The Miami Heat may be headed for another offensive reset, and this one could push them back toward a more traditional pick-and-roll approach.
Last season’s training camp buzz centered on the team’s new pace-and-space look. It had stretches that worked, especially early, but over the full season the Heat landed somewhere around average at best on that end. Given the roster they were working with, that might still have counted as a relative success.
Now the conversation has shifted again. NBA writer Matt Moore pointed out that the Heat currently have three of the 10 best players in the league in points per possession on pick-and-rolls as the ball-handler, with a minimum of 100 possessions. The list included Davion Mitchell, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Davion Mitchell was No.1 in points per possession on pick and rolls as the ball-handler including passes last year, minimum 100 possessions. 122 offensive rating per Synergy.
top 10:
- Off Night
- Butler
- Franz
- THJ
- Wemby
- Paul George
- Ty Jerome
- Bogdan (?!)
9.…
- Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) September 25, 2026
In plain terms, those three were among the league’s most efficient creators in pick-and-roll situations with the ball in their hands last season. That matters because Miami spent last year moving away from more conventional pick-and-roll sets. With this new roster, the pendulum may be swinging back.
The numbers make the case pretty loudly. The Heat were dead last in pick-and-roll actions per game, and by a wide margin.
They ran fewer than seven such actions per game, with a 5.6 percent frequency rate. The next-lowest team, the Brooklyn Nets, averaged 14 pick-and-roll actions per game.
That’s a massive gap.
For context, Miami averaged 17.5 pick-and-roll actions per game in the 2024-25 NBA season, with a 16 percent frequency rate. That put them roughly in the middle of the pack that year. The shift from one season to the next was dramatic, and the possibility of another turn is now very real.
With training camp approaching, Erik Spoelstra will almost certainly have to decide whether to keep leaning into the space-and-pace model or build the offense around the pick-and-roll more often. The addition of Antetokounmpo already pointed in that direction. Moore’s numbers only strengthen the argument.
How Spoelstra handles it from here is the real question. The safest bet, at least to start, is that the Heat will look different again.
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Miamis offseason did more than just bring in Giannis, either. The Heat also added Klay Thompson and Tim Hardaway Jr. in free agency, giving the roster a different look and more proven scoring around its newest star. For Heat fans, the larger question now is how quickly all of it comes together once the season starts and the expectations stop being theoretical. [Read more 🡒]