Fewer threes, more midrange shots. Why it’s an issue Heat offense must solve amid 2-5 start

The Miami Heat held its first formal practice since the start of the regular season on Monday at FTX Arena in search of answers following an alarming 2-5 start.

The busy game schedule has kept the Heat off the practice court — no NBA team had played more games than Miami through Sunday. But five losses in the first seven games made Monday’s practice feel a bit different than others, as the Heat works to turn things around before dropping further below the .500 line.

“Today was all about solutions and continuing to get better as a basketball team,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Monday ahead of Tuesday’s home matchup against the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors (7:30 p.m., Bally Sports Sun). “There’s quite a few teams that are trying to figure it out. This is the beginning of the season. We have an urgency right now to get to our identity more consistently and that’s what today was about. Just getting to work, watching film and getting out here on the wood and practicing.”

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The list of Heat issues through the first two weeks of the season is long, which is concerning considering that 13 players return from last season’s roster that won 53 regular-season games and made a deep playoff run that ended in the Eastern Conference finals.

The Heat’s defense has looked out of sync after closing last regular season as the NBA’s fourth-best unit (allowing 108.4 points per 100 possessions). Miami entered Monday ranked 19th among the league’s 30 teams with a defensive rating of 112.5 points allowed per 100 possessions this season.

History says Spoelstra and his staff will eventually find the solution to those struggles, as the Heat has finished with a top-10 defensive rating in six of the past seven seasons.

The Heat’s offense has also looked disjointed at times early this season, and that’s a more concerning early-season trend because that end of the court has sometimes been a struggle for the core of the current roster, especially late in games. Miami entered Monday ranked 24th in the league with an offensive rating of 109.4 points scored per 100 possessions this season and has finished with a top-10 offensive rating in just one of the past eight seasons.

One of the most worrisome aspects of the Heat’s ugly start on offense has to do with process and not results.

Yes, Miami has missed a lot of shots (ranked 24th in team field-goal percentage and 18th in team three-point percentage). But it’s the types of shots the Heat is taking that has been problematic.

With shots at the rim and from behind the three-point line considered among the most efficient in the sport, midrange looks are considered among the most inefficient because of they’re location and value. So, the fact that Miami is taking more midrange shots (non-rim two-pointers) than nearly every NBA team at this early stage of the season is an issue.

Through the first seven games, 34.8 percent of the Heat’s shots have come from midrange. That’s the third-highest percentage in the NBA and would be Miami’s highest percentage of shots from that area of the court in a season since 2016-17.

More midrange opportunities means fewer shots from the most efficient spots, as the Heat’s three-point volume is down from 38.6 percent last season to 34.9 percent of its shots coming from deep this season. That’s the 15th-highest percentage in the NBA and would be Miami’s lowest percentage of shots from three-point range in a season since 2018-19.

“We have to be mindful of getting to our strength zones more consistently,” Spoelstra said. “And on the road, particularly there, you have to be more intentional of getting the ball where it needs to go and not just coughing up early ones in that [midrange] region. We had a few of those and it just takes a little bit more intention and thought of playing to our strengths. If you have a few more of those possessions that lead to something else, that might lead to a layup, it might lead to a free throw or an attack somewhere or an open three for somebody. It’s about trying to live in that strength zone more often.”

The Heat’s volume of attempts at the rim, while low, hasn’t changed much since last season. Miami is taking 30.3 percent of its shots at the rim — fifth-lowest percentage in the NBA — but it still represents a small uptick from last season when 30.2 percent of its field-goal attempts came at the rim.

The additional midrange shots are instead coming at the cost of fewer three-point looks through the first two weeks of the season.

“That’s tough for me to comment on that one,” Heat point guard Kyle Lowry said when asked about the high number of midrange shots taken early this season. “Because we have to make baskets. I would like to get more threes up as a group. But we got to find ways to get that done. That’s through film study and just working on it.”

Relying on the midrange hurt the Heat in Saturday’s loss to the Kings in Sacramento, as Miami shot a season-worst 9 of 34 (26.5 percent) on midrange shots in the defeat.

Despite its subpar offensive numbers, the Heat has been relatively efficient from midrange this season. Miami has made 43.4 percent of its midrange opportunities, above the league average threshold of 41.6 percent, but it hasn’t mattered because the Heat simply isn’t taking enough shots at the rim or from three-point range.

The Heat’s shot chart is so sub-optimal that its location effective field-goal percentage (if a team shot league average from each location based on its shot chart) is ranked fourth-worst in the NBA, according to Cleaning the Glass.

Becoming one of the teams that takes the fewest midrange shots in the NBA isn’t realistic for the Heat either. Some of Miami’s top players generate a big chunk of their offense from that area of the court.

Through the first seven games: 60 percent of Bam Adebayo’s shots have come from midrange, 38 percent of Jimmy Butler’s shots have come from midrange and 34 percent of Tyler Herro’s shots have come from midrange. They all rank in the top 20th percentile relative to their positions in that department.

But the Heat must find a way to strike a balance between playing to its best players’ strengths while also putting together a more efficient shot chart moving forward.

Will it take a schematic adjustment from Spoelstra to fix the problem or does there need to be tweaks to the rotation to get lineups on the court that generate those quality looks? These are questions that will be addressed in the coming weeks.

With six of the next seven games coming at home, the Heat’s hope is the answers will come sooner rather than later.

“We’re closer than we are further away from it,” Spoelstra said. “But when you add losses to it, sometimes it can feel like you’re far away. But we’re not that far away.”