What's Been Heating Up: Whole team getting blitzed & Haywood's growth

A breakdown on how the Heat have been getting blitzed & Haywood's recent growth

What’s been heating up? Here, I’ll be breaking down what’s been going on the court and it’s digging deeper into all of that. This can be particular recent stretches, game takeaways, or player performances. It can be small or big, it doesn’t matter. What happens on the court will be broken down, and at times looking through a microscope at all the little details.

I have been catching up on all of the games that I’ve missed and rewatching way too much Heat basketball. A bunch of things stood out. Some were great and encouraging, some were concerning, some were eye-raising and there’s a lot of potential there, and some were simply fun.

The two things that did stand out was everything relating to blitzing and putting two on the ball, and Haywood Highsmith’s confidence.

So, let’s just get right into it.

Getting blitzed & 2 on the ball

Lately, the Heat have been getting blitzed. A lot. Everyone has been getting blitzed. What has been surprising is that multiple different opponents have done so. This wasn’t just one specific team that usually would play such a coverage. This ranged from the Nets, Pacers, Hawks, and Jazz to the Rockets, Warriors, and Clippers.

So far it has been a mixed result, but just off eye test and how games have played out, I’d lean that it has been working well for the opponent. This strategy has been a good thing for the defense, which also means that the Heat haven’t been able to punish it enough to make it less viable.

Some of the Heat’s lowest offensive ratings came in this stretch:

• 99.0 vs Clippers

• 102.1 vs Jazz

• 101.7 vs Kings

• 84.9 vs Jazz

• 106.3 vs Rockets

That’s five different games with four of them being almost at 100 or lower. That’s kind of impressive… in a bad way, though.

But as that’s been going on to a bigger extent, it does make sense, especially when you consider who they’re doing it to and what the pieces are around them.

Getting blitzed can be a good thing but it’s not always a good thing. It’s not a good thing until you can actually punish it. There are multiple reasons for players can get to get blitzed. It’s not just because they’re that dangerous and you need to stop them specifically.

The best player or the lead ball handler can get blitzed because the rest of the team has no one else who can make decisions. It can be because the ball handler can’t make good enough decisions himself to punish the coverage. It can be the opponent has the right personnel for that kind of aggressive defense to force turnovers without giving much up elsewhere.

One example of a player being blitzed or doubled due to their limitation is one that the Heat has played times before against Joel Embiid. He is that dangerous of a scorer but he never hurt you with his passing.

Even anecdotally from my limited playing experience, I get blitzed if I am heating up because the second I see that charge, it’s wraps. I’d be completely taken out and that was it for my offense.

All of that has played a part in the Heat getting more blitzed as a whole.

The main recipient of that has been Tyler Herro. Not going to lie, after looking at how much he’s been getting blitzed, it’d suck to be him on the court right now. You try to run any kind of screen and bang get hit with two bodies. It must be annoying and exhausting.

By my rough tracking on what was a PNR/handoff and what counted as a blitz/drawing 2, I had roughly 70-80 instances — these estimates could be on the lower end, though.

Here’s over 6 minutes of Herro getting blitzed. It’s a lot. The results were varied.

The process of how Herro went about it was better than expected, especially given the volume. To get blitzed that many times without turning the ball over at a high clip is impressive. A lot of it still came down to some needed refinement when it comes to picking up the dribble too soon, getting flustered a bit, or looking to make a different read than a predetermined one.

This won’t be a full breakdown of his ability to attack blitzes(that might be a more in-depth breakdown for another time), though. There’s way too much there to go over and so much to look at.

But let’s just go over some key plays and areas that stood out more(not solely on Herro).

The first has been that it hasn’t been as effective for the team:

This is also not just on him. To beat these kinds of defenses, it does require the four other players to move when they should and capitalize on them. But those possessions mean the defense can afford to blitz without any worry. Too many times the defense was able to recover as if they didn’t blitz anyone.

That can’t happen. That just means you have wasted time and your best ball handler and scorer doesn’t have the ball, so now what is your offense?

Unfortunately, many of those possessions still show the needed development and improvement from Herro on navigating those defenses. You can see at times he picks up the dribble prematurely or he dribbles out into nowhere and gets stuck.

There have also been plenty of solid reads that did take advantage and punished the defense:

There were plenty of flashes that showed growth throughout the game. Against the Kings, the first couple of times that they threw it at him showed getting flustered and it ended in a turnover, but that got better as the game went on.

There were also plays like this:

He’s drawing a double and manages to turn the corner with the numbers advantage and create a look in the corner.

This one was also one of my favorites:

That’s reading the defense perfectly. Draws the blitz, drags it out, and makes the skip pass to Jovic where they have the numbers advantage. There were a handful of possessions that he made that read perfectly to skip.

Or take this possession where he was able to beat the blitz by turning the corner:

He’s had a couple of plays like that.

One of the more common reads where to the roll. That was good. It’s the quickest, and most easily available read in those situations and he was routinely making it. It’s possessions like these:

Or it developed into playing with the defense until making the pass:

These are all great reads. The next steps are just developing all of that. It’s manipulating the defense rather than just reacting to the defense.

