Bam Adebayo said on national television that you can't defend the "Heat's" Wheel because even the Heaters don't know who's going to get the shot. There are no set plays. It's jazz rather than a classical composition.
Not really!
In the last few games Miami has fallen from at or near the top in ppg and pace. The "Heat" have lost three straight (for the first time this season), and four of five. They have fallen to sixth in the Eastern Conference. Perhaps the reincorporation of Tyler Herro into the starting lineup (and now his loss) has something to do with this rapid descent.
And perhaps not.
The wonder is not that the the team has fallen, the wonder to me is that it took the league so long to figure out how to defend the Wheel. Other teams didn't have enough game film on the "Heat". No. They played the Wheel offense in the preseason where they went 0-6. Other teams had film on (the first half of) Memphis last season. It's the same offensive concept. Erik Spoelstra even brought the originator of the scheme on board as a consultant this past summer (after he was fired mid-season last year by Memphis).
To me, the "Heat's" early season success with the Wheel is a failure of NBA-types intelligence. Arrogant of me to say, but that is what I honestly believe. There is just no reason for this to have been a surprise around the league.
Systems: I am not a systems guy. I don't believe that systems make a team, I believe that the team makes a system. Look: Davion Mitchell is my favorite Heater. I love the guy, but Davion is not going to be confused with Magic Johnson. I see ways to defend tiki-taka in soccer, I see ways to defend the Wheel in basketball, which I laid out in the last post, and which other teams are now doing. The Wheel is a system, and despite the connotations to jazz, it is highly-structured, predictable and simple to understand and defend.
If Miami are to reinvent the Wheel it must be much less a system, so much so that you can call it what you want, it isn't going to be the Wheel. The "Heat" have got so many good to very good shooters, I would play a much more free-wheeling (awful pun), less structured offense and let my shooters shoot. I would mix things up, I would use Bam to free up my shooters in pick and rolls. We have a much younger team than we did at this time last season, also. I would send wave after wave at opponents. I would keep them guessing every damn game who my starters will be. We're fast. I would continue to run and gun, but if I can't get a transition basket, I'd give opponents different half-court looks, pick-and-rolls as mentioned, post play, back door cuts, 3-and-D, designed play, the Wheel. I would use every tool, old school and newfangled, to present different looks, to keep opponents guessing and confused. Bam is undersized for a center, but Bam is a BEAR. The bear can play just about anywhere. And he would in the deliberate chaos I would like to see. I would confuse opponents not with a system, but with the absence of a system. True jazz.
I would also send our waves of young, fleet players on defense. Defense has been the "Heat's" identity since Pat Riley faxed in his resignation to the "Knicks." We have to get back to being an annoying defensive team that bruises opponents.
I would emphasize the vertical game in passing. In the prior post I stated the obvious, that a projectile is faster than any man. Remember Kevin Love two years ago?Bombs away K-Love from under our basket 94' to Gabe Vincent! Tiki-taka is short passes also. I want to see some Kenny Stabler-Kevin Love long passes.
Vertical: The Wheel aims to create space. That cannot be done in two dimensions given the...dimensions of a basketball court. But there is the third dimension, height. The Principle of Verticality. That can work both ways. We are not a Tall team, but Bam plays the post. He can also defend on the perimeter. Yes, you're reading that correctly. Steven Adams swallowed Steph Curry up using his height and the sideline as a help defender in a Peaceniks-OKC playoff game some years ago. Positionless basketball means that you should be able to do that. Again, the point is not to have Bam on the perimeter all game, the point is to keep reinventing, keep showing new looks, keep astonishing and confusing the opponent.
You can also put small guys on Bigs. DARE Kevin Durant to take a dribble on the perimeter before launching one of his treys with Davion and 3J swarming all over his lower half.
Erik Spoelstra is the best head coach in the NBA. He invented positionless basketball. He flew to Oregon to talk spread offense with Chip Kelly during the Big Three Era! Spo is creative, inventive, highly intelligent, and a tinkerer at heart. He's going to get back to "Heat" D, he's going to use more of the pick and roll, he's going to hunt traditional height and speed mismatches. Spoelstra thinks outside the box. He is not going to reinvent the wheel. He's thinking beyond the wheel.
