5 Takeaways from Heat’s First Preseason Game

The Miami Heat faced off against the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday night in their first preseason game of the year. As expected, we got to see some run from a bunch of young guys, and even the improvements the rotational guys have made. Anyway, here are five takeaways from the game….

#1: Bam Adebayo’s jumper looks fluid.

It is obvious that the first takeaway had to involve the centerpiece of this Heat team, Bam Adebayo. We can talk about his heart on every single play, diving for loose balls in a preseason game, but we knew he had that already. The thing we’ve been waiting to see in his game though is the mid-range jumper, and he seemed to make it an initiative to go out there and shoot it. The first play of the game was a mid-range jumper from Bam, but a little bit down the line, the jab step into an elbow jumper gave some Chris Bosh flashbacks. Once again, the thing everybody has been saying is for him to have the confidence to attempt them, and if he continues to shoot them like he did tonight, his development will take yet another leap.

#2: Tyler Herro comes out firing, but once he cooled off, he turned into Goran Dragic.

Tyler Herro came out with a purpose to begin the game on Monday night, scoring 8 points early in the first. After that though, he and the rest of the team seemed to cool off from beyond the arc. These are the moments that many want to see, since it’s important to see the reaction from a young player. And well, he decided to get into his Goran Dragic bag of tricks. Whenever he attacks the rim off the dribble, he utilizes the backboard the exact way that Goran does. It’s no shock, since Goran is a mentor for his game, especially when attacking the basket. But seeing him really take a step in that area, as well as the ball-handling and passing, was a great sign in his development as well.

#3: Free agency acquisitions get some run, and both use themselves in different ways.

Many automatically labeled these two acquisitions as players that do one certain thing. Moe Harkless was labeled as the Jae Crowder replacement, but as I’ve been saying, is more like the Derrick Jones Jr replacement. And that is not a bad thing, it’s just that his size does not allow him to guard bigger guys like Jae Crowder did. Avery Bradley was labeled as a point of attack defender, which may be a bit of an overstatement. He can get in the opposing guards grill and be a disruption one-on-one, but where he really showed himself was in all of the small areas. He was a surprisingly impressive passer and a great facilitator on the offensive end. Obviously it’s not great to over analyze one pre-season game that they were involved in, but I believe adjustments will be made with them to make it an even better fit.

#4: KZ Okpala finally gets some playing time.

KZ Okpala was the most intriguing name heading into this game, since it’s been a long wait to see his game at this NBA level. An early corner three showed some great signs, but other than that he didn’t make much of an on-ball offensive impact. One thing that was shown though was his room to grow. He showed great flashes defensively and it’s obvious that there is still so much more room to improve. But what was seen most from him was his energy. If you’re following him on the court, he’s just constantly running. Coach Spo mentioned previously that it’s just about putting it all together, and that’ll come in time. But as of right now, he’s a very good perimeter defender who can be utilized right now.

#5: Precious Achiuwa enters in the second half, and looked like a rookie.

Miami’s rookie, Precious Achiuwa, got some run in the third quarter, and seemed to thrive when the ball was in the hands of Tyler Herro. I don’t know if those off-season workouts made it more fluid, but either way, they utilized the pick and roll well. Not to depict his game too much though, there is some work to be done with the dribble hand-offs. At this level, lazy under hand passes will not get the job done, but he will figure that out over time. His defense proved to look good, both down low and on the perimeter one-on-one, but on a tough night defending the perimeter it’s hard to totally dive in. Ultimately, Precious still has a lot of room to improve, but without a G-League this year, it’ll be interesting to see how that comes about.