The team itself may have not taken advantage of it all to create easier and better looks, the development reps are needed and it’s already showing progress with Herro.

Moving onto the next most blitzed player and that’s Duncan Robinson. With him, it’s been more of the usual coverages he typically sees. He doesn’t run many PNRs in comparison to coming off handoffs, but it’s still drawing two in the ways we remember him doing:

With Robinson, a lot of the reads are the same as they have always been. It’s making that routine pass to the roll almost every time with no issue. There’s no issue with accuracy or timing. That’s all well and done. He can take advantage of that and then it’s up to Adebayo on the roll to the damage.

Though, I do wish we’d see a development in some of those reads. It doesn’t have to be a pocket pass to the roll every time. It now does feel premeditated and defenses can read. If I can scout that and know what Robinson is doing, the defense is already 10 steps ahead.

That’s where we’d see the team itself not capitalizing on it.

Another point is that when there is a PNR blitz, that hasn’t been good and that’s mainly due to his handle. He’s not going to retreat or beat the blitz in the way Herro has done.

But the best thing about those two is they also have tremendous gravity off-ball. You don’t need to run a PNR for Duncan or Herro to draw two on the ball:

This is Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson-esque right there. Look at the fear those two put in defenses running around. Look at how the defense is confused on what they should do and it opens up a cut. Or it draws the defense like a damn magnet that collapses the defense on the 3pt line.

I want to see more of that combined. Imagine a Herro PNR that gets blitzed but at the same time flows into some screening action for Duncan. That would just be chaos for the defense.

Finally, as mentioned, everyone on the Heat have been getting blitzed one way or the other:

This is where it works even better. They get blitzed because the defense knows that they’re not punishing it. There’s not much created in any of those possessions. It’s just wasting time after picking up the dribble.

Overall, this has been a change in the Heat’s offense seeing this kind of defense. This has been going on for a while now, so it will be interesting to see how Spoelstra and the players will adjust. They have to because it’s one of the reasons why they’ve been near below average or bottom 10 in ORTG the last few weeks.

But it’s also looking at it through player development. How will Herro continue to look offensively when dealing with such defense? If he can’t punish it in an effective initially, can he(and Spo) find ways to get him going elsewhere? Is this the time we’d need to see more off-ball Herro once he gives up the ball?

How will the rest of the players continue to look? Herro and Robinson are their best decision-makers in those situations but they won’t be involved in every action. Others will have to be better at attacking it.

Equally as important it’s the off-ball players and Adebayo, too. Once Herro or Robinson do make the right read, it’s on everyone else to make the right cut or read elsewhere. You can’t get blitzed only for it to end with the advantage gone and you’re back to square one.

This is going to be a fun couple of weeks going forward.

Haywood doing more

I mentioned earlier this week that Highsmith has been having a career year this year, whether that’s his efficiency from 3pt, at the rim or in his impact metrics. But what has really stood out in this recent stretch is mostly the confidence to do more.

At this point, there’s been a clear image of what Highsmith was and what he brings. He was a somewhat reluctant but solid spot up shooter on relatively low volume. He made good decisions on a cut here and there, depending on what the defense gives him.

He still does all of that but it’s also at a higher volume and it feels better. There’s also him doing more in general. It’s doing things that I don’t remember Highsmith doing ever. There’s more initiative and improvisation from him. He doesn’t look boxed into one or two decisions — shoot or pass. He has looked to put the ball down more and attack. He has brought up the ball a bit more in transition opportunities. He even has some possessions where he created something out of nothing himself.

Starts off with the things he’s usually done and it’s his constant cutting to finish:

Whether it’s playing with a numbers advantage, he knows when to move to capitalize on that. He rarely looks to just be inactive off-ball. If he gets overplayed or the defense is left ball-watching, he routinely makes those cuts.

That’s the standard from him.

Related to his cutting, a development recently that showed up is cutting to playmake.

It’s still him doing the same old cutting that he usually does, but instead of finishing himself, he’s able to find other windows to continue an advantage elsewhere or make a read for an easy shot.

This play stood out a lot:

He did his cut and there was nothing there, so he continued his dribble, surveyed the floor, and made a kick at the end. He’s not getting flustered, losing his dribble or doesn’t look like he’s not sure of what to do.

Still on his movement, what’s been happening more lately(because of the blitzing and switches) is him being used on slips. He’s also a very active screener, now that has many options on what to do. He can pop. But he can also be used on slips if the ball handler draws 2 on the ball or to punish switches. This has been the fun part of his game lately:

This is another part of his game that has developed where he can either finish himself or draw the defense to make a play. Some of those kicks are hella impressive too!

And the thing that stood out the most, particularly with the confidence is when he has the ball. When he’s involved in those actions, he’s at times the hub running the handoffs.

This is new at this volume. This is him faking those handoffs and doing what he wants to do with the ball. That just makes his offense a lot less predictable and gives the team more options.

Finally, his shooting. This isn’t definite and it’s hard to just say it now without looking over his shots(and shots he may have passed up) last year, but it definitely looks like he takes all of his 3s with more confidence.

It’s quicker. There’s no hesitation on whether he should take it or not. He just lets it rip.

I’m loving this Highsmith.