Again...The Official 2013-14 Season Thread for YOUR Defending and Reigning NBA Champion- Miami Heat
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Brief Keef
Superstar
we've beaten more top tier teams than the Heat
we've had the 4th hardest schedule http://espn.go.com/nba/stats/rpi/_/sort/SOS
miami has the 2nd easiest one and thats before facing the pistons
Stern in y'all pocket and still lost to a team we blew out and beat on the road
struggle against the bobcats and lose to the pistons brehs
so what happens when we beat that ass on christmas ? you got your usual bag of lines ready ?
He's Tim freakin Duncan, doggy. He's supposed to go off especially in the finals. Had he not gone off we'd be talking about him being washed up or dissapearing.
Remember the criticism on Lebron for the 2010 finals?
See, now this is the kinda sensitive shyt i cant stand with stans. You cant be critical in any way shape or form. THis wasnt about beasley so dont make it so. I just pointed out one of Beasley's weaknesses as part of the whole list of issues we have rebounding and you're gonna take it as a personal attack on Beasley.see this the shyt im talkin bout the kid dropped 22 man fukk that rebound shyt we should of won this game regardless don't put it all on Beas
THis is one freakin loss to a team we knew was a bad matchup.
GO-SIT-DOWN
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Brief Keef
Superstar
RT @Hoya2aPacer @aldridge_12 I believe u bro. We both competing hard. Tough post moves. Good luck in the West. We will see each other in the finals.
when june comes we gonna flame this nikka
when june comes we gonna flame this nikka
Niccas hyperventilating over a loss in early December like we didn't just win 10 straight & Wade wasn't playing. Not a good look.
2012-13 Miami Heat Regular Season FACTS:
- 41-11 vs the Eastern Conf
- 25-5 vs Western COnf
- Only teams out west to beat us were Grizzlies, Clippers, San Antonio Golden State, and Portland.
- They all beat us only once so we ended the series 1-1 vs these teams (inter conf meet twice a year)
- Grizzlies were the only western team to blow us out
- The Blazers and Warriors beat us by 2 point and Warriors needed a buzzer beater with .09 seconds left to do it
mrlongjohn10in
Pro
They got beat plain and simple with all the turnovers and inconsistent play on defense they gambled this one away. At about the 3:00m or so we they were only down 3 points and no one could buy a bucket which led to the defeat. You cant win them all. but they better win the game on Tuesday and beat detroit on their home court when we play them again.
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ItWasWritten
Superstar
yall was on his dikk though
I wasnt, if pau gasol could with his soft azz could d him up in the finals i didnt see the benfit, i much rather prefer a healthy bynum
WaddupDoe!
Steez.
He Who Posts Well
Superstar
Big picture breh...big picture.
LeBron James Controls the Chessboard
The world's best player breaks down the NBA's most highly evolved offense
By Kirk Goldsberry on December 5, 2013PRINT
This won't surprise you: The Miami Heat have one of the best offenses in the NBA. But as entertaining as it is to watch the two-time defending NBA champions execute, it's been equally fascinating to watch them evolve. The Heat's approach to scoring has changed drastically over the past few years. Just ask LeBron James.
"No one cares who shoots," James told me. "We went from a team that played a lot of isolation basketball to [being] first or second in the league in assists. Everyone on the team feels so comfortable offensively. We get the ball from one side to the other side, shifting the defense then attacking it or spraying out for 3s."
Scoring in the NBA is by no means easy. But when James is on the floor, Miami sure makes it look that way. The Heat are currently averaging an insane 111.9 points per 100 possessions with James on the floor.1 It's convenient to suggest that Miami's proficient scoring is merely a byproduct of its talent, but that overlooks a remarkable transformation in the team's philosophy and system. Yes, Miami has several gifted players, but as we saw last season in Los Angeles, talent alone guarantees nothing in the NBA. Teamwork and intelligent schemes are still required. Getting players to collectively generate value rather than just contribute as individuals is still the hallmark of winning basketball; it's also the hallmark of the current Heat offense.
