A year after struggling from three-point range, Heat can finally say ‘We got shooters’
It’s easy now to ridicule Hassan Whiteside for the exit message he shared on Instagram after the Miami Heat traded him to the Portland Trail Blazers in the offseason.
“We got shooters!” he shouted over and over again into the camera. He was thrilled about the idea of playing with Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum, especially after the Heat finished in the bottom third of the NBA in three-point percentage last season.
Miami’s offense had myriad issues last season, and the struggles from long range were right at the forefront. The Heat shot just 34.9 percent from three-point range. Only two playoff teams were worse from beyond the arc.
Thirteen games into this season, Miami’s offensive turnaround appears to be more real every game. The Heat’s success begins with ball movement — Miami (10-3) is sixth in the league averaging 26.2 assists, up from 24.3 last year — but it finishes with the massive amount of three-pointers the Heat is taking and making. Heading into a meeting with the Chicago Bulls on Friday at 8 p.m., Miami is averaging a franchise-record 32.5 three-point attempts and shooting 39.6 percent on them — good for second in the league and less than 0.1 percent off the franchise record set in the 2012-2013 season when it won its most recent championship.
“You’re just seeing the ball go in right now from some of our guys that have an ignitability to it,” coach Erik Spoelstra said Wednesday after the Heat’s 124-100 rout of the Cleveland Cavaliers in Miami, “so it’s making you pay attention more.”
The new identity was never more evident than in the latest blowout at AmericanAirlines Arena. The Heat exploded behind a 19-of-37 shooting performance from three-point range, highlighted by swingman Duncan Robinson’s 9-of-15 game.
Look at the boxscore and it’s easy to see how the change happened. Tyler Herro went 4 of 7 from deep. Kendrick Nunn went 1 of 2. Six players hit threes and five of them shot at least 40 percent on multiple attempts. The Heat’s roster overturn created this: Miami is without some of its least reliable shooters from last season — most notably Whiteside and Dwyane Wade — and the Heat replaced them with some of the league’s most dangerous shooters, including Meyers Leonard, Nunn and Herro.
Leonard, on relatively low volume, leads the NBA in three-point percentage at 61.9. Herro and Nunn, a pair of rookie guards, are both shooting at least 40 percent from beyond the arc and have each had at least one game with four made threes.
Throw in guard Goran Dragic shooting a career-best 41.4 percent from three — up more than 4 percent from last year — and Robinson shooting 44.0 percent in a significantly expanded role, and the roster and offense are simply constructed differently this year.
“The last time I played with a lot of shooters on my team was probably on my AAU team in high school. That’s about it,” said Herro, who went to the Elite Eight with the Kentucky Wildcats last year. “It just creates less stress on our offensive side. I think it opens up more space for the rest of our attackers and ball-handlers.”
The revamped roster has turned in one of the best offensive performances of the season in the opening two months. Entering a game against the Bulls (5-10) on Friday in Chicago, Miami leads the league in field-goal percentage at 48.2 and ranks in the top half of the NBA in scoring after finishing last seasons 26th in scoring and 22nd in field-goal percentage.
Whether the increased assist totals beget the better three-point and field-goal percentages or vice versa is immaterial. It’s all part of a cohesive whole for the Heat and some of Miami’s most impressive attributes — particularly its three-point shooting and its passing — don’t seem to be in line for any sort of serious regression.
The Heat, after all, has shooters.
“We’ve got a lot of scorers, though,” star wing Jimmy Butler said Wednesday. “Duncan ain’t just a shooter, you know? I cringe every once in awhile when he dribbles the ball, but I think he can do multiple things. He rebounds well for his position, he can pass the ball — same thing with Tyler. We have so many guys that can do so many things and between them two, I don’t know whose swag is more incredible when they’re out there on the floor, man. They be showing out.”
Injury update
Forwards Justise Winslow, Derrick Jones Jr. and KZ Okpala all did not travel with Miami for its two-game road trip, which features games against the Bulls on Friday and the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday. Winslow is still in concussion protocol, Jones is recovering from a hip injury and Okpala is still dealing with an Achilles injury.
This story was originally published November 21, 2019 at 10:57 AM.
