Maybe the biggest problem on the offensive end for the Miami Heat is that when Wade and LeBron share the court, there is not enough movement.  When LeBron is handling the basketball, Wade has a tendency to watch, and vice-versa.  It has been something that NBA fans and analysts have been talking a lot about, yet it continues to be a problem.

Yesterday against the Knicks we saw the contrast between what happens when Wade maintains movement off the basketball compared to when Wade stands around in the corner:

Here, Wade isn’t making a sharp cut off the basketball, yet this possession was still effective because he was maintaining movement.  What makes the Heat so unique is that they have two stars who when they are handling the basketball, all five players on the defensive end need to pay attention to him.  So when the star without the basketball just stands there, he is making it easy for the defense.

However, if the star off the ball (in this case Wade) continues to move around, as is the case in the above clip, he forces the defense to make a decision.  Either load up on LeBron, who has the basketball, or pay attention to Wade moving off of the ball. The problem with the Heat is that they don’t do this enough.  More often than not, possessions look like the following clip:

Here, LeBron is getting a screen, but this is basically an ISO possession. Wade is in the short corner, standing and watching. Eventually, LeBron misses a jumper (a miss that starts a fast break for the Knicks and cuts the Heat’s lead to three points).

Watch the clip again though. Landry Fields (the man defending Wade) gets caught ball watching and loses site of his man. A simple backdoor cut from Wade here will result in an open lay-up, or at the very least would give LeBron more room to operate. It never comes though.

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Both Dwyane Wade and LeBron James are too good to be standing in the corner while the other has the basketball. They are basically giving their opponents’ help defense a free pass, and you have to imagine that eventually they will figure it out. If that first clip is any indication, they seem to be starting to get it.