In November, I visited Miami to talk about the team's offense with James. As always, he is constantly thinking a few moves ahead and meditating on progress. At 28 he is squarely in his prime but remains obsessed with improvement, both as an individual player and as a member of a team. Of all the things to appreciate about the four-time MVP, one aspect has still gone relatively uncelebrated: The best individual player in the world is also one of the most thoughtful teammates another basketball player could have.
"Our offense has grown over the years," James said. "We've all had to make sacrifices for our offense to become better. But as far as where we are today, I feel great. We're at a record pace, assists are high, efficiency is high, field goal percentage, 3-point percentage, we're doing it all. So I'm feeling really good. But I'm always thinking about ways to improve."
James discussed the key elements of the team's offense in a folding chair at the edge of the Heat locker room on a quiet off day after a breezy home win against Milwaukee; it was the team's first victory on what would become a nine-game win streak. As one of the team's leaders, he has helped to engineer and implement the tactics that are now dominating the league. It didn't happen overnight, but the offense has steadily improved and its diverse collection of talent has gradually coalesced. This is a very different team from the one that lost to Dallas in the Finals two and a half years ago.
I wanted to look at this offense through James's eyes, analyzing each of his key teammates and talk about how these individual parts add up to a terrifying whole.
Chris Bosh: The Disrupter
In 2010-11, the season in which Miami last lost a playoff series, the Heat ranked 25th in the NBA in assist percentage. By last season, they ranked 13th. And so far this season, they're ranked second, assisting on 64 percent of their field goals.
Chris Bosh is one of the most frequent recipients of those assists,2 and according to James he is also the catalyst for many of the team's key offensive actions. "Our offense is predicated through CB playing a lot of the high-post and 18-foot areas, knowing that he's going to be played by a lot of 5s," said James. "The centers in our league are always trying to protect the rim, and CB is always like our outlet on offense."
full http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/10080338/lebron-james-nba-most-highly-evolved-offense
The world's best player breaks down the NBA's most highly evolved offense
By Kirk Goldsberry on December 5, 2013PRINT
This won't surprise you: The Miami Heat have one of the best offenses in the NBA. But as entertaining as it is to watch the two-time defending NBA champions execute, it's been equally fascinating to watch them evolve. The Heat's approach to scoring has changed drastically over the past few years. Just ask LeBron James.
"No one cares who shoots," James told me. "We went from a team that played a lot of isolation basketball to [being] first or second in the league in assists. Everyone on the team feels so comfortable offensively. We get the ball from one side to the other side, shifting the defense then attacking it or spraying out for 3s."
Scoring in the NBA is by no means easy. But when James is on the floor, Miami sure makes it look that way. The Heat are currently averaging an insane 111.9 points per 100 possessions with James on the floor.1 It's convenient to suggest that Miami's proficient scoring is merely a byproduct of its talent, but that overlooks a remarkable transformation in the team's philosophy and system. Yes, Miami has several gifted players, but as we saw last season in Los Angeles, talent alone guarantees nothing in the NBA. Teamwork and intelligent schemes are still required. Getting players to collectively generate value rather than just contribute as individuals is still the hallmark of winning basketball; it's also the hallmark of the current Heat offense.
In November, I visited Miami to talk about the team's offense with James. As always, he is constantly thinking a few moves ahead and meditating on progress. At 28 he is squarely in his prime but remains obsessed with improvement, both as an individual player and as a member of a team. Of all the things to appreciate about the four-time MVP, one aspect has still gone relatively uncelebrated: The best individual player in the world is also one of the most thoughtful teammates another basketball player could have.
"Our offense has grown over the years," James said. "We've all had to make sacrifices for our offense to become better. But as far as where we are today, I feel great. We're at a record pace, assists are high, efficiency is high, field goal percentage, 3-point percentage, we're doing it all. So I'm feeling really good. But I'm always thinking about ways to improve."
