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Miami Heat: Offense Having Trouble Without LeBron James

By Sipho Mangoye

Oct 7, 2014; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh (1) drives to the basket past Orlando Magic forward Aaron Gordon (00) and guard Evan Fournier (10) in the second half at American Airlines Arena. The Magic won 108-101in over time. Mandatory Credit: Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 7, 2014; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh (1) drives to the basket past Orlando Magic forward Aaron Gordon (00) and guard Evan Fournier (10) in the second half at American Airlines Arena. The Magic won 108-101in over time. Mandatory Credit: Robert Mayer-USA TODAY Sports /
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Well it’s finally been and gone. The Miami Heat and LeBron James’ new crew have finally had that first awkward encounter after parting ways this summer and it has to be said, it went a lot better than expected.

After months of chatter via the media, and not really much contact on a personal level, James and his former running mates have finally said their goodbyes from the looks of things, and there was nothing but love and admiration as both sides handled the whole situation with class and professionalism.

“For me it was a special moment to be back competing against my old teammates,” James told NBA.com while barely speaking to his old buddies before and during the game as he focused on the task at hand. ”I didn’t get that awkward feeling, but a lot of memories came back about the things that we accomplished.”

“I like the fact that we could just get everything out of the way,” added Chris Bosh. “We could just come out here for the preseason and kind of just let everybody see us so we can move on.

“As far seeing him on the other team, we’re pretty much over that. We’re here to improve our team and to get better; and he’s doing the same. I’m glad we could get this out of the way and move on now.”

Meanwhile, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra did admit that it was all rather odd going up against James.

“If you have to do something like this, I think it really benefits both teams to get the awkwardness out of the way in the preseason,” he said. ”There was certainly a level of strangeness to it.”

Well since this was the first of five meeting this season, Spoelstra will have plenty of chances to get over that “strangeness.” In the meantime however, he needs to figure out a way to get his team clicking without (arguably) the best player in the game.

It’s already pretty apparent they will miss James as they Miami Heat have been having trouble offensively. Without him there to instigate a lot of the offensive play, or at least take away some of the attention, the Heat have struggled to score efficiently. This was a team that led the league in field goal percentage last season with conversion rate that was better than 50 percent. That figure has dropped to 42.9 percent through three preseason games.

Even the respectable 36.4 percent conversion rate from three-point land, which was good enough for 12th place, has also plummeted to just 26.9 percent – placing them as the fourth-worst shooting team.

An optimist would probably point out a couple of reason for the poor shooting performances.  1) The lineups during the first few games haven’t always been the best. Take for instance in the late-game situations, Spoelstra has often rested his better players and given the fringe players some playing time. As such, we can’t expect the quality of play to be of the utmost best all the time, thus the decline. 2) We’re still only in the preseason and the team is still adjusting to new roles and so forth. If the current shooting form is still lingering during the regular season, then we can start to worry.

On the other hand, a pessimist would argue that even the better players on the team have had a tough time tweaking their sights. Luol Deng has hit just one three-pointer during the preseason, and so has Bosh along with Mario Chalmers. Then there’s veteran Danny Granger and first-round pick Shabazz Napier, who have combined to hit just seven of their 24 attempts from deep. Considering they will likely be heavily relied upon role players during the regular season (especially Granger), that figure will have to significantly improve or the offense could suffer mightily.

Overall, perhaps it is a somewhat premature to start worry about the shooting percentages right now, although, it’s something to keep an eye out for as we progress towards the 2014-15 season. At least we know the Miami Heat have plenty of options to go with in clutch moments.

The fringe players showed great determination to hold on for an overtime win against the Orlando Magic, as well as forcing an extra period of play, having climbed out of a 19-point deficit against the Cleveland Cavaliers.