Launching Pad: Bam Baking, Olynyk Off-Balling, Crowder Cashing

Welcome to The Launching Pad, a weekly roundup of Miami Heat basketball. Who’s playing well, and who should pick it up? What numbers should you be watching? What was that beautiful play Miami ran in the second quarter? You can find all of it here, every Monday.

---

The Stats (Weekly stats in parentheses

• Record: 36-20, 4th in the East (1-1)

• Offensive Rating: 112.0 (118.7)

• Defensive Rating: 108.7 (110.9)

• Net Rating: plus-3.3 (plus-7.8)

• True-Shooting Percentage: 58.6 (61.2)

• Pace: 99.58 (105.0)

• Time of Possession: 14.7 seconds (13.5)

---

Lineup of the Week (min. 10 minutes)

Kendrick Nunn, Duncan Robinson, Jimmy Butler, Jae Crowder, Bam Adebayo

• Minutes: 12

• Offensive Rating: 131.0

• Defensive Rating: 85.7

• Net Rating: plus-45.3

• True-Shooting Percentage: 63.7

• Pace: 114.64

---

The Big Number: 57

The Bam Adebayo-Duncan Robinson partnership has been a revelation for the Heat’s 8th ranked offense. Adebayo’s ability to pass and screen, paired with Robinson’s ability to shoot off movement, makes for a natural fit. Most of their two-man dances come via dribble-handoff, burning teams that dare to employ drop coverage against them.

Adebayo has assisted on 57 Robinson threes, making them the NBA’s most profitable duo. The rest of the top five, via PBP Stats:

2) Damian Lillard to CJ McCollum, 53

3) Chris Paul to Danilo Gallinari, 49

4) LeBron James to Danny Green, 47

T-4) Jrue Holiday to JJ Redick, 47

Weekly Trends

1. Bam off the bounce

If it feels like Adebayo has been covered a ton in this space, it’s because he has been.

We touched on his empowerment early in the season. We highlighted his struggles against the Sixers, and again against the Nets when they aggressively sagged off of him. We also talked about him gaining comfort as an intermediate scorer.

Now, Bam is stylin’ off the bounce.

He has basically quintupled his drive volume from last season (0.8 to 3.9) while raising his efficiency from 38.7 percent to 59.6, via Second Spectrum tracking data.

You read that right: Bam’s conversion rate has skyrocketed nearly 21 percentage points while driving five times more than he did last year.

With teams catching on to his tendency to drive baseline, he’s started to counter with in-and-out dribbles and drives from the triple threat position. This jab-and-jam sequence against Tristan Thompson was absolutely filthy.

It’s not uncommon to see Bam take the ball up the floor. Thanks to the free-flowing nature of Miami’s offense, we’ve been treated to some impromptu pick-and-roll reps.

Very quietly, Bam has generated 53 points on 50 pick-and-roll possessions (1.06 PPP, passes included), via Synergy. If you thought the James Johnson-Goran Dragic inverted two-man game was fun, imagine what Bam-led pick-and-rolls are going to look like moving forward.

At this point, three-point shooting is the only hole in Bam’s offensive game. If his work in the Skills Competition is any indication*, that’ll probably come within a year.

*It shouldn’t be, but work with me here.

2. Unlocking Kelly Olynyk

With Meyers Leonard still on the mend with an ankle injury, the Heat have leaned more on Kelly Olynyk. It’s been an up-and-down season for him, to say the least. He struggled to adjust to Miami’s offensive shift to begin the year, which made his defensive shortcomings look even more glaring.

The Heat haven’t leaned on Olynyk’s improv work like they did last season. Instead, they’ve made more of an effort to utilize his shooting. Pick-and-pop bigs already serve as kryptonite against drop schemes. When you have a guy like Olynyk flying off flare screens, you’re putting even more strain on defenses.

First off, that’s a solid (if not slightly illegal) lead block from Kendrick Nunn. Olynyk gives the subtle shove, receives the pitch and fires in one fluid motion. It’s a guard-like sequence that he makes look easy.

Olynyk has only logged four (4) off-screen possessions this season, via Synergy. He’s scored nine points on 3-of-4 shooting, including that clip above. The Heat flow out of HORNS Flare all the time. Inverting that action for Olynyk is probably something they should go to more often.

3. Jae Crowder just can’t miss

We’re only working with a five-game sample, but Jae Crowder has been Miami’s most productive acquisition from their deadline deal. He’s defended well across both forward spots, and has mostly held his own against guards on switches.

That was expected, though. Crowder has been a serviceable-at-worst defender for most of his career. The real surprise of the Crowder Experience has been his three-point shooting.

Crowder is shooting a blistering 54.8 percent from deep on 6.2 attempts. Not only are those well above his career marks (33.7 percent, 4.2 attempts), he’s feasting on a diet of shots like these:

Since joining the Heat, Crowder is generating nearly 1.3 points per spot-up possession, and over 1.6 points per transition possession via Synergy. To put those numbers into perspective, Crowder has been a more efficient shooter than JJ Redick (1.09), and has scored at a more efficient rate than Giannis Antetokounmpo (1.12 PPP).

The regression is going to come at some point, but it’s hard not to be impressed with the shot-making Crowder has provided so far.

Set Play of the Week

The Sneak Attack

Sadly, I don’t have the technical name for this one. However, Miami’s opening set against the Cavs immediately caught my eye.

The possession kicks off with a pitch to Duncan Robinson on the right wing. Nunn attempts to set a down screen for Derrick Jones Jr, but his defender (Cedi Osman) is already hanging below the free throw line. He’s able to duck under the screen, though this is mostly decoy action.

Nunn pops back up to receive the ball from Robinson, kicking off a 1-5 pick-and-roll. This is the point where the positioning matters.

This is a left-flowing pick-and-roll, which is key for two reasons.

1) Nunn is driving to his dominant hand.

2) Adebayo is rolling right, which means the only defender that could “tag” him on the roll is Collin Sexton. Who is Sexton guarding? Only the most dangerous off-movement shooter in the league right now.

Sexton naturally drops for a second. He quickly realizes that Adebayo isn’t rolling to the basket. Adebayo cuts his roll short before setting a screen for Robinson to pop out to the top of the key.

You already know how it ends.