James discussed the key elements of the team's offense in a folding chair at the edge of the Heat locker room on a quiet off day after a breezy home win against Milwaukee; it was the team's first victory on what would become a nine-game win streak. As one of the team's leaders, he has helped to engineer and implement the tactics that are now dominating the league. It didn't happen overnight, but the offense has steadily improved and its diverse collection of talent has gradually coalesced. This is a very different team from the one that lost to Dallas in the Finals two and a half years ago.
I wanted to look at this offense through James's eyes, analyzing each of his key teammates and talk about how these individual parts add up to a terrifying whole.
Chris Bosh: The Disrupter
In 2010-11, the season in which Miami last lost a playoff series, the Heat ranked 25th in the NBA in assist percentage. By last season, they ranked 13th. And so far this season, they're ranked second, assisting on 64 percent of their field goals.
Chris Bosh is one of the most frequent recipients of those assists,2 and according to James he is also the catalyst for many of the team's key offensive actions. "Our offense is predicated through CB playing a lot of the high-post and 18-foot areas, knowing that he's going to be played by a lot of 5s," said James. "The centers in our league are always trying to protect the rim, and CB is always like our outlet on offense."
full http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/10080338/lebron-james-nba-most-highly-evolved-offense
The rebirth of Michael Beasley
Miami is helping a once-troubled star realize his long-recognized potential
Updated: December 5, 2013, 12:37 PM ET
By Tom Haberstroh | ESPN Insider
Kevin Durant. Kevin Love. Anthony Davis. LaMarcus Aldridge. Blake Griffin. Brook Lopez. DeMarcus Cousins. Carmelo Anthony.
What do these eight players have in common? Each of them have played more than 200 minutes this season and average at least 20 points and seven rebounds on a per-36-minute basis. That represents a sample of the game's biggest star big men, and they're getting paid like it. The average salary of those franchise players? About $14 million. If we take out Cousins and Davis, who are still on their salary-depressed rookie scale contracts, that average price tag soars to $16.6 million.
Star players, star salaries. Ah, but there's one more player who's putting up those types of numbers, averaging 23.1 points and 7.9 rebounds per 36 minutes. That's Michael Beasley.
Guess how much the Miami Heat are paying him to play this season. $1 million. That's the bare minimum for a sixth-year player. While everyone turned a blind eye to Beasley this summer once he was waived by the Phoenix Suns, the capped-out, two-time defending champs signed him for almost nothing. So far he has posted a 22.0 player efficiency rating in 2013-14, the sixth-highest in the Eastern Conference. It appears the rich only got richer.
Welcome to the reconstruction of Michael Beasley.
Old role, new role model
The 24-year-old is entering his prime, five years removed from being selected No. 2 overall behind Derrick Rose in the 2008 draft. And in a bizarre twist of fate, it is Beasley, not Rose, who has a chance to contribute to a title run this season. The outrageous talent always has been there for Beasley, but the results? Not so much. In recent years, Beasley toiled away as an inefficient shot creator on the wing for Minnesota and Phoenix. Both teams couldn't wait to let him go; Phoenix even paid him millions to leave.
Even putting aside the off-court stuff, it's easy to see why those teams bailed. Over those three seasons outside of South Florida, Beasley fired up shots like a superstar, using a whopping 27.5 percent of his team's possessions while on the floor. But he didn't make them like a superstar. Of the 16 players who posted at least a 27 percent usage rate over that time, Beasley's true shooting percentage ranked dead last at 49.4 percent. And his spotty defense was equally as poisonous.
But the Heat spotted the problem: Beasley was miscast as a small forward. The Heat drafted him as a big man, groomed him as a big man and now they're rebuilding him as a big man. And that process takes time and a heavy dose of tough love. Everywhere from his contract to his minutes, the Heat made it clear to Beasley from the start that there would be no guarantees. Everything would be earned, not given.
To that end, Erik Spoelstra didn't give Beasley a single minute of in-game action over the Heat's first four games. But Beasley was working behind the scenes. The coaching staff used the practice time to refresh Beasley on the Heat's defensive principles and re-establish him as a scoring stretch 4 who'd also set picks and create for others without the ball.
