Erik Spoelstra has made the Miami Heat’s pace a point of emphasis for two straight years, and the team has listened. Since the start of last season, Miami has been among the league’s fastest teams, sitting at the top of the NBA in pace. But the results have not matched the speed.
Through 11 games this season, the Heat are third in pace and only 18th in offensive rating. Last season, they finished No. 1 in pace but only 12th in offensive rating. The message is pretty clear: getting up and down the floor quickly has not turned Miami into a reliable offense.
The Heat’s struggles are not happening in a vacuum, either. Around the league, the early numbers are backing up the same uncomfortable truth.
Of the teams in the top 10 in pace this season, only one - the Portland Trail Blazers - also owns a top-10 offense. The rest of that group has mostly landed in the middle or near the bottom of the offensive standings.
Interesting early relationship between the fastest-playing teams and offensive rating (ORtg in parentheses)
- Bulls (26th)
- Hawks (16th)
- Heat (18th)
- Pelicans (19th)
- Bucks (28th)
- Blazers (3rd)
- Kings (25th)
- Pacers (22nd)
- Jazz (30th)
- Clippers (20th)
That doesn’t mean the Heat should scrap the idea entirely. They have been better in the half court than their overall ranking suggests, checking in 10th in half-court offense, per Cleaning the Glass. And with Giannis Antetokounmpo on the roster, Miami still has one of the league’s best transition weapons.
Still, the broader picture is hard to ignore. The Heat have been playing fast, but not well enough on offense to justify it on its own.
The faster tempo made sense when Miami lacked the star power to consistently win in the half court. That argument feels weaker now.
For now, the Heat appear to be learning a tough lesson: speed alone is not a shortcut to a better offense. It may be time for Spoelstra to rethink how often Miami pushes the pace, and when.
In Other News...
Heat Offensive Shift Under Erik Spoelstra May Explain This Turnaround
After an 0-4 start, Miami has leaned harder into a more direct offensive approach, and Davion Mitchell says the shift has centered on pick-and-rolls without abandoning the up-tempo style Erik Spoelstra wants. The Heat have pushed their pick-and-roll frequency from 29.1 to 38 per 100 possessions, while still playing with the kind of pace that has them third in the NBA at 102.8 possessions per 48 minutes.
The early results have been hard to ignore. Miami is producing 1.13 points per possession in pick-and-roll situations, which ranks second in the league by tracking data, and that kind of efficiency helps explain why the offense has looked far more settled since the slow start. If the Heat are going to keep climbing, this blend of speed and structure may be the formula that keeps carrying them. [Read more 🡒]
Heat Trade Buzz Now Comes Down To One Costly Question
The Heats search for backcourt help has reportedly led them to Dejounte Murray, with Miami weighing whether adding another proven guard is worth the price. Any deal would be built around a significant outgoing package, with Andrew Wiggins and Nikola Jovic among the names floated as the kind of return New Orleans would ask for in a swap that would also bring Herbert Jones to South Florida.
Murrays appeal is obvious for a team looking to sharpen its perimeter play, but the real issue is the risk attached to the move. He is an 11-year veteran coming off an Achilles injury and is on an expiring contract, which means Miami would have to decide whether the short-term upgrade is worth surrendering two rotation pieces for a player whose long-term fit is anything but certain. [Read more 🡒]
Heat Road Trip Showed The Identity This Team Might Be Building
The Heat just finished a road trip that felt like a snapshot of where this group is right now: uneven at times, but increasingly hard to knock off course. A blowout loss to the Lakers opened the trip on a rough note, yet Miami answered with an overtime win against the Clippers, then kept pressing through a loss to the Warriors before closing with back-to-back victories over Sacramento and Utah. It was the kind of stretch that can reveal more than a clean run of games, and Miami showed enough resilience to leave with a solid grade and a sense that the culture is trending in the right direction.
There are still obvious issues to sort through, especially on defense, and the trip also came with concern around Giannis health hanging over the bigger picture. Even so, the Heat looked like a team that can absorb setbacks without unraveling, which matters as much as any single result in November. A B grade fits the moment: progress, not perfection, with a clearer identity starting to take shape and plenty left to clean up before it becomes something more reliable. [Read more 🡒]