With the Miami Heat getting ready for the regular season opener, the team is likely to play differently once Wednesday rolls around when they take on the Orlando Magic. After the Heat went winless in the preseason, the team looks to make noise in the regular season as Nikola Jovic gives fans a taste of what’s to come from the offense.Miami’s offensive rating and pace the last handful of seasons has been towards the bottom of the league, leading head coach Erik Spoelstra and the staff to focus on playing much faster. Though traded last season within the regular season, this is the first full stint without Jimmy Butler, plus Tyler Herro will be absent, making the offense “tricky” as described by Jovic.“It’s a tricky offense, you know,” Jovic said, according to The Miami Herald. “I think we’re still kind of figuring out who’s going to do what with playing more like open court and not as much pick and roll, not that many play calls. So it’s more like, OK, go out there and use your talent as much as you can.”
Some new pieces like Norman Powell looks to be a crucial part to the offense as he said after the preseason finale loss to the Memphis Grizzlies that the offense is at a “65 percent,” which excites him since their ceiling is high.
“I think our offense is operating at probably like 65 percent to where we can get to,” Powell said. “The good thing is that we’re operating that low, so there’s a high ceiling for us on that end of the floor.”
Norman Powell cites the pace as an area that he sees the Heat improving.
Would mention he feels the offense is at a 65%, saying that they have a high ceiling to improve. #HeatNation pic.twitter.com/EpjU9odzqg
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Heat’s Norman Powell and others look to fit in new offense
While the comfort level of the Heat newcomer in Powell will be vital, the role each player will have in this new offense will be important to figure out. Jovic mentioned how he feels “it’s for sure not going to be easy to get the offense going,” which excites him since they can get better, but would give insight into what the team is looking to figure out.
“The thing that we’re still trying to figure out is you have three guys right now — when Tyler comes back, four — who are in a similar range of points per game,” Jovic said, via The Miami Herald, talking about Bam Adebayo, Powell and Andrew Wiggins. “So those three somehow got to figure out what is the shot profile going to look like. That’s all I’ll say.”
“Us other guys like me, Jaime [Jaquez], Pelle [Larsson], Dru [Smith], Davion [Mitchell], we just somehow got to find a way to be the glue guys,” Jovic said. “Is the ball going to come to us a lot? Probably not. But the way we play our offense, we’ll be able to be open and get some shots up.”
It remains to be seen how the offense will look, but the first chance will be on Wednesday against the Orlando Magic in the regular season opener.
