Jimmy Butler’s trade with the Golden State Warriors appears to have undermined the heat in Miami on paper.
The general assumption comes from losing a superstar after an early playoff exit last season.
In the first round, the heat was poured out by the Cleveland Cavaliers, with stars like Tyler Hello, Bum Adebayo and Andrew Wiggins failing to promote their team.
This season, Miami has not added a Butler-level alternative and lost Hero to start the season due to injuries.
Despite the obvious downgrade, Heat Forward Nikola Jovic believes that playing without a butler will provide certain benefits.
Specifically, Miami now has more collective control over the pace of the game, without the dominant ball handler determining tempo.
“When you have a bold minant player like Jimmy who was here, you have to play at his pace, and it was working,” Jovic explained.
“I know that NBA basketball has moved to more transition basketball, but if there’s someone like that who can bring you to the top at that pace, you need to play slowly.”
Jovic highlighted Butler’s orderly style, but effectively limited Miami’s ability to embrace modern NBA pace and space principles.
“This year is easy. No one will dominate that ball, so we have found a way to play faster,” he added.
The heat will work more collectively than next season than the Butler days.
Adebayo remains, but he does not control ownership like a security guard, allowing for more distributed and offensive liability.
With Hero on the sidelines, Jovic joins rookie Casparas Jaccionis, Norman Powell and Wiggins to form the offensive core of Miami.
This represents a less experienced lineup compared to the Butler era, but the Open Eastern Conference offers opportunities.
The Heat can surprise enemies with a new up-tempo approach, and instead of relying on the power of individual stars to create attacks in the half-court set, it uses collective ball movement.