"Five hundred screens a day," Spoelstra said while watching Beasley set screens over and over in the Heat's last practice. "We've been drilling ad nauseum on how we want him to play and to get other people the ball in other actions. He can make our team better, often times by screening much like LeBron [James] does. Those two guys can be arguably our two most talented screeners off the ball."
Over the last three seasons, Spoelstra already has sold LeBron James on embracing life as a big man, which meant consistently working out of the post and setting screens for other players. That life existed outside of his comfort zone until he moved to Miami. But Spoelstra won James over with championships. Nowadays Spoelstra continues to reap the benefits by giving Beasley an everyday role model.
"I'm just trying to imitate everything [James] does," Beasley said. "From the way he shoots his jump shot, to the way he's in here lifting weights, to the way he wears socks. He has a blueprint, and I'm just following him."
Beasley's transformation is startling. Last season in Phoenix, Beasley's third most frequent scoring play type put him as the ball handler in a pick-and-roll, according to Synergy tracking. Not the guy setting the screen, mind you, the guy running it. Synergy tells us that he tried to score as the pick-and-roll ball handler 120 times last season, or almost two times per game on average. But it was his least efficient action, spitting out a measly 0.708 points per play.
You know how many plays Beasley has finished as the pick-and-roll ball handler in Miami? Two. In 13 games.
"And those were by accident," Spoelstra said, laughing.
Beasley efficient?
Over the last few seasons, the ball was put in Beasley's hands and his job was to create off the dribble. That license yielded a host of pull-up long 2s and more headaches. Not so anymore. Watch a Heat game and you'll see Beasley setting multiple screens on any given trip down the floor. This helps to funnel Beasley into high-efficiency destinations either by rolling to the rim or flaring to the 3-point line. In Tuesday's game against the Detroit Pistons, Beasley shot 3-for-3 on corner 3-pointers and 6-for-10 inside the paint. That is the ideal.
Beasley's love affair with the midrange game is waning, too. For the season, just 29 percent of his shots come from midrange, according to NBA.com data, down from 40 percent last season. The Heat haven't specifically demanded Beasley to avoid the least profitable area on the floor, but they've emphasized the importance of getting to the money areas: at the rim, at the line and beyond the arc.
Like practically everyone else on the Heat roster, Beasley's having his most efficient season yet, shooting a LeBron-like 54.7 percent from the floor, 52.9 percent from downtown and 79.2 percent from the line. It's early, but Spoelstra has already trusted Beasley enough to have him anchor lineups without any of Miami's big three on the floor. And those Beasley lineups have been winning ones so far. Spoelstra has evidently believed in Beasley, but James' trust might be the biggest factor to his success.
"LeBron has a lot of confidence in me, and I don't really know where he gets it from," Beasley said. "Sometimes he has more confidence in me than I have for myself. That's good, just to have a group of people that genuinely believe that you can make it -- that you can make it on a good team. I'm just playing basketball the right way now."
Another diamond in the rough
Playing defense the right way will always be a concern with Beasley. If he's not dedicating himself on that end of the floor, Spoelstra has no problem leaving him on the bench, as he did at the beginning of the season.
But so far, the Heat haven't missed a step with him out there. According to NBA.com data, the Heat have held opponents to just 96.9 points per 100 possessions with Beasley on the floor, compared to 100.5 points per 100 possessions when he's riding the pine. For the most part, Beasley hasn't broken the hard-wired machine that is the Heat defense.
This is the power of a winning system and championship-tuned culture. By bringing in Beasley, the Heat took a gamble that no other team wanted to make. Facing a stiff luxury tax and limited flexibility, these free-agent reclamation projects are the Heat's draft picks, providing value for pennies on the dollar. It didn't work out with Ronny Turiaf, Mike Bibby, Eddy Curry or Erick Dampier in seasons past. But they struck gold with Chris Andersen last season after the Nuggets cut him using the amnesty provision. And so far, Beasley is on track to be another gem off the scrap heap.
