LOS ANGELES — It has been shocking — and wildly entertaining — to watch the Miami Heat this season.
For as long as anyone can remember, the Heat have been methodical. Last season, Miami ranked 27th in the league in pace, with just 16.5% of its possessions starting in transition (25th in the NBA). The season before that (2023-24), the Heat were 29th in pace with just 16.2% of their possessions starting in transition. It’s been that way throughout Erik Spoelstra’s first 17 seasons in Miami — slow, grind it out, old-school Eastern Conference basketball. In each of the last six seasons, Miami has been in the bottom four in the league in pace, and Spoelstra’s teams have never finished in the top half of the league in pace — including the explosive LeBron James championship teams.
Which is why this season has been a shock.
Miami leads the league in pace — and it’s not close. The Heat are pushing the ball in transition every chance they get — 23.9% of their possessions start in transition — but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Their halfcourt offense is just as relentless with its ball and player movement. There are no stars pounding the ball and getting picks set for them — Miami has run pick-and-roll on 7.8% of its offensive possessions this season, less than half of the next-lowest team. It’s a blur of motion, drives, kicks, and everyone getting a touch and a shot.
It’s working — and with essentially the same roster Miami had last season.
“We’re just trying to build something that makes sense for this roster…” Spoelstra said. “Where our pace ultimately lands, we’ll find out.”
Pace in half court
When we think of a team playing fast, we think of transition basketball. We think Showtime or the “seven seconds or less” Suns. The Heat certainly do run — as noted above, they lead the league in transition opportunities. Third-year forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. is thriving in transition, averaging 18.7 points a game off the bench.
“I think that’s part of my role in this team, coming off as that sixth man,” Jaquez said. “It’s to infuse life and energy, give the team a spark, whatever they need, or be the gas that we throw in the fire. I take that role very seriously.”
However, where things are really diffrerent for the Heat is in the half court.
Pace is not just about running, it’s about making quick decisions and pressuring the defense, and that’s exactly what the Heat are doing with their halfcourt offense— and doing it in a system like nobody else runs. This summer, the Heat brought in Noah LaRoche as a consultant, the guy who introduced the “wheel” style offense that Memphis ran for parts of last season (the one Ja Morant did not like). It’s a system widespread in European leagues. Put simply, there are rarely picks (again, 7.8% of possessions), instead, players attack one-on-one, try to get by their man into the paint, and the other players rotate behind him to keep the spacing and open up passing lanes. It’s drive-and-kick, drive-and-kick until there is a good shot.
“They play super fast,” Lakers coach J.J. Redick said of facing Miami’s offense. “And then that sort of swing, swing, drive over and over again until they get the advantage. Still can’t allow the ball to go middle, but Memphis last year felt really reliant on the middle drive. This team doesn’t. They do a great job of just attacking and that low man, whoever just cut sits there, and he kind of just reads where he’s supposed to go.”
It’s working, the Heat are 10th in the league in offensive rating. It’s not for everybody — for example, the Lakers, with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, should stick with the pick-and-roll where their stars thrive. And we’re likely we see more pick-and-rolls in Miami once Tyler Herro returns from injury, but the Heat aren’t going all the way back to the old days either.
Defending at pace is the challenge
Against the Lakers on Sunday, the Heat had an offensive rating of 114.3, which is a couple of points below their average but not bad. However, they had a defensive rating of 121.5 (for comparison, that would be the third worst in the NBA this season).
After the loss, that’s what frustrated Spoelstra and the team.
“That’s our identity. That’s what this franchise has really hung their hat on, defense,” Bam Adebayo said. “So even though our offense has changed and we’re scoring in the 120s, we still got to defend.”
That game was also a one-off — Miami has the third-best defensive rating in the league this season. They are pressuring full court, trying to speed teams up, and it’s working. It just didn’t work Sunday night.
However, that defense and that pace have made the Heat the most interesting team in the NBA this season.
