Five Takeaways from Heat's Dominant Season Opener

The Miami Heat clearly came out with some extra motivation against this Milwaukee Bucks team. First quarter dominance on both ends blended into a pretty one-sided game throughout.

Who stuck out in this season opener? Well, that’s the interesting part: everybody.

#1: Bam Adebayo’s offensive aggression pops early.

A topic fresh in our minds when we see Bam Adebayo and the Heat facing the Milwaukee Bucks is his offensive aggression, following Brook Lopez’s willingness to give Adebayo all of the space in the world in the previous series. To kick off this season opener, three of the first four offensive possessions for Miami consisted of an Adebayo shot attempt. Yeah, things have changed. Adebayo only trailed Tyler Herro in shot attempts at the half, but his willingness to take it to the rim and absorb contact time and time again is the difference maker. Five free throw attempts through 16 first half minutes proved that to be true, while the makes on the other hand were a bit uneven. But nobody is worried about Adebayo knocking down shots at any point this season, it’s about taking them. And he did that in the season opener.

#2: Jimmy Butler’s new defensive role enhances his best skill, as I expected.

Something I’ve talked about all off-season after PJ Tucker and Kyle Lowry were acquired is the shift for Jimmy Butler’s role. Not offensively, but the change in defensive positioning for him. No more being inserted into the action play after play throughout a game, since they have enough bodies to throw at those guys now. That meant Butler would be lined up on the weak-side a majority of the time, doing what he does best: awaiting timely doubles. As I said in my game preview, Butler’s defensive signal will be Giannis Antetokounmpo’s post-up game. When he pivots inside with his back against the perimeter, a Butler sprint would closely follow. That’s exactly what happened tonight, and although it wasn’t a flurry of steals on the stat sheet, it was forced steals and plenty of deflections.

#3: It only took one game to figure out PJ Tucker’s fit on this Heat team.

After Pat Riley’s press conference this week, now you know why he went on and on about the likable traits of PJ Tucker with this team. Toughness, scrappiness, and defensive traits that aren’t teachable. You can just tell that this game was personal for him, and he seemed to let that be known. Being vocal after big plays, eyeing that Milwaukee sideline, and even throwing in the occasional hard foul. Seeing him dive over the Bucks bench with a comfortable lead in the second quarter just speaks volume. He’s going to defend at a high level and knock down that corner triple at a high level, but the other stuff is what truly makes this pick-up a big deal. This Heat team missed that loud voice next to Butler, and now they have it.

#4: Simply, Tyler Herro’s role is quite perfect.

When I talked to Max Strus earlier in the week about his offensive role off the bench, he quickly premised it by saying, “The second unit is to get Tyler going.” And well, that is far from an overstatement. Even when Butler or Lowry are lined up next to Tyler Herro, they immediately revert to an off-ball role, knowing that Herro needs the ball in his hands to work. Twelve shot attempts at the half for Herro was a team high, which is interesting for a guy who is coming off the bench. But that’s what the Heat want. Fire away in that scoring role, and don’t worry about the other elements. Let the play-making and facilitating stuff happen in the natural flow of the game, and simply: just get buckets.

#5: Oh, this isn’t just a defensive team.

When looking at this Heat team on paper, the outlier is that this is a hefty defensive group. Aside from Herro and Robinson, the rotation is pretty much filled with tough, defensive minded guys which is something they’ve lacked recently. But don’t sell the theme of this group short: they can score the basketball. 72 first half points can pretty much tell the whole story, but there’s a difference with that statement. They didn’t have a Jaylon Brown scoring 25 before the half or Julius Randle scoring 22. The scoring on this team was spread out evenly, which will most likely be the case throughout this 82 game season. Butler will get his points, Adebayo will emerge, Lowry will step back at times, and Herro will do his thing. And that’s what you want.

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