Why Is Kevin A Lovely Fit In Miami
The Miami Heat added the former Cleveland Cavalier Sharpshooter at the right time for a team who needs a Spot Up Shooter
(Thanks NBA.com)
With the Miami Heat adding former Cleveland Cavalier power forward Kevin Love earlier last week, the Heat have addressed one of their major problems as they make a run for the NBA playoffs. In adding Love, the Heat have addressed a major shooting problem, especially in the spot-up section of the offense.
Before the addition of Kevin Love to the roster, Miami was tied with the Toronto Raptors as the worst spot-up shooting teams in the entire league. The Heat shoot 37.2% this year in spot-up situations, even with players such as Tyler Herro, Max Strus, and Duncan Robinson being some of the better shooters in the league. In fact, the Heat only have two players that are currently on the roster (Dewayne Dedmon was the third but is no longer with the team) that shoot above 40% on the season.
Prior to this season, Miami had been ranked in the top 10 in the league in total points per possession in the Spot Shot. When you add Kevin Love to the equation, the Heat’s efficiencies go up. Per Synergy Sports, Love has been ranked in the 70 percentile or higher in spot-up shooting in each of the last nine seasons. If the 15-year-old pro from UCLA can be counted on to bring anything, it's being able to knock down shots.
If you look at the chart above, you will see how Kevin Love fits into the missing gap the Heat have when it comes to spot-up shooting. This chart is based on the player's effective field goal percentage multiplied by the player’s points per shot and points per possession while in the spot-up shot situation. How this relates to the rest of the league is that the addition of Love to the roster finally gives the Heat a player that is ranked in the top 50 overall in this metric.
This season, Love has taken over a third of his shots from the spot. What makes him even more dangerous is that he connects on over 40% of his made shots from downtown. No player on the Heat’s roster has connected at 40% or higher this season. His 39 made threes on the season represent over 60% of his total threes made this season.
Seven of the next ten games are against teams ranked in the top ten in spot-up defense. Kevin Love’s addition couldn’t have come at a better time for the Eastern Conference’s seventh-best team at the All-Star break. Each of those teams—Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Atlanta, New York, and Orlando—forces their opponents to shoot under 40% in the spot-up, and teams score more often than 39% of the time.
The Heat begins their after-All-Star portion of their schedule on Friday night in Milwaukee. The Bucks will be without two players (Giannis Antekoumpo and Bobby Portis) who are ranked in the top 20% percentile among players in the NBA's spot-up defense. On top of those two missing players, newly-acquired Jae Crowder will also be unavailable, which means the Bucks will have to dig deeper into their bench to be able to not allow Love to make shots when in the spot-up position.
Even though he has played well when he has been in the game this season, Sandro Mamukelashivli has only played 58 total minutes since January 12th, and 21 of those came in a game where Giannis was injured against the Bulls on February 16th. I’m not expecting Love to play a full allotment of minutes on Thursday, but when or if he does get into the game, expect the Heat’s Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro to attack the defense to allow their newest teammate to get a few good looks from the spot-up position on offense.