Goran Dragic, Dwyane Wade Pairing Ready to Shine for Miami Heat Next Season
Goran Dragic and Dwyane Wade are the backcourt foundation upon which the Miami Heat must build.
Rebuild, that is.
Assuming Dragic re-signs with Miami in free agency—something that seems like a formality, per Jason Lieser of the Palm Beach Post—the Heat will have two extremely talented guards running the show on offense.
They just need to make sure the offense Dragic and Wade are piloting is one fit for two extremely talented guards.
Push the Pace
A ton of Wade's and Dragic's most successful sets alongside one another came in transition.
Wade assisted on 18 of Dragic's made baskets. Close to half of those plays came before the defense was totally set. Likewise, Dragic assisted on 20 of Wade's buckets, many of which came in similar fashion.
This isn't supposed to make sense. The Heat were not a fast team during the regular season. They ranked 29th in possessions used per 48 minutes overall and 26th when their two guards shared the floor.
Available personnel was at the heart of their modest speed. Josh McRoberts, one of the league's more mobile big men, appeared in just 17 games. Chris Bosh didn't play after the trade deadline. And Wade's spriest days are behind him.
Nearly one-third of the minutes Dragic and Wade played together came beside Luol Deng, Hassan Whiteside and Udonis Haslem, a half-court-oriented grouping if there ever was one. That unit played with bottom most pace, using under 92 possessions per 48 minutes, and wasn't conducive to pushing the tempo.
Relatively quick shots were even hard to come by. Dragic and Wade are at their best when weaving in and out of the paint freely, collapsing defenses and reaching the rim. But with guys like Chris Andersen, Whiteside and Haslem unable to operate outside the post, those lanes were clogged, limiting the benefits of any dribble drives.
Still, Dragic and Wade looked good together when they were able to make quicker decisions and execute before the defense had time to establish position. More importantly, running is required of any team looking to properly use Dragic.
As Bleacher Report's Luke Petkac explained:
"Over 22 percent of Dragic's possessions came in transition. And yet, the Heat still didn't play at high speeds when he was on the court. Miami needs to fully commit to playing uptempo offense in order to maximize his abilities. He's a one-man wrecking crew on the break and is more than willing to attack multiple defenders.
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Dragic comes from a Phoenix Suns team that only knows one speed: really, ridiculously, sometimes-unfathomably fast. He's not much of a defensive rebounder because he tends to cheat toward the other side of the court once a shot goes up.
That makes him the perfect complement to Wade, whose head is forever up after spending four seasons tossing full-court touchdowns to LeBron James:
There's even more value in the way Dragic navigates traffic on the run. He makes beelines for the basket while sprinting down either side of the floor and is especially adept at judging his angles on the move, putting himself in the best possible position to get a step or two on his defender without slowing down:
Wade poses similar problems for the defense. He's past the point of winning all-out footraces, but he anticipates misses and turnovers and leaks into the backcourt when already situated beyond the three-point line.
And because Dragic is accustomed to a transition-heavy play style, he knows how to give Wade time enough to create the space needed for a layup in stride:
Fast-break and half-court hybrids present Dragic and Wade with a similar advantage. Defenses are so concerned with Dragic's end-to-end aggression that they sacrifice speed when getting back just to put more than one body between him and the basket.
That invariably creates snap one-on-one opportunities for Wade, whose first step off the catch remains too quick for, well, just about everyone:
Not surprisingly, both Wade and Dragic shot better than 60 percent in these situations. Even less surprisingly, the Heat know what they have in this dyad and want to adjust their approach accordingly.
"There's no question," head coach Erik Spoelstra said following the regular season, per the South Florida Sun Sentinel's Ira Winderman. "I want to play faster next year, and to be able to play with pace."
Now, if playing with pace were that easy, the Heat would have already done it. But they need the personnel to do it first.
Some of their problems will be solved with Bosh's and McRoberts' returns. Neither is lightning-quick, but both are faster alternatives to Whiteside and Haslem.
Beyond them, though, the Heat will have to look outside for talent that fits their desired model—younger, faster wings who increase the freedom with which Wade and Dragic direct the offense.
Proper Spacing
Two words: more shooters.
The Heat won't maximize the potential of Wade and Dragic if they don't run more spacing-friendly lineups. It's not only a matter of increasing drive-and-kick opportunities for both guards; it's a way of counteracting Wade's own limited offensive range.
Certain players make three-pointers a more pivotal part of their offensive rapport as they age. Attempting more jump shots is easier on the legs than perpetual rim assaults.
But while Wade was more liberal with his outside looks this past season, jacking up more than 100 for the first time since 2010-11, he's not a consistent outside presence. He prefers to work with the ball in his hand off the dribble or from inside the post.
The challenge, then, is putting players around him who move well off the rock or can merely drain spot-up opportunities off his passes out of double-teams and crumpling defenses. And Dragic himself does both really well.
More than 16 percent of his total shot attempts were standalone three-pointers during the regular season, of which he drilled a scintillating 37.8 percent. He doesn't dance around the three-point line or curl off an inordinate number of screens when displaced from the ball.
Rather, he's more inclined to play the part of bystander, looking on as Wade backs deeper and deeper into the middle, creating the illusion of a predesigned isolation or post-up set that compels Dragic's man to provide help.
Then boom.
Wide-open trey:
Allowing Dragic room to explode off the arc and slash toward the basket is equally important. That's difficult to do when Wade is sharing the block with two traditional bigs or even if he's jostling for space with one.
But when he's alone, it opens the layup pipeline:
Preserving this type of spacing module will, once again, be easier with both Bosh and McRoberts back in the fold.
Bosh has expanded his bag of tricks to include deep balls and buried 39.9 percent of his catch-and-shoot missiles before being ruled out for the season. McRoberts, meanwhile, found nylon on a respectable number of his standalone treys in 2013-14 (36.9 percent), his last healthy campaign.
Surround Wade and Dragic with Bosh, McRoberts and another shooter for long stretches at a time, and the Heat will have a lineup that boasts a brand of versatility that's never once been at their disposal during the brief post-James era.
Combating Caveats
Reconfiguring the offense to better integrate both Wade and Dragic is not a thoughtless process. It entails a thorough overhaul, one that completely warps and recreates how the Heat play.
Spacing the floor is a semi-familiar concept reminiscent of the lineups the Heat would run with James at power forward. Pushing the pace goes against the most recent fabric of their offense.
They were never even a deliberately fast team during James' stay. They've been half-court monoliths for years. And making the transition to something different will require more than just a healthy Bosh and McRoberts.
Other players have to be acquired. The Heat must also figure out how to stagger the minutes of Bosh and Whiteside, a space-killer who impedes a lot of what Wade and Dragic should do together—no easy task considering Bosh was a defensive nightmare without Whiteside during the regular season.
Working around any potential kinks is part and parcel of change, though. And since the Heat plan on keeping Wade and Dragic together, they have no choice but to reinvent an offense that doesn't yet allow both to shine bright enough.
Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com unless otherwise cited.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @danfavale.
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