Once again, one team's trash now appears to be the champs' treasure. But Beasley is different than those other free-agent pickups because Beasley's entering his prime, not on his way out of the NBA. This find has the potential to pay dividends over the long term. After Beasley's reconstruction seems to have given the Heat yet another weapon in their loaded arsenal, the league has to wonder: Is Greg Oden next?
Miami is helping a once-troubled star realize his long-recognized potential
Updated: December 5, 2013, 12:37 PM ET
By Tom Haberstroh | ESPN Insider
Kevin Durant. Kevin Love. Anthony Davis. LaMarcus Aldridge. Blake Griffin. Brook Lopez. DeMarcus Cousins. Carmelo Anthony.
What do these eight players have in common? Each of them have played more than 200 minutes this season and average at least 20 points and seven rebounds on a per-36-minute basis. That represents a sample of the game's biggest star big men, and they're getting paid like it. The average salary of those franchise players? About $14 million. If we take out Cousins and Davis, who are still on their salary-depressed rookie scale contracts, that average price tag soars to $16.6 million.
Star players, star salaries. Ah, but there's one more player who's putting up those types of numbers, averaging 23.1 points and 7.9 rebounds per 36 minutes. That's Michael Beasley.
Guess how much the Miami Heat are paying him to play this season. $1 million. That's the bare minimum for a sixth-year player. While everyone turned a blind eye to Beasley this summer once he was waived by the Phoenix Suns, the capped-out, two-time defending champs signed him for almost nothing. So far he has posted a 22.0 player efficiency rating in 2013-14, the sixth-highest in the Eastern Conference. It appears the rich only got richer.
Welcome to the reconstruction of Michael Beasley.
Old role, new role model
The 24-year-old is entering his prime, five years removed from being selected No. 2 overall behind Derrick Rose in the 2008 draft. And in a bizarre twist of fate, it is Beasley, not Rose, who has a chance to contribute to a title run this season. The outrageous talent always has been there for Beasley, but the results? Not so much. In recent years, Beasley toiled away as an inefficient shot creator on the wing for Minnesota and Phoenix. Both teams couldn't wait to let him go; Phoenix even paid him millions to leave.
Even putting aside the off-court stuff, it's easy to see why those teams bailed. Over those three seasons outside of South Florida, Beasley fired up shots like a superstar, using a whopping 27.5 percent of his team's possessions while on the floor. But he didn't make them like a superstar. Of the 16 players who posted at least a 27 percent usage rate over that time, Beasley's true shooting percentage ranked dead last at 49.4 percent. And his spotty defense was equally as poisonous.
But the Heat spotted the problem: Beasley was miscast as a small forward. The Heat drafted him as a big man, groomed him as a big man and now they're rebuilding him as a big man. And that process takes time and a heavy dose of tough love. Everywhere from his contract to his minutes, the Heat made it clear to Beasley from the start that there would be no guarantees. Everything would be earned, not given.
To that end, Erik Spoelstra didn't give Beasley a single minute of in-game action over the Heat's first four games. But Beasley was working behind the scenes. The coaching staff used the practice time to refresh Beasley on the Heat's defensive principles and re-establish him as a scoring stretch 4 who'd also set picks and create for others without the ball.
"Five hundred screens a day," Spoelstra said while watching Beasley set screens over and over in the Heat's last practice. "We've been drilling ad nauseum on how we want him to play and to get other people the ball in other actions. He can make our team better, often times by screening much like LeBron [James] does. Those two guys can be arguably our two most talented screeners off the ball."
Over the last three seasons, Spoelstra already has sold LeBron James on embracing life as a big man, which meant consistently working out of the post and setting screens for other players. That life existed outside of his comfort zone until he moved to Miami. But Spoelstra won James over with championships. Nowadays Spoelstra continues to reap the benefits by giving Beasley an everyday role model.
