As the Miami Heat tried to maintain Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs, they were unable to, as the team's three-game winning streak was snapped on Thursday night with a 107-101 defeat. Still, the talking point of the Heat's season on the court has been their new fast offense that has had some inspiration.
ESPN's Brian Windhorst and Tim Bontemps had a recent column speaking on intel from around the league, talking about Miami's new offensive philosophy that cuts down on pick-and-rolls and is more quick and free-flowing. Windhorst noted that head coach Erik Spoelstra and the team consulted with former Memphis Grizzlies assistant Noah LaRoche, as he was one crucial piece involved in changing their offense last season.
“Doesn't this new system look like what the Memphis Grizzlies did last year? It sure does,” Windhorst said. “Spoelstra and the Heat consulted with former Grizzlies assistant Noah LaRoche, sources told ESPN, before installing a more free-flowing, motion-based system that largely eliminates pick-and-rolls.”
When speaking with a league executive, one said that this offensive system is vastly different than what Pat Riley “used to run.”
“You know Spo is running the polar opposite of the system that [Heat president] Pat Riley used to run, where he called every play and each play design was exact,” a league executive said to ESPN. “And it makes me further appreciate and respect that the organization is about the right s—. They're about exploring and teaching in Miami.”
This would fall in line with how players in Miami have been talking about the offense, like Bam Adebayo saying to ClutchPoints that during the 115-107 win over the New York Knicks last Sunday, “I don't think we ran a play today.”
Heat's new offense came from the Grizzlies' assistant coach
While the Heat await the return of Tyler Herro from ankle surgery, fans are wondering how even better the offense can be, but there's no denying the early results. Miami currently has recorded 107.30 possessions per 48 minutes, which is the fastest pace in the league, to go along with averaging 125.4 points per game after five games.
As Spoelstra and Miami had the intention of changing the offense after being one of the slowest teams in the league, while also ranking towards the bottom in offensive rating, modeling the system from Memphis was the right call. Bontemps would speak about how LaRoche, whom the Heat consulted with, was a main factor in the Grizzlies' change.
“Last season, as the Grizzlies also got off to a hot start running this system, there was a common misconception that this was the offense that Tuomas Iisalo had brought over to the United States after working as a head coach for several years in Germany and France,” Bontemps wrote. “Instead, it turned out to be Noah LaRoche's offense.”
Many players on the Heat have benefitted from the change, like Jaime Jaquez Jr. and others, as the team continues to show the change on Sunday against the Los Angeles Lakers.
