Miami Heat: Why they should pursue Kevin Love or Harrison Barnes over James Harden
By Zamir Bueno
Jimmy Butler and James Harden won’t fit together for the Miami Heat
Butler’s limitations have given Miami no other choice but to make him the playmaker. Miami ran an offensive system centered around the pick and roll and dribble handoff. Butler led the team in pick and roll possessions averaging 6.8 per game. It accounted for 31.6 percent of the team’s possessions as they were 13th in pick and roll possessions averaging 21.5 per game.
On the other hand, Butler was responsible for 11.4 percent of the team’s dribble handoffs (1.1 per contest) as they led the league in the category averaging 9.6 per game. Butler’s limitation has contributed to his teammates, spending a significant amount of time as floor spacers to give him maximum space to attack the basket successfully.
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For example, Duncan Robinson and Jae Crowder spent most of their minutes in a floor spacer role as they attempted 8.3 and 6.4 threes per game, respectively, more than 77 percent of their field goal attempts.
65.6 percent of their threes were of the catch and shoot variety. Harden has excelled as a floor spacer making 40 percent of his catch-and-shoot threes over the last seven seasons on 2.2 attempts per game. Although Harden can succeed as a floor spacer, it would take away a large portion of his game.
Harden has led the league in isolation possessions over the past four seasons averaging 11.8 per game. He shot 40.6 percent from the field during these possessions on 9.4 attempts per game. The field goal percentage helped him create 13.1 points per game, 38.3 percent of his scoring output as he averaged 34.2 a game.
Sadly, giving Harden the ball would cause defenders to ignore Butler due to his shooting issues. Therefore, Harden would deal with the presence of a help defender. A help defender increased the likelihood that Harden would have to take a contested shot. Unfortunately, Harden has not performed well on contested shots over the past two seasons, 44.8 percent on 14.1 attempts per game.