"I'm just trying to imitate everything [James] does," Beasley said. "From the way he shoots his jump shot, to the way he's in here lifting weights, to the way he wears socks. He has a blueprint, and I'm just following him."
Beasley's transformation is startling. Last season in Phoenix, Beasley's third most frequent scoring play type put him as the ball handler in a pick-and-roll, according to Synergy tracking. Not the guy setting the screen, mind you, the guy running it. Synergy tells us that he tried to score as the pick-and-roll ball handler 120 times last season, or almost two times per game on average. But it was his least efficient action, spitting out a measly 0.708 points per play.
You know how many plays Beasley has finished as the pick-and-roll ball handler in Miami? Two. In 13 games.
"And those were by accident," Spoelstra said, laughing.
Beasley efficient?
Over the last few seasons, the ball was put in Beasley's hands and his job was to create off the dribble. That license yielded a host of pull-up long 2s and more headaches. Not so anymore. Watch a Heat game and you'll see Beasley setting multiple screens on any given trip down the floor. This helps to funnel Beasley into high-efficiency destinations either by rolling to the rim or flaring to the 3-point line. In Tuesday's game against the Detroit Pistons, Beasley shot 3-for-3 on corner 3-pointers and 6-for-10 inside the paint. That is the ideal.
Beasley's love affair with the midrange game is waning, too. For the season, just 29 percent of his shots come from midrange, according to NBA.com data, down from 40 percent last season. The Heat haven't specifically demanded Beasley to avoid the least profitable area on the floor, but they've emphasized the importance of getting to the money areas: at the rim, at the line and beyond the arc.
Like practically everyone else on the Heat roster, Beasley's having his most efficient season yet, shooting a LeBron-like 54.7 percent from the floor, 52.9 percent from downtown and 79.2 percent from the line. It's early, but Spoelstra has already trusted Beasley enough to have him anchor lineups without any of Miami's big three on the floor. And those Beasley lineups have been winning ones so far. Spoelstra has evidently believed in Beasley, but James' trust might be the biggest factor to his success.
"LeBron has a lot of confidence in me, and I don't really know where he gets it from," Beasley said. "Sometimes he has more confidence in me than I have for myself. That's good, just to have a group of people that genuinely believe that you can make it -- that you can make it on a good team. I'm just playing basketball the right way now."
Another diamond in the rough
Playing defense the right way will always be a concern with Beasley. If he's not dedicating himself on that end of the floor, Spoelstra has no problem leaving him on the bench, as he did at the beginning of the season.
But so far, the Heat haven't missed a step with him out there. According to NBA.com data, the Heat have held opponents to just 96.9 points per 100 possessions with Beasley on the floor, compared to 100.5 points per 100 possessions when he's riding the pine. For the most part, Beasley hasn't broken the hard-wired machine that is the Heat defense.
This is the power of a winning system and championship-tuned culture. By bringing in Beasley, the Heat took a gamble that no other team wanted to make. Facing a stiff luxury tax and limited flexibility, these free-agent reclamation projects are the Heat's draft picks, providing value for pennies on the dollar. It didn't work out with Ronny Turiaf, Mike Bibby, Eddy Curry or Erick Dampier in seasons past. But they struck gold with Chris Andersen last season after the Nuggets cut him using the amnesty provision. And so far, Beasley is on track to be another gem off the scrap heap.
Once again, one team's trash now appears to be the champs' treasure. But Beasley is different than those other free-agent pickups because Beasley's entering his prime, not on his way out of the NBA. This find has the potential to pay dividends over the long term. After Beasley's reconstruction seems to have given the Heat yet another weapon in their loaded arsenal, the league has to wonder: Is Greg Oden next?
954UAlreadyknow
All Star
Wade and Birdman out 
Hopefully Lebron more aggressive tonight. When Wade is out he need to go for 30+
Hopefully Lebron more aggressive tonight. When Wade is out he need to go for 30+
Brief Keef
Superstar
Beas gon drop 30