The Heat's biggest problem 28 games into the season

Miami has started to show flaws, what can be identified as their biggest cause of concern?

Dec 19, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra watches from the sideline as they take on the Boston Celtics at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images | David Butler II-Imagn Images

The Miami Heat have many problems that are starting to come up. The lack of shooting has been discussed at length. The lack of size is another topic that keeps showing up. Health will always be a cause of concern for Miami it seems. When a team has several glaring problems, it is hard to choose one as the most problematic. Bleacher Report has tried to find the Heat’s biggest problem.

They take an interesting route when selecting. They chose “the unknown” as the biggest problem. This is stemmed around the Heat’s offense being new and trying something that few teams have tired in this era. Miami’s offense has consistently been one of the slower teams in the league in the past few years, but this season they are playing with extraordinary pace.

They are currently first in the NBA in that category at 104.8 according to NBA.com, which would shock any Heat fan if you told them this even one year ago.  They even are tied for the league lead in miles per game. The speed at which they play is refreshing for Heat fans who have endured the years of operating in the end of a shot clock.

The pace at which the Heat play is not the only change and might not even be the most shocking change Miami has implemented. They have transformed their philosophy from being middle of the pack in using Pick and Roll to now being the lowest team in the NBA by a large margin.

Dec 1, 2025; Miami, Florida, USA; Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo (13), guard Norman Powell (24) and guard Tyler Herro (14) get back on defense against the Los Angeles Clippers during the second half at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Jim Rassol-Imagn Images | Jim Rassol-Imagn Images

According to NBA.com, the Heat sit at 5.4 pick-and-roll possessions per game, with the next closest team being the Brooklyn Nets at 13.1 possessions per game. I was curious on how teams in the past have fared in this statistic and was able to go back, starting at the 2016-2017 season. The Heat are the only team in this time frame to run less than 10 possessions of it.

They have skyrocketed to fifth in points per game but are only 16th in offensive rating. So, they are scoring points at a high clip because of the more possessions, but they still are only a league average offense.

To further the speculation of how this new system could affect the Heat, one might think that their defense would fall off. That is not the case and, in fact, they are in fourth in the NBA in defensive rating compared to last season when they were 9th.

The Heat are playing offense in a way no other team has, and it is producing mixed results. Can the Heat continue this level of play and figure out how to counteract defenses that have adapted to their system? Can they continue to play at this pace and still be an elite defense as the season goes on? To say the unknown is the Heat’s biggest problem could be correct, because what they are doing is so farfetched and the more you dive in to it, you start to realize you will find more questions than answers.