Klay Thompson gives Miami a shooter defenses will have to account for. The Heat will find out how much that attention can do for everyone else.
Thompson has begun his first Miami training camp after a summer buyout in Dallas, joining a roster that includes Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo. He made 202 three-pointers last season while averaging 21.7 minutes, according to the Associated Press.
Those are encouraging numbers for a team adding shooting. They are also only the beginning of the question Miami needs to answer: which combinations make the best use of it?
Watch the defense before Thompson gets the ball
A defender who stays close to Thompson has less freedom to help somewhere else. That can leave a teammate more room to drive or give the offense an extra moment to find the next pass.
The coming games will show how often Miami can create those advantages. Does Thompson’s movement pull a defender out of a driving lane? Does the ball find him before the defense recovers? When a shot is not there, can a quick pass keep the possession moving?
A difficult make and a clean, open three both add the same points to the scoreboard. Over a season, though, a team wants to keep creating the cleaner chance. Thompson can help on possessions when he never takes the shot, provided Miami turns the attention he draws into something useful.
The defensive trade-off matters
The Heat will also have to judge what those lineups give up. A group that creates better shots may still struggle if it needs too much help defensively or cannot finish possessions with a rebound.
That balance can change with the opponent and with who shares the floor. It may lead to different roles on different nights, rather than one fixed answer about where Thompson belongs in the rotation.
Early plus-minus numbers will be tempting to read as a verdict. They need context. A few hot-shooting minutes from teammates can lift a player’s numbers, just as a difficult matchup can drag them down. The possessions themselves should tell us more than a short run of results.
What a good fit would look like
Miami needs combinations that create good shots often enough to justify any compromises at the other end. Thompson could help deliver that in a starting group or in selected minutes with the reserves.
His three-point total will be easy to follow. The more interesting story will be whether the Heat can make the whole lineup better while he is on the floor.
A better test of the fit
| CHANCES | Quality of the shots created |
|---|---|
| BALANCE | Cost at the defensive end |
| CONTEXT | Teammates and opposition |
Original TSP evaluation framework. No new-season lineup results are claimed.
