the Heat. Lillard reiterated that during Sirius/XM NBA Radio’s camp tour. “I don’t think it was a secret that Miami is where I wanted to go when I asked for a trade,” he said. “It was more of a thing when this conversation even started, where it was like, ‘We’re not going to be able to build this team out; we’ll help you get to where you want to go.’ And that was where I wanted to go at that time. I was like, ‘OK, this is where I want to go. You said you would help me get to where I want to go.’ It got to the point where it was no communication to that team.” Even then, Lillard said by reporting to the Blazers’ workout facility in September he had hoped to jump start the dormant talks with the Heat. “So, I feel like that was more so trying to start some dialogue to that team,” he said of that failed gambit, before he ultimately was sent to the Bucks.

RESPECT PAID: His team having been ousted by the Heat in the second round of last season’s playoffs, New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau warned not to believe the offseason hype of the Heat having slipped from contention. “The obvious is when you look at a Boston and you look at what Milwaukee did,” he said of those teams’ offseason moves, according to New York’s Daily News. “But if you’re not paying attention to all the other teams and what they’ve added, you’re overlooking people, and you can’t do that. I think you underestimate people in this league and particularly there’s a lot of subtleties to the way people were added.” Thibodeau noted returning guard Tyler Herro being absent for all but one half of one game of the Heat’s playoff run to the NBA Finals, as well as a subtle Heat offseason move. “Everyone talks about Miami,” he said of perceived slippage, “but Miami gets Herro back, they get Josh Richardson. People are overlooking that. They’re loaded.”

NEXT STOP: Gabe Vincent is finding life with the Los Angeles Lakers different far more than the expectations with his first true NBA payday, the three-year, $33 million contract that lured him from the Heat in free agency. “I think everything here is just more,” he told The Los Angeles Times. “More staff, more stuff available. A bigger market. Way more media. Even media day was like, ‘OK, wow, a lot of folks here. It just seems like that comes with being in this market, being in this organization that’s world renown. The Laker name is known across the world. It’s a different feel.” That said, Vincent said he is ready for this next step. “The game changes, the game evolves, you have to adapt,” he said. “You change teams, you change situations, you have to adapt. I think that’s very much part of surviving in this league, being able to adapt.”

BE LIKE BAM: Having witnessed the symbiotic pick-and-roll and dribble-handoff relationships Max Strus forged with the Heat with Bam Adebayo, Cleveland Cavaliers big man Evan Mobley is now hoping to do the same with Strus on his side. “Max just knows how to find the pocket at that right exact time,” Mobley told Cleveland.com. “I guess he’s been playing with it for a while, so he’s used to that. I feel like it’s gonna be really good. It allows us to play in many different ways and spread the floor.” Strus, who left the Heat in free agency, said the chemistry is growing, “I think me and him can build a connection together. I can’t put a timeline on how long it’s gonna take.”

NUMBER

1. Instances the Heat have had more than one player from UCLA on the roster at the same time, which is the case this season with first-round pick Jaime Jaquez Jr. and veteran power forward Kevin Love. The only other UCLA players on the Heat roster over the franchise’s 36 seasons were Don MacLean (2000-01), Jason Kapono (2005-06, 2006-07) and Trevor Ariza (2020-21).