Giannis In Miami Looks Like A Different Kind Of Problem

I get why people looked at the Giannis trade and immediately started arguing about whether Miami gave up too much. But watching him in this offense, I'm starting to think everybody should be asking how the fuck you're supposed to defend it. Miami beats New Orleans 128-118, and Giannis Antetokounmpo puts up 18 points and four assists in 18 minutes on 8-for-13 shooting. That's damn near a point per minute without having to take 25 jumpers. Bam Adebayo only had nine in his 16 minutes, but that's not automatically a problem when Giannis is forcing the whole defense to react before anybody else even gets involved. Davion Mitchell had seven assists, Andrew Wiggins put up 13 in limited run, and the Heat had people contributing all the way down the bench. Klay Thompson was out there too, even if he only hit one of six threes. New Orleans gave us little flashes — Jordan Poole hit three of four from deep for 14, Yves Missi got 11 and nine boards, and Zion had eight in 16 minutes — but Miami's new look is the part I wanted to sit with.

The question for me isn't whether Giannis can average a ridiculous number. We know who the fuck he is. It's whether Miami can keep its spacing working when teams stop watching tape of new lineups and start scheming for them. Giannis drawing help should open the floor, but if Klay isn't hitting or the second group gets sloppy, a defense can still start loading the paint and asking somebody else to score. That matters for FanDuel because Giannis points, Bam boards and Miami threes aren't three independent bets. They're connected to how defenses decide to handle the same two or three players. I'm also watching whether Mitchell keeps creating those easy looks and whether Miami's defense can cover for a team that's gonna play fast. Preseason doesn't give you an 82-game answer, but it can show you what a coaching staff actually wants to try. What Spo has now is one of the most unfair downhill players alive surrounded by people who know what space is. I wanna see a good defense figure that shit out before I start doubting it.

The points are nice. The gravity is the real problem.6IX / THE TAKE